So here we are in the 3rd week of our 5th of six postures. If you could recall, we started out with listening then submerging, inviting, contending, and now we are in the Imagining posture. We have been working on a project called “life compass”. So far it has been the best thing for me this year. We have mapped out major events, people and places in our lives and put them on posted notes. We then put them in order and broke our lives into chapters. (This project has been inspired by Bobby Clinton’s research of 700 influential leaders. He has researched and interviewed these leaders and found out that they all tend to go through six stages in life. The first stage is sovereign foundations, then inner life growth, ministry phase, life maturing, convergence and finally afterglow.) So we have come up with certain landmarks in our past and have visualized or imagined what our future could look like. Finally after three weeks of working on this project we are concluding with a life vision statement.
The greatest discovery has been realizing my heart is moving from ministry phase into life-maturing phase. This does not mean that missions or ministry stops, rather ministry is going to come from more being then doing. I have felt like the 13 years of youth ministry was more about doing for others. Now I feel that ministry is going to be more about being for others. Does this make sense? I pray it does because I feel like God has major plans with Dayna and I starting a family and still being called to live cross culturally.
I also wanted to write about a heart issue that affected me yesterday. I drove two guys to the dump in order to unload a trailer full of junk. As we pulled up my eyes were open to ultimate despair. While I was backing the trailer up about 10 guys came up to see what we had. In all there were about 80-90 women and children searching for anything they could get their hands on of any value. I was stunned and it just didn’t make sense. I wondered what it would be like to live this way…. Or what if that were my mom or dad out there? It’s hard for me to express how I felt in words. All my senses were being put to the test. I tell you I just don’t think it’s right for humans to have to resort to this.
Finally I wanted to thank you for the prayers for my dad. He seems to be recovering from his broken neck very well. I do have hope that I will get to see him in November. When I left home last year I was not sure that I would get to see him again. Thank you……
LOVE
THE CERMAKS
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
eating dirt for iron
Time has just escaped us séance the last update. Dayna and I have been very busy the past three weeks, mainly with visitors. Two weeks ago we had Sam Metcalf (president of CRM) come to talk about our future with CRM and the direction things are going in South Africa. He has been such a source of encourament. This week we have Rob and Laurie (Leaders of niu communities) talking about the new structure and direction for our site in 2010. We have also have had the Crawly family here séance the beginning of June. They will be moving to London in August. Colin crawly leads EI for CRM. He is here to help start and move local business. The Crawly’s have been instrumental form the begging of Dayna’s and my relationship. We love them and want our lives to be together in missions some day. The timing of these visitors have been very helpful by speaking into us.
I wanted to mention something that has struck deep in my heart this week. I have herd of people craving dirt when their bodies do not have enough iron in their diet. So last week I was out in the township when a little girl picked up a chunk of clay. She started to eat the dirt. The thought of eating dirt just struck me how bad it is to see kids just trying to survive anyway they can. These thoughts also make me realize that I will never be the same by the things I have seen. What a blessing it is to be present here
For the next few weeks Dayna and I will be housing two girls who are here to serve. Tony will continue to engage in the third posture called inviting. He will also continue to make regular visits to the orphanage. Dayna will continue leading conversation, worship, and other community projects. We are both busy trying to figure out what our next step will be. The apprenticeship is half over with about 140 days left. We covet your prayers.
Finally I just wanted to say that we are so thankful for your support. We can’t wait to come home in mid November to share and encourage you with whats going on here. Your such a huge part of our team and We pray blessings for your gifts. WE love you
I wanted to mention something that has struck deep in my heart this week. I have herd of people craving dirt when their bodies do not have enough iron in their diet. So last week I was out in the township when a little girl picked up a chunk of clay. She started to eat the dirt. The thought of eating dirt just struck me how bad it is to see kids just trying to survive anyway they can. These thoughts also make me realize that I will never be the same by the things I have seen. What a blessing it is to be present here
For the next few weeks Dayna and I will be housing two girls who are here to serve. Tony will continue to engage in the third posture called inviting. He will also continue to make regular visits to the orphanage. Dayna will continue leading conversation, worship, and other community projects. We are both busy trying to figure out what our next step will be. The apprenticeship is half over with about 140 days left. We covet your prayers.
