Faith, Hope, Love...
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- My favorite quote(s)...
- "Laugh, Live and Love Life!"- me
"DANCE like nobody's watching; LOVE like you've never been hurt. SING like nobody's listening; LIVE like it's heaven on earth."
1 CORINTHIANS 13
"Camp makes you a new breed of special!" -Alaina
"The greatest capacity of humankind is to love, and when you truly love your enemies, that's when you see God."
"The place that God calls us is that place where the world's deep hunger and our deep desire meet." -Frederick Buechner
- If I could live anywhere... (why?)
- Heaven... not that I want to go there yet. Now? I'm very happy in Santa Barbara, if I wasn't here, then Switzerland, or South Africa.
- Others describe me as...
- friendly, sweet, compassionate, and loving.
- I most feel the presence of God when...
- I'm at camp, I look at the stars, I sing, worship, when I read the Bible, and when I'm desperate for Him.
- I'm passionate about...
- Jesus, camp, music, singing, swing dancing, worship, choir, and youth.
- In the future, I will be...
- a pastor, married, more developed in my faith and love.
- My biggest struggle with discerning/following "my call" is...
- that I feel called to be a pastor, yet the idea of giving sermons is daunting.
- A person/people who has/have helped me grow in my faith...
- Kirsten Moore... my first youth director.
- Because of my faith, I...
- strive to love others and live every day for the Lord.
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"What About Me?" is an inspirational video that was developed by Campus Minister Connie Weiss of Lutheran Campus Ministry - The Gathering Place in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. First developed as a promotional video, this video is a truly inspiration piece of…
If you've ever worked at a camp... then you know you can do ANYTHING! Reunite with old camp buddies, share camp stories, and pass along good camp info...
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Comment Wall (8 comments)
As far as being a Lutheran pastor goes, i'm still training. I've completed my Bachelor of Theology and next year i'm hoping to be starting my Master of Theology. My ministerial applications are already in the pipeline. So maybe after my Masters programme i'll get ordained. You also have the interest of becoming a pastor, according to your profile. Have you already started training?
Yes, Soweto Gospel Choir are really good, you know. We had a group of that nature back home in Zimbabwe which i led. Unfortunately, we could not continue because the members got scattered around and outside the country. I'm very passionate about gospel music as well. I just love singing. Have you heard of Oslo Gospel Choir. It's a group from Norway, they're also very good. Be blessed friend!!
It’s fascinating to hear that you’re studying music at that level. I once had a dream of studying music; in fact I studied the theory of music and a bit of piano for a year. But then I strongly felt that I needed to go for full time pastoral ministry. So I left and got enrolled with the University of Kwa-Zulu Natal, here in South Africa.
I come from a small village called Masase, in Zimbabwe, and that’s where my parents are. However, I and my first brother (and his family) have been in South Africa since 2004. Nonetheless I visited my parents about 4 times since 2004. Unfortunately, I haven’t seen them for about 1 1/2 years now. I now miss them so much.:)
So when are you planning on getting started with you training for ministry?
I just want to know something about you. How did you come to the decision that you were going to become a pastor? What had happened to you? (forgive me, i'm just too inquisitive.:)
But also of particular interest for me is the understanding that one will keep struggling with the calling, given the “debates” that keep going on in your mind. This actually reminds me of Jesus. For Jesus, these “debates” popped up firstly, when he was in the wilderness, fasting (Luke 4) and secondly, when he faced imminent death (Luke 22:40ff). And he would actually ask God for the cup “to pass”. These doubts/debates, I strongly believe, are bound to come, but it requires grace for one to manage them. These are doubts/debates that would cause Peter to deny Jesus three times (Lk 22:57ff), but it would be the grace of God that would make the same Peter to later exclaim, “Where shall we go; you’re the one who has the words of eternal life” John 6:68-69.
So what I really think is that your debates are natural, but they have to be managed; in other words, they do not need to influence you against following what you understand to be God’s calling for you. Being faithful to God’s calling is probably what is required. And that faithfulness is activated by the grace of God. You cannot be faithful to God’s calling, in my view, by your own intelligence, understanding, or common sense, since there are times when one’s intelligence does not apply to the spiritual matters and where one’s understanding may be put to test. If you were to decide NOT to follow what you think is your calling, I really don’t know how God would feel, but I think it won’t do you any good because you will probably not feel at peace, which I think is a very important feeling for every human being. If you were to follow your calling, I think that God would expect you to fulfil your calling (because I don’t see any middle ground there. It’s either you do or you don’t!!). God will have expectations, I think, but you should remember that you’ll be doing His work, not yours. So He’ll give you the grace that you will need to fulfil your calling.
James 3:1, in my view, is not really saying that there is no space for failing in the ministry. Remember that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” Rom 3:23. This is to say that God will treat his people equally. Jesus does not need to die twice for pastors. And if we were to be judged more “harshly”, to mean ‘with less grace’ this would render Christ’s work on the cross invalid. So I think that James 3:1 seems to indicate that our use of the pastoral office should help us to weigh our intentions whenever we speak out to teach, to rebuke or to counsel. The intention of what is said should be more important, I think. If you would read further, you would realise that emphasis is put on what and how one says what they say. It’s really about self-control. I don’t know what you think about my reflections!!
Thanks a lot for such flattering remarks. And thanks for accepting my invitation to facebook. In fact I was just interested in getting to know more about how you look. And I’m just going through a lot of your mail. I can say that that’s stunning beauty that you’re.
Well, I think I could just say that I have a passion for theological discussions, so I get so intrigued when I get the opportunity to delve into the discussion. My calling to become a pastor came during the time when I had decided to stay with my father (the two of us) at the parish which he pastored. We had just bought our country home and my mom stayed there to make sure that the building project was progressing. So it was just the two of us at the parish.
Before the end of the third month at school I fell ill. I have a heart problem (which is going to be fixed this year through surgery) and the distance that I walked to school was too long for my heart to sustain the body. So I succumbed to pains. I had been scheduled to have consultation with a cardiologist at the end of the year. So, unfortunately, there was nothing else that I could do, but just to rest at home and continue taking medication. That time of rest was a time when God visited me. My dad had already started getting interested in discovering my calling when he realized how passionate I was about his theological books. He started teaching me how to teach catechumen class, and eventually how to preach. He then gave me opportunities to teach at a nearby congregation. The first time I taught, I strongly felt a deep sense of satisfaction. And I asked dad to let me continue teaching. Later on he gave me the opportunity to preach. I only remember one old woman, after that service, who came to me and told me that God was calling me into ministry. I didn’t really believe it at first, but as time went on, I grew in appreciating that God had spared me this time to discover my calling.
There have definitely been inner debates that have kept coming up now and again. For example, here in Africa, pastors do not get very good salaries. In fact many people would not want to be pastors because of that. So questions would prop up, like “how am I going to survive with such a salary”, or “will I ever have a ‘good life’ with the kind of salary that pastors here get?” However, these questions have usually been cooled down by the understanding that I really didn’t choose to do this, but God appointed me to do it, so He’ll see me through material needs. And I’m quite confident that I’m not going to give in to such intimidating questions. It’s really nice to have shared this with you. You’re a friend indeed.
I will also be praying for you, so that you always find peace in whatever work that you're involved in. Also that God may continue guiding you in all decisions that you will have to make in the present and in the future.
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