Category Archives: Capturing Courage Abroad

As we travel we write about the experiences, the quirky sides, the profound moments and all manner of thoughts and lessons in between – Enjoy!

Pray Around the World

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We keep in mind today those on the front-lines of the gospel of Jesus Christ around the world.

Pastor Edward whose wife just had surgery – pray for health and healing and the funds to pay for the operation.

Pastor Michael as he heads up ministry to disabled children – pray for funding and direction, clarity, peace and great joy for all.

Evangelist Nicholas who has a team ready for evangelism – pray for a way to coordinate their heart and efforts with a van and sound equipment.

Pastor Daniel whose heart is for all the surrounding villages to know Christ – pray for relationships that bear fruit.

Evangelist Patrick who is investing in the lives of children in a remote village with a school and now an orphanage – pray for solid encouragement and provision over all the work of his hands.

Pastor Ravindra who is investing in the lives of orphans – pray for provision as well as others who will invest in the work.

Pastor Timothy who travels to outlying villages weekly, bringing the gospel and helping the people with letter writing and other tangible helps – pray for continued strength for himself and his family and for breakthrough in the hearts of the people.

Pastor Philip who is with his family trekking into the back villages bringing the love of God – pray that they are protected from malaria and that the good news settles into peoples hearts.

Pastor Michael who oversees many churches and holds the task of training and development – pray that the good things happening there continue and multiply.

Pastor Daniel who ministers to congregations thirsty for the word of God – pray that Bibles get to him and the people there, that he and fellow pastors would be encouraged today.

School director Geoffrey who selflessly serves over 200 children with education and food daily – pray for funding and for sponsors and for wisdom as they carry on.

Pastor Elizabeth and her husband John as their hearts pour into their community, supporting orphans and establishing a school in an area still struggling with Aids – pray for their hearts and the work of their hands, that continual steady progress and forward movement is attained.

Evangelist Caliph who pours his life out for his people – pray for continued strengthening and vision for he and his wife.

Pastor Irene as she declares freedoms over her own congregation and the many who seek out the Lord through her – pray for her church building to be finished and for the plans for an orphanage and school to take hold and come into being.

Evangelist Innocent as he travels and shares the gospel – pray for the anointing on him to increase and for many to come to Jesus Christ.

Pastor Steven and his wife as they lead both a church and a school – pray that their influence would grow and that the mentor-ship that they provide would bless many.

Lay-leader Joshua as he grows and develops both people and the gospel through business – pray the Lord’s blessing over him and continued expansion of the Lord through his heart and service.

Pastor Charagh as he ministers in hard circumstances – pray for the church to grow and prosper and to be covered by the blood of Christ, hidden in him.

These leaders (and more that I have not listed here) are literally giving their lives away for the gospel of Jesus Christ, in service to hearts and lives around them.

They come from Uganda, India, Mozambique, Myanmar, Kenya, Pakistan, Burundi, Rwanda, Ghana, and Tanzania.

Choose one today, to hold before the Lord on a continual basis in prayer and fasting.

“Don’t fret or worry. Instead of worrying, pray. Let petitions and praises shape your worries into prayers, letting God know your concerns. Before you know it, a sense of God’s wholeness, everything coming together for good, will come and settle you down. It’s wonderful what happens when Christ displaces worry at the center of your life.” Philippians 4:6-7 The Message

Missing Uganda

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adventure and privilegeIt has been a year since I’ve been to the eastern parts of Uganda, and I am missing it and the people dearly.

Men and women who if we lived in the same neighborhood I’d have been having tea with them on a regular basis.

How could a year have gone by just like that?!

Moment after moment is replaying through my mind. I am particularly fond of the time Edith scolded me for smelling so bad and in exasperation instructed me in how to wash. (I’m sure she now thinks westerners don’t know how to wash). It is true that when I was there I stunk like a pig twenty-four-seven.

