A year ago tonight...

It is hard to believe it, but we posted this video on YouTube one year ago tonight! One year ago tonight we were packing our final bags and preparing to depart for South Africa.  (Still thankful for my Sister, Joeley and Brother in Law, Eamon for letting us launch from their pad!)

Within this year, Jesus has opened our eyes, enlarged our hearts, changed our minds, grown our family and set new visions and dreams in our hearts for the future. There really are not words to say how thankful we are to be in the will of God serving here in South Africa. It has been a year where God has kept His promises and fulfilled his prophecies in our lives.

You can see the pain of sacrifice in our eyes in this video. It is not easy to follow Jesus when it hurts--when it means leaving people you love. But I am here to speak up as a testimony that the reward is far greater than the sacrifice.

And everyone who has given up houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or property, for my sake, will receive a hundred times as much in return and will inherit eternal life. Matthew 19:29 // We have found this to be true in more ways than we would have thought.

20 Lessons from 2011

For the last few weeks I have been slowly tweeting the top 20 life lessons that 2011 taught me.  I must say that this year brought more change inside the depth of my heart than any single year of my life.  Here are the top 20 lessons I learned this year:

1. Obey Jesus!! Wether he tells you to move to Africa or walk across the room.
2. Talk less. It creates space for so many beautiful things!
3. Listen to God. He is speaking. Try listening. Listen to the scripture. Listen to His other kids. Listen to His Spirit.
4. Calm down. An anxious presence disrupts many possibilities.
5. Worship honestly. Don't lie to God w/ your songs. Remember that worship God wants has more to do w/ actions than words!
6. Love purely. This only happens when you truly love people wether you are with them or not...mistakes and all.
7. Stop judging. It is not your job and it wrecks your relationships (plank alert). Love instead- way more fun!
8. Please Jesus. Not people. People will ALWAYS dislike things about u. Quit living to please them & you might please God.
9. Speak prophetically. Listen for God & speak what you're hearing him say. Sounds whack. Takes practice. Start trying.
10. Release control. Relax. Stop over-planning & needing to know everything. U aren't in charge. (Thanks, Africa 4 this one.)
11. Stop lying to you. If you've been lying to yourself about things and it hasn't taken you anywhere, try truth. Might help.
12. Stop gossiping. Or half-gossiping. It will drastically increase your relational confidence & cleanliness. #cleareyes
13. Disciple someone. Pick them, go to them, tell them they're worth it and go all out discipling them toward Jesus obedience.
14. Be discipled. Pick someone you honor, go to them, tell them u r submitting to them to lead you toward Jesus obedience.
15. Numbers distract. Count, but u can't control them, be low when they're low or take credit when they're high. #inchurch
16. Elevate others. Used to think it was more exciting to be up top or out front. Not anymore. Now I long to empower others.
17. Spend less, give more. (In 2011 Tricia & I made less than we've made in 10 years & gave more than we've given in 10 years!)
18. Abide. Dwell in Jesus. Remain in Him. Live connected to Jesus! THIS is the key to all fruit-bearing! John 15
19. Ask questions. Good, provocative, specific & open questions. (This link has some goodies: http://goo.gl/04Zzg)
20. Rapidly obey the next thing you're reasonably sure Jesus wants you to do. Goal is obedient hearts, not perfect hearing!

Financial Support of our Work

Our family is sending you each the greatest holiday love and blessings that we can! We count it a high honor to serve Jesus here in Africa and the partnership of many people, families and churches make God's calling our reality.

It is hard to believe that we are wrapping up our first year in Africa. We both tend to think that God has done more IN us than THROUGH us, but we have deep gratitude for both.

As we wrap up 2011, we look back thrilled with what we have seen. As we head into 2012, we are sure that the future is bright with opportuinities to love people and make disciples.

The truth is this-- we cannot be here without financial partners.  Period. And we are stll in need of investors. $20 a month is a big deal to us! A one time gift of a few hundred dollars helps tremendously. As the end of the year approaches, might you consider one of two things:

1. Might you be willing to make a one time contribution to our missions work?  You can do so online with a debit/credit card by CLICKING HERE or by mailing a check to:

Eastern Mennonite Missions

PO Box 458

Salunga, PA 17538

(Be sure that "Kaye Support" is in the memo of the check.)

