Address in Cape Town

Hey there. I'm glad you're still reading this. Just some info regarding updates during June, and how you can contact me.

S. Africa Team Blog
The S. Africa team has a blog that hopefully everyone will contribute to while we are traveling overland. There will be general info updates about what the group is up to, posted every week or so. I will try to write something for that every week. Nonetheless, please check the team blog every week to keep up with what we're doing.
http://teamsouthafrica09.blogspot.com/

Address in South Africa
I finally know my address in S. Africa! And a phone number I can be reached at in July when I get back.
YWAM – Chris Wolf
No 19 Alexander Road
Muizenberg, South Africa 7950

Phone
27 (0) 21 788 7322

Photographer

This week, our lecture topic was On Doing Missions, and a photographer who has been in YWAM and doing photography in YWAM for years, led the lectures. Jan (like "yawn") C. Schlegel is a brilliant photographer and a fun person to be around.

I want to talk more about Jan's lectures and what we did this week, but I also wanted to plug something really cool that has come up for him.

Hasselblad has a master photographer competition every year. This is a very, very prestigious competition. To even be selected as one of the top ten photographers in any category is a huge accomplishment. Jan submitted his photos thinking nothing would happen, but he is one of the ten finalists in the portrait category.

This means a lot to Jan, and it means a lot to me now and the whole PhotoGenX class. Jan is completely dedicated to giving his life to end world hunger, and that is what a lot of his work, both photos and otherwise, center around. I can't think of anyone more deserving of a prime platform to reach world renowned photographers to help change the world and fight against hunger and injustice.

So, what I think would be amazing, is if you could spare a couple minutes to vote for him to win this competition. I can't make you, and if you find a photographer you like more, I can't stop you from voting for them. But I don't know any of them like I've come to know Jan a little in the last few days. But I'll let his photos speak for themselves.

http://www.jan-schlegel.com/ (Jan's website with his photos. Amazing work here...)
http://www.hasselblad.com/mastersPublicJury (Hasselblad site where you can vote. From "Select Category" choose portrait. He is the seventh photographer, I think. On the right hand side is a link to vote.)

Thanks for your time, and I hope you enjoy the photos that have started to view me while I view them...

Christopher

•

(P.S. I just got a chance to do this myself. It's been hard with no computer... There is a form asking for personal information. I understand if you don't want to fill this in for someone you don't know. I probably wouldn't fill it in. Don't waste your time at the Hasselblad site if you don't want to give personal info, but please do check out Jan's website.)

19 June Update

This is the most difficult update to give so far, for a few reasons. I have a few things to address as I remember them. Hopefully I will remember them all. This is pretty long, so take it when you have a few minutes.

•

Yesterday, Thursday 18 June, marked the T-minus one week point. We are now leaving in less than a week for South Africa (and most of the PhotoGenX team for Panamá). I can scarcely believe the time to leave for outreach is upon me already. I’m ready to go, but I don’t feel prepared yet. There are a few things I would prefer to go with that I don’t have. I have to figure out how to pack, what to buy here in Hawaii verses in Cape Town in a week. And I especially have to consider weight. I want to buy books by previous PhotoGenX groups to send back home, and I have to figure out the cost for mailing the books. I have a number of tasks and I cannot imagine when I will be able to accomplish them all.

So yeah, my time of “suffering for Jesus in Hawaii” will end in under a week. I’m excited to head out.

•

Wednesday

This week we’ve had speakers lecturing on missions as a lifestyle. On Wednesday our speaker, Laura, was talking about being a living sacrifice, about leaving things behind to follow Jesus. The whole morning my laptop computer was on my mind. I felt God beginning to nudge me about giving it away in my willingness and desire to follow him. Then Laura decided we should have time as a class to pray whether God was calling us to leave anything or give anything to others in the group.

Knowing my computer had been on my mind all morning, I prayed about it quickly and asked God to confirm that it was from him. He did. I know I had to give away/leave behind my computer. I didn’t feel him leading me to anyone in particular. So then I heard God challenging me about the external hard drive I just bought. I knew exactly who he wanted me to give it too right away, I tried to think and find some way of keeping either the computer or the hard drive. Not both, God! I need these for my photography, and I’m really in a bad spot if I give away both! I know enough by now that the best choice for myself and anyone else involved is to just be obedient. Which is hard. And I have a better appreciation now for how difficult it can become. But I want to choose In for the est of my life. That means a life of obedience. So I gave away my computer and external hard drive. They are both in very good hands now.

