Now not owning any of these instruments it was just a case of walking into guitar shops looking at these little Uke’s or Banjo’s which both cost money, of which I dont have! So it just remained a pipe dream…

Coming back from my trip to the states and moving back to my folks place, I was lying around and then suddenly had an epiphany and a memory. I seem a long long time ago to remember myself as a little kid playing on a banjo that belonged to my grandfather… So i went on a mission to see if it still existed!

Digging around a cupboard my discovery was successful. I found the Banjo, it was in OK shape, but not playable. I bought it off the shelf, and then something caught my eye! It was another string instrument…  I took it off the shelf, and looked at it. It was a Ukulele in size…but a banjo. It had the banjo velum and sound drum, but it had a neck and size of the Uke… On research on the web, I found out that back in the early part of last century, they made this little guys called Banjo-Uke’s! And I now have one in my hands. It also need some work, but it looks like instead of trying to save up to go into a shop and buy one, that instead i found two in my own house! A little treasure, that just confirms that God still does provide for the little “wants” we have in our lives, and most of the time it is far much cooler than we ever expected…

And that it sometimes takes time for us to put in a little effort, searching, fixing and discovering to make something happen…

Amazing what little revelations you have while coffee is involved…

Enjoy!!!

God bless

New years…new resolutions, new ideas, new beginnings, new seasons…

 There is that smile that happens at 12am on the 1^st of January on peoples faces that is a unique one. The new year bringing in an aspect of NEW. Its like people are not counting down to bring in a new year, there is almost an excitement of “finally this year is over” or “Last year was great, but this year will be better”. I don’t think I have seen people go into a new years count down with a terrified look on there face, or huddled up in a ball wishing that it wont happen… that or I have been hanging out with very happy people around about 11:59pm on December 31^st.

 Last year was amazing, I looked back and saw how God was faithful! I was never with out money, never with out a meal, a place to sleep and when God told me to travel, the breakthrough in Visa’s came through, the flights were paid for, and even had the opportunity of getting some free upgrades with an airline where people say “they never upgrade”. Also I was never with out a cup of good coffee every morning…

 I met so many great people, and this year can say have made some of the deepest friendships with some of the most incredible people over a very short time. God has allowed me to minister to many, but also put some key people in my life to just speak into my life and challenge me more. I must admit, looking back at 2011…it was challenging, but wow it was fun!!!

 I am sitting here in 2012 listening to peoples plans for the new years. People looking forward to going places, getting back to work, starting off a new chapter etc. And I am just sitting waiting. I am still waiting for a visa process to be completed for me to get to Switzerland where I have felt God calling me for the next season. This last bit since coming back from the states has been a season of rest, waiting and chewing on thoughts and revelations that God has been giving me, one of stillness, silence, and times of solitude. One of frustration, and of joy. But a season I am still in. I can honestly say I have no idea what this year is going to look like! For some one who is very futuristic orientating, often day dreaming about the “what could be” and the various options, ideas, and possible ways to execute them, I am sitting in the complete unknown! How ever God is still speaking, and I am still learning more, volunteering at my home church and still enjoying ministry.

 Once again, Breakthrough needs to happen with my visa situation, so can you please join me in prayer for this to happen. And also for clairty on what God is wanting this next season for me to look like.

 Thank you once again, for all your love, prayer and support! It is such a blessing to have people partnering with me in this amazing journey that God has taken me on, both with my involvement with Youth With A Mission and in times like this where I am in transition.

 God bless and Happy 2012

The Waiting lounge….

I worked out the other day that over the last few years of being with YWAM that I have spent over two weeks of my life in transit, waiting for a plane or a train or a bus to arrive. Some of those have been on concrete floors, using a back pack as something to prop your self up against. Others of those times have been in stations, on plastic chairs, the ones that are bolted to the ground with fixed arm rests that only allow you to sit up straight, which is not bad, since it probably promotes good posture, but after time it gets rather uncomfortable. How ever I have also been fortunate enough to have had on occasion access to airport lounges, where there are comfortable couches, food, and refreshments, and space to lounge out.

But through all of this there has been some commonalities.

Expectation.

You never seem to fully settle down, or rest, knowing that you might miss the plane, bus or train. Even times where I have had 8-11 hour lay overs, and people say to you “Oh come on that’s enough time to sleep” I havent been able to, the expectation and the excitement of knowing that things are about to happen seems to keep me on edge.

Reflection

I am a people person, I enjoy them, I like getting to know new people, I enjoy verbally processing my thoughts with others, and of course hearing others thoughts and picking up things from them. But in these places of waiting, I have spent most of my time by myself, and being able to reflect. Go internal, just me and God and my thoughts, sometimes those times have been enjoyable, other times God has exposed aspects of my character that have taken a longer time to work through. It’s in the waiting lounges that I have often picked up on things that I have missed in the business, and it’s those lessons that are often the ones I learn from the most.