Finally I just wanted to say that we are so thankful for your support. We can’t wait to come home in mid November to share and encourage you with whats going on here. Your such a huge part of our team and We pray blessings for your gifts. WE love you
Thursday, May 28, 2009
On Saturday the 16th of May, thirteen of us spent the day clearing out a 50 x 50 yard field for a future garden. This garden was the idea of a woman named Silvia. Silvia lives in Soshanguve and runs an orphanage in block KK. Her motivation touched our hearts and we were driven to get our hands dirty. Silvia takes in kids that lose their parents due to aides. At this point she has 25 children whom she looks after. The garden will help feed these kids. By the end of the day we had over fifty people in the community helping out. What a treasure it was to be apart of this.
The Month of June is going to be very busy for us. We have entered our 3rd of six postures. The posture we are now in is called “inviting”. The infuses for the next six weeks will be on how we can invite others to what God has called us to do. We want our neighbors, supporters, community, family, and the local church to be involved through inviting. On the week of 8th-12th, we will be at a conference in Johannesburg. The conference is called Amahoro and it’s about global missions. We need every source of encouragement at this point to press on to the call of being here in South Africa. This could not have come at a better time. Well if you have not herd by now…Dayna is six weeks into her pregnancy!!!! We are so excited and ready for this new edition to our family. (Sorry CASH, you will always be our first dog.) Dayna is learning new things about the changes within her body. Oh and going to bed before 8 p.m. is now a norm. She gets so tired and usually tries to nap when she can. We have found that smaller meals through out the day help her tummy from getting too upset. Dayna and I enjoy reading how the baby is developing week by week. Dayna continues with her involvement with the community and her Thursday bible study in Soshanguve. She gets cutter every new day, I can’t believe God had such an amazing women for me.
Finally I would like to end with a fun story. As a couple, Dayna and I have realized of all our friends back home, we don’t have any that we have met together. Does that make any séance? Of all our friends back home they are ether my prior friends or Dayna’s.. We now have a friendship with an Afrikaner couple named Otto and Amelia. They live next door to us and are strong Christians. We hangout often and we wish we can take them home with us to introduce them to you.
We are so thankful for you all.
BLESSINGS AND LOVE
EXPECTING PARENTS
TONY& DAYNA CERMAK
The Month of June is going to be very busy for us. We have entered our 3rd of six postures. The posture we are now in is called “inviting”. The infuses for the next six weeks will be on how we can invite others to what God has called us to do. We want our neighbors, supporters, community, family, and the local church to be involved through inviting. On the week of 8th-12th, we will be at a conference in Johannesburg. The conference is called Amahoro and it’s about global missions. We need every source of encouragement at this point to press on to the call of being here in South Africa. This could not have come at a better time. Well if you have not herd by now…Dayna is six weeks into her pregnancy!!!! We are so excited and ready for this new edition to our family. (Sorry CASH, you will always be our first dog.) Dayna is learning new things about the changes within her body. Oh and going to bed before 8 p.m. is now a norm. She gets so tired and usually tries to nap when she can. We have found that smaller meals through out the day help her tummy from getting too upset. Dayna and I enjoy reading how the baby is developing week by week. Dayna continues with her involvement with the community and her Thursday bible study in Soshanguve. She gets cutter every new day, I can’t believe God had such an amazing women for me.
Finally I would like to end with a fun story. As a couple, Dayna and I have realized of all our friends back home, we don’t have any that we have met together. Does that make any séance? Of all our friends back home they are ether my prior friends or Dayna’s.. We now have a friendship with an Afrikaner couple named Otto and Amelia. They live next door to us and are strong Christians. We hangout often and we wish we can take them home with us to introduce them to you.
We are so thankful for you all.
BLESSINGS AND LOVE
EXPECTING PARENTS
TONY& DAYNA CERMAK
Saturday, April 25, 2009
Dayna and I have lived here in South Africa now for six months. Can you believe that? In one séance time feels like it has been a lot longer. We have been through so much in this half of a year. On the other hand time has gone by very quickly. We are just under half way before we come back to visit the states. Dayna and I feel like we have missed a lot of your all’s day in and day out experiences. However when we are home in Dec & Jan, we look forward to catching up. We value our family, friends and supporters so much. Being so far away, we are reminded of our love for you all daily.
