Kingdom Encounter

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This is the 4th time a group of students from Holland Christian Middle School have traveled to South Africa for a Kingdom Encounter.

The Kingdom Encounter trip is about serving, hiking, journaling, enjoying creation, and encountering opportunities to grow in faith through other cultures. Oceans Ministries desires for each student to know they are loved by their heavenly Father!

Be blessed as you read a few of the experiences this team encountered. OceanView Care Center

I thank God for the week at the care center and the opportunity to help out and bless the kids and teachers while serving in a community that really needs it. I pray for the teachers that they can continue to bless others and do their job amazingly and know that the Lord is so proud of them! I pray for the students and that they can know how much God loves each and every one of them and that God has an amazing plan for them as well as the people around them.

 

The Township of Jim Se Bos

We went to Jim Se Bos and helped people who don’t really have any food at all. It changed me in a spiritual way because I could go and serve people and help them have a meal, and I saw the look on their faces when they got the food. I am very thankful for Pastor Raymond because he is always helping people and trying to help everyone have a better life, like giving them food and giving the children a place to have fun and learn about God.

I am very thankful for the ladies who were working in the kitchen. While we worked together we danced and sang beautiful worship songs. I am very thankful that no one got cut or hurt while making food and that everyone had fun. Many people were thankful for their food, and I pray it can nourish them and keep them sustained.

In the United States, we are very blessed. Even when we go to a place like South Africa, we are living in a nicer place, eating better food, and have more opportunities than some of the people that live there. I encourage the people that are reading this to pray for the people of South Africa. Pray for their safety, health, and most of all that they come to know and love Jesus because when their earthly bodies die they will be able to have eternal life in heaven which will be the best thing that anyone will ever experience no matter where they live.

I also learned that it doesn’t matter where you are or what you have seen because you can still turn to God for guidance. I also learned that helping people brings me lots of joy and peace.

Playing Rugby at Fish Hoek Beach

One afternoon we met Pastor Raymond and some of the kids our age he had brought with from Jim Se Bos at the beach. We played a version of rugby because we didn’t know all of the rules. While we were playing, one of the lifeguards that was watching came down the ladder and played rugby with us. When everybody got back from the beach we had pizza for dinner.

 

Family Time at Oceans Retreat Center:

Each night after dinner we had family time where we would share our highs and lows of the day. A few nights we had a guest speaker. One night Andrew spoke about his story and ministry. He talked about glorious inefficiency, which is the idea that we try to do things efficiently and don’t always think about the big picture plan. Glorious inefficiency means that God does stuff maybe not the most efficient way but always the big picture best way. We also talked a lot about the power of prayer. Looking back on our days and the opportunity the will have to pray over the teachers at Oceanview Carpenter, we realized more than ever how important prayer is. It can truly change a situation around.

On the very last night we talked about our takeaways from the trip. My takeaway was about God’s love and faithfulness. I talked about how God loves and listens to us no matter what we are: strong or weak, bold or meek, poor or wealthy, sick or hurting or healthy.

Praise God for how He is moving in the hearts of young people!

Slice of Life: Seasons on the Journey

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Slice of Life: Seasons on the Journey: By Patty Spykstra
Over a year ago we moved from our home in Aurora, Colorado to a Villa. Basically a place where we don’t mow the lawn or shovel the snow, a place we can easily leave behind when in South Africa. 
And a year later I am still unpacking boxes. Recently I was distracted and ended up dismantling bulky photo albums. Perhaps you know the type where you stick the pictures on the page and put the clear plastic covering over top. Years later most of the pictures are permanently stuck. As I attempted to pry off the faded pictures and favorite sayings, some since I was in 3rd grade, many ripped as I tore them off the page. A few pictures fared better, and I needed to determine whether to toss them in the trash or place these treasured memories in a better box-to look at another time?
Tim and I started dating in high school, married in college, and have called Colorado, California, Michigan and South Africa home. So that’s a lot of memories to process. Countless blessings. Many highs and of course some lows. Sorting through the albums I thought about this journey of life with ever changing seasons and living in many homes and communities. What stood out is that in each place I could belong because I knew I was loved by the Father. His faithfulness in each of these seasons is so evident. 
Looking back, perhaps the vision of Oceans Ministries has been a lifelong theme. Together we have traveled through seasons of work, church ministry, meeting new people, raising a family, starting a non-profit, moving, becoming grandparents, and finding rest in our true place of belonging-knowing the Father’s Faithful Love.
In Colorado the morning air is crisp, and colorful leaves release their grip off the branches. Some are slowly drifting to the ground. Others the wind forcefully blows off. In South Africa signs of spring emerge and with the new life much hope and expectation. 
Pondering this season, filled with parents reaching milestone birthdays, wonderful grandchildren, and so many ministry opportunities, I see His faithfulness evidenced in both fading photos and in the new ones on my phone. What a gift to rest in the goodness of the Father’s love. To remind myself I don’t have to figure out what tomorrow holds, and allow the Holy Spirit to speak to me in His still small voice. 
Trusting the Heavenly Father means believing He is sovereign. Means knowing that I have a place at the table in His presence, in His home whether in South Africa or Colorado. Life isn’t perfect and will always have ups and downs, and not all the boxes may be unpacked. But I know that whatever the season, my Faithful Father loves me, sees me, forgives me and welcomes me home, to the place where I will always belong. 
“I have deeply loved you with a forever-love; that is why I have been so patient and kind to draw you to my heart” Jer.31:3
May you find that faithful Father and His rest  in whatever season you may be in!

