Muizenberg, Beach, Surfing... And Surfing With Sharks???

My little mountain-beach-blustery town

View from YWAM Muizenberg, South Africa rooftop, my home!

Muizenberg is a little town along a bay on the south west side of South Africa. So far, it is pretty much always windy, especially near the ocean, making it cold most of the time! My windbreaker has come in very handy, keeping away the blustery wind and rain. And it is just coming out of winter here, heading into spring. I am thankful to have warm weather ahead of me (summer in December), though I am told the wind Muizenberg gets, keeps it cooler most of the time. The buildings are not heated, so I have to dress warmly inside and when going to classes. I am usually wrapped in a blanket in my dorm room, and my room faces south, making it even colder because of the wind from the south and the lack of direct sun.

God’s creation is so beautiful here – mountains meet ocean! This rock rises above the town on the west side. I will be climbing it one of these days! Muizenberg also borders Table Mountain National Park on the west, with Table Mountain northwest of me towards Capetown.

Muizenberg has quite a few surfers. There was a surf competition on my first Sunday here, and they tried to break the Guiness Book of World Records for the most surfers on the same wave at the same time. They didn’t this year, but it was quite a crummy day outside. And there are great white sharks! I haven’t seen them yet, but the beach has people on shark patrol all day. There are flags they fly according to whether they have seen a shark or not and the visibility for seeing them in the water. There was actually a shark attack on a surfer a couple days ago across the bay. He sustained minor injuries.

...And Here I Go!!! South Africa!!!

Me on a rock bridge in the Badlands of Montana.

I don't even know where to start... because so much has happened in my "transition" from YWAM Montana to South Africa. So I'll try to summarize my usual long windedness - for your benefit.

Here are some points of God's Blessing and Continued Prayer.

#1) God's Provision. Thank you so much for your generous blessings on my journey. I was able to buy things needed for South Africa, renew my passport, purchase plane tickets and a South African visa, and pay for my 1st term of tuition for School of Biblical Studies! I am truly astounded by how God works through you and beyond my little faith.

Please pray for continued provision, especially monthly donations. Consistent giving helps me to be able to plan for how I will pay my expenses and so that I can pay these. I have 2 more terms of tuition due January 1 and April 1 plus personal expenses.

If you would like more information on how to give, please go to http://shannonmintz.blogspot.com/p/how-to-give.html

#2) Blessed time with friends and family. Time flew by as my time was limited and we all were very busy this summer, so I am sad I was not able to see all of you. But I was truly blessed my old and new friends. Thank you for your hospitality and fellowship, coffee and chats, laughter and yes, even some good tears.

Please pray for a few good friendships to develop easily. And a great roommate!  I am starting new in South Africa - it's a good thing to have a few good people around. :)

#3) Safe Travels. God kept me safe through many States, many miles, and sometimes even 12 + hours in the car - alone! And wonderful friends to stay with along the way. The highlight of driving is always North Yellowstone National Park below Bozeman, MT! It's mountains and streams are breathtaking and will get any hikers blood running.

Please pray for continued ease and safety in traveling.

#4) YWAM School of Biblical Studies. Please pray for my studies, transitioning smoothly into the culture, and outreach opportunities. I will be starting the School of Biblical Studies in Muizenberg, South Africa on September 27th. This training will enable me to teach God's Word to Africans with little or no Bible training. I am looking forward to being immersed in God's Word, hearing more of God's heart, building friendships with my co-students from around the world, and connecting with my South African neighbors in the surrounding community through life, study, and outreach!

Thank you every one of you for your friendship, prayers, encouragement, and support!  If you don't know it already, God uses you to help me walk forward in faith when I am weak and hold my head up as you see Who God has created me to be. I only hope to touch people as God has used you to touch my life - to love, to be kind, to be a friend, to be a support SO that others can learn how to be the same - touched by the kindness of God that leads to repentance (Rom. 2:4). And that they may be moved to touch others.

Bless you.

Shannon Mintz

Coming Home

I ask myself this question, “Why is this my life? Why missions? Why evangelism? Discipleship? Why leave the comforts of home? Why to the nations? Why to South Africa?"

And it all boils down to one thing… that moves me, that makes me speak, that gives me breath.

IT’S ABOUT RELATIONSHIP.

It’s about relationship with the only One that really matters, the One that gives breath, the One that gives Life.

It’s about the little boy in Uganda with no parents and no home being loved.

It’s about the teenager visited in a dream by the One True God and being led to “foreigners” who know Him.

It’s about the minister’s wife in Thailand who just needs to be held as she cries and to know that she is not alone.

It’s about encouraging the Saints in the lonely places,

Giving sight to the blind,

Food to the poor,

Mothers to the motherless,

Fathers to the fatherless,

Bringing Life to the hopeless,

And the prodigal sons and daughters coming Home.