Patience….and Impatience…

Some of the waiting lounge times have been very easy, others not. Some I have enjoyed and been patient, and been comfortable with the wait. Other times, I have been asking the question “Can we go already?!? This waiting sucks!!!!” Times I have thought that the waiting has been to short, a chapter that I wanted to read, a coffee I wanted to drink, a conversation I wanted to finish, an email I wanted to write… Other times, I have been eagerly waiting hours wishing time could fly, sitting watching the seconds tick by. And like they sometimes like they say in the cooking world, looking at a pot waiting for it to boil will always take longer. Looking at a clock, seems to make the seconds tick slower…

Wondering what the next destination will be like…

If it’s a place I have been to before, or one that’s completely new, I always seem to wonder, try visualise what it could be…who I will meet, what I will get up to, what new exciting and challenging ventures would be had. What God is up too, and how can I play a part in it.

The present….

At the moment I find my self in yet another waiting lounge scenario. I am waiting for a Visa to be processed, for the next stop in ministry. I have been accepted to work on staff at a YWAM Base in Europe and more news on that will follow soon. But I am stuck in SA waiting, I have left YWAM Muizenberg, and now am in a season that feels a lot like a waiting lounge… I find my self going through similar feelings, motions and experiences. And unlike in those times where you have a ticket with a date, time and location on, this time I do not know how long I will be in this season for. But its one that I realise it’s a part of my ministry that is crucial.

Please continue to pray for me, as I figure out what this season looks like, back home in South Africa…

Steve

Who needs door numbers...when you have a dude like this

Due to popular response from my last news letter….here is another round of…

An African in Europe…

If you are traveling to France here are somethings you should do and shouldn’t do…

In a taxi, or a bus, or a car…the amount of seats that are there, are for the amount of people…there is not always space for one more…and every one wears seatbelts…and drives on the right side of the road…which is indeed the wrong side, but its on the right.

Go for a Champaign cellar tour…it will cost a lot to drink what you see getting made, but its an amazing experience! Or do what I do…just enjoy the glass that they give for free at the end of it…

Go down to the Paris Subway, buy a ticket, pick a line, pick a stop, and jump out and just walk around…you will always find something new and brilliant…and a bakery!

The Vuvuzela is not a popular instrument in the rest of the world. People look at it with this curiosity, thinking “Is that it” and when you blow it…they are not that curious any more, in fact they are angry with you. I heard some one say the other day that “No-one in the world had any idea what the Vuvuzela was…and then the world cup came around and every one in the world wished that they didn’t know what a vuvuzela was or how it sounded.”

Europe in general is a great place to own a bicycle… and in France.they know how to deal with them. Plus some of the villages, you want to walk around, or ride around….if you in a car you would miss it!!! They that small…

That rumour about… Dont speak English in France… it’s not that bad. I mean one or two people might not help you, but in general they will do their best to explain to you what you need to do using hand signals, and speaking in French! Which makes sense…if some one came to South Africa and asked me if I spoke another language, and in broken English asked me to go some where…if I don’t know their language I will do my best to explain where to go using hand signals and speaking English! The French are a wonderful culture!

walls are meant to be painted

Sit back on a park bench in Paris, and enjoy the number of street performers. Or find a big station, and just walk around, you will come across the most amazing street musicians. Who needs to pay money to see a big concert, or watch a play, you can see it all for free!

But what ever you do…don’t let some one tie something around your wrist and start making a string bracelet thing…in fact if you see people doing it, don’t make eye contact. They will expect you to pay for it…and you didn’t even ask. Thankfully I didn’t make that mistake…but I saw a lot of arguments happening with people who did.

More to follow…soon.

This is what I see if I look up in our classroom

The School

What a great bunch of Students!!!! I am looking around the room where I am writing this, and all the students are around also. And you just see how nations, languages, generations have come together, and if you would have to spend one day with them you will observe such a unified family.

Some one asked me the other day what I like and dont like about doing what I do…

I dont like having to say good bye to close friends that you have made from different nations, either because you have worked with them, been part of a school with them or just met them on the base. And having to have this 3-9 Month friendship circle rotation is sometimes stressfull on you as a person and on you and your frienships…

I absolutly love meeting new people from different nations every 3-9 months, and building great friendships with them and being able to know that every country God sends me to, or people who God sends to where I am working.

