Big Difference

Father God has been speaking to me yesterday and today about the fraility of life...and then I read this blog entry from a dear friend Hannah who is serving in Zambia, working in schools and I HAD to put it up!! This is a word for all of us, to appreciate the life we have, strive for greater and bigger things and seek to bring change to those around us.

For those of you on Pais, use this to trigger conversations with the young people you work with

For those who are young people, compare your lives to the zambia students 

For all of us, think about whether the life we are living is really making a difference...

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I’m constantly struck by the differences between Schools Work in the UK and Schools Work in Zambia. The basic methods are the same: assemblies, clubs and discipleship groups, but the atmosphere is entirely different; not just continents apart but worlds apart!

I’m certainly missing the efficiency of the schools in the UK but I’m finding that the actual work, in some ways, is much easier here. This is most noticeable in the discipleship groups. While sometimes in the UK it seemed like a struggle to get people to join, in Zambia the students (aged from12-16) take the responsibility of running the groups much more seriously. They form committees; they meet after school in their own time; they have small praise teams and they expect you to come and speak to them for up to an hour. And they’re more enthusiastic than most churches I’ve seen in the UK! So why is this? Is it because UK teenagers are ashamed? Or do they just not care?

I think the difference is that in Zambia the frailty of life is a reality and therefore Jesus, and the hope that he brings, becomes much more of a reality too. In the UK teenagers can rightly assume that they will have bright futures, where nearly anything is possible, and then die when they are old and their lives are complete. Jesus is for later. Here though, futures aren’t always promised to be bright. Life will be hard, and often short.

I was thinking today, as I drove to work, how many funerals I have attended in my 27 years. The total was four, maybe five. There were my two grandparents, both over 80; a couple of old people from church; a friend’s father. Five. And I have never been to a funeral of anybody under 70 years old. Maybe I’m just lucky but I suspect that is the case for many people my age. Here though, death is everywhere. I drive past two graveyards on the way to work: every other day, sometimes every day, I pass a funeral party or a freshly dug grave. The notice boards at school have weekly obituaries. Parents regularly have to bury their own children.

So maybe that’s the difference. Maybe in the west life is just an assumption and not a gift. Maybe we could learn to treasure each moment and make the most of each opportunity that we are fortunate enough to have.

And let’s not stop praying that someday the futures of young Zambians could look as bright as God intended them to be.

Buy

Today Steve & I finally got money changed and now can buy stuff!! The joy of cedis in our pocket was too much and the local trade was a glad recipient. My first stop was to the local dry cleaners [I know it sounds pretentious, but I spilt orange juice down myself on the plane and I was scared it would ruined my Ralph Lauren blanket…I’m not sounding any less pretentious am i?!]. Next was a local restaurant to pick up someone’s food for lunch, and then the gas station for a can of coke that Steve had been craving and finally a street vendor selling yam chips, chicken and fish. I was told that to prevent illness, not to eat from the street vendors. As the sauce for the chicken was poured into a black plastic bag and passed to my company, I understood why. After the days sessions, we went to the local market to pick up a box of biscuits and a crate of drinks for our movie night [Paul Gibbs will be glad to know that we are watching ‘Kingdom of Heaven’!]

My tour guide [aka the token Ghanaian person to take with me so I wouldn’t get ripped off] was Josephine. Aged 26, she has been involved in various missions across Ghana, and the Ivory Coast, making her well travelled for a young village Ghanaian. For several months she has been asking Father to show her a mission she could get involved in longer term, but she couldn’t verbalize what she was looking for. On Sunday, as the Pais promo video played in her church [Harvest Chapel International] she was suddenly confronted with the thing she was looking for. And after the service, she joined Pais.

As we walked she shared her life story; her passion was literally spilling out on the dirt road. At times with her fast Ghanaian drawl, it was hard to understand exactly what she was saying, but her excitement came through as clear as anything. She even recruited her friend Henry that same day to join as well.