So what have we been up to? Because we are in our second of six postures, this one being called “submerge”, I had spent three days living in a shack last week. The idea is to see how the people we work with do life daily in their environment. I stayed with a woman named Anna. She has a son and two other daughters. The first night I watched Anna spend five hours cooking dinner. It took five hours because she only has one burner. We ate chicken, pop, cabbage, chockalotta, Anna’s house is about 25 feet long and 15 feet wide. There are three room and sheets divide them. When I woke up the first day there was a bucket of water waiting for me. As I gave it a puzzled look as to what I was to do with it, Anna laughed and said I needed a bath. Children may be reading this so I will not talk about the toilets. I actually loved this experience and look forward to next week when we spend five days with another family.
In the mean time I have experienced a séance of God’s call to work in an orphanage. Ok so when I got to Africa I told God and others that I was done working with kids and wanted to do something else. During a silent retreat I sensed God saying to me,” TONY you came to South Africa to tell me what you are going to do?” I could almost hear him laugh. God told me to get back into the game and wake up. Long story short, so there you have it. I’m sure I will have hundreds of stories from the kids here. What a change from kids from the OC, to kids here in Africa. I can’t help but think of the order of that and thank God for knowing what He is doing. I just find joy in being obedient.
Enough about me, lets move to the best part = Dayna. As I write this she is with 9 other woman in Durban. Dayna deserves this four-day rest and retreat. She has worked so hard this past six months. Dayna has had to balance; me, our team, doing bible study with women in Soshanguve, building close relationships with our neighbors and making everyone she runs into feel a séance of joy. As you know she has many gifts. The gift that I admire the most is how she is with people. They light up when Dayna talks to them and as you know as well, she talks to everyone she lock eyes with. She is my hero and I want to be just like her when I grow up.
Dayna has a plate full for the remainder of our time. She continues to lead our group in worship and conversations. (She has a huge role being here in staff) Dayna continues to seek God’s lead with the prostitutes on our street. She has stated her mentoring with two of the girl apprentices. Dayna’s Thursday bible study is doing well. Oh and one of her best friends is coming to visit for two weeks. I can’t wait for Nickie to come. I know dayna misses people so much and this visit is going to help her in a lot of ways to press on here.
Well if you are a supporter then that’s all we have for now. Thanks for taking time to read this quick update. We LOVE you so much and we are grateful for your willingness to give to us. We have learned so much about sacrificing from you. Please know that we pray for you all daily. Much love and joy……… TONY & DAYNA CERMAK
IF you are not yet on our team please pray about coming along side with us. We have been $600 short of our monthly budget. We are very close to running dry of our surplus. Meaning we still need people to be apart. I will just be bold and ask that if 20 people were to give $20 we would be at 90%. God has blown us away by taking care of us thus far. We continue to trust in his love and provision. WE know times are tuff and we find comfort knowing God has given us a lot of good friends.
So what have we been up to? Because we are in our second of six postures, this one being called “submerge”, I had spent three days living in a shack last week. The idea is to see how the people we work with do life daily in their environment. I stayed with a woman named Anna. She has a son and two other daughters. The first night I watched Anna spend five hours cooking dinner. It took five hours because she only has one burner. We ate chicken, pop, cabbage, chockalotta, Anna’s house is about 25 feet long and 15 feet wide. There are three room and sheets divide them. When I woke up the first day there was a bucket of water waiting for me. As I gave it a puzzled look as to what I was to do with it, Anna laughed and said I needed a bath. Children may be reading this so I will not talk about the toilets. I actually loved this experience and look forward to next week when we spend five days with another family.
In the mean time I have experienced a séance of God’s call to work in an orphanage. Ok so when I got to Africa I told God and others that I was done working with kids and wanted to do something else. During a silent retreat I sensed God saying to me,” TONY you came to South Africa to tell me what you are going to do?” I could almost hear him laugh. God told me to get back into the game and wake up. Long story short, so there you have it. I’m sure I will have hundreds of stories from the kids here. What a change from kids from the OC, to kids here in Africa. I can’t help but think of the order of that and thank God for knowing what He is doing. I just find joy in being obedient.