Mikael...one of the students leading a prayer time

This month was once again a Birthday extravaganza…with two Birthdays being celebrated! One was a dress up with the uglyist thing you could find, and the other was a Karioki night… Now normally I am not 100% keen for staring at a computer screen, sining along to bad covers… So diving into it knowing that I would have to do it was going to be interesting… on arrival I was all excited, voice was warmed up, and I had my game face on. Elvis, Beatles, Walt Disney… I was ready for what ever was drawn…although I thought I was…

Dress up!?!! birthdays are always fun

I dont know why I didnt think of this before…But the longer I stayed, I realised that all of the songs they were singing were French… and I didnt know any of the songs… Thankfully there were some English songs that I could sing a long too. I refuse to name them, but I did end up singing about 2 songs in French…It might not have sounded French, but I gave my best. I dont think many people heard me singing…because most of them were laughing so loud!

I could not have asked for a better group of people to have around me. My fellow staff are incredible. And the students are amazing, I have become great friends with every one of them. Some of them we have conversations in broken English, and others…really really broken French and Charades and hand signals. But we still have a great time, and often are in laughter. Sitting with they guys watching the football/Soccer final the other week was great! And I learnt some new French words I haven’t heard yet…

Please keep the school in Prayer. They are getting ready to go on there outreach. They still need about 3000 Euro for this phase of the school and we are all trusting to see the Money come in. They also super tired, its been a very busy time for them but I know they have the capicity to finish well…

Students on Prayer outreach at a War Memorial in France

The light after the rain...A view from my back yard in France

Its been two months since I have been in this fantastic country! And I am really enjoying it. The language is still difficult, the culture is always fascinating and the summer days are getting longer and longer… My family asked if I noticed how different the night sky was between the northern and southern hemisphere? My reply was…I have no idea…the sun goes down very late…and I am not awake late enough to wait for the stars to come out…

The last two weeks were super busy. Our school had two open weeks, meaning that people from the outside can come sit in with the students in class and here the lectures. The two weeks were very different. The first week we had a lot of people from the various churches in the area, and the second we had mostly every one in YWAM France arriving and sitting in. I must admit it was a fantastic time for me meeting new people, who have also come from other nations into France and joking about the difficulties of the language, simple culture shock and all agreeing that France is an incredible country.

I am doing really well. I am realising that more and more Europe is a place that I want to spend a lot of time in doing ministry. The hard part is finding out where. I know a lot of you, who do pray for me are wondering where to next? At the moment I can not give you a full big picture, but there are some things I do know. I feel that God is calling me to have a bit of a break! And I am going to do that in July. I will be back home in Pietermaritzburg, so if there are some of you around those parts, and would like meet up and have a cup of coffee please drop me an email or just reply on my facebook or WordPress. During this time I will also be asking God where to from here?

I am returning to YWAM Muizenburg on the 1^st of August to just sit with my leadership and fellow workers there and also pray with them about future direction.

Europe has definitely opened up my heart to see change in this continent. I can see Gods heart for this continent, and would like to spend some more time doing ministry there…but how that is going to look like will be something that needs to be discovered. Please pray for me, as I wrap things up here, and also for the next steps as I return back home.

Thanks for your prayers, questions, and just keeping up to date with how I am doing.

God bless

Steve

© WirthwhileContemplations 05twenty11

The Notre Dame: I took this after exploring it during their good Friday service. Its an interesting place...

My First Impressions of the French Culture!

There food is amazing!!!! Their understanding of flavour in small portions is great.

There coffee….yeah not good. I went up and down the aisle of the super market just trying to find something from Italy, because coffee is definitely not their major gift to the culinary and beverage world.

Apparently like most of the world….they drive on the wrong side of the road! It took me awhile to get used to crossing a road just remembering which way to look first. But just riding around on a bicycle a bit has helped me orientate myself to their system of driving.

I was able to escape to Paris for a weekend. And yes it is Amazing!! God gave me permission to be a tourist and just relax. Even though I didn’t see that much, because I was hanging out with the people from YWAM Paris a lot, the little bits I did see were great. What has struck me is for the first time being in a culture that is so super old! South Africa is such a young country compared to places in Europe, and for us our “old buildings” are still pretty young compared to the ancient architecture that is around in Europe.

My highlight was going into the Notre Dame during their Good Friday service, I didn’t join in, but they were allowing tourists in. The church its self is amazing! The little details on the walls and just little nooks and little side chapels that you can just sit in and just enjoy was fun. But to hear the pipe organ being played, and knowing that the piece of music was written before the revolution, when Christianity was still prominent in France and God was moving was incredible. I had a moment with God during that time, it has definitely been my tourist highlight so far. And that famous tower…Table Mountain looks better!

