Cornerstone Retreat

Retreat Group Photo

(this is Kim typing)....so we had our Cornerstone retreat that the team ran this week, and we got back today. The Lord did AMAZING things in the lives of these students. Paul preached on what it ment to TRUELY believe, and TRUELY be a disciple of Christ. Many of the students (and myself included) were massively convicted. The Lord convicted two girls who then today broke up with their unsaved boyfriends. I couldn't believe that the Lord would work so powerfully in such a short time, so our prayers were answered in mighty ways!! Paul was so straightforward in his preaching, that he asked the question...."who here is a Christian?"And everyone raised their hand except 3-4 students. He then preached like the whole rest of the sermon directly at them, even calling them out by name!! In the afternoon the South Africans taught the Americans "cricket" (photo left of Wyn smacking the ball out the park!) It was hillarious how everyone was getting the rules wrong!

Having the team here has been such and encouragement to Clint and I, as well as the other believers here. The Lord has used them mightly here teaching new songs and discipling the students by the campfire. One guy Brian got offered triple pay at his work if he wouldn't come to the retreat, but he was so looking forward to it that he gave up the triple pay to come!

Keep praying for the team as they continue to meet with the Cornerstone group this week, and as they minister amoung our church plants. The Lord is doing mighty things in them and through them!

Cornerstone and our Team cheering for ITALY in the World Cup Final at the Archer's house after church this Sunday, we had an awesome time of fellowship with the church!

Team Durban... Secor's 1st Installment

Disclaimer: This blog entry is the work of Ryan Secor - Clint Archer, Kim Archer, and Team Durban are not liable for the opinions, perceptions, photos, captions, grammar, and/or wordiness of this blog entry.

So this is NOT Kim writing this blog. Being that Team Durban is finally here -- I (Ryan) have hijacked the Archer's blog to tell you all what it's really like here and what we're really doing. To be completely honest - Kim, Clint, Paul, and Wyn are all having a jam session and pretty much out of sheer pity Kim is "letting" me blog. Actually, they're all having a jam session and my perception of my own musical skills are apparently somewhat inflated and I have therefore been banished to perhaps eternal obscurity in blog-world.

So South Africa is pretty much awesome! While it's nearly impossible to prepare for the 30+ hours of traveling time (including lay-overs), being here with Clint and Kim has made the arduous trip completely worth it. We pretty much hit the ground running, having about 2 hours of downtime before conducting Cornerstone Bible Study (SA's version of SCV). Paul brought the Word after answering whether God had manifest Himself in other forms through other religions (in SA/Cornerstone the Preacher asks whether there are any questions BEFORE he starts preaching). Following Cornerstone, we established who the real sensei ninja (with a game aptly named "Ninjas") was, Wyn and I settled tactical issues (i.e. what to do in the event of a burglary), and the girls headed back to the house they were staying at... and we all passed out.

Dutch oven.

SECOR OUT!

Note: This blog entry is actually much longer, but due to bandwidth issues it will be published in several installments likely over the next several days.

Our house...

Here are some photos of our house in Hillcrest:

Clint's office & counseling area

Kitchen window/sink

Kitchen looking into Dining

Livingroom

Livingroom...looking into the dining room (its all one big room!)

So South Africa team 2 is coming in like....3 days. We've got the coolest stuff lined up for them to do. If you want to pray for them...they are going to be running our young adults retreat for 4 days, (25 young adults are coming) ....then teaching in the Zulu schools, leading worship at our church, running our "little youth" program at our church, painting and doing construction on our church, teaching assemblies at the local schools, running and AIDS soup kitchen at one of our church plants, serving our whole church at a "pancake evening" and distributing blankets amoung the church plants....all in 2 weeks! Yikes. The schedule is crazy! At first we were wondering all what the Lord had planned for them, and then the schedule just filled up with tons of opportunities, praise HIM!