School of Dance Studies Promo Video - Featuring My Students

Students dancing "Independence Surrender"
Photo Credit: SODS Staff/Student

I am so excited to share with you the talents of my School of Dance Studies students through this promotional video for their school (below)! The Communications department at YWAM Montana did an amazing job producing this video, and my students worked so hard - I can't believe the qualified people we have here at YWAM Montana desiring to serve God in missions! And this only shows a small excerpt of the talent and work they did during their 6 month lecture phase. 

A couple weeks ago they performed their final dance concerts, one concert with group dances they choreographed and a second concert with staff and guest artist choreography. I even had the opportunity to choreograph a dance for them entitled "Independence Surrender," based on Ecclesiastes 4:10, "If one falls down, his friend can help him up. But pity the man who falls and has no one to help him up!" This dance represents how we should not walk with a "spirit of independence" in our lives, but that God is beside us to that we can lean on Him, and He places people in our lives (the Body of Christ) so that we are held up by them. I need not walk alone nor try to accomplish things on my own, but I am made to be in relationship as God the Father demonstrated with His Son and the Spirit. I love that image, and that it is not man-made but is shown to us from the Beginning!

Setting a dance on the students was definitely a challenge for me as I have little choreographing experience! I hit some walls along the way, but somehow knew I should do it (as my wise school leader and frienddid too). In the end, I learned that I have more creativity in me that I thought I did, and I have more vision for making something difficult rather than just settling for making something easy. Sometime I hope to get the video of my students' performances to share with you (or at least portions).

 

 Film Credit: SPRING | Seasons from YWAM Montana | Lakeside on Vimeo

The Waiting Cry

During School of Dance's Wednesday morning worship and intercession, I was sitting there frustrated with my seeming inability "to do" a great many things and my inability to do them right. And I had been reflecting on Ecclesiastes recently. I know that all my efforts to do a lot of things, to do things well, and to help a lot of people, these really don't add up to anything... "Doing things" doesn't make me a better person--in my heart--or closer to or more like Jesus. My efforts won't make others "know" Jesus. All my achieving will not "achieve" success. Does that make any sense? I eventually make mistakes and let others and even myself down. So as I realize more and more my inability, what am I left with? I am left with nothing of myself, but to lean on--NO, to even collapse onto the Father! I'm broken. I cannot hold myself up, but God can, and He so desires to! In His arms, my heart melts--is transformed--from the selfish shell it once was... My heart is refined into His heart, into His desires. And so as my heart is no longer mine--but His--it overflows with His character, the depth of His love and grace, His peace, hope, and faith. What overflows is blessings that are steady and constant. Blessings are to bless with; they are to bless others. So I do not "do" out of having "to do." But God overflows what He does to my heart, and how can I not reciprocate His heart? How can I not share His heart to those around me?! And that is why I "Go," why I even desire to go beyond my comfort zone, an easy life, a life of relying on my own efforts to provide for my sustenance and my protection, a life of relying on my own control. My breath doesn't just sigh but heaves and my heart tugs as I write this, out of deep desire I have. This is not easy for the shy, little girl from Northwestern Montana - it's a hard road, and maybe the hardest in my head. All the world's reason and responsibility stands against me. But still, I step forward. I follow my heart, for it's swept away by the One I love.

“I will not toil in the flesh

Or for vain things,

For this is futile, ‘a chasing after the wind.’”

~ Reflections on Ecclesiastes.

The Waiting Cry

By Shannon Mintz

June 16, 2010

Where’s the joy and what to do if I cannot strive?

Where do my efforts go…if anywhere—

Because all fades away?

See the homeless man,

The widow with no income,

The orphaned child who has no mother nor father?

A noiseless cry escapes from their lips—without words,

Because they do not know the words to use—

Nor what they are searching for.

But, this is still a cry for help;

This is a cry for hope—

For their affliction to be seen

And met.

And God cries with them, calling out for His children to answer,

“Will you go?

What will you do?

How will you live?

Will you work and give of what I have given you—

Of yourself and of your resources to reflect My glory?

So that even ‘the least of these’ may ‘hunger and thirst’ no longer?”

But the homeless man,

and widow,

             and orphan waited and waited,

And others died, and more waited,

For their cries to be heard, for their cries to be met—

And they continue to wait…

Today—they wait…

Truly I Am His Daughter

Tonight during worship at our YWAM Montana Community Meeting God laid something on my heart, and I began to write. And I wrote and wrote. I wrote it all before Sam Dhuram spoke, except for the last four lines. I think it goes along with what Sam said, but it’s also very personal to me. Skip down to the italics if you want to just read the meat. ☺

This winter God re-phrased a statement for me that is so transformational. God did not just want me to know that He is my Father – that can be a pretty general statement we repeat because it says so in the Bible, and I should know that. But God wanted to demonstrate to me that I am His daughter! In other words, I was going to experience God treating me as His little girl! And He has been, oh how He has!

