The Website of Miah and Michelle Collins

Michelle and I have just finished STeM (Short term equipping missions) which has kept us out of touch with the wider world for the past two and a half weeks. About 100 young people came to the farm in two groups to be trained in short term missions. They were trained in areas such as cultural taboos, how to plan a mission, finding contacts, gaining trust and building relationships in a community, and how to share their own story and the hope they have in Jesus Christ. Michelle taught a seminar about Spiritual gifts which she really enjoyed.
After about 4 days with us they were sent in groups to 7 different communities where they could put these things into practice. I’ve always enjoyed short term missions, especially how it forms young people to think outside of themselves and their world and to consider others first. Michelle and I also led a team into Hillbrow, an area in central Johannesburg known for being a melting pot of the entire African continent. The church we worked with there had only about 40 members from 11 different countries! Michelle got many opportunities to speak French and we both got the chance to invest into peoples’ lives.
We were in an area known for alcohol and drug abuse amongst so many other social challenges facing the young people. Our team of 19 guys and girls grew tremendously as they shared the hope within them to youth in the parks and homes in the area. Our theme for the week was Romans 15:13 which says “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in Him so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”
There were so many great testimonies from the 2 weeks, but also great challenges. One group did the bulk of their ministry in a refugee camp where they encountered embittered people who had fled oppression in their own countries only to find more violence against them here. The team was challenged to follow God’s way by caring for the sojourner. They also spent time washing and clothing Aids sufferers who were too sick to do this themselves.
When the teams returned to the farm for their final dinner together and recap a guy named Nini had a powerful reminder: “This was not just an experience. These were real people we have been spending time with and real lives who will face the same challenges tomorrow as they did when we were with them. Don’t let your heart stop hurting with them even though you are gone. Let God grow that passion in you.” And that is my prayer for every person that was here.
A big encouragement for me was having my little brother, Jordan, here for STeM. If you know Jordan you won’t be surprised when I tell you that everybody here loved him. He generally leaves quite an impression wherever he goes. He was really challenged and enjoyed his time here (even though he had to sacrifice most of his winter holiday!) Maybe I can get him to write a short message on here about his experience sometime.
On a more personal note, Michelle is struggling quite a bit with culture shock. We knew this was something that would come up and that it was going to be a struggle for her more than for myself. Please pray for her, that God would continue to sustain her passion for people and for Africa as she adjusts to the new lifestyle and cultural values. Also pray that we would be humble, seeking to understand other than to be understood, and to be open to new things before we try to change others.
We are no longer the only Americans with J-Life! The Evans’ have just arrived from McKinney, Texas. I met Dave, the father, earlier this year, but we will be meeting the rest of the family for the first time tomorrow, showing them around Heidelberg, and helping them with their transition. God is really expanding our team here.
Its hard to try to describe what we do here from day to day. Sometimes you may struggle to figure out how everything fits together, and for that I apologize. But instead of being discouraged, let it rather inspire you to start saving up to come and visit us!
You are all a gift and encouragement to us. Thanks again for your prayers and support.

So this morning, like many mornings that we drive into the farm, we saw many people on the side of the road trying to get a ride into town, or out of town, or wherever they need to go. Miah and I have a sort of rule, for safety, that we will only pick up women and children on the farm roads or from the farm roads trying to get to Heidelburg. But even then, it is so hard to just drive past these men who can clearly see that we have space in our warm car while they have to stay in the cold and spend half an hour to an hour trying to find someone to take them into town.
But this morning, as usual, we saw a woman with a baby and two small kids walking along the 9km dirt road, so we stopped to pick them up.  Most of them don’t speak English too well, so I usually settle on speaking through smiles, laughter, hand motions, or the minuscule amount of Zulu that I know. This morning, I looked back as they settled into the seats and smiled at the little girl behind me. But her face made an impression on my mind that I think will stay with me a long time. She looked at me with what seemed like a look of shame, and confusion.
I tried to put myself in her shoes and this questioned burned in my head, I felt like she was questioning in a way that only young innocent minds can question, “What makes you so different that you get this warm car while I have to walk for miles every morning holding my little sister’s hand?” And my only answer to this question was that I had had the privilege of being born in the United States, while she, she had the privilege, yes privilege, of being born here in Africa.  I know that when we look on the physical, immediately we can see that I am the blessed one. But I have had the opportunity to experience more than what we can see and feel. I have experienced the profound, resilient, beautiful spirit of the African people. And when I think about the spiritual, I believe that they are the blessed ones. And I see a freedom in that spirit that Americans rarely experience, if they experience it at all. Now, we could all go into arguments of what is the actual definition of blessing, etc, but at this particular moment in history when I was in the car with this little girl, even though our cultures are worlds apart, I knew that there was a common bond of humanity and womanhood that united us, and that this bond is a powerful connection. Near the end of the car ride, this little girl’s sister just burst out laughing, and then she started laughing as well. I don’t know what she was really laughing about, but by the end of the ride, we were all laughing. Beautiful.

