1000 Hills Baptist

So today part of my job was to go on a photoshoot for our new church plant "Thousand Hills Baptist Church." We are building them a building...cause right now they are meeting in a tent. My job was to photograph the people, and houses in the area so we can present the building project to our church. Here are some photos from the photo shoot today of the Thousand Hills area. This is rural Africa! And its only 10 minutes from our doorstep. It's amazing how so close to us is such poverty, it was such an eye opening experience. To quote Derek Webb "Poverty, is so hard to see, when its only on your TV, or 20 miles across town"

Government housing. The government builds these one room houses for people. They substitute for squatter homes, where people just build shacks out of iron.

Woman selling items at a tuck shop

The valley of 1000 hills. This church reaches out to this whole area. Ironically this shot is taken from a huge hotel that looks over the poverty and AIDS stricken valley.

The sign that currently leads up to the tent church, but will soon lead up to a church building! They are building it out of entirely recycled material. So the walls will be made out of coke bottles and tires and stuff. Then the photo below, a view of the valley of people it will reach! It was so exciting to be apart of this project. How great is our God that He is exaulted amoung the nations, and the whole earth!

Let the peoples praise you, O God; let all the peoples praise you!
Let the nations be glad and sing for joy, for you judge the peoples with equity and guide the nations upon earth. Selah" -Psalm 67

Game drive

On the Saturday before the team left we took 'em on a game drive to see some African wildlife with the Cornerstone group. All 13 of us piled in a Combi truck. It was a GREAT day to drive, the weather was perfect, so we saw tons and tons of wildlife. The most dangerous one was the hungry Hippo! The mouth was HUGE!!

See anything yet Wyn?

Ohh, ohh! There's an Asian!! "iiiipoooool!!" I think Paul was the only Asian person in South Africa! What a sighting!!! We love you Paul!!

We saw Ostrich, Rino's, Hippos, Buffalo, Giraffe, Warthog, Zebra and tons of buck!

Speaking of wildlife...our kitten Starbucks is no longer a kitten! She's "in season" in the moment, and driving us nuts meowing for a boyfriend. The team kept telling her..."true love waits Niz, true love waits!!" :) We think we might have kittens with her cause soo many people want them. Who wouldn't? :)

South Africa's beauty

Ok, so today I was really missing my LA home, well, more like LA people. It's so weird cause my heart has been so stirred by how amazing ministry is here and how much I love it here too. Sometimes I am in complete awe of how the Lord is blessing our church and bringing people to Himself here. How could I want to be anywhere else?? People always say home is where the heart is....can't your heart be in two places at once? I wish I could just combine both worlds into one big pot, & stir em up. *sigh* Don't you guys just all want to move to Hillcrest to make this easier? :) NUTS!! But the Lord is always good. 2 Corninthians 3:2 "You yourselves are our letter of recommendation, written on our hearts, to be known and read by all. And you show that you are a letter from Christ delivered by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts." I can understand Paul's feeling of love for his flocks all over the world. "Let the peoples praise you, O God; let all the peoples praise you! Let the nations be glad and sing for joy, for you judge the peoples with equity and guide the nations upon earth. Selah" Psalm 67

So looking over all the photos that the team took, it hit me...the beauty of Africa. These guys took some amazing shots....here's a few of 'em.

Zebras at Tala Game Reserve

African Tree

Sunrise at our retreat

Hope Valley

Wilderbeast (ok, he's kinda ugly, but you gotta admit, its a cool shot!)

Team's ministry...

Paul preaching at the Hospital Service this Sunday. In the middle of preaching the gospel, this lady kept asking...."What's your name? I love you Paul!" He kept his composure well, and just kept preaching. tee hee. The lady I took back to her hospital room said she loves Jesus cause he helps her through the day. I think when you are dependant on other people, you realize more how you need to be more dependant on the Lord.

The team taught the 1st graders at our local Christian primary school, "Hillcrest Christian Academy" They did a play with Daniel and the lions den & taught them worship songs. Did you notice part of the school uniform is to wear a hat? These kids were so cute. Everytime they raised their hand they would say "Jesus Christ died for my sins!"