South Africa 1 Team

Clint and I drove down from Durban and just made it to see the SA team in Joburg at the airport, here's the team! :)

Sara, Kerry & I :)

It was so great seeing them! It's been over 6 months since we left the states, so seeing the team was like a breath of "home" away from home in Hillcrest. It's weird how now Hillcrest feels like home (so much so that I was sad to leave it when we visited Joburg) but LA is home too. I've been listening to Derek Webb lately from his latest "Mockingbird"...and these words have hit me "But my first allegiance is not to a flag, to a country or a man. My first allegiance is not to democracy or blood, its to a King and a Kingdom" and to quote Paul "For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ." Phil 3:20

Joburg

So once again we did the 51/2 hour drive to Joburg, and got to see the STM team off at the airport and had a meal with them before their flight back to LA. It was soooo great to see Sara B. and Austin & Holly Swanson & Julie Peters. We were totally the loud Americans in the airport, especially when Clint mocked Sara about her wearing an American flag T-shirt in a foriegn country~ she said she now felt her trip to South Africa was complete cause Clint repremanded her about something (LOL!)

This is a photo from the drive, doesn't it look like the brown rolling hills in California? It was awesome to drive it in the daytime! It is ssoooooooo cold in Joburg compared to Durban, and everything has turned this browny color now that its winter.

When we were in Pretoria visiting Clint's parents I got to work at Clint's mom's shop: Baby Buzniz for a couple of hours. She does up nursery's and sells like anything your baby needs!



This was a humbling experience after realizing that EVERYONE in Pretoria speaks Afrikaans when they walk into any shop. I tried to fake it with all the Afrikaans Marietjie taught me. But I don't think anyone was fooled after someone asked me in Africaans "How are you?" And I said back in Afrikaans: How are you? (I was pretty impressed that I knew how to answer back) but she said (I guess) fine and you? (At this point I just stared with one of those blank...hmms. And called Clint for HELP!!!) I was humbled!!

After visiting Clint's folks Clint and I went on Tim Cantrell's youth camp where Clint was the guest speaker! There were about 40 young adults there, and we had a great time. Clint spoke on having a passion for: the church, the lost, forgiveness, and the word. (4 sermons) And then he had the priveledge of speaking at one of the largest baptist churches in SA (Tim Cantrell's church) what an honor!! :)

2 weeks till the Durban team arrives!!

Austin T. Duncan

Our first vistor to us from the States! Austin preached such an awesome sermon on Sunday, that we took him to see the crocs on Monday (I LOVE Mondays, our day off!!)

Having lunch with the "crocs" fear factor style: (yup, thats a croc right behind us!)

We had lunch in a croc pit, here is our mayo, and mustard, and yep, the crocs!!

Eating Crocodile, with the Crocodiles, they hissed at us once, and one had his eye on us the whole meal. (yikes!)

The Mighty Python

Before we held this guy, we saw a Black Momba, the 5th most deadly snake in the world, indigenous to South Africa. Austin made it go into a trance. The thing can stand 3 meters tall on its own!

Our church gave highest compliments to Austin when he pronounced "Umhlanga Rocks" correctly :) (ooomshhhlannga!)

Tagged

Hmm, seems I've been tagged, by j_run

Four jobs I've had:
1. Manager at Jamba Juice (it was fun, seriously!)
2. Assistant Photographer
3. Waitress (almost 5 years, at the same place, crazy huh?)
4. Admin Assistant at Clint's seminary TMS

4 Movies I can watch over and over
1. Little Women
2. Emma
3. Mission Impossible III (just saw it, but its one of my fav's)
4. How to loose a guy in ten days

Four Places I've lived: (I've only lived in 4!)
1. Chatsworth, Ca
2. Westwood, Ca
3. North Hills, Ca
4. Hillcrest, South Africa

Four places I've vacationed:
1. Maui and Oahu
2. Washington D.C. on 4th of July
3. Capetown, SA
4. London & Oxford

Four TV shows I watch:
1. Kitchen Confidencial
2. Alias (we're only on the 2 season here!!)
3. The Apprentice
4. hmm, there really aren't any other shows, unless they are in ZULU or Afrikaans!! We usually rent, or buy the series!