When I first arrived, one of the students said “Steve there are two statements in French you need to know to survive here…they are; I don’t understand and I’m hungry”

It is taking me awhile to adjust to European culture. I am definitely an African boy!! Meetings here start 5 min before the agreed time of starting, they leave houses unlocked, you can walk down the street with headphones on, and playing on your cell phone with out the fear of being mugged. Transport arrives on time, trains don’t break down. Internet is very fast, systems work, and they have this thing called indoor heating which confuses me to bits. I woke up one morning, saw that the sun was out, it felt very warm inside, so I put on my board shorts, a t-shirt and some slops (jandels, flops, sandles) and walked out side and got the shock of my life at how cold it was!!!! I forgot that indoor heating keeps places warm and confuses those of us who have never had it before, who judge the temperature outside by how it feels inside.

But my heart for Europe is growing, and I am definitely looking forward to doing more work in this incredible continent, and getting to know more of it. Gods heart for Europe is incredible, and seeing his heart for France and being able to be apart of seeing it realised is an opportunity that I am grateful for.

God bless

Steve

]]> http://stevewirth.wordpress.com/2011/05/03/april-news-no-i-dont-speak-french-yet/feed/ 4 Scuba shot_1303463467121 http://stevewirth.wordpress.com/2011/05/02/april-news-a-bit-about-the-soip/ http://stevewirth.wordpress.com/2011/05/02/april-news-a-bit-about-the-soip/#comments Mon, 02 May 2011 14:04:26 +0000 stevewirth http://stevewirth.wordpress.com/?p=171 Read More

The Class!!

Let me tell you about the students!

The puzzle of our names together with Ezk 37: 1-14 which is the verse for the school

 There are 10 of them. They come from all over, which is great. We have people from France, Canada, America, New Caledonia, Switzerland, Chad. The staffs are from South Africa, France, Switzerland, Togo and Cameroon. Three of us are full-time staff but we have some brilliant people just coming in and out to help out.

 The class is doing well. They are so much fun to be around. The youngest is 19 and the oldest is over 60. So there is also a great diversity in the class age wise, and culture wise. Something that stood out for me and really made me laugh is that I am like the 4^th tallest person here! Out of 15 there is only one staff member, and 2 students that are taller than me. And bear in mind that 6 of the students are guys! I laughed so much when I realised this, because those who know me are aware that I am not the tallest guy, actually in South African culture I am considered short. More and more I believe it when they say Napoleon was not the tallest guy around.

 We are going into week 4 of lectures this week. And I am really happy for the progress of the class. Last week we had a very special moment, one of the students had his 35^th Birthday, and he came from a Family that was not the best to grow up in. And he said that this was the first time he had ever had his Birthday celebrated in the Traditional way that we have become accustomed to. And when we bought a Cake out with candles on it he just looked at it for about a minute, realising that this was another first for him. That moment bought water to most of our eyes as we witnessed a man starting off a new chapter in his life, knowing that he has a new family around him in this school. I am glad its a small school, because it’s really clicked and become a great unit. I will be sad when I leave.

 Please Pray for Finances! There is still about 5000 euro’s that need to come in to cover both the lecture and outreach phase for the students.

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My room is the second story closest to the left...I share with another dude from Africa

Bonjur!!

 So its been about a month since I have been in France working on the YWAM base here, staffing the School of Intercessory Prayer. And what a crazy month it has been. The base is situated in Rural France….very rural France, very very Rural France! The town is so small that it doesn’t even have its own bakery, That is like an American town with out a McDonald’s, a South African Town with out a Spaza Shop, an Italian Town with out a local espresso shop or an Asian Town with out a 7/11… yes it’s that small!!!

 But I am enjoying it here. I can understand that this is where God has sent me. And just the crazy breakthrough by getting all the finances I needed to prove to the French Consulate that I can support my self, and get my ticket, and then get my Visa with in two weeks! It was just a super time of mixed emotions getting ready to come here.

 I am doing OK. French is really hard to learn, and there is very little English spoken on this base. The students are great, and they translate a lot for me in there broken English. I have yet to string a sentence together of French, but I am sure it will come soon. I have found myself understanding a lot more than I can speak. But its a language I am interested in learning. And yes it does sound romantic…except some of their romantic phrases directly translated don’t seem romantic at all!

 My major Prayer request right now is health. Its spring, and there are about 4 massive fields, probably about the size of 2 football (soccer) fields each, full of these yellow flowers that are making me for the first time in my life get allergies. This is outside the staff accommodation. I went to Paris last weekend, and my body was actually happy to be back in polluted air! I didn’t sneeze once or feel all clogged up in the city. But as soon as I got back into Le Gault my sinuses went crazy. So please pray that I get over it.

 Thank you all for your prayer and support.

 God bless

Steve

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