Losing and Legacy

As the world is already turning today with talks of Libya and American Idol, my world has seemed to stopped spinning just a bit.  Yesterday and great friend from the States, Cathy Asbridge, lost her long battle with cancer.  She was my high-school cheerleading coach, and her husband Charles mentored and led me to a full life following Jesus Christ.  She leaves four beautiful kids and a grieving and broken family.  

So many will speak in the weeks to come of this story and talk about the tragedy it is.  How will her kids grow up without a mom?  Who will help her girls get ready for their wedding days?  Why would God take such a beautiful woman so early?

Cathy was a strikingly beautiful woman, who was loved by all who knew her.  She loved music and played violin, she taught science in various schools, and she was respected and revered.  There was a spirit and a smile that went before Cathy, and she truly brought love into every encounter she had.  Her greatest ministry was her family, and she gave her heart to teaching her children about Jesus Christ and living well.  

I honestly can't really grasp that she is gone.  I can't conceive how across the world there is no longer a Cathy Pike Asbridge walking around, laughing, hugging her family, smiling at strangers in the grocery store, leading a humble and beautiful life that honors Jesus.  I can't take it in yet.

If I were in the United States I would be flying to Florida today.  I would meet up with my youth group friends and hug and cry with them.  We would share memories and stories.  We would laugh and weep together.  I would come to my great friend Charles and embrace him and tell him I love him, because no other words would fill the spaces of his grief.  I wish I could be there, but I am not.

So in the absence of people to help me work through my own grief, my head is filled with a song.  Nichole Nordeman wrote a song called 'Legacy' and it's about leaving a mark on this world for Jesus Christ.  The song has come alive for the first time ever, because Cathy truly left an incredible legacy on this world.  Her life was a sweet and beautiful offering to God.  She didn't want accolades or praises, she truly just wanted to point to her Savior. She was successful in that goal.

Many will say she was taken too soon, but I can't help but wonder if it's the opposite.  Cathy had bouts with cancer before, two actually.  Both times the family faithfully prayed and stormed the doors of heaven asking God to heal her, and she was healed.  Maybe her time to go to heaven was earlier, but God blessed  this world with more years with Cathy then we ever deserved.  Each day she was here was a gift, and her children will be forever marked with her grace, beauty, and love.  Truly, truly, this world was brighter with her on it, and I feel grateful for all the moments I shared with her.  

One thing I do know, is that now Cathy is with Jesus.  And I also know that Cathy would encourage us all to live a legacy, to point to Christ, to offer each moment as worship.  We should hold our kids tighter, hug our spouses longer, smile and offer kindness to strangers, and live lives that point to Jesus.   

What is your legacy?

Love,
Sarah


Video reflection of 'Legacy' by Nichole Nordeman

Loving Until it Hurts

Loving until it hurts

I have always loved Mother Teresa and her work.  She has a quote that says,   

“I have found the paradox, that if you love until it hurts, there can be no more hurt, only more love.”

 This weekend I learned what that means.  We had a great weekend planned for Ntokozo to continue celebrating her birthday.  Her cousin Minky was spending the weekend with us and we were taking them to Cavendish Mall (a big fancy mall near the city) for their first trip there ever, to shop and then have dinner.  Friday night I decided to make a roast pork dish for the first time, and put it proudly on the table for our ‘family’ when it was finished.  We all were eating, and I’ll admit it wasn’t the BEST cooked dish I have ever made.  Meat was great, potatoes were just a bit hard.  Ntokozo just moved everything around on her plate and then tried to say she was done.  I decided to choose a battle and told her to eat one more potato.  This girl eats HORRIBLY and almost nothing that is a vegetable, so I have decided to try to round out her eating.  This is when she proceeded to freak out.  She finally put the potato in her mouth but put her head down, looking at the table, and sat there for 15 minutes.  Her cousin was teasing her and we kept trying to speak to hear, but she was already furious.  She then went to her room and proceeded to be in a foul mood the entire night.  We had to drag her to youth group, but then she sat in a circle with her jacket tied up around her face.  I had to come to her and whisper to her to unzip her jacket TWICE.  After youth she went straight to her room, not hanging with the other kids, it was AT OUR HOUSE.  After everyone left, I spoke to her alone.  I tried to have a conversation, but she wouldn’t look at me or speak a word.  I told her that her attitude was unacceptable and she must change before tomorrow, I told her, but no response, not even a head nod.

