The Website of Miah and Michelle Collins

Greetings from a frigid Johannesburg.

One of the main teaching tools we use at J-Life is called Strategy. It’s basically an in depth study of how Jesus “discipled” his disciples so that after 3 years of being with them he was able to leave them and let them carry on with His work. Recently Michelle and I taught this course to a group of surfers (the South African branch of Christian Surfers International). It turned out to be the most revitalizing weekend that we’ve had in a long time. Although we were trainers for the conference sometimes it felt like we were the ones who benefited the most from our time with them. We were able to hear their stories of ‘being Jesus’ to the surfing community of South Africa and the incredible passion they have to see board riders all along the coast coming to know God. I was shocked when I found out 2 days into the conference that most of the people there didn’t know each other before the conference. They all acted like they had been friends for years.
There was such a good vibe at the conference, whether they were sitting around sharing stories about tides, winds, swells, storms, sharks, reefs, beaches or point breaks around the country, or worshiping together, or paddling out at J-Bay’s famous surf spots. The other thing that really got me was how intergenerational surf ministry is. There were guys there as young as 15 and as old as 55, but it never seemed like the old guys were “too old” or the young guys (who they call “grommies”) “too young.”

After that trip we had a quick turnaround to fly out to Namibia, a vast desert country with only 2 million people. We were there to work with our country leader, Patrick, who is hoping to get their one-year J-Life program off the ground next year. Patrick recently quit his job as a pastor to raise his own support and work full time to start J-Life in Namibia. There are maybe a handful of “youth workers” in Namibia, most of them with other jobs to support their living expenses. But Patrick believes in the potential and the crucial importance of youth in the kingdom of God and He is pioneering this one-year program to encourage people to invest in the lives of youth. We spent some time visioning for next year as well as training some youth leaders in the capital, Windhoek.

Michelle and I have decided to help them out for a few months next year to get the one year program off the ground, provided they find at least 6 interns. We have been very prayerful as J-Life expands to other countries to make sure that we have a local leader who is ready and willing to springboard the movement in their country. Our job as outsiders will be to provide some experience with the program and transfer J-Life values to the Namibian context and then find other Namibian leaders to replace us for the next year of training. Please pray for us and for Patrick as we discuss details and continue working on our plans for next year.

I think J-Life will have a real role to play in Namibia, not just in training youth workers, but also in encouraging and bringing together the few people who are already involved in Christian youth work. The internship will happen in the coastal town called Walvis Bay, which will be a real different context than South Africa where we bring the guys out of the “real world” and onto the farm. I’m sure living in the desert will take some getting used to, but we are also really excited about the opportunity. Our Namibian hosts showed us some of the fun things to do, like dune driving, which is pretty unbelievable!

I hope this is all coming across somewhat clearly. It might be difficult to really picture what we are doing without a frame of reference. Hopefully, when we visit in November we will be able to explain things to you all a little better. We will also have a few new pictures in the photos section of our website. Enjoy.

Hi everyone, this is Miah.

We don’t have a ton to report from the last month. From my side its been very exciting, but considering most of that is behind the scenes restructuring and planning for the future, I won’t bore you all with the details. I’m already humbled that with everything you could possibly be reading online you have chosen this!

I have 2 main news pieces to share with you:

I am in the process of booking our flights to the States for later this year! We will be coming flying into Houston on October 21 and leaving again on November 30. We will spend the majority of our time in Texas but are also planning to be in Michigan/northern Indiana for a time. We’d love to see as many people as possible so let’s start planning! I am reminded of Romans 1:12 where Paul looks forward to visiting the church of Rome so that they may be mutually encouraged by each others’ faith. That is something that really excites me about seeing old friends!

Secondly, J-Life Africa has a new website: http://www.jlifeafrica.org
It’s still a work in process but it might help you get a better idea of what is happening here and around Africa.

Michelle and I leave on Sunday and will drive 10 hours south to a coastal city called East London. We will spend the next week doing some vision sharing with churches on the south coast of South Africa and will end up in Jeffery’s Bay where we will be doing some of our youth ministry training at the national Son Surf conference. Son Surf is a great organization which reaches out to surfers all along the coast of South Africa through competitions, cell groups, and surfing schools. If you’ve ever seen the old surfing movie, Endless Summer II, Jeffery’s Bay is where they eventually find the illusive “perfect wave.” Although I’m excited to get in the water, I’m afraid the perfect wave would be wasted on me due to a lack of surfing skills. Regardless, we are excited to hit the coast. Our apartment here is right on the river which means it is very cold right now. It usually gets below freezing at nights (and for those of you in the States, we endure that without luxuries like central heating). But its not as bad as it might sound. The sun shines every day. And like all things, you learn to adjust.

Also, we got a hamster which my mom says is “lame” but that’s just because she hasn’t met him yet. His name is Jouage and he’s pretty cool. We’ll add a picture of him on here.

God has continued to be faithful to us, specifically in the area of finances over this past month. We continue to trust and praise Him in all things. As always, we would love to hear from all of you. Why not add us as a contact on Skype if you are into that sort of thing? My name is miah.collins

Grace and peace
Miah

Michelle and I are moving into the second phase of the year now. On Wednesday we sent off our 2009 J-Life teams around the country (and sub-Saharan Africa) to start their ministry. During our final dinner with the guys we got to hear what the past four months has meant in their lives. I reminded me that while the ministry training we do is great, it is at the personal level where the most significant changes take place. I was scribbling down what some of the guys were saying so that I could share them with you all on this website.

Here are what a few of them said:

Vusi (from Harare, Zimbabwe) talked about how all his relationships had become manipulative, and that he was always focused on what he could get from other people. On J-Life God showed him the value of people, and living in a community based on service and love changed his outlook on relationships.

