The Website of Miah and Michelle Collins

You have to love Christmas time in South Africa. Ceiling fans blow the tinsel off the Christmas tree and ice tea is preferred to egg nog, but that’s how we like it here. We really enjoyed all the Christmas “presence” shared with family and friends. Michelle and I were involved in the Christmas services at my dad’s church along with my mom, dad, and Jordan. Michelle did a pre-service skit in 3 services, and I played djembe for some carols.  I love that kind of thing!

Our 2011 students arrive this Sunday! Michelle and I will have just a week with them before we go to Liberia. We are really looking forward to the trip. It will be bitter-sweet trip for us. It will be bitter because one of our most promising students there, Watson, passed away with typhoid since our last training. He was 26 years old, an elementary school teacher and the youth leader in his church. We will miss his passion for young people, his great interactions during the training, and his contagious optimism.  It will be sweet because our country leader, Trokon, was married in December to his high school sweetheart, Ube. It will be great to see how they are getting on.

It’s also a time of real change and uncertainty for us. We are with J-Life for just 2 more months, and after that we don’t know a whole lot for sure. I can’t say that I’m apprehensive about the future, except maybe that I will fall into the trap of living in the future instead of savoring every moment. Will I be able to connect with the students this year when we know that we won’t be completing the year with them?

Two months is a really short time, especially as we will spend 2 weeks of that in Liberia. There are a lot of details to work through (like shipping things to the States, selling the car) and thinking about what we are going to do on the other side (where to live and work). Michelle has finished her grad school applications so we are also waiting for news on that side. I have been doing the job search thing.

We also have a wedding happening here for 2 J-Life staff members, a 10 year celebration for J-Life, and our Africa Summit all happening in February. So there’s going to be plenty happening on this leg of our journey. We are praying that we will be a blessing and encouragement to the work of “mobilizing disciplemaking movements among the youth of Africa” even in these last weeks.

If you are in the States, we hope to connect with you when we get back. I think it might be a challenging for Michelle to re-adjust, so whatever support and encouragement you can give to her would be appreciated. She’s not as used to moving across oceans as I am. We plan to arrive in Houston on March 19th.

Miah

Living on the J-Life farm has been a lot nicer than we thought it would be.

Down-side – our flat is just a bedroom and a bathroom. So we have to go up to use the campsite kitchen to cook our food. And no living room. The internet is so slow it’s almost non-existent.There are a lot of flies, and if the wind blows in a certain direction, all you can smell is cow manure. We are 30 minutes from shopping (Heidelberg) and 1 hour from our church, running club, and most of our friends. It’s funny how you just adjust though. When we go to town, we just make a full day of it, and it doesn’t work out so bad.

Up-side – Just to give you a picture, last week Michelle and I helped with a 7th grade school camp. I woke up to the sight of the rising sun on beautiful green mountains/hills (if you’re from Colorado or Switzerland they are definitely hills; if you’re from Michigan or Texas they are definitely mountains) and the sound of birds. The grass was still wet from the last night’s thunderstorm as I made myself coffee and sat on the veranda. Then I realized my schedule for the day was:
Play soccer
Breakfast
Hike up the mountain
Paintball/ life lessons
Lunch
Raft building/ life lessons
Dinner
Capture the flag
Bonfire
That was my day of “work”. And I wondered if life gets any better than that.

The end is near for Michelle and I and our time with J-Life. And we trust that God has bigger and better things in store for us over the next stage of life. Right now we are pretty much working on the projects that we need to finish by next February. These include finishing our training material for J-Life’s new training model which we’re calling GC2 groups. We are thankful for some of the new staff members that will be joining J-Life next year and we trust that they will be taking the movement forward with great gusto!

Applications for the South African team, 2011, are rolling in. On top of that, many new additions to the J-Life headquarters are nearing completion including the new toilet and shower block, accommodation in some old farm silos, and the new hall/training facility. We have a team from Iowa coming to put the roof on the new accommodation later this month!

We are also gearing up for our annual summer camp and hoping that 240 teenagers will show up. Our theme this year is “Your Story,” challenging kids to see their lives as part of God’s story in the world.

Our next trip to Liberia is also fast approaching. Praise God for those who gave to make it possible for Michelle to be involved! We will be heading there for 2 weeks right after the New Year! J-Life is seeking God’s direction in starting work in 2 new countries next year. It looks like Congo is a definite. Other options include Uganda, Egypt, and Togo. It’s sad to think that we won’t be able to help with those!

As our time for leaving approaches we also spend more time thinking about life after J-Life. Michelle is working on graduate school applications and I’m trying to figure out what kind of work I would like to do. I do have a lot of peace about everything right now, which is about all I could ask for.

The Lausanne Congress ended on Sunday night after 2 long weeks of working, learning, conversing, and hotel breakfasts. Below is my attempt to summarize some of my thoughts about my experiences at Cape Town 2010.