It didn’t matter how much I washed, I couldn’t get that smell from my body. Of course, washing in cold water for weeks on end wouldn’t have helped any, but most of all I am convinced it was my body ridding itself of our bad western diet through my pores, (next time around I’ll have to detox before I go!)

I’m missing the boda-boda rides. Henry was a fantastic driver and I came to trust him explicitly. I learned how to sit tight, lean in, relax, and leave the driving up to him.

When on the freeway with a semi-truck passing close enough for me to reach out and touch it, I became a master at sitting tight, leaning in, relaxing, and leaving the driving up to him.

Never flinching, not reacting, moving in sync, allowing my body to lean in tandem with his around the curves and through the round-abouts as if I’d done this every day of my life.

The day we went through the sugar-cane fields and he let loose on the speed was the best. And as much as I tried the next day, I couldn’t get him to go that fast again (the big boss was with us that time).

When Henry took me to meet his ‘moms’, without a seconds hesitation and the minute I got close enough each one threw themselves on me with arms wrapped tight around. Greetings that still warm my heart a year later.

And every week I think of Pastor Irene. With her passion and zest and fire, coupled with wisdom and prophetic care and gladness.

The day we were heading down to ‘Jordan’ and she gave me her pumps to wear and they fit perfectly was a tickled-pink kind of moment. When we reached this body of water in which many have been healed all I could think was, “Gosh I could use some healing.” But knowing I wasn’t dressed or prepared to clamber in the pond and dunk myself seven times I reasoned, “Maybe if I just swish my hand in the water a touch I’ll get a bit of healing.”

So that’s what I did. I bent down at the waters edge and swished my hand for a half minute. Walking back to the village Pastor Irene said to me, “Thanks for blessing Jordan.” To which I broke out in a laugh. For while I was hoping to draw blessing from Jordan from her perspective I was blessing it.

It was this kind of give and take, blessing and being blessed that was so rich in Uganda. Thankfully we are experiencing this same kind of blessing in our team at Capturing Courage International. Where initiative and offering of selves to something bigger than all of us has us rich in bounty of each other.

And even though I’m not ‘out there’ at the moment, it’s just the same in all the weekly correspondence with our colleagues in many places overseas. Just these last five days: with India, Pakistan, Mozambique, Kenya, and Uganda. Where the hearts of forward thinking, hard working, sacrificial lives given over leave me in awe.

Where we take turns following each others lead. Where phone calls are for the express purpose of praying for nations and praying for each other. Where emails are for the express purpose of preparing for further training, and of strategizing together. Where Facebook is for connections and visioning and simple heart care back and forth.

It is a way of doing life where we draw strength from each other, and where we are making commitments to common visions and goals. I’ve hardly words really. All I know is, this work doesn’t feel like work to me, it feels like worship.

This kingdom of God come to earth, this reign of God played out as we simply declare ourselves for each other. It is rich. Very rich indeed.

Going Places

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P1320123 compressedShe was attending the third day of Pastor Training. I’d been staying at her home for a few days already.

My first night in her home didn’t feel safe to me. There seemed to be dark forces at work, an authority of sorts to muck with my sleep and that hovered over the home.

My first morning, upon wakening, my conversation with the Lord was about how unsafe I felt, and that I really wasn’t sure I was to stay there.

I’d over the previous years become very attuned to when I was covered and hidden in the Lord and when I was not. The ‘not covered’ moments were becoming few and far between, and so when I sensed a compromised covering I would notice right away.

As I prayed about it though I very clearly sensed the Lord saying, “I want you to stay here. I want the blessing that you bring with you to rest on this home.”

I was reminded it was not about me. That my presence in that country was about something much bigger than me. So I settled into staying.

When my key contact came to pick me up that morning, I let him know how it had all felt, and suggested that he and I pray together for a spiritual safety in the home.

This we did, and in the midst of our conversation he realized that the first home I had stayed in they had in fact prayed and covered it before I came, this home they had not.

So we prayed together and everything was fine after that.

