... and the Lord gives again.

Clint writing:
So when I first arrived I told Austin how much the Lord had blessed me. Everything here is amazing: Kim, home, church (buildings and people!), dog, cat, view, weather, etc, etc, etc. His response was "You sound like Job in chapter 1." Yikes. And how true, for my theme verse was really "The Lord gives.." and yes, it was completed a couple of weeks ago when some needy fellow decided that he desperately needed a HP Pavilion laptop with $1000 of Bible software on it in order to survive in this harsh, poverty-stricked continent. So the verse developed into "...and the Lord takes away..." but Kim and I were both blessed with His grace so that we can take no credit for it, but I can honestly say that our attitude was one of "...but blessed be the name of the Lord." And now, the circle is closed again, as in Job's case the Lord blessed him 10 fold. My new desktop makes my HP Pvilion laptop look like an overpriced paperweight. It's awesome. For the techies: 200gig HDD, 1Gig RAM, Pentium 4 3.2, and of course the ever-trendy flatscreen. All for less than the old HP. And on top of it all, we were greatly blessed by a finacial gift from our SCV family in the States so that we didn't even have to skip a meal or a commentary to afford it :) God is so good.

Still Clint here: The church is doing phenomenally well. I absolutely LOVE being a pastor! I have gotten used to preaching twice a week, plus Bible study with the youth (which God is blessing with growing numbers and interest). We are adding new members to the church every month, and are seeing tremendous spiritual growth among some longstanding attendees. Kim has been amazing. She has really blossomed in her ministry. People here love her, I mean really. She has been so cheerful and energetic for the Lord's work and she has made me feel like we made the right decision. Single guys: don't settle for less than a gal who will leave family and lands for the Gospel, even if that means Africa!

I find I have more time for ministry and reading and undistracted devotions than in seminary. So I hope that encourages you seminoids. The field is awesome, much better than seminary (which I also thoroughly enjoyed). But now I set my own assignments and reading schedule. Plus, the more you preach, the more you preach, which is why we got into this in the first place, right guys? What a privilege to soak in God's word all week and then unleash your heart from a solid pulpit to an eager, expectant crowd of disciples whose only cry is "Sir, we would see Jesus."

I miss USA in a soppy, good 'ol days kinda way, but I mostly miss my SCV family. It pierces my heart to think of my farewell sermon there, but I can't wait to see them all in March 2007 at Shepherds' Conf (Deo Volente).

Now to type some more sermons on my new 'puter. I'm lovin it.

Seasons

I don't know if you know this, but the seasons are opposite in South Africa. So right now its turning into Autumn, not Spring. The nights are getting colder, the stars are brighter, and the days are windy, not humid. Autumn is my favorite season. But what is weird is that...well, for instance, all the shops around Easter had "Spring" Easter bunnies and little chicks hatching and stuff. Chicks hatch in spring, not fall. And, for another example...around Christmas time the stores have snowflakes up and they sell fake snow and twinkle lights, but its 100 degrees out cause its summer. It boggles my mind.
One of my favorite parts of Fall is the pumpkin spice latte, and pumpkin carving contests, and all the Autumn leaves etc. Man, I miss Starbucks. Nuts! But, Autumn here has its own charm. The stars here are amazing in Autumn cause all the wind blows the mist away. You can see the ocean from everywhere you drive (seriously!) and all the ships and everything cause the air is soooo crisp and clean. I love fall.

Lost!

ok, so yesterday we get home, and notice that Starbucks, our kitty, is running around scott free, and there is no dog chasing after her. Hmm, this is a RARE occasion in the Archer household. We soon realized that the gate had jammed, and Geneva had escaped. Yikes

We spent ALL afternoon looking for her. Night came: NO Geneva. Morning came: No Geneva.
So I called all the vets and the SBCA (animal shelter): No Geneva.

We made these signs and put them EVERYWHERE in Hillcrest. I mean everywhere. And we prayed. Everyone told us she was probably stolen, especailly since she's still a puppy.

I made 35 signs, and the very very very last sign...I took to a vet in Hillcrest to put on their "lost" board today at around 3pm. The lady there said "I have that dog in my kennel" at the vet. And there was Geneva!! She was in the tinyest cage ever, but her whole body was wagging in excitement! We had been to like 10 vets, and the last one we checked, she was there! Our God is the best. It was so fun taking down the signs and people saying "aww, you found her!"

So needless to say, she is glad, and so are we, that she is back home chasing Starbucks around. (She's thinking about chasing her in this photo, can't you see the glare of excitement?) Although I don't think Starbucks is...

Week in the Life of Clint:

Clint's mission if he chooses to accept: 5 sermons in 6 days, yikes:

Pastors Schedule this week:

Tuesday: Prep for funeral service

Wednesday: Funeral, and Premarital Counseling

Thursday: Prep for Good Friday Sermon

Friday: Good Friday Service and Cornerstone study (17 pple came!)

Prep for Sun Morning

Sat: Prep for Sunday

Sunday: Preach it! 2x

Monday: Crash and burn

Our kitten is now a cat! Her nickname is "Niz" :)

So I've been studying the book of James, and this verse totally confused me cause right in the middle of chapter one about trials, he says this:

9 But let the brother of humble circumstances glory in his high position;
10 and let the rich man glory in his humiliation, because like flowering grass he will pass away.
11 For the sun rises with a scorching wind, and withers the grass; and its flower falls off, and the beauty of its appearance is destroyed; so too the rich man in the midst of his pursuits will fade away.