Evangelicalscism

The word “evangelical” isn’t used much in South Africa, and it’s certainly less politically charged than it is in the States. I remember while living in Texas that if someone asked me “So, are you an evangelical?” I would have to pause and ask them first “What do you mean by evangelical?” If their response would have been “You actually believe that the Bible is true and you believe that Jesus was raised from the dead” I would have gladly responded “Yes, I’m an evangelical.” But that is not usually how they responded. More often I would get something like “Evangelicals are people who hate gays and blow up abortion clinics.”

“In that case, no, I’m not an evangelical.” I’m not too concerned about hanging on to any label that is not beneficial.

However, the Lausanne conference brought together Christian pastors, missionaries, scholars, businesspeople, social activists, and bloggers from across the world (197 countries) and across the denominational spectrum, all who consider themselves evangelicals. And I have to say that I’m so encouraged and honored to consider myself part of that movement.

There were 4200 delegates at Lausanne, as well as nearly 1000 serving on the congress team (most of them volunteers who paid their own way to help at the congress). Some people would question a gathering of this size and expense – “That money should go to the destitute,” they would say. This is always a legitimate issue to raise, but I’ve got a sneaky suspicion that it was all worth it. And I was so encouraged by some of the Acts like economics that happened around the congress:

• Each country was required to pay a congress fee based on the economic standing of that country. The western nations paid the most so that the poorest countries could be nearly fully subsidized. This meant that the congress could be represented by every nation, not only by those who could afford it.
• On top of that, hundreds of homes around Cape Town were opened for Congress delegates to stay in Cape Town free of cost. Many of the host families even provided transport to the Convention Center for their international guests.
• A really cool story came out from China who decided that they would work to raise the full amount for all 250 of their delegation plus enough money for 100 delegates from poorer countries. When the Vietnamese heard about this, they refused to be outdone and also raised for other nations. The Vietnamese made it to the congress unlike the Chinese who had their passports confiscated at the airport.

Filling up the suffering of Christ

Amidst many great intellectuals and practitioners who spoke throughout the week, great men and women from all over the world addressed a number of pressing topics facing the global church. But it was Jesus who said “I use the weak things of this world to shame the strong.”

On the second night of the conference an 18 year old North Korean high school student took the stage and shared her life story. When her father became a Christian in China, she returned with him to North Korea to share their new faith. He disappeared under police custody in 2006 and she has not heard from him again.

She held it together as she spoke about these things until the end when she described God’s love for the people of North Korea and her desire to return there after studying political law in South Korea. It was a beautiful moment as she received a long standing ovation that she wouldn’t have seen unless someone brought her back on to the stage about 3 minutes later…

As others spoke of the suffering they face for not giving their full allegiance to oppressive governments, or following the religious status quo of their communities, I felt that I was beginning to understand the significance of Christ’s suffering more deeply. It’s as if these people are living parables pointing back to the cross; to God’s love for the world.  And this is the true glory of suffering for the gospel.

No matter what I do from here on, I want my life to be a parable for those around me, a retelling of Christ’s sacrifice. (Col. 1:24)

Don’t Underestimate

Daniel Singh was a young volunteer from Bangalore, India, who worked with us at registration. He was a pretty unassuming guy, but he turned out to save the day with his super-nerd abilities. On day one the internet system at the congress crashed. This was the same system used to beam the World Cup soccer to the world. It is the best broadband that Africa has ever seen. As one blogger put it, the system could handle billions of soccer fans and thousands of vuvuzelas but it couldn’t handle to the height, depth, width and breadth of the love of God…

Actually, we later found out that 66 sites in China had managed to clog up the system and bring the Lausanne Congress organizers to their knees.

Next, Daniel and another Indian volunteer, Vijay, put their hands up to fix the problem. I think Daniel (who is a pastor back in India) finally figured out why he got a doctorate in computational biology.  They managed to fix the problem and on day 3 we were back on track. Daniel and VJ then got back to the work they really came for: hooking up printers to laptops.
I’m learning not to underestimate people.

One guy who worked with us during the conference at the information table was VJ (not his real name), from Uzbekistan. You need to hear his testimony, especially if you work with children…

In 1989, the iron curtain fell and Uzbeki children were given the opportunity to learn about the West through a pen-pal program. VJ (13 years old at the time) signed up and soon received a letter from an 11 year old girl in Kentucky. They began to converse back and forth. She then sent him a Bible and they discussed her faith in God. After 4 years of contact VJ, at the age of 17, put his faith in Christ. He was one of the only believers in Uzbekistan at that time.

Now there are 5000 believers in Uzibekistan, which is still one of worst persecutors of Christians. VJ is now a church leader and planter there and one of the coolest guys you will meet. I think I do a pretty good job at imitating his awesome Russian accent.

Israel

When I was in Israel with Global Youth Initiative in 2008 we went to Bethlehem to meet with some Palestinian Christians. Since that trip I have been anxious to have a conversation with a Christian Jew about some of the theological and political questions that I was left with.

The guy I connected with at Lausanne is a Messianic Jew who works for an evangelical organization reaching out to Jews around the world. He told me that so-called evangelicals often unquestioningly support Jewish Israel without even considering the actual Jewish and Palestinian Christians. Instead they work directly with the Israeli government, which is heavily influenced by the very extremist rabbis and religious elite.