I don’t even fully know why, but this was my BREAKING point.  The rest of the night was tears/snot/crying/heaving/mess.  It told God and then Casey that I didn’t want to do this anymore.  They were both very sweet and didn’t really answer me back.  It is just the most painful love I have ever experienced and I feel like at times I am laying myself out to get beaten.  She really doesn’t understand or take in our love, and I know it’s because of her past trauma and abuse.  But it hurts.  Even if you understand all the whys, it still hurts something fierce. 

Saturday was like nothing happened; she woke up with a completely different attitude.  So we cut out a few things in the day but still went to the mall.  Things are civil, better, but we have a long, LONG way to go.  Some days I know I am up to it and other days I am fully aware that we can only love her through God’s power.  We know God has brought her to us, so we walk trusting Him above all else.  Even when it hurts.

Love,

Sarah

Book Review by Sarah

We were given a book recently by a new friend Noah Kaye and told it reminded him of us.  Always lovers of platitudes and praise, we were excited to read this book, Sub-merge by John B. Hayes, about living and serving among the poor.  However, pretty early in the reading I realized the book was about people living among the poor, but with a deep and profound spirituality that humbled me to my core.  This book speaks of a group called InnerCHANGE who live and serve in 7 various poor communities around the world including San Francisco and Los Angles.  The author, Hayes, was living in East LA when the riots broke out in the early 90’s, and shares many other incredible and providential times in life and ministry among the poor. I loved hearing about LA because I have always likened our community to one you would find in LA, where my mother grew up as a Mexican-American.   Hayes follows the journey of himself and his ministry group as they live, work, move, and see transformation in many forgotten places.  The vision he gives I clearly see but the ways in which he loves and intentionally reaches out to work with people has humbled me to my core.  If you have any interest in knowing WHY we do what we do, or desire to minister in difficult places read this book and join a great journey.  Wow, this was a great one!

Overall grade: A

Sermon from this weekend

Hello all!

So preached this weekend at Ocean View Baptist Church; a lovely and lively church that we partner with in many different things (one example, we are taking 30 of their women with us to Hillsong conference in 2 weeks!).  They are an amazing group of people and it was SUCH a privilege to speak to them.  AND I got to preach on 1 John which is one of the books of the Bible I just taught on at Cornerstone.  Double bonus!  Enjoy!


Love
Sarah

Click on this link here or look below.

Woopsie!

If you feel that the Prince's are MIA lately, SOOORRRY, it's my (Sarah!) fault.  I recently got a new computer and a new ipod (missionary life!  woo hoo!  computer crashed and ipod stolen.... Ocean View life!) and then proceeded to use up ALL of our African Internet in like 5 seconds.  Don't worry, Casey keeps reminding us all whose fault it is.  I do feel bad and a bit disconnected and a tiny bit bad that we are now making our white friends who have UNLIMITED Internet (this is huge and new and cool and only available where white people live, so not in the View) into our own Internet cafes.  

Just made some SERIOUS run on sentences. 

So much to tell about, such a full and fun and blessed weekend.

But  my computer is a little sad faced because of the lack of use it's getting.  April 1st Internet will be BACK and so will we.  Until then, we will see you sporadically...

Love,

Sarah

Everyday Heros

This is a new 'theme' that you will see more and more on my blog, but I want to highlight 'everyday heros' that are in my midst and all over the world.  I think sometimes we need to be reminded that we can all be a hero, we can all save the world, we can all "be the change you want to see in the world," in the words of Mahatma Gandhi.


My hero for today is my friend Chantel Douglass.  Her and her husband are South Africans who work at Hillsong Church here in Cape Town (this is actually odd because most of their staff are foreigners!).  They are an INCREDIBLE couple and we have loved getting to know them and their sweet kids Manassa and Tenacity.  They came with the fam last night to check out Ubuntu Sports and then Chantel shared with the women.   Her story was hard to even listen to because she experienced a great deal of pain and trauma as she grew up, but JEsus truly rescued her from it and now she lives in freedom and forgiveness, even with the ones that hurt her most.  Her story could NOT have been more appropriate for our woman and they were moved and inspired in many ways.  This woman is amazing, she is a mom, runs a HUGE kids ministry, loves her husband, cares for her family, and is changing the world day by day.  What an honor to know her and be friends with her.  Women have a special heart and power!


Who is an 'everyday hero' in your life this week??


Lots of love,
Sarah

Prince Family Newsletter

Prince Family Newsletter is out for March 2011.  Enjoy!

https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=explorer&chrome=true&srcid=0ByXLDKBOhmIZOTA3NTM3NDYtZjJkYS00YWZmLTk1OGUtNTEyZDEzYzc3Y2Iz&hl=en

We LOVE Cape Town

This past weekend at Hillsong Church they focused on community care in our beautiful city of Cape Town.  They created an amazing video that inspired us to keep giving and going!  Enjoy!