And now I was a few days later at the Pastors Conference with my host lady in attendance.

I shared that day some of my own struggles through life. The disillusionment and the heartache and loss, and yet how I had found through it all that God was a profound ally.

Something powerful happens when we are transparent and when we risk to tell our stories. Though they feel ultra personal, and of course they are, they are also something to be invested in the kingdom of God and in the lives of those we serve.

That evening over dinner, as my host lady and I ate together, she confided to me her own very difficult journey, of the immense heartaches and loss and of her bitterness to God that she could not quite shrug off.

It was a connection of like hearts and minds in many ways. We became friends that day. I prayed for her and declared the peace and blessing over her and her home that the Lord had already told me was his intention.

Three months later I was back again. And the tenor of the home and its inhabitants was markedly changed. There was joy and laughter and hope there now.

I mentioned this to her, and she said ‘yes’ it was much different. To me it was like I was in a very different place.

This is the power of God. In God’s intention we are well kept.

I don’t all the way get this blessing of God through our presence. When I think of myself in terms of the blessing of presence, of just being somewhere, I really don’t understand it. Yet I’ve had too many people speak to me of the impact of my presence to argue any more.

I’ve simply come to understand that when God chooses to work a certain way through us, we can either come alongside and do our part, or we can keep arguing and in the long run, miss out on so much.

Thing is, it really is not about us.

It’s about those we serve.

I don’t know about you. I don’t know the unique impact that you make on the world. But I do know that if others are commenting on how you effect them, if God is calling you to invest your life in a particular way, that you probably want to pay attention, trust those words and observations, and seek to do even more of that.

Self devaluing never benefited anyone.

My other host home in another village some 200km away has experienced the same blessing from what I can tell. From the time of my first stay to my third stay some six months later, the woman of the home planted a banana field, added doors to the interior of her home, plastered the inside of her home, and added a significant  addition onto one of her outside buildings.

I don’t know if this was normal per se, she is a widow and so struggles along in many ways, and yet I saw marked progress and improvement in her standard of living in the time I’d been there.

Was this God through me? I won’t ever really know. But this I do know. That if I am to bring the blessing of God with me as I go places, then I’d better be going places.

What about you?

Capturing God’s Heart

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Colossians 3-16Every month CAPTURING GOD’S HEART is sent direct to Indigenous Pastors and local Lay Leaders around the world.

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“Cyndy,thank you you so much for the word COMPASSION. Am blessed,I have understood what it means,my heart has not remained the same.May the good Lord continue to use you.”

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“Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.” Colossians 3:16

Bartimaeus

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P1310658A new year brings all sorts of expectations and possibilities. It is no different here at Capturing Courage.

With a Team Weekend Away in just a few days, we will be looking at what 2012 was and then directing our gaze forward.

My own heart has been meditating on the question, “What do I want?” It is the same question offered to me by the Lord, “What do you want?”

It is a question beyond all the ought and should that so easily entangles us. It is a question that presumes upon an open arena upon which to play. Like a canvas that has not yet been painted on.

What do you want?

It is the same question that Jesus asked others.

The blind man Bartimeaus was by the side of the road, he was calling out to Jesus and trying to get near to him, and Jesus asks, “What do you want?”

It is both a liberating and offensive question. (He is blind, can you not see what he might want?!)

And yet in this question Jesus puts Bartimeaus in the drivers seat of his own life. Yes Jesus could work a miracle for him, but did he want it?

Jesus in no way ever presumed to know what another wanted. He always asked.

And God is still asking each and every one of us this same question every single day, “What do you want?”

It’s not an easy one to answer. For the query leads us to what and how might we engage what we want. There will be action and risk put to task. There will be a stretching of who we are and we won’t remain the same.

What do we want?

While the course is laid, the manner of movement established, the values and the non-negotiable made plain to see, the actual action we then take comes down to what we want.

It is the place where we must sink into our passion. Where our hearts desires are first acknowledged and then given voice.