Four foods I love:
1. Guacamole (or anything with Avos!)
2. Toll House Choc Chip Cookies
3. Samoozas
4. Craisins

Four sites I visit daily
1. google
2. msn or yahoo news
3. blog/xanga
4. calvarybiblechurch.org (sermon downloads!)

Four Places I'd rather be (besides heaven!)
1. Yosemite
2. Leo Carillo beach
3. Oxford
4. East Coast in Autumn

Four Random things in my bag:
1. HBC Church Bulletin
2. Airplane ticket stub to Joberg
3. Caedmans Call CD "In the company of angels II"
4. Juice box of OJ (?)

Four things people most people don't know about me:
1. I would love to learn to play violin
2. I've never seen Lord of the Rings, or Star Wars (phtew on Sci Fi!)
3. I hate brushing my teeth, i only do it cause i have to. (Except with vanilla mint flavor, but they don't sell that in SA, nuts!)
4. I'd love to wear glasses, and everytime Clint picks out a new pair, I find the perfect ones, and sadly put them back, weird huh? :)

Four people I tag:
1. Kerry
2. Ben and Mel
3. Swearengerer
4. Heather's blog

Home of the Free

So you know how the bank Washington Mutual's slogan is "Home of the Free"? Maybe you never noticed that your banking is free in the states. Free Banking. What a novel concept in South Africa. I think if Washington Mutual opened here, all other banks would shut down. When we got here in December we signed up for a bank account at FNB, and they informed us of their bank fees. For EVERY transaction (charging anything on the card, taking out money, depositing money, writing a check, doing a debit order, online banking, even checking how much is in your account etc) they charge you 4 rand per transaction. (75 cents). If you pull money out of your account, they charge you 4 rand PLUS a percentage of whatever you take out. Yikes

So we went with a bank account that if you keep a certain amount in their account at all times, the first 35 transactions are free. Except for some reason, they messed up and have never paid us back for any of those free transactions. We went to the bank and complained. The bank said they were going to pay us back for all the bank fees incured this year. The grand total: 1,200 Rand. That is 2oo DOLLARS. So basically, everyone here is paying the bank aprox. 400 dollars per year to keep your money. Yikes. So next time you pass a billboard that says "Home of the Free banking" contemplate how cool that is. :)

The South Africa team in Johannesburg is here, and Austin is coming down this week to see us, woo hoo!

Random Thoughts and Photos

View of our church from the parking lot.
Autumn is here, and is soooo cold!! :) It snowed on the mountains about 2 hours away this week. We flew to Johanesburg for the South African version of the Shepherd's Conference and saw the snow from the air. For South Africa, there was TONS of snow on the mountains, it was beautiful, but disappeared within the week...its all gone now! It was great to see Dr. Barrick teaching at the conference, he was my boss at TMS, and Clint's professor.

And we got to see Kerry Drew! :) Part of our Cornerstone group (we are missing a few!)

These are some of the guys from our Cornerstone study: Adam and Steve are from England (Left two guys) and the guy with the striped shirt Brian is going to be baptized soon.
A few of the girls in our study.

This photo was taken when we got off the plane in December after 24 hours in the air. Yikes. I didn't even know the people who greeted us at the airport then, but now, 6 months later, they are a huge part of my life here.

This is where our bible study retreat is going to be in a month!
Clint's quiet time overlooking the view!

Sunday & our Elders & Deacons...

Our church from the back. They've added these funky green chairs cause there is no more space in the pews. The wall is blocking the right wing.

Clint preaching on the role of the Holy Spirit in our lives.
The Deacons (L to R & top to bottom): Veon, Duncan, Gavin, Graeme, Burt, Mark, and Anthony.
These are the elders (L to R) Neil Swan, Glen Cherry, Keith Brown and Clint Archer.

New Families in our Church

These are some of the new members who have joined our church recently. I'm now taking "church photos" for our directory, so here are some of them! :) These are taken at church after the service.

