June 21, 2005 Internet Surfing from Hermanus...

Friends -- we had time to come into town today, so I quickly escaped to an internet cafe so I could sit, write, ponder, and think out loud with a keyboard. We're tired. Most of us are sick with either a cold, flu, or some kind of yuck that makes us cough. Please pray for healing and for bodies, lungs, nasal passages, throats to be healed. We're in a bit of a down period for now, which makes it an "okay" time to be sick. The camp at Wortlegat w/our friends from Kayamandi won't begin until Friday, so we've enjoyed these past couple of days of nothingness. Yesterday, we (some of us, that is) went cage diving w/great white sharks in a piece of water off the coast of Gansbaai known as "shark alley." It runs between an island covered with fur seals (aka "shark bait"), so our presence with buckets of chum was viewed as an open invitation for the sharks to come pay us a visit as we dangled overboard in our tin cage.... We had a great time -- especially when one savage beast decided to floss his teeth on the top of the cage... crazy stuff that is typical in shark alley.

We begin the hard work of planning and preparing for the Stanford Camp tomorrow and Thursday. (Thankfully, the weekend @Wortlegat is pretty much already planned. Our main purpose there will be to show up, serve, serve some more...) But for Stanford, we are really under a lot of pressure. Please pray for Will Johnson, who has spent a great deal of time working with a local guy by the name of Henry Gibson in planning this day camp. Nothing like this has ever been done before, so we are literally breaking new ground. It will be a pressure-packed learning experience for us -- most of the campers know English, but only as a second language, and Henry is depending on us (as in me and Will) to bring Bible lessons to them each day. We also must plan out each day's activities and fill the days with games and events which will challenge and encourage our Stanford friends. Please just pray... then pray some more...

God is rich and good and full and righteous. His ways are not my ways. He is before me and behind me and beside me, but He is oh so elusive and mysterious. Will I be okay if He's silent? (Job 34:29,30), or will I insist that He provide not only proof of His presence but also provide clear, concise, focused directions?

I'm in way over my head. I've never done anything like this before -- most of my traveling has been done either alone, or with a small group. I've never been responsible for a group like this before, never had people so excrutiatingly dependent upon me. (And, I'm not just talking about the ones traveling with me. I'm also talking about the parents, family members, friends, who are at home, but also relying on me... YIKES!)

Thankfully, I have been given great relief from the Lord God, from His Word, from His promises, and from His Spirit. He is all over me -- I've said this before: His Spirit is so heavy upon me that I have trouble breathing. I hope it gets harder and harder for me to breath with each and every moment of each and everyday.

I am thankful for the ways you are praying for me because I feel so tremendously sustained. He's using your prayers to pull me through the moments. He's using your prayers to give me His peace. He's using your prayers to give me His strength. He's using your prayers to give me understanding in the midst of the unknown which comes when He blinds me. I'm traveling fairly blind right now, but the blindness gives me great freedom, great peace, a bunch of calmness, a load of assurance, and a ton of incredible strength. (Ps. 92:10 - "But You've made me as strong as a charging bison.." The Message.) That's pretty incredible when you realize I'm not one to give up control, I've always been one to want to know everything before it happens... Right now, I don't know anything, and that's so beautifully okay. We are traveling together in mystery, freedom, stillness, and power.

God is good. Jesus is real. The Spirit lights.
Please keep praying... then pray some more...
Lovin' you -- Adella