three’s a charm
this is literally my 3rd attempt to post since the last time i did.. so here it goes..
Ah! The long-awaited post! I’ve been meaning to post for a while now and just haven’t had a big enough time gap to post and really put effort into it. Needless to say, I am now done with college.. minus a transfer credit class on “The Gospels” that I am currently working on. The idea that I am done and can say, “I HAVE a Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology and a minor in Biblical Studies,” has really not hit me yet, it probably won’t until I leave for Durban.. or maybe not even til I come back and see the actual diploma.
On another note.. IT IS MAY! This is the month I’ve been waiting for since last August when I found out I was officially moving. Not only is it May, but also the current countdown is 14 days! WOW! I know I am more excited to go then words can explain, but I honestly can say I haven’t fully grasped the idea of it yet. Since I am finally done with the hectic schedule of college, I can get to packing and organizing for my trip.
However, the closer the time comes to leaving some of the excitement turns into nervousness. I don’t think I have fully grasped that I will be gone for a year. Let alone that this is actually the beginning of my life after college. Forever ago I changed the caption box on my facebook to this…
dream vocation: missionary to Africa!
May 25th 2010: achievable!
I had totally forgotten doing that til I just was looking at my profile the other day. It’s so true! This will be my 4th trip to Africa. Ever since the first one I went on in the summer between my freshman and sophomore years of college, I have always had a heart to just go there and live. God put that calling on my life to go and I am following it. I’ve had a lot of people tell me how amazing I am for doing it or how much they admire that I am. In all honesty, I feel more blessed than privileged to do so. Personally, I am still wow’d by the line “missionary to South Africa” under my own name! ..like it amazes me that that is what I get to be. I in no way feel like I have done enough in my short lifetime to gain that title, but I accept it. It gives me the drive to constantly be doing more and wanting to do more to just love and serve others.
I am also really blessed in that I went from needing $14,000 more for my trip just a month and a half ago.. and now I only need $2500 more. I can honestly say that was all God! Many people would make astonished faces and be stunned by the amount, but I decided in the beginning to just give it to Him and knew it would get taken care of just like He has every year. :]
Categories: Durban, Random, School
Chris Coates
Kassie:
This is my “bon voyage”note to you.
I have watched you grow up and grow in Christ to the point that your heart and your life reflect His.
I spent this morning putting Skype on my laptop; setting a world clock on my desktop to show the time in Durban; and downloading a currency calculator so that I’ll know the exchange rate for U.S. Dollars into South African Rands. I’ve checked travel advisories with the U.S. State Department; checked the crime stats in Durban and read the entire city government website; l have also learned a great deal of kwaZulu-Natal and South African History including the history of the Boer Wars. I will soon be a trivia expert on South Africa. Did you know that the Zulus consider themselves “people of the heavens?” I think I told you earlier that “Natal” means Christmas in Portugese. Anyway, as you know, I supplied you this morning with the phone number for the police department in Durban. I’m thinking I’ll check into a beginner course in Zulu.
Why am I laboring over all of these details? Because your Mom and I love you with all our hearts, and I’m a nervous, protective father counting the precious hours left before you fly away to do what God has called you to do. Do I trust God to watch over you?
Emphatically, yes! But still, I arm myself with information so that I can feel more secure about where you are and somehow remain connected in spite of the great distance that will soon lie between us. Did I say that I have a link to Durban weather on my desktop? I do.
All of that aside, it really comes down to this: You have been chosen by God to a specific ministry in a place where in spite of it’s massive size and economy there are still people who live in shacks, lack basic necessities such as running water, or who are homeless. I read today about Durban’s homeless children; about conflicts between the city and the street vendors who are barely scratching out a living; and about the overwhelming HIV infection rate in South Africa. I labor for Christ in the inner city, and so I am acquainted with poverty and violence; addiction and hopelessness. I know that you are needed in Durban, though I have questioned why God didn’t call you to the inner cities here.
He has answered me, by the way, in the quiet moments when I am still and listening to Him and not my own fears. He reminds me of the years that I have prayed for you and asked Him to guide you, to gift you, and to inspire you to live for Him. Did you know that I have done this for you, Erin, and the boys since you were little? Kassie, God answers prayers, and you are living proof that He lives, and that He lives through His people today. He has reassured me in the still quiet time when I have silenced my own heart and am concentrating on His voice that He has your journey and your ministry in His sight. He knew when he set the universe in motion that He would use you to do this.
The most compelling sermon I ever heard was preached by Stephen Olford (Stephen Olford Ministries) and I will never forget as long as I live the man loudly proclaiming in his Scottish brogue, “Only one life, it soon shall pass, only what’s done for Christ shall last!” I can tell you from personal experience that you will never regret a day surrendered for the cause of the Gospel; spent in service to others. You will; however, regret time squandered on selfish pursuits, or worse yet, what you did during those times will be so insignificant that you won’t even remember them. Trust me on this one.
You don’t want to be the “rich young ruler.”
So thank you for being faithful and brave, and thank God for His faithfulness in keeping His promise that if we would give you to Him and let you follow your gifts He’d see to it that you’d never depart from it (His plan for your life). So now we know what His way for your adult life begins in Durban, South Africa.
I love you, Kassie, and I’m so proud of you I could shout it from the mountaintops. You are an awesome woman of God, and I brag about you everywhere I go.
Dad (Mr. Chris)
P.S. Can I play your Fender Stratocaster while you are away?
GERARD
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