As I personally look at 2013 there are twenty-three overseas communities that have invited me to come and visit and minister to them. That is more than I can do this next year. So how do we decide? How do we figure out where Capturing Courage will be going?

We decide by heart. What places are drawing me to them? Which ones resonate the strongest? Whom might I enjoy serving alongside the most? Where might I pour love this year?

There is for sure an element of where might God like me to go and the timing is of course very important, and yet at the base equation I cannot check my heart alongside his heart if I do not yet know my heart.

What do I want?

God has opened every door and therefore every door is free to go through. Open doors are a done deal.

It now comes down to, “What do I want?”

So that is the question I am settling into these last weeks. I’m getting in touch with my own desire and passion and hearts response amongst the invitations and grand folk I’ve already met and the phone calls and emails of those I’ve not yet met.

Problem is, I want to go to each one of these places. My heart says ‘yes’ to all of them, and so I must in fact go deeper and get in touch with my own passion on a more intimate level in order to answer the question.

It isn’t easy. Passion never is.

Blind Bartimeaus could have asked for lunch for his next day. Or he could have requested a fresh pair of socks. Maybe a new t-shirt or shoes even.

But Bartimeaus had been doing some soul searching. He had been getting in touch with his passion and the deepest desires of his heart and so when Jesus asked him what he wanted he was ready, “I want to see.”

He was instantly healed that day. (see Mark 10:46-52)

“I want to see” are profound and beautiful words.

How many of us are really honest about what we want? How many of us are willing to risk asking and speaking a desire that is so risky that if we put it out there and it doesn’t come to be we will forever be shamed?

Not many of us. But that is the task of our every day and the privilege of living.

Ask and it will be given to you.

What are we asking for?

What do we want?

Transformation

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P1080581 compressedFine-tuning the work has been a work in progress. While Capturing Courage is now four years old, the launch into overseas work is little over a year old, and as such has been in some flux as we figure out the scope of our work.

Thankfully we started with a really good sense of what we were to be doing and what we are not to be doing. All the same, even that sense has needed fine-tuning and honing in.

The most prevalent reality within which we are to work is the matter of selves or of money.

Like this:

1. Are we called to bring money upon peoples and communities or,

2. Are we called to bring ourselves to peoples and communities?

We’ve tried a few things to figure this out. Back in October we did a short fundraising blast looking to raise money to help build a toilet in Uganda.

We weren’t looking for a lot of money and took it on as a test of sorts to see if we were to be involved in projects. The answer came back loud and clear. ‘NO!’ With not a single person responding to our fundraising plea we saw loud and clear that we are not called to support projects.

Of course we kinda knew this already. Right from the start it had been stuck in my heart and mind the verse from Acts 3:6 where Peter says, “I have no silver and gold, but what I do have I give to you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk!”

(and yet it is amazing how easy it is to get sidetracked)

More recently we have been raising money for a Bible School in Uganda. There was the money for the hosting and then the money for the curriculum (from another organization), and while we raised all of the money spot-on for the hosting not a speck came in for the curriculum.

So we are paying attention. Taking our cues. And allowing the scope to be determined by this very clear direction. Again we must ask, “Are we called to bring to bear our resources upon a people, or are we called to bring to bear ourselves?”

The answer is loud and clear. We are called to bring ourselves. End of story. Period.

And in the wake of this clarity we must take hard stands. We must continue to communicate what we can and cannot do. We are, after all, to move with the blessing of God or not at all.

We must move according to the Lord’s heart and plan for and through Capturing Courage, not our own good ideas, not others good ideas for us.

The hardest part is that we are pushing against a very long history and world-wide habit of financial aid and support to developing nations.

And so while we can say we are bringing heart healing of Christ, spiritual training and leadership development, there is still in the back of the minds of those to whom we take ourselves, the thought that maybe we will help with students and schooling, maybe we will build a building, maybe we will give money for this endeavor and that project.

But of course we are not. We are bringing nothing but ourselves and the healing power of Christ.