Enough about me, lets move to the best part = Dayna. As I write this she is with 9 other woman in Durban. Dayna deserves this four-day rest and retreat. She has worked so hard this past six months. Dayna has had to balance; me, our team, doing bible study with women in Soshanguve, building close relationships with our neighbors and making everyone she runs into feel a séance of joy. As you know she has many gifts. The gift that I admire the most is how she is with people. They light up when Dayna talks to them and as you know as well, she talks to everyone she lock eyes with. She is my hero and I want to be just like her when I grow up.
Dayna has a plate full for the remainder of our time. She continues to lead our group in worship and conversations. (She has a huge role being here in staff) Dayna continues to seek God’s lead with the prostitutes on our street. She has stated her mentoring with two of the girl apprentices. Dayna’s Thursday bible study is doing well. Oh and one of her best friends is coming to visit for two weeks. I can’t wait for Nickie to come. I know dayna misses people so much and this visit is going to help her in a lot of ways to press on here.
Well if you are a supporter then that’s all we have for now. Thanks for taking time to read this quick update. We LOVE you so much and we are grateful for your willingness to give to us. We have learned so much about sacrificing from you. Please know that we pray for you all daily. Much love and joy……… TONY & DAYNA CERMAK
IF you are not yet on our team please pray about coming along side with us. We have been $600 short of our monthly budget. We are very close to running dry of our surplus. Meaning we still need people to be apart. I will just be bold and ask that if 20 people were to give $20 we would be at 90%. God has blown us away by taking care of us thus far. We continue to trust in his love and provision. WE know times are tuff and we find comfort knowing God has given us a lot of good friends.
Monday, December 15, 2008
$4.00 ChristmasTree
Oh Christmas tree, oh Christmas tree, how lovely are your fake, little green branches. Here in South Africa there is no such thing as a "real, live, Christmas tree". I was so sad when my mom went from fresh pine to fake pine. Even though I understood her reasoning and came to accept it, I vowed never to go the way of the fake pine. Well, never say never. This Christmas season there has been a lot of adjusting. First off, the fake pine....that has been tough. Second, it is like 100 degrees out here and it appears that Tony and I will be spending our Christmas day in bathing suites squirting each other with the hose. We are banking on a big thunderstorm Christmas day. Even though it will be warm at least we will have some rain and we can pretend it is cold. Lastly, we are missing our family and friends. This is the first Christmas away from our families and it has been difficult. Tony and I do have some stockings to fill and we hope to make a home-made mexican dinner. It will be cool to begin our own traditions and be able to visit some friends out in the township on Christmas day. Tony and I are still adjusting to life over here, but find that day by day we are more settled and day by day we are more in a rhythm. We have a lot of work to do to prepare for the new Nieu Communities Group that will be here the first part of Feb. Tony and I are starting to submerge in the culture more and are building new relationships. We are trying to be more intentional with engaging in things that give us life and not things that we just "have to do" to get settled. We do feel like we are making some good steps and that we have worked well through the transition over here. Well, Merry Christmas! We will be in touch again soon.
Friday, November 21, 2008
our new spot
HOME SWEET HOME
Well….WE ARE IN!!!! The Cermak family has finally settled into their own home. We must apologize for being MIA the past week. After nearly a month of searching, we finally found a place to rent here in South Africa. We absolutely love it and it feels like home to us. We moved in on Monday and soon realized all the work we had ahead of us to make the place livable. Deep cleaning, little korkey things than need fixing, BIG things that need fixing, turning over the soil so we can plant grass before the rainy season passes us by. As you can tell we have been very busy. Just think, it will be spectacular for when you all come and visit.
Not only do we have a place to call our own, but we also got our fist child the same week. Cowboy “Cash” Jr. is 6 weeks old and is a pure-bread Borra Bull. We named him after Johnny Cash and he just loves playing in the yard with Tony while listening to his name -sake. You know what they say (whoever “they” are) first start with a plant, and if it lives then move to a pet, and if it lives you are ready for the real little human.
Since our last posting we have been pretty pre-occupied with setting up our life over here. It is a necessary step for us before we can feel completely free to jump full on into “ministry”. We have connected with folks here and there, but have mostly been building into the Nieu Communities team. Some of them will be gone for a couple of months, so we are spending time with them before they leave. We said goodbye to all the 2008 apprentices last week so it is much quieter around the NC property. Tony and I are taking things one day at a time and we know that our lives are going to be very full before we know it. I (Dayna) have been involved in some staff meetings for next year and both Tony and I hope to begin visiting Sosahnguve (the township near us) on a regular basis soon..
