from
Sally
on
December 11, 2009
"I hope you fail!" Who would say something like that?? Failure is a word that most of us would like to remove from our vocabulary. None of us like it, and we certainly don't want to experience it. But we'll all face it sometime. The important thing is to be ready to turn to God in the midst of it. He is a faithful teacher in every situation.
I heard of a high school commencement speaker who said something very unusual in his address. He was chosen to speak because of his success as the president of a large business. As he stood before the students, he told them that he had one desire for them. As they go out into the world, he hoped they would fail at something that was important to them. He told how his early years had been one failure after another, until he finally learned to see failure as a very effective teacher in his life.
We see this in the Bible. Many songs from Israel had their birth in times of failure. "As the deer longs for flowing streams, so longs my soul for you, O God." Ps. 42:1-2
David often cried out to God in the midst of hard times and failure. "Hear my prayer, O Lord, and give ear to my cry; hold not thy peace at my tears!" Ps. 39:12
We often aren't ready to turn to God, to seek His wisdom, and receive His strength until we come to the end of ourselves. There are many examples in the Bible that tell of mountains of faith rising from valleys of failure. Before we get to the successes we strive for, we may need to first see the failure of precious dreams we hold in our hearts. We may need to learn to trust God's love, wisdom, and guidance when it takes us down paths we hadn't planned. We may fall flat on our faces a few times. We may struggle. We will certainly be humbled. We must learn from our failures, or we will fail to learn.
We must persevere through the difficult times in our life, through the failures. We can grit our teeth and just barely make it through, or we can learn and grow. God promises to go with us through difficult times. We can go through the fire and not be burned - by His grace! We don't need to fear. We must choose to not give up, but to look to Him. Sometimes we have to pick up the pieces and begin again. The failures and difficulties we struggle with can sometimes be the back door to a great success or victory that God has for us.
As I look back through my life, I see "seasons" of trial, difficulty, and, yes, failure. It's interesting that some of my greatest seasons of growth coincide with those same seasons. The pain, the stretching, the wrestling for answers and provision, the tears, and the questions (all things I don't really like) brought fruit and release into my life. They all brought me closer to Him. We say God is in control. In the face of difficulty and failure we need to stand firm on the truth of that even more!
"Why are you cast down, O my soul?....Hope in God; for I shall again praise Him." Ps. 42:5
from
Floyd
on
November 29, 2009
Hello,
I just received the following note from one of our All Nations leaders, Werner Els, living in Pretoria, South Africa. It is incredibly encouraging report about God at Work at Work! I believe God longs for His church to break out of the "church" happens on Sunday paradigm, to see what He will do when we invite Him to work through us at work.
I have been discipling Werner off and on for several years, and have encouraged him to be courageous and creative about igniting a church at his work place.
This is the result!
Floyd
"When I started working at Aerosud I was full of plans to share the gospel with people without them knowing I am sharing it with them (you get weird and not so wonderful things when you combine passion and fear of man!). MY plans started off well until one day (in 2007) I sensed strongly that God wanted to show me something in Aerosud. Since then I got to understand that MY plans do NOT = His plans for me/Aerosud and that Jesus came to give us life in abundance...
As I surrendered MY plans to the Lord I gradually lost my passion for my work since that DRIVE wasn’t there anymore. It was like Samson without his hair… But God did something; He returned my focus on Him and stirred my passion and love for Him. During all of this I felt I had to be faithful with the few things I knew the Lord had called me for in Aerosud, one of them being Broeikas. Now Broeikas is a place where people meet during lunch times... God wanted Broeikas to BE an incubator for meeting people's spiritual needs... We want to see fruit! We want to see God’s kingdom being manifested through the lives of every person working here...
One afternoon in October 2009 I received a call from one our senior level managers saying that he wants to talk to me. Walking into his office I saw that something was different with this man. He shared with me that he went through a tough time in his life and that he was down and out. The one day whilst walking in the corridor he passed one of our prayer warriors and he asked him “how are you”? Peter replied “I am exceptional”. This struck Johan and he said to Peter that his life is falling apart. Peter took him to his office WHERE HE COMMITTED HIS LIFE TO CHRIST AND SURRENDERED ALL HIS BURDENS!!! Praise be to God!! Jippiee! He is the 1st convert on company turf that we know about ;-) and has already made a huge impact in his department.
