Simple Update on Life

I just wanted to give you an update of my life and family and where God is leading us.

In late 2005 I was appointed by The Mission Society to be the African Regional Coordinator; that is, to give visionary oversight to all of our fields on the African continent. We have folks working full time with The Mission Society now in Ghana, Togo, Kenya, Tanzania and Zambia. There are families that are soon to be sent out to Senegal and perhaps South Africa. We also have seconded relationships with folks that are serving in difficult places on the African continent. It is exciting to see God at work here.

Since January I was also appointed to be the missionary observer participant on the board of The Mission Society. This has been a dream fulfilled for many of us serving on the field to have some voice and interaction with the governance board. Our president, Phil Granger, recently went through a life threatening surgery and was in ICU for many days and we can say that God truly brought him back from the brink of death. We are thankful that he is back in operation and working hard throughout the world.

The most ominous and yet rewarding thing in my life at this moment is my PhD study. Even though I’ve continued to give guidance and leadership to many of my coworkers here in Ghana, I have really been a full time student at Akrofi-Christaller Institute of Theology, Mission and Culture here in Akropong, Ghana. I started my course work in the Fall of 2006 and completed that portion in June of 2007 and was approved to continue my work on my PhD. My studies have led me into the bowels of the archives here in Ghana, London and Oxford. I have found some incredible letters that were written from 1835-1890. It is in those letters that I have found incredible insight into missions, life, applications that will assist me in my current ministry and in my future. One quote that I cannot forget from Thomas Birch Freeman, the man that I am studying for my PhD said when he was 28, “It is necessary for me to go (on the mission field) but it may not be necessary that I live.” He is the man that I want to emulate and it compels me to ask the question, “Where are the men and women who have that passion and zeal any more to proclaim the Gospel?!” I am thankful to work with many who have considered their lives and put all on the altar in answer to HIS call.

Recently I attended a seminar by a Ghanaian woman who’s name is Mercy Odudoye. She said, “If we don’t know where we’ve been, how can we know where we are going?” It is the essence of my passion to learn history! At the same time it is essential for me to realize the situation we are in as a nation and as a world. Christianity has indeed shifted in our direction in the southern hemisphere, including South America, Africa and parts of Asia while Europe and North America fade in their Christian fervor. Africa is the fastest growing continent in Christianity today.

I still continue to preach at my home church of Asbury Dunwell every third Sunday and our family shares the Gospel once a month at Pram Pram to a childrens’ home. I continue to travel as African Regional Coordinator and will be visiting our people in Kenya in December and assisting a new family to determine if Senegal is the place God has called them in January.

Our family is blessed. Anna is thriving at Asbury, Maggie is loving being a sophomore at Lincoln, in the winter play and playing soccer, Luke loves his school and all of his friends, especially Momo, his best friend from South Africa. Claire continues to manage our home, the kids, short term teams, discipleship of her Muslim friend Suaba, prayer groups and Bible Study. She always amazes me.

God is good, we continue to pray for all of you in the midst of these economically challenging days. We love you and seek God’s Highest for you in all things.

Attacked by a mother hen

I've lived in Africa for the past ten years. I've seen a lot and done a lot of very interesting things. I've sat on the back of a crocodile, held a crocodile's tail, thrown a live chicken into a crocodile's mouth (don't tell the animal rights people), but I've never been attacked by a mother hen. I have walked hundreds of miles in dusty villages, seen thousands of animals in those villages, chickens, sheep, goats, pigs, donkeys, cows, monkeys, parrots, mice, rats, dogs and cats. In all those miles and with all those animals, I've never been threatened once until now, by a chicken!