2. Might you be willing to make a monthly pledge for the coming year? If so, you can set that up online by clicking HERE or simply email me, message me or comment here and I will personally walk you through the process. 

It would be so encouraging if the Lord would lead you to act on this invitation to partner with us!  We trust the Lord for His continued provision through you.

"Every time we think of you, we give thanks to our God....for you have been partners in spreading the good news about Christ..."  Phil. 1:3-6

Reasons to Rejoice

Merry Christmas!

You know, I guess there would be lots of things to complain about today-- about how we feel being 8,000 miles away from our family on Christmas day.  About how so many of our traditions just cannot happen this year.  Or about how I am sweating when I wish it was snowing.

But, instead, I want to tell you some reasons I am rejoicing today.

1. Five Christmases ago, Trica and I sat and wept in our living room because we felt so ready for kids and a family. Today, we had an exciting and sweet (almost) 5 year old with us and a little baby girl kicking her Mommy's belly excited to come out and join us. We are rejoicing. 
2. For the last 30 Christmases, I am not sure I thought much about the poor and the untouchables.  Today, we are living among and near many poor, sick and less fortunate friends who are a special part of our heart, life and family.  Our lives are less about us this Christmas than they have ever been before.  Davis even chose a few Christmas gifts that he just recieved today--that he wants to give away to some boys in Masi-- and he already knows who they are going to.  We will deliver them later.  We rejoice in this.
3. Last week, we had the privilege of providing leadership for a massive Chritsmas party in Masiphumelele that impacted hundreds of poor children. They received lavish love like they likely have not all year. It was so neat to bless these kids and to see the Lord open the door for a local hotel chain to fund the whole thing. We rejoice about this. (See pic)
4. Last night, I had the honor of providing leadership for a Christmas Eve gathering at the All Nations campus here in Cape Town. We sang. We worshipped. We told Jesus why we are so glad he came. We shared. We listened. We ate. It was sweet.  Sweet to experience Emmanuel, God with us.  And sweet to feel the love in the air. We rejoice that we get to be a part of such a brilliant community of faith. (see pic of candlelighting)
5. Though we are far from family, Jesus has done what he promised us.  Not only do we have the technology to make things way easier (see pic of us skyping the family yesterday), but he has blessed us ten times, even a hundred times for our faithfulness. We were with many friends yesterday.  Many more today. I promise you, we have no shortage of loving relationships in our lives. In addition, Tricia and I just agreed that we have both seen more growth in our lives this year than ever before! God is moving and we are rejoicing. 

We hope that you take a moment and name some of the many reasons you have to rejoice- regardless of your situation. 

Merry Christmas from our hearts to yours.  We love you.

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A 5 Minute Video of a 13 Day Journey

Watch this.  It captures at least a fraction of the trip we just completed.  What an expedition in mission and discipleship for us all. Enjoy. I wish I could tell you all of the stories behind these images.

Mozambique Journey 2011 from Noah Kaye on Vimeo.

Update from Swaziland

I have terrible internet, so while I've got a (weak) signal let me update you. I'll just give some short statement highlights.

Our final days in Mozambique were relationally and spiritually significant.

John's Dad was begging us to please leave this God at his house. He said he'd never seen a God like this. We prayed Luke 10:6 over him as we departed. As he received Christ's peace, it remained there.

We had a total of three run-ins with the corrupt Mozambican police. We almost lost our vehicle once to them. The final time just short of the border we had quite an incident where I stood up for what I believed was right. God rescued us. Period! Bottom line: they are highly corrupt and want to rob foreigners blind.

We received a warm welcome in Manzini, Swaziland. Swaziland only contains one million people. Over 30% of the country is HIV positive-- highest of anywhere on the planet. Though, the country is 99% Christian. Go figure that one out. I've got one hint for you: under-discipled perhaps?!

Today, we traveled to a very poor and rural area to encourage a fairly new church in the faith. This church was started last year as a result of Darrel Hostetter's Luke 10 journey. Darrel is a gracious and pastoral EMM staff member whose family spent 12 years ministering here in Swaziland. He's the reason we are here today. He asked me to visit while we were ministering in Southern Africa.

This morning, I taught and John and Ernest testified of God's saving power in their lives. These guys are waking in passion and anointing. They make me want that new believer passion again.

Tomorrow we are leading 2- three hour seminars/gatherings on simple church planting--Discipling values and Biblical church values. The rest of the guys will assist with some of the teaching. Excited about what lies ahead tomorrow.

