Crazy Crumbs

You’ll have to excuse us as crazy crumbs.com is undergoing some modifications and changes to incorporate a larger body of people outside of just the original comm trans crew. If you are looking specifically for comm trans stories you will find them at commtrans.wordpress.com however, there will still be stories from comm trans on crazy crumbs.com from time to time. With this new set up we are hoping to encompass incredible stories from around the world of what God is doing. We also will strive to bring you media and relevant information on exciting things that we are using.

Continue to stick with us as we go through this transitionary phase and the website undergoes changes to the layout and design.  In reality, crazy crumbs.com was let go for several months, and is just now being revitalized.  One of the main changes is welcoming our Haitian brothers and sisters from ourhaiti.wordpress.com into the site.  It will be awesome to hear what God is doing in there lives!

Thank you for your patience as we continue to redesign the site.

Sincereley,

NathanaelJC (for the Crazy Crumbs team)

See Original Post

What I’m about to tell you may sound ridiculous and beyond imagination. It is a story of Biblical miracles and may be difficult for you to believe. I must tell you though, I personally have no doubt that it is 100% true. Fabio is not a man who lies, I’m not even sure if he understands the concept of lying.

My friend Fabio comes from a closed country. It’s the type of country that I’m not allowed to say the name of because he might get found due to it. It is under Muslim law.

He accepted Christ as his savior 7 years ago when a friend of mine went to visit that country. Fabio worked at a hotel my friend was staying at and overheard their conversation, that’s when the Lord spoke to his heart and said: “this is the truth you’ve been looking for.” He found my friend later that day and said he wanted what my friend had, got his full name and then my friend went back home.

Something had changed in Fabio though and people in the village noticed. Eventually it came out that Fabio had become a Christian, he was no longer Muslim. The problem is, it is illegal to change religions where he is from so he was imprisoned. He was put in a room and beaten. His torturers would ask him to say Allah is the only way and then to deny Christ. He wouldn’t do it and so they would pull machetes from a fire and cut him on his side, his back, and his calves. They would torture him up to the point of death and then put him in his prison cell. He never denied Christ. Here is a man who had never read the Bible, never been to church, didn’t have any Christian friends and really didn’t know what he truly believed in but he knew that Christ crucified is truth and he would not deny it, even if it cost him his life.

One day in prison, he was recovered and expecting the next torture session any day. He was allowed outside in the prison courtyard for 10 minutes each day and as he stepped outside that morning he felt something in him push him to run and jump over the 8 ft. barbed wire fence, so he did. He did it without a scratch on his body, the way he tells me this story, it sounds as though he physically jumped or was thrown over the fence by something outside of himself. I think this must be the case because none of the guards or inmates saw him jump the fence or heard the fence rattle. They were completely blinded of the event.

He ran through the jungle back to his village over the next 24 hours. He knew the police would be looking for him and so he shimmied up a 25ft. tall tree. When he was near the top of the tree, he reached out for a branch but it broke and he fell to the ground. There were no broken bones, he eventually tried to stand up but he couldn’t. He felt as though he had to urinate but all that came out was blood. He laid on the jungle floor for a while and then felt a voice tell him to crawl to the nearby road “now!” He slowly made his way to the road knowing that he would be caught and this time, more than likely, killed. As he got to the road, his best friend was just driving by. His best friend had also felt a voice say to go to that spot “now!” His friend put Fabio in the trunk and brought him to a location the police wouldn’t know about. He then took his sisters passport and dressed Fabio in one of his sisters full Muslim Burkas, purchased a plane ticket to a close country and sent Fabio away. Fabio walked like a woman – this is a very funny part of the story when he tells it – to trick the security and they allowed him through. He was on his way, though he was in an immense amount of pain. 48 hours after falling from the tree, he landed in an airport in a foreign country and went to a hospital where he had surgery for his internal bleeding and kidney failure.

As he lay in the hospital recovering, he felt a voice tell him to go to South Africa, an impossible task. But, he looked back over the past week and decided there had been so much he’d done that was impossible, why not. So he started the insane journey of attempting to pass through multiple borders without any documentation. Two times the customs agents looked at his passport and then handed it back to him, once a computer wasn’t working so he passed through, and the final time 4 men got arrested and were wreaking havoc so they waved the rest of the bus passengers through customs without looking at their documents. He had made it, after weeks of traveling and seeing provision for finances through multiple miracles (like waking up only to find that he was sleeping on top of a $20 bill)!

As he made his way to a township he felt he was to go to in the North of South Africa he met a man from his hometown. They were excited to see each other and he told his friend that he was looking for the man who had led him to the Lord some 7 years before, a white man named Kevin. This man from his village had actually just met a white man named Kevin in February and had his cell phone number!

Fabio called Kevin. Kevin lived many hours away but came and picked Fabio up and brought him to his house. He gave Fabio a Bible in one of the languages that Fabio speaks and Fabio disappeared into the room Kevin had prepared for him. Fabio began to read the Bible for the first time after 7 years of calling himself a Christian. He read it 14 hours a day for 6 weeks straight. He was hanging around me and my friends a lot but not really speaking much. Once we were in a conversation talking about how fighting is a murderous spirit and we turned to Fabio to explain and he told us: “I know, on page 143 column 2 article 4 the Bible says ‘thou shalt not murder’.” We had to explain to him that people use the books of the Bible and chapters and verses to reference because most people usually don’t have the Bible memorized well enough to know by page. INCREDIBLE.