It is like trying to swim upstream against a very large current.

And yet for all the potential and very real misunderstandings of who and what we are about, this mandate to bring ourselves and Christ and nothing more has made things very simple.

In constraint is much freedom. In less there is so much more. In limitation we find bounty and sufficiency.

Long story short we realize we are not to be hosting Bible School, for in that we are merely a conduit for yet another project, and as good a project as Bible School might be, we are not called to projects in any way whatsoever.

Rather, with the power of relationships and mentoring, of leadership development but most of all deep freedoms of heart and soul by the power of the Lord Jesus Christ, we are all simply transformed.

Change from the inside out is the only long-term way of development whether in North America or in Africa or anywhere else.

Capturing Courage is called to transformation of heart and spirit, nothing more and nothing less.

It’s very good to have this straightened out.

Phew!

Submissions

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P1220931 compressedIt was my first trip to Uganda. I was part of a three-days Pastor’s Conference and was bringing the morning and afternoon training. And each day the same Ugandan Pastor would finish off the day with what we call in the west, a holy-rolling spiritual encounter.

It wasn’t really my style. I didn’t even understand it all the way. There were mixed messages, parts that did make sense to me but then parts that made no sense to me whatsoever. Yet I was determined to learn and simply waited on the Lord to explain the elements of which I was unsure.

In addition to this, I wasn’t even so sure of the gentleman himself for there were mixed messages simply in the way he greeted and communicated with me, and I am pretty sure he was not too certain about me as well.

But with three days to hear, see, and witness each others hearts we came to a tentative agreement of sorts between us, (all of this of course in the unspoken realm of body language and spiritual authority).

If nothing else I had seen and experienced through a simple handshake that this man had a profound anointing of the Holy Spirit (I had nearly gone down when he shook my hand, the Spirit was so strong on him). So even though all the parts didn’t make complete sense to me, I was quite aware that I was in a completely different country and culture and knew that God would look different there. I was eager to learn.

My second trip to Uganda had this gentleman and myself in ministry alongside each other for another number of days. I became more used to his very loud and exuberant demonstrations about the Lord, and he seemed to get used to my slightly quieter yet strong way of doing things. Our rapport and respect began to grow.

Keep in mind that we could not communicate. He spoke virtually no English and I of course spoke no Ugandan. And yet, despite this the Holy Spirit began to grow us in sync with one another. When I was preaching and drawing near to praying freedoms and healing he would get to his feet bouncing in anticipation as the Spirit would fall heavily amongst us. I began to really enjoy him.

One of my last days of that trip I was at this gentleman’s church. I’d spent two days at each church I visited and it was no different here. He introduced me to his congregation with respect and a simple, “This is a powerful woman.” And I recognized in him a growing understanding that authority does not have so much to do with volume but with something much deeper. He was learning from me as much as I was learning from him.

Near the end of our first day he made the announcement that the next day he would be anointing and praying over people in regards to their problems. I thought to myself, “Gosh I have some problems! I am going to have to make sure that he prays for me.” All the while calculating the risk of ‘going down’ in the Spirit (on that dirt floor) and who knows what other potential oddities. But it didn’t matter. For I’d seen that this man was anointed of God and I could definitely use some of that blessing over me. Simply put, I could use more of God. No matter how it came, I simply needed more of God.

The next day arrived. I spoke in the first session, and as we came to his afternoon prayer time I was ready and excited about being prayed over. As with most times we had olive oil for anointing during prayer, and his church was no different. Into a bowl he poured olive oil, ready for anointing all those who wanted prayer. Yet before I could catch my breath, all of a sudden he had placed the bowl of olive oil in my hands and was on his knees in front of me, waiting for me to pray and bless and anoint him.

I was surprised to say the least. Turns out we had both been thinking the same thing. Each of us wanted to make sure the other prayed for us. I prayed over him, and then the other leaders as they came and also made sure I prayed over them. And it took some intention, to say the least, to make my point of, “Please pray for me too” as I got on my knees.