2 Trillion Galaxies

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“The heavens tell of the glory of God. The skies display His marvelous craftsmanship. Day after day they continue to speak; night after night they make Him known…”  Psalm 19:1-2.

For the last several months I’ve been following the discoveries of the James Webb Space Telescope. These images without a doubt make the Psalms declaration of the glory of God “out of this world!” This telescope is causing science to be rewritten and altering some long held theories about the creation of our universe.

Because of these beyond comprehensible space images, astronomers are now estimating there are at least 2 trillion galaxies spread out all over the universe. This new information is mind boggling! The universe is massive! So how long do you think it would take for us to get from the center of our galaxy, the Milky Way, to our nearest neighboring galaxy Andromeda? The answer is 2.5 million light years, and that would be traveling at 186,000 miles per hour!

If our universe has over 2 trillion galaxies, can you even imagine how ginormous our God is?  I would say He is certainly big enough to take care of the most impossible situations we face on our little planet called earth. 

Reading Psalm 19 on Sunday morning I found myself pondering this amazing God who created 2 trillion plus galaxies. Then a few hours later I was in Jimsebosh township, one of the poorest and darkest communities in Cape Town. This place isn’t even on Google maps, and yet I joined with fellow South African believers, worshipping this very same God, singing in one accord “How Great is our God” the song by Chris Tomlin. 

For some reason, so many people decided to attend church on this particular Sunday that everyone couldn’t fit, so the service was moved outside. Looking at Luke 15,  (the lost sheep, coin and lost sons), God revealed Himself, to some He was a Father running to His lost children, who for the first time allowed Him to take them home into His arms of His everlasting love. To others Father God brought comfort in the midst of impossible trials where their only hope was  trusting in a big Father God to carry them through.

One couple came up after the service and shared that their youngest son had just been sent to prison. He got caught up with the wrong crowd and is awaiting trial in the cruelest prison in the country. They wept as we prayed together. As we ended you could feel the Holy Spirit bring a heavenly peace even in the midst of the unknown. Words fell short as we sat in silence dwelling in His presence. “How Great is our God!”

I’m not sure what impossible situation you may be facing or will one day face. But I challenge you to pause and seek the God who created over 2 trillion galaxies. If He did that, I rest assured that He is big enough to pick you up and carry you through whatever it may be, so that you can know “How Great is our God!!!”

 

 

 

 

Seasons

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As you read this blog I’m in the midst of traveling from one season to another in 21 hours. Leaving behind an absolutely fabulous fall in Colorado and set to land in a stunning South African spring. Truly amazing to experience two opposite seasons in less than a day.

Lately I’ve been ruminating on the various seasons in life. At times we sense the presence of God singing over us in brilliant ways, such as new life of a Spring day or the radiant hues sparkling off the trees in the fall. But then there is a dark cold winter or the parching summer where the Father’s voice seems nonexistent or a distant memory.

A few weeks back I met with friend and Oceans team member Mike Verkaik to plan and pray for our next season of ministry. We decided to meet at Bible Park, near a childhood home where I grew up in Colorado. I’m not sure if this was the best place to meet as I kept sharing memories of the park from football games, to tree houses and rope swings, to inner tubing on the High Line canal, and a bunch of other great memories.

As Mike and I spent sometime praying I couldn’t help but think about all the different seasons that transpired during that time of my life. There were some long winter seasons where I wondered if the darkness would ever end and God seemed to be on a long vacation. I will never forget during one of those times seeking solace in the park with my best buddy, my dog Muffy.

Muffy didn’t need a leash when we escaped to the park together, but on that day she saw my mom on the other side of the street and dashed across. The image and the sound of a car hitting her still pains my heart. The next day was Thanksgiving and there was no joyful celebration in our household, just another chill of what seemed like a never ending winter.

But a few years later Spring broke through on a Sunday night when for the first time in my life I heard my Savior sing over me at the altar of our church. I vividly recall being awake the entire night in my bedroom crying tears of joy as the Father found me in my darkness and brought me to the light of His Son.

As these seasons flashed through my mind during our prayer time at Bible Park, the word “faithful” came out of my mouth. I took a deep breath and felt an expected sense of joy. My Father used it all. Each season in the house across from the park reminded me that He was with me. And He was with me once again in Bible Park as I prayed with a good friend about ministry, a ministry I would have never been involved in if it wasn’t for all the seasons He carried me through. Ah His faithful love was there all the time, making and molding me to be more like Him.

I’m not sure what season you may be in. If it’s a wonderful spiritual season of Spring or Fall and it’s beautiful, praise God for the gift of experiencing Him singing over you. But perhaps you are in a wilderness and spiritually wilting or lost in the dark night of a long and cold winter. If that is you take heart, keep hoping and listening for a faithful Father who is carrying you in this difficulty, His love song will break through. And one day you will look back and see He used every heartache, every deep pain and hurt to bring you ever closer to Home; His place of love for you…….which is the greatest gift of all.

“The LORD your God is with you, He is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you. He will quiet you with His love, He will rejoice over you with singing.” Zep. 3:17