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.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