I asked Johan how I can support him in his journey and he asked for prayer. So I told him that we gather twice a week to pray for the company and the needs of people and that he will get prayer there. Afterwards he shared this with Jacques in his department and a lady overheard them and then the ball started rolling. Elizca was upset and phoned me telling me that more people needs to know about what God is doing when we meet at Broeikas and that we must reach out to people. So she sent out e-mails to the whole company inviting people... Needless to say a lot of people came and the ball started growing in size (10 people out of one manager's department come regularly)…
After Goitse, a passionate follower of Jesus, shared from his heart a few teachings on love, one of the new guys felt that we should share the love of the Lord and lead people to repentance. So we organised a ‘God week’ / mission week and even the CEO gave his blessing for this. This started on Monday 23rd of November and will continue until Friday the 28th.
We have already prayed a lot for the impact of this initiative and even started prayer walking around the peripheral of the company. I believe there is power in prayer because God hears our pleas and answers them. I want to ask you to please intercede for the people in Aerosud. We have one opportunity and want to make the best of it!..."
from
Floyd
on
November 20, 2009
I referred to "bride price" in a recent letter to some friends. One of them asked me what this means and why I am against it.
The bride price practice in Africa is part of the socio-economics of Africa. It is a way of providing a sort of pension for parents. Young men and their families are expected to give cash and cows to the bride's family. A price that is negotiated between the elders representing the two families. The price is determined by future bride's father and uncles. Where this practice causes problems is when young men or their families cannot pay the bride price, but they go ahead and live together
The families would cut them off the young man if he got married without paying the bride price. However, it is common for a man to live with the woman he plans to marry some day without getting married while he tries to save or find a way to pay the bride price, and of course the couple normally have several children as well.Many of the men leave the woman they are living with if they prefer another woman or move back home to the tribal area. There is flexibility on the part of the family and tribal elders to accept their sons and daughters living together, but there is no tolerance for them to get officially married until the bride price is paid.
This double standard has led to destruction in many people's lives. Sally and I are trying to understand how to honour African traditions and practices but to also work for transformation of those practices that are creating havoc in people's lives, especially innocent children.
from
Floyd
on
November 12, 2009
Hello,
This is your invite to spend ten days with us in Cape Town! Ten days for Jesus! I'll be teaching almost every day on Making the Basics Beautiful!
If your between 18 and 30 years, want to do something special this holiday season, and are hungry to grow in your faith - apply now!
Yours,
Floyd McClung
What is Ten Days for Jesus?
It’s an annual event hosted by All Nations in and around Noordhoek near Cape Town, South Africa.
It’s your opportunity to be involved in reaching people in some of the local townships around the Cape Peninsula and showing them how much Jesus loves them.
We set aside ten whole days where we give our time and ourselves to love and serve others as a birthday gift to our King.
What better gift to give Him than our lives in serving the poor and those who don’t know him?
“ ... It is more blessed to give than to receive…” (Acts 20:35).
Join with us and many other enthusiastic followers of Jesus for this exciting short outreach, reaching out to people with God’s heart and love!
When Is Ten Days for Jesus 2009?
The outreach will run from the afternoon of Thursday 10th December through Sunday 20th December, 2009.
Cost of Ten Days for Jesus 2009?
It will cost R1,700 for the ten day period.
This will cover your accommodation, 3 meals a day and transport once you arrive at Africa House. Transportation from the airport or bus station is R100 extra.
Ten Days For Jesus 2009 Program
Our theme for 2009 is ‘Back to Basics’. We want to go back to the basics and remind ourselves of how Jesus shared the gospel by serving people with love.
We are excited about what God is going to be doing!
Ten Days has always been a blast and this year will be no exception. Join us !
What Should I Do Now?
We only have room for a limited number of people so if you want to join us, apply now.
Contact us for an application form below at one of the contact addreses below.