Chris spoke about how being the eldest son in a well-off Indian family, he had everything he ever needed or wanted. The training taught him that outside his little world there are so many people with needs that he had never experienced. Living in a township (slum) for a week and going through our African Realities week has changed his life.

Justin (from Nairobi, Kenya) had been told before that youth ministry is a stepping stone to “real ministry”. Over the four months God has confirmed that Justin’s true passion is for the young people of Kenya and that this is his calling rather than just a stepping stone. 

Sifiso (from Gauteng, South Africa) said that this has changed the direction of his life. He has new priorities and new desires for the future that go beyond getting a degree and making money. He is interested in a career in politics in the future.

Adam (from Indiana, USA) talked about how God has given him a passion for Scripture and a passion for Africa.

At J-Life we believe that the life of Jesus of Nazareth has the power to change young people and to impact Africa. I hope and pray that some of these guys will be central to what God is wanting to do here in the future! I also pray that the overflowing passion for God and for the youth of Africa would never dry out!

Michelle and I are getting involved in the youth ministry at our church and also planning for the rest of the year which no doubt is going to involve a lot of traveling. We are hoping to be in Namibia in June where we may end up for 4 months next year to help get their J-Life training center off the ground. You can pray that our trip there next month would really help us to know if that is where God wants us next year.

Of course, South Africa is an exciting place to be right now. We certainly wouldn’t mind visitors,and if you were interested in being around for the World Cup next year we could certainly work something out for you.

So the other day, Miah and I were looking for a place in our new town to rent movies. We came into one of the bigger chain movie rental places and we started looking at their rentals. As we were looking, I couldn’t help but overhear a really loud conversation the ladies at the counter were having. It started with something like, “ I heard that in America”.... blah, bloo, blee, and ended with something like, “ wow! I’m so glad I didn’t live in America then!”.  I won’t go into the details of the ignorance of the topic, but you can guess it was one of those really amazing comparison gossipy chats that so many people love to have here. Now, part of me knows that I shouldn’t by now let these things bother me but hang with me and you will see how this actually is important.

That night we went to a braii (BBQ ) and hung out with a lot of people we know from church. We were watching the rugby game and of course the lovely dancing ladies came onto the screen. I was sitting with two single ladies from our church and immediately the scoffing began. Now I can be a little offended at how women can be so objectified for entertainment value, but at the same time it is hard for me judge. But because the scoffing did not stop, literally it got out of hand with how ugly they were or how pathetic it was, etc. that eventually I just said, “ hey, watch what you say because I used to be a cheerleader”. And the conversation moved on to more productive topics.

This morning, we went grocery shopping. As we left I saw some muslim ladies with their head coverings on which covered everything except their eyes. And as they passed, I heard a man with a know it all attitude say, “ you know why I heard they wear those things.....” blah, bloo, blee, and I just stopped myself from listening and prayed that God would prevent me from overhearing these sort of things because it never produces a godly reaction in me.

But why is so easy to speak so negatively about someone else? Why is it that so many times when women get together, and whether or not they are Christian doesn’t really change this, they love to either gossip about something meaningless or just speak negatively about disciplining children or what not? Why is there this connection with each other over the negative?

Miah tried to appease my anger that night with the women at the video store basically saying that people in a developping country need to say bad things about other countries so that they don’t feel undermined by living in a developping country. Now I can see how the root of this, comparison or jealousy, can play a big factor in our tendencies to criticize or demean others. There is definitely truth in that and those are elements to this negativity that we definitely need to deal with.

But I also am seeing a spiritual significance in these tendencies because it is this negative thinking that plagues all of humanity and something that can control our lifestyles and identities if we are not quick to recognize it and deal with it ( James 3: 6) . It is this bandwagon of gossip that leads the church to blend into the background of our societies and that births the mediocrity and apathy that we live in. Because standing against those conversations or actually calling them what they are is just, well, flat out awkward. And by living out this contrast to our natural tendency to compare and slander, we become powerful images of God’s kingdom brought to this earth.

It is not easy to think well of every other human being that you encounter and to see them with the eyes that God sees them in. Especially when you live in a country that is inhabited by so many cultures and ways of life that are so different from each other. There is a constant confrontation of values in South Africa.  It is uncomfortable, unnatural, and unnerving to take the road of humility and consider others better than yourself. Yet that is the perspective that every message and interaction of Jesus Christ in the Gospels beseeches us to have. WE MUST STAND OUT. As I say this, I reminded of the words of Christ, “NOT SO WITH YOU”, as He tells His disciples to serve one another and in doing so contrast the hierarchical kingdoms of this world and create on earth a DIFFERENT kingdom.

So, in response to this, I sat with Miah and we talked about how just recognizing this as an issue in the church is not enough. But we need to change our own lifestyles and ways of thinking. We need to call each other out when we are speaking negatively about another culture or person and we need to stop speaking. We need to control our tongues when we want to attack someone by using sarcasm ( which I believe is one of the sneakiest ways of addressing something without actually confronting it) and we need to immediately change our thoughts ( James 1:26). We can speak scripture into our minds when we are annoyed by someone or hurt by their actions so that our reactions will begin with grace and humility and not revenge.

Here are a few verses in scripture that help me with this (of which I have to constantly remind myself):

Colossians 4: 5-6- Conduct yourselves with wisdom toward outsiders, making the most of every opportunity. Let your speech always be with grace, seasoned as it were with salt, so that you may know how you should respond to each person.

Philippians 2: 14-`5- Do all things without grumbling or disputing; that you mat prove yourselves to be blameless and innocent, children of God above reproach in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine as luminaries in the world.

Ephesians 4: 29- Let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth, but only such a word as is good for edification according to the need of the moment, that it may give grace to those who hear.