Today’s schedule:

-       The Creed & the Vow Ceremony

-       Schools: Divinity – The Holy Spirit – Sebrina Miller

-       Schools: Doors – Mawunyo Debrah

-       Apprenticeship: Team – Steve Miller

I didn’t put the times down because the schedule went out of the window. Not in a disorganized way, but in a “Father God, we’re just following you kind of way”. Minster Isaac & his wife Pastor Hannah [leaders at Royalhouse Chapel International who have visited America previously] did an impromptu welcome talk in the morning as they hadn’t been able to come and visit the team yet. The Creed and Vow Ceremony, though we had less apprentices than most nations, was just so prayer filled that we couldn’t stop. My Holy Spirit talk ended up starting at noon…enter 40 mins of me speaking followed by words of knowledge, words of wisdom, speaking/interpreting tongues, prayers, affirmations, emotional healings…when I realized the  times was 1:50 we decided we needed to have a break…since no one had eaten since breakfast since 8am!! Father’s spirit was just so tangible…you could feel it…there was such power and an excitement to seek God..and imagining taking that power into schools and impacting students lives.

In Mawunyo’s doors talk she said something so amazing:

“I feel like Pais:Ghana, if it was lined up with the other Pais nations, would get asked the biggest question because it has the biggest opportunity”

And she is so right. The schools are so OPEN to Pais coming in, to preaching within them…assemblies to literally a thousand of students at a time, lessons, visits to an orphanage, missions into the local villages…There is so so much that these guys have been entrusted with, such a great harvest of students and children in front of them, ripe for the picking, ready to hear a word, ready to have their lives changed and transformed. Ready to be brought hope and love.

But we can’t force them into the Kingdom. We can’t pay them to enter. We can’t do their dry cleaning to get them there. We can’t buy their love. So we have to use the opportunity wisely. Strategically. Spirit-led.

But when it happens…when it all comes together…

BOOMTOWN is the only word I can think of.

I am soooo excited to leave for no other reason than when I go, their work out side of the conference room begins!!

Adventure

There is never a dull moment in the Miller Household...
...And there is never a still moment when you are looking to follow Father God.

Our latest random journey takes us to...GHANA!!

In September 2008, Pais set up its first African nation in Accra, Ghana. The first team has three people, last year's team rose to ten; hopefully this years team will have more. The previous teams have seen incredible fruit, working in eight local schools, teaching hundreds weekly and bringing many into relationships with Father. They have also done outreaches, in partnership with the local church, into the nieighbouring poorer villages to bring supplies, medical aid and practically meet other needs.

The nation is led by Mawunyo Debrah, who was on Pais:USA 07/08 in Arlington at the same church as us. We both got to know her extremely well – she is a hardcore prayer warrior, often staying up through the night to pray for her teams, and is so faithful in all that she does. Though she has worked hard, the one area she has struggled in is long-term leadership to come alongside her. This upcoming year, everyone on the team will be new to Pais:Ghana, with only one person having done Pais previously (another familiar face – Carmen, who was on the team Steve led 08/09!). 

Previously, all of the Ghanaian missionaries had to travel to the UK to complete their Foundational Training. With such a large cost, this training excluded many of the apprentices from receiving the much needed training. This year, she has taken the bold step to provide the Foundational Training in Ghana, for her new teams. However, that is a large undertaking for her to complete by herself. 

Mawunyo’s need is simple – she needs help organizing and running Foundational Training.

With both of our experience on Pais, and with Steve’s specific expertise in running conferences and training apprentices, we both jumped at the opportunity to go out and practically help. 


Our need is simple - we need prayer and financial support. 


The rundown of our trip is as follows:

• Travel dates: September 3rd-September 15th, 2010 (yes, in less than a month's time!!)
• Trip cost: $4,300/£2,700 (this includes flight, visa, yellow fever vaccinations, malaria tablets, and a contingency fund - all food, transport, accommodation and activities are provided by Pais:Ghana)
• Role: Before - helping the planning of the conference (this has already begun)
• Role: During - delivering Pais training and supporting Mawunyo and the apprentices. 

We need to book our flights by Friday August 13th so that we can apply for our visas in time.

