December Video Blog

NOVEMBER PRAYER UPDATE

November 2010

Dear friends,

In some ways it feels as though we have just arrived, but as of tomorrow we have 71 days until we return to South Africa. Over the last few months we have been on the road pretty much every weekend and some during the week as well. It has been good for us to reconnect with churches and ministries that we have not seen for the last 4 years. We also praise the Lord has we have been safe on the roads after putting over 7000 miles on our vehicle the last few months alone. The month of November sees us on the road again all month and we hope that those remain "snow-less" trips! In December we will have a chance to catch our breath some before returning back to SA on January 14th.

We also want to ask you to continue to pray for the Phoenix Fellowship back in South Africa. As many of you know, we are in the middle of a building project right now and that is a stressful time for us! We want to encourage you to follow this link below to see a virtual tour of our building: http://bit.ly/9ncWXo This video was produced by the church.

Thank you also for praying for our support needs. Our situation is a little better than it was in our last letter to you, so that is encouraging. We ask that you would pray and consider how you could be a partner with us in SA. every penny helps! Currently we are in need of $130 per month. One of the prayers we had in coming back on furlough is that we would not have to go back to SA under-supported. So please join with us in that prayer that we can return without a financial weight on our shoulders. following this link will take you right where you need to be:

http://www.abwe.org/give/online/name/Darryl & Casey Meekins- 0132253-001 -0132253P/

We praise God for...

1. Giving Darryl the opportunity to get to know some of the men in our church a little better by teaching a mid-week Bible study. We have been dealing with how we can become more effective in reaching our community for Christ.
2. Safe traveling over the last few months
3. A good "traveler" in Emma, who has been really adaptable in spite of late nights, early mornings, various nursery workers, new faces etc
4. Good times with friends in the ministry this past few weeks
5. The people we meet who have such a passion for God and want to be used by Him!

Please Pray for...

1. Darryl as he attempts to work on his thesis for his Th.M while we are Stateside. His computer crashed a few weeks ago which didn't help in that process!!
2. Our ability to finish strong this next month as we report back to churches about what the Lord is doing in SA
3. For our College, it's students and stakeholders as we look towards a new paradigm of ministry development. A national committee Darryl has been working with this last year is close to finalizing a way forward.
4. For the Phoenix Fellowship Building project

Please remember to catch us on Facebook (dcmeekins), Twitter (meekinsfam) and Blogspot (Transformission- The Meekins in SA).

In Christ,

Darryl, Casey and Emma

Church Schedule:

7 Nov - Fellowship Baptist Church, Mount Laurel Campus, NJ
14 Nov - Fellowship Baptist Church, Haddonfield Campus, NJ
21 Nov - Victory Bible Church, NJ
28 Nov - Cornerstone Baptist Church, NY
2 Jan 11 - North Plainfield Baptist Church, NJ

Mailing Address: PO Box 24327, Broadlands, 4300. Durban, South Africa

Email: meekins@abwe.cc or dmeekins@bbckzn.org

Sending Church: Calvary Baptist Church, 850 Railroad Dr, Little Egg Harbor, NJ 08087.

Sending Mission: Association of Baptists For World Evangelism - ABWE. http://www.abwe.org/

The Meekins Family - Ministering in Durban with the Phoenix Fellowship and Baptist Bible College of KZN

Trusting...

...is hard to do.

often it is simply easier to trust in myself than in others, even God. I said easier, not better.
I was reminded this week of how often we trust in ourselves and even the things and people around us far quicker than we trust God. The great paradox there is of course, that He is the only one that is worthy of the trust.

This past week, I have had to think about WHO or WHAT I am really trusting in. Is it people? plans? technology? money? Our support is down, my computer crashed, people let me down and my plans were dashed!

Thanks God - for the not-so-gentle reminder.

Don't trust in the things of this world, where bugs and corrosion creep in. Where people can steal your stuff. Look up - store up - another kind of treasure. One that never loses value or disappoints.

Trust.

Keep the Change!

Change is inevitable, constant and good! Yet, change is scary because, in part, we don't know what the next stage is. I'm reading a book right now called "Here comes everybody", it speaks of how the internet is our "Gutenburg press". Back when the printing press was invented, the scribes were against it and even wrote against its use. Why? Job security! The press threatened their very existence and so instead of embracing something that would help society as a whole, they tried to suppress it for their own selfish motives. Perhaps the greatest irony was that they actually used the press to get their vitriolic ideas out there!

The internet and all that the www world entails is our Gutenburg. What will we do with it. As i have observed and spoken with church leaders, the response tends to fall on both sides of a continuum. Some tend to oppose the technological advances as moving away from the core of what we are supposed to be as the church. Others embrace every new method out there regardless of whether or not it helps with their ministry, in the name of "new-ness".

The balance is in-between. The new reality allows us to redefine the way things work and that is good but we must choose wisely. In the global missions endeavor there are new horizons that previously never existed. We can communicate more now to partners around the globe in a matter of seconds - through Skype, Twitter, Facebook and the more antiquated email format - people can see what is happening "on the field" instantly. I believe that in the near future that will change even more. Who knows, maybe we will start having 'virtual furlough'!

Let's keep the change, but change wisely - thanks for praying!

The Journey of a 1000 miles...

Furlough. Home Assignment. Rest. Ok, the last one isn't a synonym:-)
It is that time again! Actually this is the first 'proper' furlough we will be taking. We have done shorter trips before, but this one will be nearly 6 months long. It will be great to go back and visit the churches that have been so faithfully supporting us - some of whom we have not seen since 2006! Our schedule is pretty packed - we are out of town for about 12/16 Sundays and we have some ministries that we will be getting involved in when we get back too. For us, it is always interesting to see what is happening in the culture and what people are "into". Things change so fast and the first few weeks -or months - we are always playing catch up!

Before we head off to the USA though, we will spend 2 weeks in the UK with my folks. They have seen Emma once, when she was 6 months old - needless to say, that is just not enough for doting Grandparents! At least we will be there in Summer - which means only having to wear a jersey at night:-)
As much as it will be good to be back for a while, its always 'bittersweet'. We will miss the church and college ministries and people for sure. Hopefully they will miss us some too and remember who we are when we come back in January. Next Post will be from the USA!

Making much of mission

I guess no one could accuse me of being a serial blogger - one look at my last post and you'll see that it is 'so last year'! But things have been happening around here and they don't pay me to blog - so i don't feel so bad!
Tomorrow we kick off our countdown to the 2010 missions conference. We are selling old items that people have donated - should be a blast. We are hoping for good weather and lots of cash! All the proceeds go towards the missionaries in Mozambique and South Africa so it's for a good cause. I have been thinking a lot about "mission" lately and have read some good stuff on the subject. The old paradigms are well and truly changing and today the emphasis is on helping the church see themselves as missionaries in their communities. One pastor wrote that a pastor is to be a "missiologist" teaching his group of "missionaries" how to reach the world around them. As I read through Acts, I can't help but think that maybe he is on to something...