In the past few months God has been showing me new things and giving me new eyes. It’s a process, and it’s not over, but I’m excited for what I’m learning because it’s going to the depths of my heart. I have not only seen Him monetarily provide, but in February He healed me instantly from a really low state emotionally that I’ve been in this past year. It wasn’t a grand Holy Spirit moment either. It was like a click, like a switch turned on (I’ve heard of these stories that people talk about but never knew of one personally for depression), and I felt different, yes, instantly!

So here it is, what I wrote during worship, me being vulnerable in ways I don’t always like but feel led to share with you and that may speak even to your soul as it did mine. If you are a guy, please read this as His “Son” in place of “Daughter.” (If it’s not theologically sound, please forgive me. Hopefully, it’s from the heart of God, interpreted through my feeble mind and human hands, sifted through my emotion, and felt by my heart.):

“Without His permission and His creation, I would not be.”

Truly I am His Daughter

Intention, of devotion and desire, to love and knowing the power of love in relationship. And to be created with the ability to choose into that relationship – that makes the power of that relationship stronger, and that makes the power of that love so much stronger than any other in all the world! – Besides Your love example, of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, which I am adopted into as a Daughter by Your decree, seeing me and knowing me as only Your True Daughter. How can I not be thankful, how can I not declare Your Glory, Your Majesty, that You chose to reflect in even a small way through me? – Oh, little me! Which You placed, not only in Your Heavenly City but in Your throne room, and not just at Your feet but on Your lap.

You turned my head up, not so I could see You but so You could see me – so You could look me in the eyes and declare me worthy of truly knowing Your love – to the depths of my soul – knowing You are my Father who does not reject me. But I so many times I rejected You – And You, still, saw everything I did to denounce You. You took the nails I pounded into your hands and feet, You took the crown of thorns I pushed into Your head, You took the spear I shoved into Your side, You willingly accepted the cross I placed on Your back – and You looked, not only at me but into me and said, not in anguish of sorrow but in anguish of love, “I’ll not only do this but more for you. I will take all your sins as My own.” Into death, the God who knew no sin declared to me, personally, “I who was clean, am clean no longer. I who was righteous, am righteous no longer. But I tell you that you are called holy and pure and no longer dirty and soiled. You are sinless because I took on your sin.”

And at that moment, He looked at me so He could see me and so He could love me. So I could see His love and so I could experience His love. So I could EVEN look into His eyes and see and even know that truly He is my Father and so that I could look into His eyes and see and even know that truly I am His Daughter.

School of Dance Studies Update

SODS Staff, Students, & Guest Artist

Just wanted to give a brief update on the School of Dance Studies which I staff at YWAM Montana.

Our students are working hard with many classes! They dance a total of 13 1/2 to 23 1/2 hours a week, depending on if they are in the dance being taught that week! And I dance 13 1/2 hours a week also--I never imagined I would be dancing this much and can't remember the last time I did (probably not even that much in high school). I can say I love it, but I battle soreness quite often, as many of our students do also. Though it is getting easier. Most days I wish for a massage! Our students will be having final exams in anatomy and composition the end of March as that is the end of the quarter! I cannot believe how quickly the first quarter flew!

I taught a class called Excellence Versus Perfectionism. This class was to walk our students through what each of these are and that perfectionism is an unrealistic expectation, but God calls us to live excellently and I defined what that means. Dancers can especially battle perfectionism, and this can show up in symptoms such as eating disorders, exercise disorders, and depression. It was great to see some of our students identify perfectionism in their own lives, the negative lies they were believing, and have God speak truth to them so they live more positively and to learn how to walk this out in School of Dance and in life. This was a real highlight for me--I love seeing students being freed and understanding God more in their lives!

SODS Staff Choreography Practice - I'm on the left.

Another of my favorite things in School of Dance is my small group and one-on-one mentoring! I have three girls Tiia from three countries in my small group. We talk about all aspects of school and their lives. There is a huge opportunity for discipleship and growth because of the intense environment in the dance school, things come to the surface that need to be rooted out and worked on...and they WANT to work on their relationship with God, their character, and to know God more deeply! Despite some inhibitions and room for growth, the students desire to reach a dying world and to use the tool of dance to do so!

Some things I do when not in classes or meeting with students...A LOT! Currently, I am working on getting flights for our guest artists coming in. We usually have one guest artist per month, come out for a week, to teach dance classes and set a dance on our students. In February we had Lotte Haschke from Germany, who led the School of Dance here for 07-09 schools. The dance she choreographed in collaboration with the students. It was to depict the unity of the body of Christ, how we are each different body parts-individual, but that we are to work together in unity, complementing and supporting one another in Christ. It was really powerful and beautiful. It was amazing to see how far the students have progressed in their dancing, growing in confidence and in synchronization - all of which are difficult things! And I love how God can speak to us and touch our hearts through a dance! He is so creative, to be the Author of the human body and the Creator of art!