This past weekend our family travelled to Kumasi to visit some of our very ill colleagues who were diagnosed with terrible malaria and to pass on the generous contributions of a church in California to over 200 orphans at Adullam Orphanage by purchasing beans, rice and fish for them. While Claire and our intern Rebecca went to deliver the food items, Luke and I stayed behind in Kumasi to meet with some of our leaders. Luke and I went to lunch with our dear friend Joe Otsin and then decided to take a nostalgic walk through our old village of Adiebeba. As we got down from Joe's car and crossed the road we decided to walk on the back side of the village between the houses rather than go on the main road. Usually this is the place where people direct their run off water from their houses so it's very narrow, undulating and smells interesting. As we were making our way up the alley I saw a bevy of chicks drinking the run off water and the mother hen was close at hand. As I started to step in their general direction, the mother hen went into attack mode, threw her wings out and went bezerk on my feet. Thankfully she didn't draw blood and I decided to back up and start over. When I backed up, a sweet Ghanaian lady had heard the commotion out the back door of her home and she was laughing hysterically at my predicament. Luke was standing just behind me and said, "Daddy, I'm not going that way." I started up again and she went after me a second time. But, I persisted and made it through, Luke had no choice but to follow suit and he was right on my heals as he didn't want to meet the fury of a mother hen feeling threatened.

Great life lesson. God says he will cover us in his wings...I know that experientially now. God really loves us and doesn't want anything evil to happen to us. Luke and I have a new appreciation for mother hens and for how much God longs to protect us. We finished our walk through the village felt the extreme heat that Ghanaians live in everyday. We loved the old scenes of banku being boiled, sellers selling their wares and school children buying their snacks during their break.

We made it to Ankaase later that afternoon to find our dear friends and colleagues, the Dalenbergs, prayerfully concerned for their son Samuel. He originally had +5 Malaria which is very dangerous and his body had reacted to the treatment of quinine and damaged his liver and kidneys so he was jaundice, weak and on a drip. We prayed for him and spent time with the family. Since that time they've had to move him to the teaching hospital in downtown Kumasi. Samuel is not out of the woods yet and desperately needs your prayers. If you read this, pray for Samuel Dalenberg and his family.

Blessings,

Michael

What's in a name?

It has been a few years since I sent out an email declaring my name change. For many it seems weird because for the first 43 years of my life I've been Mike. My mother named me James Michael Mozley, though I don't recall her ever telling me why. When I was young she would say she loved the name James and she was going to call me that but of course I was always Mike so I protested strongly and she succumbed to my wishes. For most of my life people have only known me as Mike Mozley, even though in high school I think the preferential name was just Mozley.

In the winter of 2005 I was back in the States and traveling like mad all over the Southeast speaking in churches and as Jackson Brown says, "I was running on empty." So I went to see a friend and we began to ask God what was going on and of course God responded. Here is what he said in a nutshell...."Michael, I want every stone of your life overturned. I want nothing hidden, no secrets, no hidden motives, no dark places and I want to be back in your name." So as I thought about it, there was something cathartic about hearing the name Michael and it spoke deep within me every time I heard it. Michael is the Hebrew word which when broken down is Mi-cah-el. And of course EL is the Hebrew word for God. And it means, "Who is like God." I have also been told that it is also a question, "Who is like God?" Because Michael in the Bible is the greatest Archangel, perhaps God was saying, "Who can be like Me?"

So in the winter of 2005, I didn't change my name but God did! So for those of you who have known me as Mike, I'm now Michael. I know it sounds weird to many and if I'm called Mike, I don't ask people to change in public, only if they ask. So instead of going through a mid-life crisis and buying a new sports car, I got a name change and it fits me perfectly.

Here we go again!

Who knows about all these blog spots? Who reads them? Who has time to read them or check back like in my case who doesn't write in several months...life is too busy and too much going on to blog. But I'm sitting in the Pitts Library at Candler School of Theology or Emory University as it is better known doing more research on my doctorate. And so here it goes again...one more blog on my belt. I don't like this very much honestly...I'd rather talk to people than just write these random thoughts hoping to get a rise out of that close knit group of people who seem to read my blog.

What a weird world I live in. I travel to the States for three weeks, do a missions conference, do research, sit in on The Mission Society Board meeting and I fly home. See my family, go to school, do my research and have to present a paper that is heavier than that albatross that that guy talked about in his famous poem...part of growing old is forgetting names and where they came from. Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner is the name of the poem and he is starving on his boat for water and he feels like an albatross is around his neck...me too.