So I looked it up, and Heibert (my favorite commentary) describes James's description of a rich man who while reaching out for the riches with his hands, he dies. It reminded me of the Pirates of the Carribean ride right at the end where there are these 2 skeletons pushing up a box of treasure out of the cave as you exit. So vivid. Right in the middle of storing up our treasures on earth, we die. So right after I'm feeling the full impact of this verse I am in the car with a friend to pick up her little boy from a birthday party. Its about a 20 minute drive through beautiful fields with horses, with trees lined up in perfect rows, and we end up at this house. Or mansion should I say. It had a 180 view out the front of hills looking out to the sea with one of those neverending pools and horse stables, and her house was...well awesome. And I was coveting it. And this verse was still on my mind, and it struck me right there that I hadn't applied it, even though I knew it!! At the end of the day it doesn't matter if you have an amazing garden with a 180 view of rolling hills. Its your heart the Lord looks at. And its harder for a rich man to enter the kingdom than for a camel to go through the eye of a needle. People here are rolling in the money, and right next door are people living in tin shacks. Its amazing. Materializm is huge cause it shows your status. And sometimes its easy to play the "in the midst of the persuit" game, as James puts it! But its all the Lord's anyway. As Paul would say "I am content with little and much" Amen to that! :)

Clint and I were massively impressed with the team spirit of "side afrika". . . good looking uniforms guys. :) Its so fun to keep up with photos from the crossroads website

So we finally, finally have DSL internet woo hoo! When we got here in December they said they could hook it up in March, and its now April 16th, the phrase "Africa time" is actually true. So, we will be quicker about responding to emails now!

Clint did his first funeral this week for a member in our congregation's son...baby Okuhle. So sad, the baby died after 2 months from Sids. it was soooo sad to see the littlest coffin ever. But it was soo amazing to see the faith of his parents. Neal and Nokwazi are such strong believers. People walked away saying they were so encouraged by their strength and faith in the Lord. About 90 people were at the funeral, half from our congregation, and half from their family who are unbelievers. The gospel was sooo clear. "Teach us to number our days that we may gain a heart of wisdom"

baby Okuhle a few days before

Phonecalls

So recently I have been answering the phone for Clint to free him up so he can study. Since our home phone is the church phone, we get alot of funny phone calls from people that look up a Baptist Church in the phone book.

Typical phone call this week:

Me: Hello, this is Kim speaking
Phone: Hello is this Hillcrest Baptist Church?
Me: Yes, can I help you with something?
Phone: Yes, is your daddy, the pastor there?
Me: Oh, you mean my HUSBAND the pastor?
Phone: Uh, your Husband? Yeah.....uh, I wanted the pastor. Can I speak with him?

I don't now if they are picturing that all pastors are old, or if my American accent throws them off, but its happened 3x this week alone!

So these are the wooden floors in our livingroom! They just pulled up the carpet to reveal these beautiful floors! I am standing at our diningroom table (you can see the wooden chair) and looking out into our livingroom, the fireplace is on the left, and a door to the hallway and front door on the right. This is where our Bible Study meets, and where the Members meetings happen etc. We just bring in tons of chairs and move the couch back to hold everyone!!! We've had 3 meetings alone here this week, so needless to say, alot of moving of chairs! :)

Thanks for all your "updates" from you all in LA! We are feeling a bit less "homesick" today! The Lord is good, and His Word is ever sure, restoring the soul!

Mist

So Hillcrest has these days where you are literally walking around in a cloud. Its not cold at all, it feels like a beautiful day outside, but the mist rolls in in waves all around our house. This is in our back yard! Sometimes you can't even drive its so thick. Its so beautiful how it rolls in in waves. Makes you want to curl up with a White Chocolate Mocha and a good book huh?Our Misty Shtee house :)

So this week Clint and I have both been homesick. I don't know what it is, but we both really really miss Grace. So we've been feeling like the misty days where it suddenly rolls in unexpectedly. We've been fine. Really. And then all of a sudden we both miss home at the same time. I think its cause we've been listening to the Shepherd's Conference downloads. It makes you realize what you missed, and hearing all the voices preaching when you used to be part of the experience just soaking it up! Man ...Steve Lawson's sermon on Ezra was awesome. Actually when Clint's laptop was stolen he was more upset at the fact that I had listened to the Steve Lawson sermon before him and now it was gone!!

But the Lord has been doing some really amazing things here. I think 90 percent of the questions Clint gets asked here are about the charismatic gifts. Why do other churches speak in tounges? Are miracles for today? Most churches here are charistmatic, even if they are Baptist Churches. Take for example a church down the street from us named "His Church".... but it has a ......woman pastor. So everyone calls it "HER Church" tee hee. So when I miss home I think about all the people who desire a biblical church, and how in a small way we are effecting the kingdom for the gospel in this little corner of the earth.

Our cornerstone group is still going strong. Last week was a smaller group cause alot of people were at "matrik dance" or prom. But for those who came we talked about why evil is in the world if God is good. It went really really well. Thanks for praying!

Clint and Starbucks in our livingroom