The team also helped one of our church plants run a soup kitchen fo the AIDS victims. The local pastor preached a sermon in Zulu, and the team did some worship songs, and then Paul taught them about what it truely means to be "poor in spirit" from the sermon on the mount. Then we fed them & the church provided some clothing for them. What an amazing ministry to think these people don't even have enough food to eat.

Team left today!

Ok, ok, I told myself I wouldn't cry when the Short-term Missions Team left....... NUTS!!! It was so hard to see 'em go. It was so amazing to have them in our home, and serving in our church. Can't you guys just stay forever? The teams trip to Africa & our church specifically impacted the globe for the gospel, and Clint & my life in watching them serve so selflessly and tirelessly. Thank you sooo much for the sacrifice you guys made in giving up your summers to come out to our church, Clint and I were saying on the way home that it was so amazing to see what a HUGE impact they had in such a short time. Everyone was asking if they were going to come back again next year!! There were tears shed from our church as well when they left. I've always been on the "going" end of a missions trip, but never the "receiving" end. This perspective made me realize how much short term missions does for the Kingdom. Come back!!

The biggest impact they had was on our Cornerstone young adult retreat. Paul preached 4x, Clint once. They lead worship, cooked, and ran the whole retreat. Many peoples lives were affected. They also ran our Cornerstone Bible studies every friday night. Since then...one girl has asked how she can become a believer, two guys are asking major questions about the gospel. The last Bible study was the best one yet. Everyone was asking questions about election, and why do people pretend they are Christians and don't live it out. It was such a powerful night!

We counted last night how many times Paul preached....10x in two weeks. You rock Paul. You guys were all just machines, no complaining heard, even when we lost half our team to sickness for a day or two. They ran hospital services, taught at local schools, lead our worship, taught at assemblies, at Zulu churches, ran an AIDS soup kitchen, bible studies, and never complained once!! Thank you for all your work from the bottom of our hearts! -C&K

(SECOR's earlier blog...we forgot to publish it, so here it is!) (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. )
This morning, Clint immediately subjected us to intensive labor in hopes of shocking us into a new time zone and a mindset of constant, action-packed ministry. We basically removed ceiling tiles and replaced them with specialized acoustic tiles... then Paul swept.
After that long hour, we headed out to the beach... where I was able to accomplish one of my life-long dreams of swimming in the Indian Ocean. It was cool too because we watched the finals round of the Mr. Price Pro (World Tour surfing championship).


Being the only Asian on the beach, the National Television station here in South Africa (looking for diversity in its programming albeit) interviewed Paul... live. Paul, realizing it would be impossible to censor him - on National TV, and inspired by Piper's message on preaching from Together for the Gospel brought the Word... as only Paul Yoon can. When asked what he thought about the competition, he said, "look at this wonderful weather, wonderful beach, and beautiful people; it all points to the glory of God --- He created all this!" They continued - asking where he was from and what he was doing, he told the several hundred thousand person television audience that he was here with a missions team working with Hillcrest Baptist Church and the "Spurgeon of Durban" -- Clint Archer.

Clint congratulating Paul on an interview well-done.
In all seriousness though, it is an absolute blessing to be here. I know as an avid reader of this blog, that it's so easy to read Kim's posts, look at the pictures, pray a pithy little prayer for them, and simply let it all roll off my shoulder and allow myself to be immersed in the business of the day and the attitude that somehow God has blessed me more than them (because I live in America). While I encourage you to read Kim's posts, look at the pictures, and even remember to pray for them, I think it's important for people "back home" to realize that the Archers are doing an incredible job here and God has been/is being so good to them. Clint and Kim have been blessed with an absolutely gorgeous home in a great part of the country, a church seeking to follow God and His Word, enormous ministry opportunities with the youth and others here in Durban, and an intense passion for God's glory and good pleasure. I implore you to keep the Archers in your prayers, to start/continue encouraging them in their ministry, and even meditate on the Scriptures and what the Archers are doing here in South Africa in the realization that this is a real-life example of how good stewardship is practiced (search stewardship on the link). And, though the Archers reward will surely not be fully realized until heaven, God is blessing them and through His Spirit enabling them to continue on in His work and good stewardship. God is great!
From Team Durban (perhaps the only team-sanctioned sentence in this entire blog) -- we love you guys!!!
I must close -- enjoy this entry -- I'm not sure when or if (based on some of the comments from my team members) I'll ever be allowed on this blog again, but I think the it will periodically updated with current happenings and photos from both the Archers and Team Durban --- so keep visiting it regularly.
SECOR OUT!
I testify to everyone who has access to edit this blog... Kim... that if anyone adds to the words (except in grammar correction) of this blog, God will add the plagues written in His book, and if anyone takes away from the words of this blog (except in grammar correction), God will take away his/her part in the tree of life and from the holy city.