The research is incredible, the writing is the grind but that is where the gold is refined and the diamonds are made. Press on dear friends. Take deep breaths and don't forget to dance in front of Jesus! He needs a good laugh every now and again!

Michael

Long Time Coming

In the lulling moments of down time, I was very excited about blogging and posting thoughts from my head and heart but as the reality of my doctoral studies crashes in on me, that excitement has waned considerably. I'm sitting at home this morning and my Lukie boy has Malaria or Strep Throat so I have some few moments to put some thoughts down.
The world I live in now is Gospel and Culture and studying the aspects of Jesus in his culture in first century Palestine and the impact of his interaction with women...was he challenging the cultural norms of his day? Was he setting a precedent for modern culture to give honor and value to women, knowing they would be put down and disregarded as second class citizens? Is it their reaction to this oppressiveness that has caused so much radical feminism?
The other world I live in is Bartolome de Las Casas! Now how many of you have ever even heard of his name? He was the Dominican priest that stood against the Behemoth of Spain as they were conquering and simultaneously destroying the cultures of the West Indies, Mexico, Central and South America...one book I was studying verified that during the 16th Century there were 80,000,000 Indians alive during that century but by 1600 there were only 10,000,000 remaining. They weren't all killed by the sword, many died by the European epidemics, thousands did die by the sword and by trained dogs from Spain. This is history that isn't written about in our history books. We have a picture of the gallant Christopher Columbus arriving somewhere in America, which was actually Haiti and bringing his flag and Bible and establishing a new land...He was not as brutal as Cortes or Pizarro but nonetheless, he wanted gold and the heathen to be converted to Catholicism. I'm learning deeper things than I ever imagined...the history we know is so limited...
So that is the world I'm living in right now...here is a thought to ponder..."Standing at the doorway into a new world, they nonetheless share their contemporaries' hopes and fears and seek to lead their people out into what is to come. Their words speak to their contemporaries condition. They may meet with opposition and incomprehension, but they also address their people's hopes and desires. In their preaching and their deeds they seek to transform people's understanding of themselves and their world and prepare them to embrace the world to come. It is in this interaction with traditional, inherited beliefs and practices that they are able to experience extraordinary power over their contemporaries. And it is in this that their power to create new worlds resides." (John E. Riches--The World of Jesus.

Men of Athens!

Okay, okay, I'm sorry! I was creating a new post and in the midst of trying to type after the picture, the internet cut off and I wasn't able to finish my posting. So I'm not going to tell you but I'll give you the Word, "While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, he was deeply troubled by all the idols he saw everywhere in the city. He went to the synagogue to reason with the Jews and the God-fearing Gentiles, and he spoke daily in the public square to all who happened to be there.
He also had a debate with some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers. When he told them about Jesus and his resurrection, they said, 'What's this babbler trying to say with these strange ideas he's picked up?' Others said, 'He seems to be preaching about som foreign gods.'
They they took him to the high council of the city (this would be the place where that big rock is just below the Acropolis).'Come tell us about this new teaching.' They said. "You are saying some rather strange things, and we want to know what it's all about." (It should be explained that all the Athenians as well as the foreigners in Athens seemed to spend all their time discussing the latest ideas.)
So Paul, standing before the council, addressed them as follows: 'Men of Athens, I notice that you are very religious in every way, for as I was walking along I saw your many shrines. And one of your altars had this incsription on it: 'To the Unknown God.' This God, whom you worship without knowing, is the one I'm telling you about.
"He is the God who made the world and everything in it. Since he is Lord of heaven and earth, he doesn't live in man-made temples, and human hands can't serve his needs--for he has no needs. He himself gives life and breath to everything, and he satisfies every need...." Acts 17:16-25
And so it goes that Paul stood on that rock that you saw and explained the Gospel to a bunch of pagan philosophers. All the time I have now. Enjoy a window with a view and if you ever need place to get away, have I got the place!

Guess Which Rock this is?

Some time last summer