My Jewish friends’ conclusion was as follows: Israel is big enough for Jews and Palestinians to live together peacefully and prosperously. That’s really unlikely to happen unless God’s work of reconciliation through Christ has a much stronger voice in Israel.

The next day’s theme at Lausanne was reconciliation. A Palestinian women and a Jewish man shared the stage and spoke about their work to break down hostility in Israel and to get people to listen to each other.

Makes sense, doesn’t it?

A few other significant discussions at the conference were…

There was a commitment by the congress to reach out to oral cultures with oral Bible traditions and biblical storytelling through indigenous music.

“When the gospel takes root in our lives it wakes us up to horror of injustice and to the truth of eternal suffering. To ignore one is to have a broken gospel or a broken heart.” – A final word on the apparent disconnect between addressing social concerns and proclamation evangelism? Probably not, but I think it’s pretty great anyway.

A call to repentance for our failure to live out the gospel

A call to integrity, simplicity, and humility; this included a challenge to stand up more firmly to the gospel of materialism.

A call to collaboration and partnership: - A great story was when one organization was raising money for a medical missions boat gave that money to another organization who was raising funds for the same thing!

Some of the serious social issues addressed where human trafficking and climate change

New Friends

The real highlight was making new relationships with believers from all over the globe. Lausanne is truly global. If we find life on Mars, I’m sure they will be invited to the next Lausanne gathering. Even our volunteer team was made of people from all over.

I’d never had real friends from Norway, Bangladesh, Singapore, Japan, Trinadad, Denmark, or Uzbekistan before last week. That alone was a huge blessing, and something that I will carry with me for a good while.

Glory to God.

After much deliberation it seems as if God is leading us on a new path. For some time now Michelle has been interested in studying for a Master’s in Psychology. She has taken some correspondence classes here in South Africa and it really confirmed her passion in that field. She is busy applying to schools in the States for next fall.

John and the rest of the staff have been really supportive through our whole process. I think leaving a ministry is always a hard and painful decision to make. We dreaded telling the staff. I can’t help but feel like I’m abandoning them. But John has assured us that he thinks we are making the right choice in this matter.

When we first discussed our thoughts about leaving J-life, John asked us to help with Liberia before we left. We agreed to do that, and we are very glad we did. It is been a great challenge and blessing and something that has grown us a lot. We will go to Liberia again in January and then return to help with the new South African Students until about February 10th. After that we will be heading back to the States.

It has been an amazing experience for me to have been here and to work alongside my amazing wife. Michelle is an incredible missionary, and she has put her heart and soul into everything she has done over the past 3 years. I’m super proud of her. In hindsight, I recognize that it was crazy for us to move across the world just a few months into our marriage. But I believe we are returning to the States much stronger as a couple, and we thank God for that.

Our passion for Africa remains strong. I have experienced leaving Africa before, but Michelle doesn’t know what she is in for. I am praying that it will not be too traumatic for her! I am so thankful for everyone who has supported us! We have never gone hungry, and we’ve never had to say no to a ministry opportunity due to a lack of funds.

We recently had an Open Day at J-Life, something we have started to attract perspective students to see what we are offering. I led a panel discussion of “x-J’s” for them to tell about their experiences. They all shared the ways in which J-life shaped them into the people they are today. It’s such a privilege to have been part of their journey in life and faith. It’s great to know that this movement is African at heart, and it will continue to be driven by Africans, as the life of Christ is taught and lived out around the continent.

We won’t be coming back to the States with a lot of possessions, but we will be returning with minds full of great memories, and hearts full of wonderful African friends. I have no doubt that we will stay closely connected to Africa, and to J-Life, in the years to come. And we know that we’ll be back again soon.

As for the rest of our time here, Michelle and I are going to be heading to Cape Town for the Laussane Conference of World Missions. We are attending as volunteers, serving the 4000 delegates from over 200 countries. I can’t wait to spend time with all these people, and hear what God is doing in every corner of this world. I am praying that we will be inspired and directed as to how God is going to use our experiences over the past 3 years into the future. We will hopefully strike up some new partnerships with J-Life as well.

I am planning on making my last trip to Liberia from the States sometime next summer to finish up our project there. And if I could just find a job that would give me about 10 weeks off per year, I would also love to try to start some work in Sierra Leone, but we will have to wait and see if those doors are open.

Then towards the end of the year our teams will be returning for a week of re-integration, and then we will host our annual youth summer camp in December before heading to a good friend’s wedding (it happens to be Jason Price who is the mutual friend responsible for Michelle and I meeting!) After Christmas it’s back to Liberia and then we’ll finish off with the South African training into February.

If you are the praying type, here a few things to put on your list for us:

That J-Life would be able to recruit more staff to keep up with the ministry opportunities presenting themselves around the continent

That Michelle would be accepted into a good, affordable psychology program

Pray for the rest of our time here; that we would use the next 5 months to invest into J-Life and the people