We are 24 hours drive from Cape Town now. We plan to depart early Tuesday morning, sleep on the road Tuesday night and be back with our families Wednesday.

Please pray for me. I really, really miss Tricia and Davis!!! And pray for them too. I think they miss me as well.

Pray for the rest of our journey--ministry, conversations, safety. Pray as the Holy Spirit leads you.

Much love!!

Update from Mozambique

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We've been here in Mozambique for two days now. I wanted to quickly share a few updates. (Posting this blog from my phone which is the only internet I can access at this point...so please pardon errors.)

It's been a precious time so far. Staying with locals in their home is a far, far different experience than meeting with them in the day and heading back to your hotel at night. Far different and far more meaningful and impacting. The food and welcome have been rich. The concrete floor has felt perfect thanks to the little mat I brought. The outdoor bathing has actually been very refreshing and freeing! Never been naked outside before. ;) I'm just thankful there's a wall to stand behind or these people would've been scarred for life. Selecting and killing two chickens last night was fun. 2 hours later we were eating them. (See pic of Mr. Machavo about to slice the poor thing.)

Yesterday, we held an unannounced DBS in the yard of John's Dad. 20 people attended. Mostly young men 18-30 years old curious about why we were here. It ended up being very special as John, Ernest and Shawn shared with their childhood friends how Jesus had captured their hearts in the last six months.

After this, we attended a local church in this village. It was a traditional African experience. They asked us to share greeting. I did. Then, John, who was interpreting for me followed after me. He stood there in front of hundreds of people that watched him grow up and boldly proclaimed his love for Jesus and the church. Then it happened. John spoke too boldly. With passion, he told the church that Jesus does not require that people come to him with money and certain behaviors or clothing. Rather, he accepts people and loves them as they are and then uses the Holy Spirit to grow them. He declared that the church needs to do the same. At that moment, the Pastor walks up and whispers in his ear. John concludes his sharing within 15 seconds. I was so proud of him and the courage he had. He didn't mean to offend and has had a sweet heart about the incident. We've encouraged him and given it to the Lord. Our job is to be sure that we never begin to think we are better and have it all figured out.

Tomorrow, we pack up and travel another 300km north in to Mozambique to visit more family and friends of Shawn and Ernest. Pray we would be a blessing. Pray especially for wisdom for Shawn as he approaches his Muslim family to share about his new and radical love for Jesus Christ.

I smell the fresh fish on the fire even as I type this. So, I better tune back in so I don't miss out. Thank you for your partnership and prayer for our journey.

Love you,

Noah

Off to Mozambique & Swaziland

Hello friends!   In 5 short hours (yes, I need to go to bed) me and 4 other brothers (one from Germany and 3 from Masi that we just baptized) head out for a pilgrimage to Mozambique (for a week) and Swaziland (for 3 days).  We are driving in a Toyota truck and are looking forward to an amazing journey.  It is about 24 hours one way. 

The purpose: to meet the family and friends of our Mozambican brothers, to show them the change in their lives and to share with them about Jesus and his saving grace.  We plan to also gather people and teach them about God's heart for church. Then, in Swaziland, I will be teaching for a few days on church planting with an organiztion called Acts of Faith (Mennonite work in Swazi).

This is a discipleship trip/missionary journey for these young followers of Jesus.  

They are pumped!  I am pumped!

Will you pray with us?  The dirve is long, the mosqitos will be bad, the weather will be hot, the money is tight, the borders can be a massive challenge, but our GOD is able and in control!

(You can look back through this blog for many stories about these guys- John, Ernest, Shawn.)

Mozambique Trip Threatened

Let me cut to the chase with the short version:

There is a very special trip coming up next week with local guys we work with...the trip is being threatened because of finance and could be saved if I can find a few people who can give a few hundred bucks!

Full Version: 

If you have been following our ministry here in ZA, you are aware that I have been working with a new church plant for about 6 months, made up of men from Mozambique. You can find a number of posts and videos about them on my blog.  A few weeks ago, we baptized 6 of the guys!  Read about that here. 

For the last few months we have been planning an expidition back to their home country of Mozambique for a missionary journey/ discipleship trip. Never done anything like this, but we really believe it was led of the Lord to go.  It is a response to their faith, early in their faith journey. The guys want to go back to their families and friends and tell them all about what Jesus has done in their lives. I belive that we will see some impacted lives and salvations on this trip!  We also hope to gather people in groups and may end up doing some teaching about simple church planting....with the guys as real life examples of what it produces. 