All this is but one story of mutual recognition of spiritual authority that took place on my journey’s in Uganda. What these experiences feel to me are the essence of what the Bible is speaking of when it says ‘submit yourselves to one another’.

Submission is a little understood word. We use it all the time to justify keeping others low. I am pretty sure in fact that much of our understanding of submission in no way accurately represents the heart of God. Rather than having anything to do with position or title, these mutual submissions were moments when we recognized the authority each carried and we mutually came under each others anointing for blessing.

Simply moments of equipping and bounty poured out from the Lord through and over each other. Moments holding for me tangible lessons in the essence of submission that speak of and accurately reflect the generous nature of God’s heart. It is a place of settling into the anointing of each other. Where we say, “I recognize God in you. Please pour what you have of God over me.”

Theses mutual submissions mark an intimacy with the Lord. In them we are marked by a pouring down of our Holy Spirit. By them we mark each other with respect and honor.

We are all strengthened and touched to the core of our beings. And that is a grand understatement.

Profoundly beautiful moments and spaces. Just one of the things I’ve experienced in Uganda.

Appalled

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P1320123 compressedThe Ugandan Shilling is down in value. Now I know very little about economics or how world money fluctuates in relationship to each other. I’ve never had a course about world market or how a country grows or diminishes its net worth or its currency.

Yet a few things strike me about this CAD (canadian dollar) versus UGX (ugandan shilling) thing.

One, I realize that their lowered money is bad for them. It decreases their ability to compete on the world market and it lowers an individuals ability to access western goods and resources.

Two, I realize that this is good for us. Specifically, as we at Capturing Courage are sponsoring Bible School in January in Uganda, what we had budgeted as a $600 price tag is now just over a $400 price tag.

Good for us, Bad for them. I think this means bad for all of us.

When one party loses we all lose.

Where this currency reality really hits home is in the sponsorship of children.

Billions is spent every year on sponsoring children all over the world.

Myself, I am sponsoring one boy in Madudu, Uganda. A young man who along with his Grandma hosts me in their home whenever I am in town.

This young man’s schooling is integral to his future, and has been a constant worry to them in regards to school fees, and can they make the payments. He himself, though seventeen has carried the weight of the cost in his heart and mind.

So when I agreed to cover his school fees each term he and his Grandma were ecstatic.

Those school fees are 25,000 UGX for a three-month term of school.

When I was there in August I therefore left that 25,000 UGX for them.

It was about $12.00 CAD…. For three months of schooling.

As I look ahead to January when I need to be sending another three-months worth of school fees, because of the weakened Ugandan Shilling, it now amounts to $9.13 CAD.

Imagine, I am going to go to a Western Union to send money and I will be sending $10. There is something ridiculous about that.

So while I am saving $2 on my commitment, imagine the Sponsorship Organizations and the money they are saving and/or making any time a country’s currency drops in value.

Imagine my $2 saving multiplied by millions of children.

It would be pretty hard as an organization not to somewhat rejoice in the substandard currency.

Especially when it is amounting to millions of dollars.

Somehow this is all not okay.

I don’t know what the answer is. I’m not even sure what the real question is. But I do know that I am appalled.

I am appalled that most sponsorship programs are running on donations of $35-40 per month.

My school sponsorship of Pascal is $3.03 per month. For 9 months of the year. The other three months there is no school, after all.

Now Pascal has a home and clothes and food. My sponsorship of his schooling doesn’t cover any of that, simply the school supplies he needs so that he can attend school.

Many sponsorship programs are covering so much more.

But there is still something really off here. And when the currency of a country lowers to the point that the excess is benefiting us, something even greater is wrong.

Their weakness should not be our strength.

And like all business do we really want it to get better for them? Do cancer researchers really want to do away with cancer? Imagine the untold lost jobs and revenue if cancer were healed.

Do we really want arthritis to be healed? Imagine the untold lost jobs and revenue if arthritis were healed.