Fabio decided he wanted to move into the township because there were many Muslims there that needed to know the truth. You see, Fabio was only granted 6 months of refugee status in South Africa and then has to re-approved every 3 months. South Africa can reject his status at any moment and send him back to his country where he would immediately be arrested, imprisoned and possibly killed. He lives under an urgency that the gospel must go forth! He sees Muslims everywhere and boldly proclaims the gospel to them. He knows persecution and doesn’t care what harm someone might do to him, Christ must be known. Fabio lives under the tyranny of the urgent only his priority of urgent is one that stirs me deep in my spirit. I want to be like Fabio.

When Fabio first moved into Masi, we began to be worried for him because he would tell us that a man was standing in his house in the middle of the night and would tell him things he needed to do that day. It happened several times and so we began to ask what the man looked like. His description: “He is very bright, white hair, I can’t look into his eyes but want to.”

Fabio lives in Masiphumelele and has people visiting his shack under the cover of darkness so as not to be seen or found out. He has led many Muslims to Christ and continues to be known in the township as the one who can explain the truth.

The picture below is of Fabio and his first of many, many converts. I blurred his face per his request.

via Amaris Jane (www.amarisjane.blogspot.com)

Sunday, April 10, 2011

Back to NYC

With all of my recent travels, I genuinely thought that landing back at “home” would feel more restful. What I found is that the true test had only begun. Before arriving I felt that I was supposed to treat this next season as though I was in fact on a ministry trip. Which means, instead of allowing a self-focused nature to take root in my heart, I would in turn look for ways to pour out (daily). My relationship with the Lord is not something I pick up or put down, but I can say that in the past my actions may not have been a true reflection of His love for others… and that needed to change.

It’s definitely been an adjustment. To be quite honest, I’m struggling with a way to express the familiarity and the new found separation I’ve been experiencing. But to put things into perspective for you, I arrived at JFK with $100 to my name to last me til…. God only knew when. Since the Lord is always faithful, I chose to trust Him and His peace, not knowing how, but fully trusting that everything would work out, somehow.

People started opening their homes to allow me to stay, every day that I had something to eat was just another miracle of the Lord’s provision. A friend got me a job 3 days after landing. I’ve had zero income since landing in March because the job wasn’t due to begin until the second week in April, but God is faithful- He always has been and He always will be.

There have been a few real challenging times where I found my walls creeping back up, where I found myself believing that I had to protect myself because I was yet again alone. I will always remember this particular moment with great clarity because it brought me that much closer to the Lord- I was moving my luggage and quite a few things, alone via subway from one place to another in Queens. Completely exhausted with this certain crazy person, with the constant need to relocate, and feeling very alone, I stopped on the sidewalk in Astor place; this feeling came over me as if I was being swallowed back up into the very thing I had fought to be free from when I left 6 months prior… I silently prayed,”God I choose YOU! No matter what I have to go through, no matter how hard it is, I choose you! I never want to be the person I was before again, and I don’t want to shut people out to protect myself. I choose to trust You, I need You, be with me please.” I took a a breath and continued with this move.

For those of you that have never been to NYC, moving via subway means that you have to carry your luggage up and down numerous flights of stairs, through turnstiles, through gates, in and out of the subway, dodging people, and walking for longer distances than your physical body was ever ready for- oh and it’s cold- and I’ve been living in 90 degree weather. yeah, now you’re following me.

So after I prayed, I put some praise and worship music on my itouch and worked to get my things down these stairs. This… African American Rasta Cowboy Dude jumped over the railing to take my things down with the kindest smile I’d seen since landing (from a stranger). I’d be lying if I said I didn’t choke up at his kindness. Then every stop someone was offering their seat, carrying my things up and down the stairs for me! I felt a peace fall on me and I heard,”I will ALWAYS take care of you.” Needless to say any walls that were creeping up vanished. I continued to thank the Lord for everything He did in that moment, but also throughout my life. Shortly after I completed my mission one of my friends called me to take me out to dinner, and paid for my cab. I know that might sound trivial, or perhaps superficial, but I honestly didn’t know where my next meal was coming from. GOD IS SO GOOD!

Currently I’m in the same position of trusting the Lord for everything and pouring out His love on anyone and everyone that I can. I can tell you with great joy, that this season of trusting the Lord has brought me through many challenges and uprooted many things, but it’s been and will continue to be a beautiful process. He is worth everything He asks of us. I am in love, and not even New York City can change that.

This morning at church, my pastor was speaking on Moses and the Israelite’s journey out of Egypt to the promise land etc. I think we all know the story. What stuck out to me was a passage I also shared at the bible school in Pemba. It’s a beautiful interaction between the Lord and Moses: Exodus 33:12-19 but particularly verses 15 and 16

Then Moses said to him,”If your Presence does not go with us, do not send us up from here. How will anyone know that you are pleased with me and with your people unless you go with us? What else will distinguish me and your people from all the other people on the face of the earth?”

So many times we’ve asked for God to do this or to do that for us. Or perhaps we ask why we have to do this or not do that. I’ve done it and said it myself, but now there’s a distinct difference. I choose HIM and HIS presence over anything and everything. Are His promises and provision more important that HIM?! God I hope not!

I choose You Lord!

Happy Sunday

Posted by Amaris Jane at 10:17 AM

via Brandon (brandonjung.wordpress.com)

Back home. And stirring up the fire.

Via David (forksandjesus.tumblr.com)

Update

I Calculated prices for flights and living expenses in Japan and for the month i’m going to be gone i’m looking at about 2500 dollars that i will need. So if you guys can help it would be great. I’m going to be in Tokyo doing ministry with a friend i met in New York. He has an awesome ministry where he just worships on the streets, and the people love it and they have been seeing salvations and such. Pretty much I am just going to be going out to preach the gospel. You know me. So yea i will need all and any help you guys can give. Thank you and God bless.