Return it immediately to Pat Fourie at the All Nations office.
By fax using this number: +27-21-785-7201
By e-mail attachment to: info@all-nations.co.za
One of the team will be in touch to let you know if we still have space for you.
If we do, we will send you bank details for payment.
We look forward to hearing from you shortly!
The Ten Days for Jesus Team
from
Floyd
on
August 25, 2009
Hi, As a proud father and mother, we have to tell you about our daughter and son-in-law :) being featured on the NBC Evening News in the United States. Lionel and Misha started an organization called "Giving Anonymously." It was featured as one of the news items on the NBC evening news with Brian Williams, Sun. eve., in the segment called "Making a Difference." It was filmed last week, and shown last night. Click
here if you would like to see the clip.
God has blessed what they have been doing. Lionel, our son-in-law, was recently mentioned in a New York Times article, and they were interviewed for NPR (national public radio) recently too. In the year or so that the program has been running, about $200,000 has been given thru it. We pray that this media attention will prompt more giving. We thought you would like to share our joy and pride!
Kind regards,
Floyd and Sally McClung
from
Floyd
on
June 30, 2009
This article is from the July, 2009 edition of Today magazine in South Africa:
What is the biggest thing you have learned at CPx Raymond? “That we are human BEings and not human doings! So often we feel pressurised to do this or do that and fill in a tick box list! But God has called us to BE; it is in our relationships that we find meaning and fulfilment. CPx has taught me the importance of people before process.”
I am in Noordhoek to meet Floyd McClung, well known author, speaker,evangelist and visionary. While I learn more about what makes Floyd tick, over 45 students are gathered in the next room,having come in for the six-month Church Planting Experience training (CPx) at All Nations.
To read the rest of the article click here to download or open the PDF file.
from
Floyd
on
April 15, 2009
BAPTISM ON EASTER SUNDAY AT AFRICA HOUSE, OUR NEW TRAINING CENTER 
TWO STUDENTS IN CPX, ALISON FROM SOUTH AFRICA ON THE LEFT, AND SHANNON ON THE RIGHT FROM THE USA
PRAYER TIME AT AFRICA HOUSE 
A LOCAL PASTOR NAMED NDABA TEACHING CPx STUDENTS AT AFRICA HOUSE
ERECTING THE 24/7 PRAYER CHAPEL AT AFRICA HOUSE - DONATED IN HONOR OF TIL CORTESI
MUNYARADZI, ONE OF OUR LEADERS, ON THE LEFT, WITH ONE OF HIS NEW DISCIPLES, NICOLAS, ON THE RIGHT
from
Floyd
on
March 24, 2009
These first believers were in such a condition that their homes were holy places. I beg you to notice this, that they were breaking bread from house to house, and did eat their food with gladness and singleness of heart. They did not think that religion was meant only for Sundays, and for what men now-a-days call the House of God. Their own houses were houses of God, and their own meals were mixed and mingled with the Lords Supper. They elevated their meals into diets for worship. They so consecrated everything with prayer and praise that all around them was holiness unto the Lord. I wish our houses were thus dedicated to the Lord, so that we worshipped God all the day long, and made our dwellings temples for the living God. Does God need a special house? He who made the heavens and the earth, does he dwell in temples made with hands? What crass ignorance is this! No house beneath the sky is more holy than the place where a Christian lives, and eats, and drinks, and sleeps, and praises the Lord in all that he does. There is no worship more heavenly than that which is presented by holy families, devoted to his fear. To sacrifice home worship to public worship is a most evil course of action. Morning and evening devotion in a cottage is infinitely more pleasing in the sight of God than all the cathedral pomp which delights the carnal eye and ear. Every truly Christian household is a church, and as such it is competent for the discharge of any function of divine worship, whatever it may be. Are we not all priests? Why do we need to call in others to make devotion a performance? Let every man be a priest in his own house. Are you not all kings if you love the Lord? Then make your houses palaces of joy and temples of holiness. One reason why the early church had such a blessing was because her members had such homes. When we are like them we shall have added to the church daily of the saved.
Thank you to
Aaron Marshall for finding this.
