:: Las Lagunas, Ecuador :: TiBoukan, Haiti :: Tulsa, Oklhoma, USA :: Atari, India ::

:: Chandigarh, India :: Puerto Penasco, Mexico ::

Here is a quick video with some pictures from these projects

This Saturday a team from The Crossing is heading out to help put the finishing touches on the building. I am excited that I will be joining the team on Wednesday and depending on how far along the church is, we may be dedicating the church when I am down there!

It is incredible to be apart of a church that is so committed to reaching people all over the world!

I will post more pictures next week!

The Crossing's first service September 24, 2000 at Lawrence Jr. High

I am so proud of The Crossing and where it has been and where it is now. God has definitely used that place to reach the lives of people. This summer I had the opportunity to intern at The Crossing for the 4th time and it was one of the hardest things for me to leave to come back to school. The reason it was so hard for me is because I will no longer be able to do ministry at The Crossing after I graduate unless God intervenes in a crazy way. I am so thankful for the people at The Crossing, and the lessons I have learned, the heart my dad and others have given me for reaching lost people for Christ.

If you look to the left, in the aisle there is this boy in blue (me) attempting to fix a projector on the first Sunday

I am also extremely proud of my dad. Although starting a church is difficult, time consuming, and an endless amount of work, he never made it a priority over our family. He has always been fully engaged in my life. He almost always answers my phone calls when I call him at work, which is probably too often :-). He has always made it to special occasions, even those that I did not feel were important. It has been an incredible blessing to learn about ministry from one of the best! I truly admire the incredible character that he has and they way he has always led The Crossing with integrity, honesty,openness, and vulnerability. One of my dreams is to partner with my dad in some sort of ministry someday – we will see :-)

I cannot wait to see where God takes this church in the future and I am totally excited to be able to come back for both weekends of the 10th anniversary celebration! The journey has only begun and I feel blessed that God has made a place for me on that journey.

Grace and Peace

However, that is not what I want to write about today. As many of you know South Africa has experienced major changes since 1994. Also I hope you have heard what an impact Nelson Mandela had on this country and the change it has experienced. Today I had the opportunity to hear from an unknown key player in this named Michael Cassidy. Michael Cassidy is the founder of African Enterprise. Michael Cassidy founded African Enterprise about 40 years ago. He has always fought for racial reconciliation. We had the opportunity to hear his story in Chapel.

Before the 1994 elections the country of South Africa had extreme civil unrest. There was a shocking amount of deaths and constant strife between the different races in South Africa. The country of South Africa was in intense prayer for the Apartheid to be broken and for a major change to come. Michael Cassidy had the opportunity to create a weekend experience for 96 political leaders from all different sides of the issue. He held six of these weekends. He started out the weekend by allowing the leaders to get to know each other, and ended with each leader sharing their story. Michael said many of the leaders came with body guards and machine guns. This very well could have been all over the news, but African Enterprise did everything they could to keep this from the news. According to Michael, many South Africans still do not know this part of the story. He said during this time the political leaders finally understood the motives behind their enemies and “scales fell from their eyes.” People became friends who had previously been arch enemies. These six weekends helped set the stage for  an incredible change in South Africa.

The Election was set for April 27th of 1994. The country was in an incredible state of prayer. South Africa was praying like never before for the Apartheid to end and for an incredible change to sweep over this hurting nation. African Enterprise organized a prayer gathering for April 17th 1994. This was a huge risk because many religious gatherings were broken up by shooting and other horrible things. On April 17th 1994 God moved in a way only God can move, 25,000 people came to the gathering and people were praying like never before for change to come to South Africa. While the prayer gathering was happening all of the political powers that be had the opportunity to meet and came to an agreement. God changed South Africa that day.

In the next few days leading up to the election it went from extreme turmoil to extreme peace. South Africa has never experienced so much peace except for the 3 days prior to the 1994 general election. On April 27th 1994 Nelson Mandela was elected and the end of the Apartheid came.

I have not done this story justice. I knew Michael Cassidy and African Enterprise did a lot to help end the Apartheid, I had no idea that Michael Cassidy had such a significant role in ending the apartheid and bringing opposing leaders together. I cannot believe I just heard that story. Unbelievable. If Bill Hybels were to have anyone speak at the Leadership Summit, it should be Michael Cassidy. He has done so much for South Africa and so much for the continent of Africa.