Ryan and Jessica Slater (Matthew, and little Taylor)

Piet and Klaaje, Piet (Pete) plays the bass guitar, and he's hillarious! He makes me laugh every Sunday, he's got grandfather humor.

Glen and Tracy, and little Jason

Tracey and Anthony Done, and Sara and Matthew. Clint made Sara cry onstage last week during the childrens catechism questions, so everyone mocks him now.

Random shots:

Clint chatting to Kim & Veon

2 guys from our Cornerstone study: Arthur (left) and Brian (right)

I'm gonna try taking photos of Clint preaching this week...so stay tuned!

From the perspective of an outsider:

The hot and cold taps in S.A. are chasims apart. So this is me when I wash my face in the morning: Turn on the hot tap, start lathering. Wash face. Burn hands. Turn on cold tap. Relieve burning hands. . Rince face with cold water. Stare at hot water tap with distain. I have no idea how the locals do this. Clint says something about mixing the water in the basin, but really? Too much effort.
The keys here look like they are from Shakespeare's time. And there are keys for every room. So when you go to the bathroom, you get a key and turn it in the door. Its like you live in a castle. And your key ring has like, a million keys on it. And there are extra gates to every door. So if you loose your keys, well, you can't only not get into your house, but into your rooms too.

In SA this is a common sight. Now even on the gates around our house. :)

Cornerstone

Last Friday night at Cornerstone went really really well. Clint shared his testimony (in depth with the gospel) to the whole group, but the coolest part was that a girl brought 2 guys she met on the beach, who hadn't heard the gospel before. And a guy who was Catholic was there, and if you know anything about Clint's testimony, well, there was no doubt that it was clear the differences between Catholicsm and Christianity (grace by faith!) . And the two visitors, Darren and Ryan said they would come back next week. People were asking questions and totally understanding the gospel, it was great.

Afterwards we introduced Mafia to Cornerstone. They LOVED it. I think we played 10 rounds till about 11pm. There was yelling, and pointing fingers, it was awesome, they totally got into it after the first practice game. In fact, they couldn't stop talking about it. It really made our group connect, cause the 2 guys that usually come that are to "cool" to participate, were totally loving hanging out with everyone, and we went out for coffee the next night and those two guys were totally connecting with all of us, it was awesome. So the Lord uses testimonies, and Mafia, to break down barriers!
So, STM team thats coming, prepare yourselves to share your testimonies, and play ALOT of MAFIA! :)

Amamzimtoti

So after a crazy crazy week of Clint only seeing the 4 walls of his office.... we went away for a day to the beach Amamzimtoti. To bad one of the most hectic storms came in that day, but it was still beautiful!

Some prayer requests this week!

1. Pray for Clint as he has soooo many appointments with people this week, and still has 3 sermons to prepare!
2. Pray for our bible study Cornerstone. Half the students coming are Christians, and half are not. The unbelievers are starting to bring their unbelieving friends (i have no idea why, besides the grace of God!) So pray for them and their salvation. Pray also for us, and the "saved" croud as we share with them this Friday night. The Lord is really doing amazing things in these students lives.
3. Pray for one of our church plants that we visited today. The pastors name is Paulos and he was telling us how the struggle with AIDS in his community is huge. The main outreach they have is giving the gospel and then serving heathly food to AIDS victims (veggie soup & squash). They also are trying to raise up elders, as their church doesn't have any at the moment. Pray for him and his wife Nellie, their testimony and their witness in the community, that it stays strong!! Pray also for Clint as he will be preaching there within the month.
4. Also just a praise! We have been praying alot for friends, and there is a crowd that after every evening service has been going out for coffee afterwards, alot of them are from our Cornerstone group, so we are starting to hang out with people! Clint challenged this guy to mini golf on Sat, and schooled him properly at it, so now he owes Clint a months worth of after evening service coffee at Mug and Bean. :) Oh! Also, pray for me (Kim) as I am starting up a ladies Bible study in the book of 1st Peter, for wisdom!!

Much love -C&K