So then in addition to all this, I had $500 come in from a friend I love to death and would die for; I have not adequately expressed that to her. (Stacey, you mean a great deal to you, and we need to talk before I fall off the face of the world.) There were a lot of people who still had a lot of money to finish paying (and there still are a few people with needed money…), and I was praying about whether God wanted me to help anyone financially. I thought right away of my S. Africa team members who still have money to pay. But for some reason God made it clear I wasn’t supposed to give to any of them. I have a lot of friends I wanted to give money to for them to knock out the remainder. All the people I would have chosen on my own God shot down. He directed my attention to someone I wouldn’t have thought of immediately. I had prayed for her a day or two before that she would get all the money she needed, which was nearly $2000. I have made a point of never praying anything if I am not willing to be the answer to my own prayer. So God brought me full circle and said, “Give to Tina.” $500 was about the exact amount she needed. Her balance is at $0 now, and she is going to Panamá.

The people in the South Africa team, whom God said not to give to, they were all provided for when someone in our group heard God asking her to give her savings to pay for the rest of the fees our team owed. And the other couple I wanted to give to, the rest of their fees where covered on Wednesday too. God clearly had his strong and providing hand in our midst on Wednesday, and I was so blessed to hear him and be obedient and give. This was only possible because of the generosity and care and love you all, my Family, have shown me these last three months. Thank you.

So, I left behind my computer and hard drive and $550 at God’s calling, and in his holy, perfect sense of ironic humour, on Wednesday asked two people to give their iPods to me. I don’t have a computer or a way to easily use iPods anymore… so God saw fit to give me two. Hilarious. =] Thank you, Daddy. So I found out that my friend’s iPod broke last week, and promptly gave him one of mine. Thank God I only have one now. I’m just praying for a laptop when I get home.


•

South Africa Itinerary

We leave in a little less than a week now, on 25 June. I will fly from Honolulu to Atlanta, and arrive in Atlanta at 5:30am. Our layover is almost 12 hours. That should be fun. Hopefully we’ll have somewhere to crash during that layover. From Atlanta on 26 June I fly to Cape Town, with a stopover in Dakar. We arrive in Cape Town 26 hours after we leave Atlanta, on 27 June. We have four days of rest and orientation after we get to Cape Town. On 2 July we leave for an overland trip, kind of a tour through S. Africa. We’ll be doing all kinds of different ministries and work while we’re traveling. The overland trip will go until 24 July. We will have a group blog that will be updated about once a week during that time, so I will have you all go there to see what we’re doing. I’ll give the URL as soon as I know it. Ask me if you want to know more, and I’ll hopefully have details. I do know we will be listening to many peoples’ stories, and sharing our own stories, and photographing people as we build relationships.

•

I have so many thoughts rolling around in my mind, and I want desperately to get them out, to reflect, to process, and to share. But I’ve already written a lot, and you must be tired from reading it. I will not be able to write and update as often without a personal computer, but I will at least post something before my departure next week.

Indebted to your love, more than I can say,

Grace and peace,

Christopher

Untitled

Swim away through the swamp
to your lover, the crocodile
and I will sing you a dirge.

I made a house in the canopy
when I was younger. You may
sleep on my couch
if you can climb up the bark. Remember
dear, a picture of your lover’s mother
is hanging in the tree house
over the fireplace
from when my father went hunting,
when your lover lost his family.
You can take down the picture,
if you like.

Loving a crocodile is difficult,
like the time we tried to bake underwater,
and wondered what went wrong
and why everything was wet.
You didn’t go underwater again
after we made soggy cookies until
you met him. Now your skin
stays always wrinkled.

Sulfur & Magnetic Resonance Poetry

New poem. I liked the way the words of the title sounded, so I made a poem [series of poems/I'm not sure what this is now]. This all has come out of reflections based on the last couple months in PhotoGenX. I would love critique/constructive criticism.

Sulfur & Magnetic Resonance Poetry

1.
She sat across on a hardback cushionless wicker
chair, wanting just to rest for the night, staring into
a white-light square with wide open nighttime eyes.
The cups standing on the shadowy floor
compete for my attention in magnetic compulsion
to pick them up. So I comply. She doesn’t move
her eyes from the glow; I scoop up one
cup, another cup, and shuffle them to the barren
sink. The dishes will wait for the sun.

2.
You say the words slowly, annunciating each
syllable, waiting for the timing to be right.
The way the S rolls off your tongue reminds me
of other S words, like sexy, or sycamore,
or pseudonym. The sulfur tattoos your tongue and lips
like a tribal design, the meaning unclear to everyone
including the owner. But it looks cool.
I know your meaning when you say sulfur,
that I smell dead, or that I have strength.

3.
Did you ever want to run away to Paris, Lady,
and live homeless under the Eiffel Tower
in the afternoons and live at cafés for lunch
and dinner? We can sleep through breakfast
together. I’ll whisper French words in your ears
while we wait for lunch time, and you won’t know
what I’m saying, and I won’t know my words either.
Poetry without translation is often the easiest to swallow
and believe with open ears.