So Miah and I have been away for the last two weeks traveling to Swaziland and the coast to visit teams. It has been such a great experience to see these places and to meet with some incredible people. Along with visiting the teams that are working in churches in Richard’s Bay and Umhlanga, we have been meeting with youth pastors and youth fraternals to see what needs they have for their youth ministries. It was a great thing to get a chance to discuss with such a diverse group of pastors to see what God is doing and what kind of help they need. The crazy thing was the difference we saw in the youth each pastor was trying to reach out to. The youth in Umhlanga (very wealthy predominantly white and Indian) need a very different approach to ministry than the youth from the Bluff (more like the type of kids you would have in inner city Detroit).  It was a little overwhelming to see the needs of around 20 youth pastors who are either just stuck, losing vision, or are trying to reach out to youth who are just not responding.
I pray that God starts to refresh the vision of youth ministries throughout this country and that He brings a wave of young leaders into this generation that so desperately needs some kids with integrity to model what it means to follow Christ in the schools and situations youth face today.  Will you pray with me that God will give J-Life discernment on what the Holy Spirit is doing in the youth in this country and that we will be conduits of hope and life to youth ministries throughout South Africa and throughout the continent. It seems like such a lofty prayer because the needs of each region are so different, but I know that God is moving and that He has created this organization with the heart and vision to see youth being reached all over this world, and the beauty of the diversity of each group will be so powerful to this messed up world. So I have to hope in the vision He has given us and I have to believe that He will guide us and lead us to meet the specific needs of these people.

We live in a mobile world. I was reading a book chronicling the life of a faithful missionary to South Africa a couple of hundred of years ago (I wasn’t actually reading it a couple hundred years ago). When he left England it was seen as his final departure. There was very little likelihood of him ever returning to his home country, and he never did.

As I sit here in a coffee shop in South Africa, Michelle is back in the States just months after our arrival here, to be with her family as they mourn the loss of Michelle’s grandmother and family matriarch. I’m waiting eagerly for her return on Tuesday.

Michelle and I have settled into a church home. Acts Church meets at a farm house about half an hour’s drive from where we live. The church is about a year and a half old and a lot of the J-Life staffs attends there. John, our ministries’ director, is an elder there.

It is a privilege to have an English speaking home church. When you live here, you realize that English is just one language among many, and although many people here speak English, those of us who would prefer to watch the news, write a love letter, or speak to God in English are in the minority.

I always have felt I’m a small church kind of guy caught in a mega-church so this is a real pleasant change for me. People speak candidly during services about common subjects like depression, crime, economic strain, questions about the future of the country and the constant lure of “the lucky country,” more commonly know as Australia, as well as New Zealand, the UK and the USA. (When America or Europe experiences an economic shakeup, a country like South Africa feels it much worse because developing nations are considered “risky markets” and economists tend to avoid them when there is global economic insecurity as we are experiencing now.)

Michelle and I have found ourselves drawn to this church where a great majority of its tithe goes to projects outside of the church. They are also not interested at all in attracting people from other congregations. It is the responsibility of every person in the church to build meaningful relationships with people in their communities. Once a month the church gathers together not for a service but simply to share a big breakfast which has earned them the nickname “the breakfast church.” I enjoy that a lot.

Over the past week or so a wild fire of violence against immigrants has been sweeping across poor areas of Johannesburg and elsewhere around the country. There is said to be 2 to 3 million Zimbabweans living in South Africa along with many others from across Africa, India, China and the Middle East. Foreigners have been blamed from everything from crime, to stealing jobs and girlfriends. They say about 50 people have been killed so far. I left the controversial issue of immigration in the States and found it quickly gaining attention here. When I realize how much foreigners are despised around the world, and then I realize that we are also a foreigners where we live, it makes me very thankful for the many people who have treated Michelle and I with so much love and hospitality over the past four months.

Michelle and I will be going to neighboring country, Swaziland this weekend. I am excited for Michelle to see the place and the people for the first time. Then we will be going on a trip along the east coast to visit teams and meet with pastors and church leaders to talk about J-Life.

We continue to pray for Zimbabwe, our neighboring country to the north, which will hold its “run-off” election soon. We also remember our friends there: Richmond, Nhlanhla, and Terasiah, who continue to trust God in incredibly difficult circumstances.