We love Cape Town // Community Care Sunday 2011 from HILLSONG CHURCH CAPE TOWN on Vimeo.

Party in My Tummy

A good friend shared this with me today, and had to pass on the happiness. This morning the party in MY tummy is coffee and a bananna muffin. What is YOUR party??



Oh, and just to let you know, Kiers STILL is rocking her big baby belly, and her BELLY IS A PARTY all the TIME!

Love,
Sarah

Teaching DONE!

You GUYZZZZ!?!?  Can you believe it - my first class of teaching is OVER!  That's right, my class is all done.  At Cornerstone Institute they work in 8-week modules instead of semesters, so we are all packed up.  Yesterday I had my final class and the students were paired up to do presentations.  They were asked to created a multi-media creative ministry presentation based on a passage of their choosing from the book of Revelation.  It counts (with a proposal, paper, and presentation) for 40% of their grade, and they were SUPER nervous about it - I think because I was SO excited about it.  I really wanted them to push themselves, be creative, and try to really engage their 'audience' in the passage.  

WOW.  They couldn't have blown me away any more.  The presentations were superb and I was so proud of them.  So proud.

Some highlights.  One group made a cake with this picture from the story of the woman and the serpent in Revelation 12:

Put THAT on your kids' next birthday cake.

Another group had a 'skit' where the son was listening to an Iron Maiden "The Number of the Beast" and the mom comes in to break up the loud music and then explains the real meaning of Revelation 12-13 and the 'beast.'

If you want to take a trip back or be really freaked out, watch the video:

There were so many other amazing parts of the presentations, I was just awestruck.  They really brought to life this ignored and complicated book of the Bible and we ALL left so hopeful and energized.  Ultimately, God is victorious in the battle against evil and no matter what we face we can be assured that our God will WIN!  Great stuff.  I closed the class, and found myself very caught up in the realization that I had the privilege of teaching and molding the minds of these great future leaders in the church and beyond in Africa.  These people are going to change the world and impact so many others, and hopefully I played a small part in that.  It was just amazing.  So now stay tuned to see if I get asked back?!?  I really hope and pray there is so much more to come.


Lots of love,
Sarah

Ubuntu Sports Update

Thoughts today from Casey at http://www.ubuntusports.blogspot.com/.

Happy Human Rights Day!

"All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights."

(United Nations Human Rights)

Friends

We always love sharing about what we are doing here in South Africa, and we are quick to say it takes a large army to make all this happen.  We are not just trying to be humble; we actually need a LOT of people to make our life here in South Africa work.  Last week we were reminded of that as our friend Wes Ward from Raleigh got to come for a quick visit while on business here in SA.  We packed the poor guy down like a pack mule with books, electronics, and toys (those were a surprise!).  Wes' wife, Suzanne has been a friend of Casey's FOREVS in Raleigh, and we love this wonderful family with their two little one's Taylor and Will.  Tay Tay (as I call her) sent Kiers the most AMAZING present, a Dora music player (basically kid ipod, genius!).  She plays it EVERY day and we already know all the Dora jamz.  Is it weird that she calls it her 'phone' and tries to call and take pictures with it?  Anyways it was a great time to reconnect and hear from our friend.  Again humbled by the support and love we receive and SO aware that we could never do this without our American community.  If this is YOU then know you are LOVED, prayed for, and we are SO GRATEFUL for you!

Love

sarah

Book Review- UnChristian

I'm a little behind on this one, but I just finished "UnChristian" by David Kinnaman & Gabe Lyons.  I really wanted to read Lyons follow up book, but knew I needed to start with this one.

This book is basically the results of a research project that Lyons commissioned the Barna Group to do.  They researched Mosaics and Busters to see what their perceptions of Christianity were, especially of those outside the church.  The results can be quite depressing, but shouldn't be surprising if you've traveled outside the southern United States at all or have any non-Christian friends.  

Because they are presenting research it can be a touch dry at times, but Kinnaman works hard to put a real face onto the research.  They wisely include notes at the end of each chapter from Christian leaders in different fields that have great hope for the future.  In the end you actually believe that the Church can turn things around and really begin to live a life that honors Jesus, doesn't turn people away from Him.  I'd encourage you to check this book out, and then read Lyons' next book "The Next Christians."

Overall Grade: B

Casey

Saturday Morning Easy Listening

Yummy listening a new band I just heard called Wye Oak and their new album called 'Civilian'

Then, here is one of my ALL. TIME. FAV. artists, Glen Hansard.  This is a rough video, someone popping in with their own camera at some point, but still SO DELICIOUS.  Wow.