A Wrap Up Video of Go Global in Africa

HPC African Mission '09 Recap from Paul Charbonnet on Vimeo.

Inside of Me

God’s been opening up my heart recently. He has shown me my need for people. I think as a young man one receives many messages both obvious and subtle telling you that you need to stand on your own two feet and that asking for help is weak. In my head I knew that this was contrary to the Word of God but I still lived in fear and pride…standing as a lone ranger.

Through sickness, reading the living word and recognizing my own limitations God has been slowly working this out of me. Truth be told, no one has it all together all of the time. I need God but the truth is that a lot of the time God works through people. To be God’s instrument of reaching is fine but to be loved by God through others has traditionally been unnerving to me. It’s to admit weakness, need, dependence…on God but more troubling on others is difficult. It’s healthy though, it’s being real about ourselves and our situation.

Kb made an interesting comment the other day. He said, “eish, you Americans do not know how to receive a gift. Immediately when or right after receiving the gift you go out or begin to plan to buy a gift for the person who gave you the gift. You treat gifts like a transaction; you need to learn to simply receive.” Yeah, so I have lots to learn, I need to learn that when God is reaching out to me I can just receive. I can admit need and let him through friends, family and strangers fill that need. Lots to learn…

Pastor’s Conference

- one of the pastors on an outreach

My thoughts…May 27th & 28th we held a Pastor’s Conference. Over 300 church leaders from over 100 churches came out to the two day conference. It was amazing to see the response and hunger of the Pastors in Southern Africa. Go Global sent over teams of people to help pull off the first ever Go Global Southern Africa Pastor’s Conference. Anyways that’s the context, here are my thoughts…

Amazing, beyond what we could think of 4 years ago. I stood with Nathie Hlatshwayo at the back of a room as over 300 church leaders admitted weakness, cried out repentance, sang out true worship to the Most High. We started in a little office with a couple CarePoints. How did this come about…it’s beyond us. I stood with Nathie half crying and half smiling. My mind was filled with thoughts of how faithful the Lord is, how he will work out things for the good of those who love him. My heart was filled with joy and sadness as I admitted that this was beyond what I really believed God for…he was faithful where I often lose faith.

Ok. Context again; Nathie and I were some of the first guys to work with Children’s Cup. Nathie and I shared a small backroom office with no windows and an overloaded desk. It felt like an old garage that need to be cleaned out for some time. Anyways…Cup entered Swaziland 5 years ago. Ben worked zealously and then Nathie, Daran and I joined him. We worked hard to get the local church involved. Then we lost hope, we stopped praying, we stopped trying to involve the local church. A lot has happened and then this year God put it on our hearts again to reach out to the local church…

Over 100 churches represented, the leaders learning about serving then heading out to actually practice it in communities, cities, homesteads and CarePoints. We had sort of given up on the church getting involved. We had sort of written off the local church. But God, But God!!!! Wow, it is true that in our own strength nothing of consequence can truly happen…but with God the impossible, the impossible is possible. Nathie and I stood in silence, tears sliding down our faces, smiles curving upwards and joy welling in our hearts as we watched our God at work.

Hey People

So...the last month and a half have been crazy. The truth is that God has been at work in a great way. Right now my Mom's visiting and the Sister In-Law (Colleen) was here...check out this pic:


Updates coming....