4.
I write about you often, in my notebook &
in my dreams. I talk about you when I write.
You are not the same, today, and you will be
someone else, tomorrow or next year.
I don’t know who you are, & you are me
sometimes. I love when others write of you,
after I get over my jealousy.

5.
Resonance draws her fingers across the white–
washed walls ringing with the tone to take
my feet as captive dancers, drumming down
my spine, up my brain stem, simply spinning
some beautiful beats. I lose thoughts before
I can convert any music to memory.
Why don’t you play Authority Song
as you tell me everything I’m not scarred of
anymore.

Portraits

I wanted to share a few portraits I've shot so far. Hopefully, more soon...

This is my friend (and staff worker) Layne Greene.



This is my friend Jo Svensen.





Hope you enjoyed! Grace and peace!

Chris

Thoughts

Today I got a message from someone who is an alumnus of my high school. She graduated before I began high school, and I have not met her. She said she’s very excited about what I’m doing in South Africa and wants to help, and offered to do a bake sale to raise funds for me.

How awesome is that? A stranger contacts me to ask if she can raise money to give me toward the work I have been called into. God is good.

Since seeking God’s heart for love and justice and mercy and grace and peace – essentially for the reality of God’s presence to come into lives where He is most needed – blessings seem to have been piling up on me. In my mind, all I have been doing was living out what God speaks in His Word in the specific context He has called me to. It’s obedience. It is doing the right thing at the right time. There is nothing special about me. This could be anyone doing the same things.

And all I can think is, This is grace. It is gift. It is kindness. It is joy. It is a favor done without expectation of return. And I love it.

And it is good. I have people asking to bake for me. And really, it isn’t about me. It is about the thousands and thousands of women living in shame and humiliation and silence because they have AIDS and feel they cannot speak because they do not want they families and friends to cast them out of their community.

Thank you, friend I have not yet met. And friends I have met, feel free to hold a bake sale to give money for a cause that seeks God’s love. Organize a (non)talent show. You all are more creative than I am. So go use your gifts.

•

A friend of mine from Canada has been trying valiantly to raise support to pay for school costs and the price of an around the world plane ticket so he can do the two year PhotoGenX program. Bless his heart. The exchange rate is not in his favor. In the last few days, he has received a couple thousand dollars. God has shown His faithfulness to my friend to provide for his needs, to give him the things he asks for. God has shown His faithfulness to me in the last few days in a huge way. Praise God! And He has shown His faithfulness and providence of many, many students and staff in our group.

But what about the people for whom nothing has happened? For whom there have been no breakthroughs in money they need? Does God care less about them somehow? Have they not done something so God will do something for them? Is grace, this gift, not broad and powerful enough to extend to them?

Of course I do not think they have done something wrong or not done something. But why me? Why have I seen the blessings, the grace I have?

I pray it’s to be a blessing. I don’t know what I can do right now. I need to pray. I always need to pray. Mostly I need to listen more closely than I have been. But I also want to listen. I want to hear God’s word and obey in gratitude and joy…

I hope to have good news to share about my friends soon.

•

Why is it that in the accounts of Jesus’ life He talks so often about things related to money? And Jesus doesn’t say things that make sense to me or most of my friends, at least not with the way we have been taught to understand economics. Jesus talks about not making a fuss over paying taxes to the Empire that was occupying Israel (Matthew 22:17). Or earlier in Matthew, Jesus says not to be anxious about food or clothing because God will provide it (Matthew 6:25). Typically food and clothing have to be bought. And they cost a lot of money as your family grows. The two are connected in a fundamental way. There is freedom and release from anxiety about paying taxes to Rome – and Jesus says it’s Caesar’s money anyway – and freedom in knowing and trusting that God will provide the very basic needs out of His generous loving nature. Which is good since tax collectors working for Rome took much of the money anyone had. Jesus essentially says, “That coin with an inscription of a man? That’s human way of understanding and doing provision. God’s way? Well, God has put his inscription on the flowers.” What can you say in counter response to that?

And then there are stories for illustrating investment in the Kingdom of God. Lessons on giving, and supporting. Stories of financial sacrifice. Which makes me think that the issues I’m dealing with involving money aren’t new… =P

•

I guess my point was sort of that money, as one of the most looming concerns of YWAM students – and I think missionaries more generally – is not limited to myself, and is a hard thing and difficult to understand why it’s different person to person. But I think it’s clear that God cares. I do not even know how He could possibly be indifferent.

After all, God has made wildflowers to look more glorious than even the wisest, possibly wealthiest man ever.