Thank you all for your love and prayers and support. It would not b e possible for us to be here without your love and care. Thank you. We look forward to blogging more, however, our home does not have phone or internet just yet. Right now we have to come to Pangani (the Nieu Community property) to phone or e-mail. Thank you for your patience and your time. We love and miss you all and will be in touch again soon.
Well….WE ARE IN!!!! The Cermak family has finally settled into their own home. We must apologize for being MIA the past week. After nearly a month of searching, we finally found a place to rent here in South Africa. We absolutely love it and it feels like home to us. We moved in on Monday and soon realized all the work we had ahead of us to make the place livable. Deep cleaning, little korkey things than need fixing, BIG things that need fixing, turning over the soil so we can plant grass before the rainy season passes us by. As you can tell we have been very busy. Just think, it will be spectacular for when you all come and visit.
Not only do we have a place to call our own, but we also got our fist child the same week. Cowboy “Cash” Jr. is 6 weeks old and is a pure-bread Borra Bull. We named him after Johnny Cash and he just loves playing in the yard with Tony while listening to his name -sake. You know what they say (whoever “they” are) first start with a plant, and if it lives then move to a pet, and if it lives you are ready for the real little human.
Since our last posting we have been pretty pre-occupied with setting up our life over here. It is a necessary step for us before we can feel completely free to jump full on into “ministry”. We have connected with folks here and there, but have mostly been building into the Nieu Communities team. Some of them will be gone for a couple of months, so we are spending time with them before they leave. We said goodbye to all the 2008 apprentices last week so it is much quieter around the NC property. Tony and I are taking things one day at a time and we know that our lives are going to be very full before we know it. I (Dayna) have been involved in some staff meetings for next year and both Tony and I hope to begin visiting Sosahnguve (the township near us) on a regular basis soon..
Thank you all for your love and prayers and support. It would not b e possible for us to be here without your love and care. Thank you. We look forward to blogging more, however, our home does not have phone or internet just yet. Right now we have to come to Pangani (the Nieu Community property) to phone or e-mail. Thank you for your patience and your time. We love and miss you all and will be in touch again soon.
Monday, November 3, 2008
Transition to our new home
OK .........so we finally have news to post. Thanks for all your prayers with all the details with the visa's and airline tickets. Everything worked out and we were so blessed and encouraged. The only thing we did not get to do was spend the final time that we wanted with our loved ones and dearest friends. Although most of you were probably thankful that our dreams of returning to South Africa have come true. So the one thing that we wanted was to get a plain ticket to Washington D.C. where our friends Bret and Mary-Ruth live. They are in voled with intercity work and we wanted to spend time with them. Dayna actually met them in South Africa and remained friends. We were encouraged by what the Lord is doing through them. We feel that our friendship was strengthened and I pray that one day God would bless us to do ministry with them some day. The weather and sights were eye candy to us and our souls felt fresh when we left D.C.
The flight was 15 hours to Johannesburg. Melissa Stewart picked us up and drove us to our new home in room 2 here at Pangani,( North Pretoria). Which is about 45 minutes away. We were so warmly welcomed. Our friends have stopped by to say hey and catch up with all the news from the year. Sleep has been a project for us. Last night was the first night that we have basically slept more then four hours. It sure does feel good to get adjusted to the time change. We are ten hours ahead of you.
This first week we have just taken time to settle. We have been invited to a few dinners, so that has helped us because we did not have to cook. We did today make our way to the market to shop. We are excited to try new things. I (Tony) have been getting use to driving on the right hand side of the road. Which is not easy. Tonight Dayna and I are going on our first date night. WE have plans making our way out to Soshanguve (a township near by). There we will be connecting with the people we have relationships with. We can't wait to visit and catch up with everyone.
As Dayna and I were driving down the road today I just thought out loud ,"I can't believe that we live here." We are so thankful to many of you who have supported us with prayers and financially. We Have been encouraged and blessed. Phil 4 10-20 scream out what I'm feeling. We also are in prayer that God would show us how to take care of you all back home. So we will have another update soon and include some pics of the people who we will be working with. BECAUSE HE LIVES...................The CERMAKS
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