Do we really want society to be well and emotionally healthy? Imagine the untold lost jobs and revenue if there were no physical illness, no mental illness, no compromises health? Imagine.

And do we really want developing nations to be taking care of their own? Do we really want them self-sufficient and strong, caring for their own poor and schooling their own children?

Imagine the untold lost jobs and revenue if that were to happen.

Imagine.

Taking care of all that is wrong is big business. VERY BIG Business.

What if we were to make things right. What then?

Making things right has got to be the goal.

I’m not settling for anything less.

Open House

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CCI Open House December 2012

On Saturday, December 15th join me for an Open House of Story and Fellowship, of Beauty and Community Celebrated.

Hear about the latest of Capturing Courage in Uganda and our commitments for the coming year.

Browse Lorna Rande’s Gallery of Images and Framed Art.

Purchase our famous Fruit Cake, or maybe get yourself one of our 2013 Uganda Calendars.

fruit cake for sale

And you just might want to pick yourself up a copy of Cyndy’s book: THOUGHTS – Taking One Day at a Time. With a simple yet profound thought per day, this book is perfect as you head into 2013. You just may want to give a few away as Christmas Gifts!

From 9Am – 9Pm come and go as you are able. With goodies and apple cider, stories and beauty all around we look forward to enjoying a day with each other.

Feet to the Pavement

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This week has been a busy one. Actually the last month has been a busy one. The things that have been accomplished in just this last month at Capturing Courage are astounding.

Through it all I am reminded of the timing of God, and the timing of our lives and how we can’t rush either one and how once ripe, time cannot be held back. We are either ready or we are not.

About half-a-dozen years back I would take a Saturday each January and head downtown to Canada Place and foray the booths and displays of Missions organizations hosted by Mission Fest here in Vancouver.

I always went by myself, for I was on a quest.

You see I had this vague inclination in the back of my mind to take Prayer Ministry to Indigenous Pastors around the world. So I was there at Missions Fest perusing to find just who was already working with Indigenous Pastors and just who I might partner with to take Prayer Ministry training.

I did this for a few years. Going round the booths at Missions Fest, meeting people, asking questions, proposing my idea to some, asking for feedback and for their perspectives.

Always on the look-out for what might be.

I’m remembering this today because while Capturing Courage International is still in many ways a fledgling organization we are also in so many ways already splitting at the seams.

I’m preparing to speak tomorrow. I’ll be presenting a buffet of pictures and stories and the heart of God through it all, and as I prepare I see with stunning clarity that the vague inclinations that drove me to peruse the aisles at Missions Fest, have come full circle.

To date Capturing Courage has been to some fifteen communities in Uganda and has been invited to another dozen communities in six other countries.

We have taken and will continue to take Biblical Training, Prayer Ministry Training, Pastoral Training and Leadership Development. What was once a vague inclination has become reality.

To top this off we have been accepted to implement Bible College material and have all teachers in place for Capturing Courage Bible College in Madudu, Uganda starting in January 2013.

It all simply fascinates me. Imagine me some years ago by myself going to Missions Fest wondering how we might participate in training indigenous Pastors around the world.

Simultaneously on the other side of the world there were those in a small village in the back-woods of Uganda praying that a Bible School might be started there.

Simultaneously a young man of that same village has a dream that someone from far away is going to come and help them.

Simultaneously there is stirring in the heart of a young man the need for Pastor Training within his own country of Uganda yes, but even more so for the need in Africa at large.

All these things, these thoughts and longings and prayers and dreams are going on concurrently and yet completely unbeknownst to each other.

Until one day, when the time is ripe. When enough prayers and heart and soul has gone into these longings and dreams on both sides, and an invitation is made and then accepted.

If nothing else I’ve learned to not ignore the vague inclinations in our hearts and souls.

We in and of ourselves have no real clue what is going on in the background. We tend to get hung up on ourselves. What might we do? How might this come about? And we use the questions as doubts and it stops right there.