We were scheduled to leave on Friday September 30th. The plan is for 5 of us to drive there (Noah, Viktor, Shawn, Ernest and John). It will take two days to get there.  All of the guys have come up with money--as much as they can, but they are short.  We need more money to cover the expenses of the trip (food and transport).  We met tonight, discerned together and decided to look to the Lord for provision and make the decision in a few days as to whether we wil still go or cancel the trip.

If I can find 3-5 people that could give a couple hundred bucks, we can go!  To these guys, that seems impossible.  They make about $15 a day. To someone reading this now, it may be extremely possible.  

If you can help, just shoot me an email or let me know however you'd like.  I'm easy to reach.

I you cannot help, would you just pray that we'd somehow get the money to go? 

Meserete Kristos Church. Only God.

As you may know, Tricia and I are sent through Eastern Mennonite Missions (EMM) in PA, USA to serve with All Nations in Cape Town, South Africa. EMM has rich missions history dating back to the early 1900s. We came to All Nations with the hope of linking the to organizations together into richer Kingdom collaboration--relational and organizational networking leading to partnership in mission. This is the first such opportunity. (There is an initiative that I am partnering into called Project Engage.  I will be telling you more about Project Engage soon.  But, know that this trip is conencted to this as well.)

There is a very large Mennonite Church in Ethiopia called Meserete Kristos Church (MKC). EMM planted it 60 years ago (and turned it over to local leadership 10 years later). I have heard about the church and met some of the leaders over the last years. This is a massive and impressive church with a story that only God could have authored.

Brief MKC History: Planted 60 years ago by Mennonite Missionaries, Meserete Kristos Church (meaning "Church founded on Christ" in Amharic) is a church that has experienced major growth under major persecution. In 1971, a Marxist/Communist government forcefully came into power Ethiopia ("Derg"). The corrupt government tool all money and property from MKC and arrested many of their leaders. As a result, MKC went underground with about 5,000 members and 12 churches. At this point the congregations divided into cell groups/ Home churches. They were underground for almost 10 years. In that 10 years, God multiplied 10 fold and when they came above ground in 80s they were 50,000 people!! Due to cell life, real disciples emerged and people started knowing God personally and obeying him radically.

Today, this church has:

• 401,100 members
• 636 churches
• 856 church planting centers
• 27 Regional Lead teams
• They are sending people out (Ethiopians) in mission like a machine (nationally and internationally).
• And they are the largest Mennonite church in the world making up about a quarter of Mennonites worldwide (if I am reading the book accurately). 

What is further fascinating is that it is 100% Ethiopian led! No white leader works in the office or makes the decisions. This is a fairly unusual situation for Africa.

When I arrived the other day and met with the head leader of MKC, he gave me a gift-- a book tracing the history of the church. I hung on each word of the 280 pages and completed it an hour ago. Great story!! (Picture above.) There is nothing like reading this book ON THIS SOIL!! Where it all happened. Awesome!

___________

Would you pray with us?

On this trip, I have met with their leaders about UUPG possibilities and gathered info that they are aware of. They are not only ready to assist in engagement of 2 people groups but, but have also helped me to see the massive potential on Ethiopia for reaching North Africa and the Middle East. Ethiopia has been defined as a Christian island in a Muslim Ocean (though there are still 34 of the 82 ethnic groups in Ethiopia unreached)!

Some exciting things are stirring for the future.  My heart is full. Pray for EMM, All Nations and MKC as we discern possible kingdom collaboration and synergistic undertakings led of the Lord. We need wisdom, ears attuned to the Spirit and the courage to obey.

I Finally Believe!

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Here are some realities that I really hope you read and read again while listening to God:

• Almost 7 billion people are on earth today.
• Almost 3 billion do not know about Jesus yet!
• There are 6,890 unreached people groups (less the 2% Christian) on earth today.
• There are 1,015 unengaged people groups (no gospel presence and no one working there) on earth today.

(Interested in knowing more about this stuff, visit http://www.finishingthetask.com/index.html and http://www.joshuaproject.net/index.php. Note that some of their data is wrong in both directions, but it is close.)

