Simple is Best...

Hey there folks hope and pray you are well. It has been a while since i have update the blog... But I am doing very well. I am still here in the Congo it has been very quiet but great. I have been able to work on my quiet time and prayer time with Jesus. My relationship with the students and more of learning about Congo, and a side note (I have also been able to work on my handstands, it is going really well.) The students are on break for about a month more. I have been working on stories for Congo Initiative, it has been going well. We are in a program called Kipepeo which is butterfly in Swahili, They are raising support for the scholarship funds for the students. You can pray that God spreads the word about UCBC and that it finds some great supporters.

So i have also loaded a video or two onto my Facebook page. It is really difficult to get videos online here but a few were able to go through. One of them was a video the students help me do. It is how they want to change their world and that they are not here at UCBC only for themselves but for their community. He is preparing these students for something great and I am proud to say that I have been a part of that. God is alive and well in the Congo and is getting ready for the start of a new year of teaching.

So recently i after returning from Budapest I have started running, it has now been grafted into my work out that I do here. It is interesting. for the first time in my life I have a desire to run. And believe me it is still weird for me to be saying that. I mean coming from being a thrower and living by the motto "Why run and puke when you can throw and eat!" is a huge change, But Congo is changing me in every way of the word. I do believe that it is a journey that God has me on and it is a great journey. Honestly sometimes it makes me want to skip to the end of the book or movie just to get a preview of what God might have up his sleeves.

I have been here for almost 5 months now and it has flown by... really I am asking my self where has it gone. I can only imagine what it is going to be like when my time here is finished and i look back at all that I had done and just sit or stand or whatever it is that I will be doing and be amazed. I really am learning to just be and as a friend of mine recently told me "don't wish it away, you will be back before you know it, and your in a pretty amazing place." So that is one thing I am working on.

As for the others I am working on. I have read through the Gospels and they are great, I am thinking I am going to read through them again. I am pretty sure they are like a good movie that you could just watch over and over again. Well i guess in this case a good book that you can read over and over again. But as most of you know I am a movie minded person. But back to what I have been working on: I have been thinking a lot about the men in the Bible that Jesus called to do works and how they got those done. Is it something they realized during or not until they had finished what ever it was they were called to do. The Holy spirit is something really special and is one thing i believe we will never fully understand. But It moves when God says move. I also have read the story of Samson the last few days and it really does get me fired up. I just love the story of this man that was the muscle for God(not that he needed a man to do it) and was willing to be used for anything. another side note. I have decided to grow my hair until i return to the states. As of now it is close to the longest it has ever been. So we will see if i am blessed with super natural strength. But if not, it is all good because I know God has something else special for me. Finally i have been thinking about how sometimes we get so caught up in trying to think like a philosopher or like a great mind of our time, But i realized that a lot of us have forgotten how to think like a child( at least I have). We think we are being more Christ like by explaining things that are difficult or using big words, but sometimes i find the best answers are from children, they think simple. We love the idea of make more work for ourselves. Sounds strange like that because your probably saying " no i don't why would I want to do that" But I think we tend to make more work so that we feel that we have done something with our life, we can feel some sort of completion because we can look at all the great things we said or did. But I read from another great book Called Streams In The Desert say "sometimes living a life of faith often requires us to leave things alone." Think simple and think like a child.

SO there you have it what has been going through the mind of the Moose in Africa. I truly am blessed. I have an amazing support team, and amazing friends and family that care for me, and on top of that all an AMAZING God that loves me for who i am.

Things you can be praying for:

• UCBC- to get the right people and staff in place to educate these students.
• for the leadership here that it can be blessed and given wisdom and a passion for the Congolese people.
• For my buddy Brandon Holmes I think he is going to be here in October. Pray that he can be encouraged and know that he is raising funds for the furthering of the kingdom.
• For the travels of staff members coming back into town from the states where they have been raising funds.
• A shipping container or crate that can be filled and sent with supplies and equipment for the new building that is coming together.
• My heart and mind that i can stay focused on what is in front of me and not what is behind me and what Christ has for me.

K that should do it for now. But i do hope and pray you are all doing well. Thanks for being great and supporting the M O O S E IN A F R I C A.

PEACE,

GMH