But what if there is someone in another part of the world, someone who has the same heartbeat as you, someone who is longing for the same things, someone who would join hands with you in a heartbeat.

What if…

The other thing I’ve learned is to put some feet to the pavement. Just like the Israelite’s who walked around Jericho for seven days we too must put some feet to the ground.

Faithful to step out, to feel foolish, to go after a vague inclinations, just may give way to something amazing and more than you could have ever dreamed.

What are the vague inclinations in your heart and mind?

I bet they just might lead to something amazing.

Put some feet to the pavement, lets see what comes of it!

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I am sharing My Story from vague inclinations to
solid encounters, in less than a week. Join us if you
are in the Surrey BC area with more info HERE

Committments

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compressedI’ve been working on the plan for next year.

Now plans are a tricky thing. Because they cannot be guaranteed to work out just the way we envision them.

With any plan there are elements of it that we can control, that we can ensure and that has the locus of control right in our hip pocket so to speak.

But then there are the elements of any plan that depend on others, on specific circumstances and details and assumptions that once in the midst of the plan we realize will not jive.

Plans usually have the hows and wherefores down. ‘We will do such and such at this time and in that manner.’

(I’m pretty sure this sets us up for failure)

I’ve made a plan like that for 2013. It was a good exercise. The process refined my thinking, opened up my creative planning, and really made me look at what can be done.

Rather than being stuck in overwhelm or waffling in confusion, unsure how to go forward and not knowing what can or can’t be done, the process of making a plan turns stalemates into forward action.

Every plan requires decisions made, the future envisioned and that certain crisis within us that takes on the courage necessary in order to go forward.

Plans are great things.

Yet, once the plans are made, so many things can go wrong.

The plan I’ve made has multiple holes in it. There is room for all sorts of error and miscalculation and simple misunderstandings.

For the plan isn’t just about me or for me, it is about and for a number of others.

My friend in Uganda, who originally invited me there wrote me about a month ago with this, “All we know Cyndy is we need you back in Uganda.” He had been speaking to the Pastors that I’d already been alongside and this was their conclusion.

My other friend and primary interpreter for much of my times in Uganda said this to me last August, “Okay Cyndy, you’ve been here three times now. It is time to make this more official. Raise up a team of us, teach us to carry on the work.”

So I’ve been praying and contemplating, digging deep and reaching farther into myself for this next leg of the journey, and I’ve come up with a plan.

It sounds good. It looks really good on paper. But like all plans, it will need its fair share of tweaking. For like any plan it is just a compilation of my own ideas. A general sketch so to speak of the year to come.

That sketch will be filled in with color and with light and with flesh on the bones. Most likely in ways I could have never foreseen.

There are cultural differences to take into account, differing world-views and expectations, and then the simple matter of logistics and technicalities. I really don’t know so much of how the year will work out.

So while the hard emotional labor has gone into the plan, while I’ve dug farther into myself to see what is really there, and while I’ve put words to what I envision and what I think is possible, I’m holding my plans loosely.

In open hands stretched out.

It’s now time to harness those plans with something that is even more powerful.

Commitment.

Pure and simple commitment.

The rough idea is laid in place. But the goal, the real goal, the end result that is the reason the plan was made in the first place, this is where our commitments reside.

Allowing the details of my best laid plans to fall to the wayside, reveals my commitment. ‘To grow a small team of forward thinking, visionary leaders, leading in humility kind of godly leaders within Uganda’

This I can commit to. This is really the plan.

How it will work out. Exactly. I haven’t the foggiest idea.

Yet taking it from a plan to a commitment we find incredible power. Not because of you or I, but because a commitment will draw from us more than we even know we have to offer.

It will be messy and unmanageable in many ways. There will be surprises every single step of the way. Some things will work and other things will not.

The power of commitment though, cuts through all that.

So my suggestion as we are nearing another year. Make your plan, yes.

Yet even more powerfully, what is your commitment?

For that is where things will happen.