If you can help financially support us please contact us by email (sebrinamiller@gmail.com or stevemiller@paisproject.com) and let us know how much you are able to donate (so we can keep track of our current balance) and how you would like to pay (cash, US check, UK check, paypal or direct bank deposit for both our US & UK banks)

We know this is a very last-minute thing, but we really feel this is what God is calling us to do. For those of you who don’t know, Sebrina recently resigned from her role on Pais. She was offered a job with an adoption agency, but after three weeks of planning, visa issues meant that she was unable to take the role. This was extremely upsetting to us both, but we trusted that God was in control. Had the job gone ahead, we would not have both been able to do this trip, so we are seeing the blessing despite the storm. We are really excited for the impact that we can make on the teams and the blessing that we will be to Mawunyo. Please keep us and Pais:Ghana in our prayers.

Looking forward to hearing from you – please email us your thoughts and encouragements!!

Steve & Sebrina

Era

Sometimes there’s just a restlessness, a gut feeling you can’t shake that seems to say its time to move on but you don’t really know what is next so you don’t understand the feeling, and question whether its just you being silly or God on the move (or possibly indigestion).

After four years serving in roles for both Pais:USA and Pais:Global, my (full-time) journey with The Pais Project is over. I will still be involved in random ways in the ministry, Steve will still be serving with them so it’s a given I will help out, but my last official day was June 25th. 

After seeking God and hearing him speak in several ways (some weird!) I realized it was time to step out, but was absolutely petrified. Father had talked to me about “broad paths” and “wide spaces” and “open places” but I didn’t know how anything would work out: visa, finances, transport…but sometimes you have to jump anyways. 

And Father God, as always, has been faithful and supplied.

I decided that I would use my time in England and Jamaica to think through what was the next step, and come back and look up jobs. We downsized to an apartment saving a significant amount of money, to prepare ourselves for the potentially financially-tight months ahead (as if the past four years haven’t been like that anyway!). But before we even left, a friend mentioned a job and I was asked to send in my resume (for which I needed to write one first…). I was asked to come in for an interview at 10am on the day our flight for England left at 4pm, and got on to the plane thinking “that was a good experience but I don’t expect much to come from it”. Fastforward to the day we arrive back, and I get a call saying the job is mine if I want it. 

Overwhelmed is not the word.

So I am (soon to be) the Weekday House Parent at the Gladney Center for Adoption, serving birth mothers who are staying in the dorms as they prepare to place their child for adoption. With space on campus for up to 30 prenant women, who will range in aged from early teens to early/mid forties, my job title states my role as:

Providing a comfortable, harmonious climate for day-to-day living, attempting to be a substitute parent and a positive role model for the young women.

I am petrified, not least as I do my preliminary reading of “What to Expect when you’re Expecting” (I am second in command if a girl goes into labour!), I am overwhelmed that Father is giving me this opportunity to be hands-on with these vulnerable young women who are going through what can only be described as one of the most beautiful yet painful things in the world – spending nine months caring for a baby, to then bless another family with that life. 

There are so many prayer points:
– Visa change over as quickly as possible so I can start working
– A car (preferably cute and small with good gas mileage for my 25 min drive to/from work)
– Training/Reading in advance of the role

Amidst these concerns I am reminded of one of my favourite lines in the bible that says we should be “careless in the care of God”. I am also reminded that these things are small change, little speed bumps to traverse, compared to the more weightier matter of reaching these women, supporting them, being an advocate for them, and helping them through this period of life.

And bringing them the hope and love of a Father who cares for them.

I am nervous, excited, overwhelmed, worried, scared, apprehensive..

But I’m passionate about people. I’m passionate about being a person who brings change for the better into people’s lives.

There are people, I believe, who will never simply walk to an event at a church or just make friends with a Christian because of a fear of judgement.

And these are the people I feel it is my job to seek out and find. To go to their places. To meet them where they are at.

And so I jump into this next stage, this new era, wholeheartedly, knowing that if Father God worked all these crazy situations together and got me this job without me even trying or seeking it out, then there must be a great reason that He wants me there. 

Boomtown.