Heading South... DEEP South

I leave tomorrow for South Africa.  Toni Dolfo-Smith, our director, also oversees Living Waters in several other countries, South Africa being one of them.  We are taking a team down to do some training for the Living Waters leaders in that country, and to minister to them as well.  LW South Africa has had a rough year.  Their national director was asked to step down by his board due to some issues in his personal life, and this has sent the various teams in that country through an awkward and painful year.

We are taking a team down to lead a retreat to help these guys re-center themselves in the heart of this ministry, to train them in some of the newer approaches, and to lead them through some times of personal healing.

What will I be doing personally?  Well, besides checking to see if the water drains out of the sink in the opposite direction down there (I am such a nerd,) I will be leading a workshop on addiction.  I will be team-teaching this with Kirsten, and we also see this session as a time for the team to lament, to really grieve the losses they've experienced.  (Addiction is often about coping, dealing with our losses and pain with our own pain-numbing activities.  So we want to facilitate a time for them to really sit in their grief, and then to invite Jesus into it, to allow him to minister to the deeper places that we often self-medicate.)

I will also be performing some pieces that I've written, to hopefully enlighten and encourage.  And I will also be doing, believe it or not, a theatre workshop, yes - at a Living Waters retreat.  (Toni requested it.)  I guess there's nothing like an afternoon of weird theatre exercises to help you shed some of your control issues.

So please pray for safe travel for me and the rest of the team.  Pray for our times of teaching and ministry, that we will be guided by the Holy Spirit.  And also please pray for Joanne and the kids as I am away.