Baptism

Clint doing his first bapstism today....Brian Ramsden. He gave his life to the Lord about 3 months ago. What an amazing testimony of God's grace!!

The team with the Archer's and Geneva in our front yard...

The team's "band photo"...I guess that would make Secor the lead singer?

More hope valley photos :)

More photos of the kids and the team at Hope Valley....

African Sunset

Hope Valley

So the team went to "Hope Valley" this week. One of our church plants planted a church at Hope Valley, so its like our "granddaughter church" The Lord is doing such amazing things there, there are many new believers, and they have no pastor, or even Bibles. So one of the pastors from the church plants goes down every week to preach there as well as his own church. These are the pictures of the school at Hope Valley. The team taught them at their school on Monday...and taught them some new songs... "Jesus Loves Me" "I've got the Joy" "Father Abraham" but they sang it like "Fatha Abahaam" :) They also did a skit of Daniel and the lions den, and had all the kids make lion faces on paper plates & played tons of games with them. They LOVED the team!!

The team at our house with some of the Cornerstone group after evening service this Sun. Paul Yoon brought the word and preached on humility & the team did the musical worship. This photo was taken just before we played the sign game :)

In the pancake factory cooking for the whole church!! To many cooks in the Archer's kitchen? No way!

Members of our church enjoying the "flapjacks" & fellowship

Finally, the team can enjoy the fruits of their labor!!!...our church was blessed by the service of our team & loved trying American Pancakes. I think this may begin a HBC tradition!

Just had to end off with the "African sunset" at the retreat...it was stunning

Team

So this weekend Clint did his first wedding ever. He doesn't have the license to marry, so they got married in a court beforehand, but he did the ceremony. It was awesome, he even did the "your rings will clink on the refrigerator door" line (stolen from Rick Holland of course). It was awesome to see them get married, cause Louella got saved when we were out here in May candidating for the church, and now Clint got to marry her to an awesome guy. The team was evangelizing at a local farmers market, and then painted our house and the church while we were at the wedding. Paul then braved driving on the "wrong side" of the road on the way back, YIKES!

Paul and Wyn led worship this Sunday morning. They introduced some new songs to our congregation, and showed the congregation what it was like to have someone "lead" the worship (usually we just stand when the music starts playing, so it was AMAZING to have a worship leader). And fun for us to sing songs I haven't sung in 7 months. The team then went to a ZULU church in Hope Valley (a church plant nearby) and taught and lead worship there. They LOVED seeing the worship style there. A lady would just stand up, start singing, then the keyboardist would try and find the key she was singing in, and then play along, everyone clapping and dancing. A complete culture shock!

Then the team hosted an "American pancake evening" at our house and invited the whole church over after evening service. Everyone LOVED the american pancakes, and we served tons of toppings (bananas, white chocolate, the works!) The church loved getting to know the team better, and the team had fun trying to make the perfect pancake (winner is in the above photo!) They are teaching today again at Hope Valley to the Zulu kids, more photos to come!

More photos of our retreat...

Michelle, Kim, Kerry, Jill, Vicki, Caitlin

Ok, I decided there were way too many boy photos of the retreat (SECOR!!) so i'm getting back with some girly photos.

Looking out over the bluff, looking for warthogs &

impala Girls in the tube! :) These girls have bonded so fast with the South African girls!! What a great ministry opportunity.