From the grace that has been given to me, in God’s rich love,

Chris

The Battle Is Won…

But the war is still going. The biggest obstacle so far has been my outreach fee, which is finally covered. The total cost of the PhotoGenX DTS was over $10,000, which I saw provided in less than three months. God is good. The biggest battle is won and finished.

Many, many people, many of you, have shown great generosity and encouragement and belief in what I’m doing. You have put up with dozens of my annoying emails asking for financial support. You have not sent me any hate email in response. You have been patient with me. You have read my update blogs, the good ones and the poorly written ones and the rants (which maybe shouldn’t have happened…). You are reading this right now. Thank you.

As much as I have already received, I want to ask boldly for a little more. The money I have received so far has gone completely to my fees for training and outreach in South Africa. I still need to buy supplies for the trip, like a backpack to carry my camera and photography gear, an external hard drive to back up images and important files, gear and basic necessities I will have to buy. I am hoping my costs in total will be around $500 to buy all the gear and things I will need. I am not sure how much the costs will end up being.

So, you know now the expenses for the outreach trip are done. If you would still like to support me financially, the money will go toward the most important and costly gear I need, hopefully a camera bag first, then an external hard drive, and smaller things like travel towels and toothpaste last. Or if you have equipment/gear/supplies I may have use for, email me to see if I could use it and you could ship it.

Snail mail to Hawaii is slow and seems a little unreliable. My mom helps with my finances my depositing checks into my account so I can pay my YWAM bills. Checks made out to me can be sent to her at my home address. Or if you use Paypal, I have a donate link set up on my Blogger update site (you're on it!) that goes to my checking account.

Thank you all for all your prayers, all your support, and all your encouragement. I have my outreach fees paid! This is an investment into what I plan and want to become my lifelong work. I want to use photography for the rest of my life to see and show the world through different eyes, and to validate people who have never been validated. I want to use photography as a tool to pray for the people I meet. For the rest of my life, I want to use photography to inspire others and to be a voice for the voiceless. I am doing that and will continue to do that for many years because of your support and coming alongside me. And this is an investment into lives of beautiful valuable people, whom the world has condemned as ugly and worthless. I will help reverse those lies. Love always wins.

Thank you for your love. You are helping the winning side.

Grace and Peace! With much love,

Christopher Wolf

What Does the LORD Require?

With what shall I come before the LORD
and bow down before the exalted God?
Shall I come before him with burnt offerings,
with calves a year old?

Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams,
with ten thousand rivers of oil?
Shall I offer my firstborn for my transgression,
the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?

He has showed you, O man, what is good.
And what does the LORD require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy
and to walk humbly with your God.

– Micah 6:6-8

While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew's house, many tax collectors and "sinners" came and ate with him and his disciples. When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, "Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and 'sinners'?" On hearing this, Jesus said, "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. But go and learn what this means: 'I desire mercy, not sacrifice.' For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners." – Matthew 9:10-13 (quote from Hosea 6:6)

What if God wasn't about getting people to be afraid of him, but to love him and love people? What if he wanted people to love each other because they are created in his likeness, because they bear the "divine spark" from the creator of the universe? What if God wants mercy and justice and love because he understands that fullness and life only truly come through community and right living with each other, because God is in community from before time?

Does all this make sense? I know I have trouble comprehending the implications of these ideas. I believe God wants us to give/be mercy and grace and peace and love and life to each other. I believe God wants to be loved as the Father he is in creating people in his likeness, whom he calls children. Even assuming these things might be true is a radical step and has serious, world changing implications.

So, how does this apply to PhotoGenX?

What if Christians were to live out the words of Micah and act justly and seek justice in the world? Or what if Christians were to do as Jesus says and practice mercy, not to give people the things they deserve, to forfeit the right to harm or punish when it is within their rights? (And why did Jesus focus on mercy when he quoted this verse?) What if Christians were to walk humbly with God, starting out of acting justly themselves, and forgiving and extending mercy when wronged, knowing they don't know the whole situation like God does?

The first command, act justly, has been most heavy on my heart. I want to see justice come where there is injustice. I want there to be light and hope where there is now darkness and despair. I want to see the oppressed go free.

But there is something important at stake here for the oppressor too, isn't there? The things pimps and crime lords and rapists and people behind genocide and every kind of injustice imaginable have done, I can barely conceive forgiving them, giving mercy. But that is what God wants.

God is interested in freedom for the oppressed and the oppressor.

Because justice can only truly come when the oppressed and set free amends made, and when the oppressor no longer does injustice against anyone. And both parties, on either side of injustice, need to walk humbly with God,

to avoid becoming proud and arrogant,

to keep from condemning themselves for what happened,

to know they are created in the image of the God who created the universe, and he loves them.

That's really what justice, and mercy, and humility are about, right? Knowing the truth of God's love.

χάρις καὶ εἰρήνη,

Χριστοφόρος