Today I visited one of the unreached people groups (Silte) and discussed serious possibilities for (All Nations) adoption and engagement with an unengaged one (Argobba).

MKC Mission Director, Yemiru Tilahun (amazing Brother) personally drove me 3 hours outside of Addis Ababa to this unreached people group (Silte)! And something clicked in me. I have heard the stats above! I've read the books.  I just did not really believe them. I mean, I did, but I needed to see one and touch one--it is just how I am wired. Today it happened. I have waited years for this.

I finally believe! 

There is a lot going on in my heart tonight as I try to make sense of it all. I have more questions than I do answers, but I am sure of one thing...I want to give my life for this!!  

Paul says something that makes my heart leap in Romans 15:20-21. Look at this:

It has always been my ambition to preach the gospel where Christ was not known, so that I would not be building on someone else’s foundation. Rather, as it is written: “Those who were not told about him will see, and those who have not heard will understand.

Do you realize that YOU could be a part of this? YOU reading this right now can help engage and reach one of these groups. There are a number of ways ranging from a prayer to packing it all up and moving here. Yes, you! Wanna give your life to something that changes earth and eternity?

Off to Ethiopia

Tomorrow morning, I fly to Ethiopia.  I will share what I can with you.  I'm thinking that the best way to expalin it here is in short phrases and adjectives, becuase the story is so neat that I would end up wirting too much when I really need to head to bed.

So, here goes.  

This trip is...

• God-inspired
• God-ordained
• God-funded
• Holy Spirit- confirmed 
• All Nations supported
• EMM supported
• MKC hosted 
• Exploratory - Spying the land
• Kingdom Collaberative
• Energy producing
• Life giving
• Loaded with possibilty
• Last minute, yet somehow well planned
• Extremely exciting 
• Preparatory for something coming soon
• Prophecy fulflling 
• In perfect timing 
• Symoblic 
• And an answer to specific prayers

Main Purpose: So that people that do not yet know about Dad's love will experience him.

Would you back this in prayer? Although I am going alone, I am at peace and excited to connected with other followers there. 

(I will post more if and when I can.)

A Tax Return for the Kingdom

It is the wonderful tax time back in America where some of my dear friends and family are freaking out that they owe money while others are dancing over their good refund. Last week, I got a note from someone that we paying their full years's missions support for us out of their tax refund.  And it got me thinking. What a great idea.  

We want to make you aware that our family has still not raised our full budget.  We are about $25,000 short and if we do not raise it, we will be coming home earlier then we feel we are supposed to.  

So, my question to you is simple: If you are getting a tax refund, might you consider clicking HERE and sharing some of it with our cause for missions? 

Thank you for considering us in your giving to the Lord. And if not us, than give to your home church or another Kingdom cause!  I think it is pretty cool to use some of your tax refund for the Kingdom.  We plan to do the same!

So Close, Yet So Far...

I'm so thankful for our missions organization, Eastern Mennonite Missions (www.EMM.org) who believes in us and our calling! They've been great to us. In fact, they made an exception by allowing us to come here to South Africa without all our funds raised. We're thankful for that and believe it was the right call.
We are so close, yet so far away. So close because having raised $130,000 in 5 months, this seems so small. Yet it seems so far away because 30k is still 30k. And we are far away physically to be able to work at finishing this fundraising. Makes it harder across an ocean.
So...can you help? Can you make a one time gift or a monthly commitment? We still need some partners in order to stay where God has sent us. Will you walk with us?

If you can, simply shoot me an email to Noah.CCF@gmail.com.

Chomping at the Bit!

I have be honest. I am chomping at the bit to get engaged in full time ministry again. Basically feel like I have been “out of my element” for over 4 months now. (Fundraising is not my calling.) We are ready to start CPx, ready to grow with our new community and ready to start ministering in a hands-on way. We arrived 3 weeks earlier than the start of CPx on purpose (mainly for Davis to start school on time), and I am glad we did. But, we are a tad bored now, honestly. There are lots of worthy things that we are spending our time doing, but we are feeling a tad restless and ready to launch. We completed what we needed to faster than we thought.

Some of you may still be unsure of what we will be doing at first. Here is a link to tell you all about the Church Planting Experience (CPx) that we will be joining staring February 6: http://all-nations.co.za/index.php/opportunities/full/cpx/. We will do this until the end of June as a sort of phase one of our time in Cape Town.

Grace to you!