Last Thursday morning found us in a large shopping mall in Somerset West about 25 miles outside Cape Town. We’d stopped there for coffee before going on to have lunch with friends in the town and as I waited outside a shop for Sue, who should walk by but Dave Edwards, a member of CCK Brighton - talk about a global village. Dave actually has some property in South Africa and so was over on a visit. My mind immediately flashed back to a very kind offer that Dave had made to me shortly before we came out to Cape Town. He said, ‘I have a Mercedes in a garage in Somerset West, you would be very welcome to use it while you are in South Africa.’ Well I wasn’t going to turn down an offer of a Mercedes (not that I had ever been offered one before) but I said to David I ought just to check with Steve Van Rhyn. Steve leads the Jubilee Church and I thought that David’s offer could save Jubilee some money as they were probably going to hire a car for us, so it seemed almost certain that we’d go with David. When I had a chat with Steve at the Brighton Conference the conversation went something like this. Steve said, ‘Well we’ve been able to arrange a car for you’. “Great’, I said, “And it’s a Mercedes”. ‘Yes’, said Steve, ‘But how did you know’? Feeling this was a slightly strange question I said, ‘Tell me your story”. It turned out that a member of Jubilee had wanted to trade in his car and get a new one, he couldn’t get a decent price for the old one and so gave it to Jubilee. And it was another Mercedes. So with two Mercedes on offer Sue could see us driving both cars around the city. However, I assured her that only one was necessary, which of course she understood to be entirely reasonable, and so we settled on the Jubilee Mercedes.
Now it is a Mercedes, but it is very small. I think it may have been manufactured during a steel shortage and so they only had enough material to make the front of the car, but not the back. In fact it is so short and stumpy that it does not have any back wheels, just two sets of front wheels. However it has a large engine for the size of the vehicle and is very comfortable in front and so we whizz around Cape Town at high speed. Also because it is so small we can park it on a Rand in very small spaces, so it actually has many advantages.
Anyway back to David in the Somerset Mall who informed me that his (rather larger Mercedes) has been stolen after thieves broke into his house and garage. So now I was torn between feelings of some relief that we didn’t choose to go with David’s car, because it might not have been there when we went to collect it, and feelings of guilt in that had we collected it we might have saved it from being stolen!
Last Friday was British Pub Quiz night at Jubilee, which was great fun although our table didn’t exactly distinguish itself with its general knowledge. We could could hardly name one of ten pop songs from the 1980s and what was particularly disturbing was that in the science section the 2 medical doctors on our table were taking some time to agree on the name of a tube that passes from one part of the body to another. Be very afraid. We eventually came in at 19th in the competition despite the best efforts of doctors, lawyers, accountants and actuaries all assembled on our table. We sped off home in our Mercedes.
We had a busy day on Sunday with a preach at the Bay Community Church in the South of Cape Town led by our good friend Jeff Kidwell with his wife Viv and then zipping back to more central Cape Town to join Jubilee for its Fun Day held in the superb grounds of a local school. It was during this particular zip that the car developed an increasingly loud whining sound. But you know what it’s like when you develop a pain in a tube in your body, how the pain disappears as soon as you enter the doctor’s waiting room. So, as soon as I got a mechanic from Jubilee to sit in the car the noise miraculously disappeared.
On Monday, in our whine free car, we drove around the spectacular Cape Point right at the bottom of the African Continent ( for the benefit of those who are passionate for accuracy, yes, I know about Cape Agulhas being even a smidge further South). The challenge of this beautiful area is the many large and rather terrifying baboons that roam there. Four years ago, when last there, as I got out of the car a baboon got into the car and sat in the driving seat next to Sue. I remember telling this story in CCK and even now I hear Dave Fellingham calling out from the Elders bench - ‘how did she tell the difference?’ Anyway, no trouble this time and we had a great afternoon.
Dave Edwards is coming to dinner next Monday. I expect he’s had to hire a car as his has been stolen and no doubt it will be a rather cheap economical model to keep costs down. I just hope he doesn’t park too near to where we are staying, after all we have got a Mercedes parked outside the front door.
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On a previous visit to Cape Town, I would think about 10 years ago, I lost 5 minutes of my life. I was in the shower of the home we were staying in and Sue had just gone into the kitchen to fix some breakfast. When Sue came back I was lying on my bed totally dry with a towel modestly secured around my middle. As she came into the bedroom I ‘came to’ and for a few moments had no idea where I was and absolutely no recall at all of coming out of the shower, drying myself off, wrapping a towel around my middle and lying down on the bed. I reckoned that there was certainly at least 5 minutes of my life that I had lost completely. The event was sufficiently disturbing for me to go to my doctor when I got home and tell him the story. He passed it off with remarks like, ‘it sometimes happens’ and ‘you were probably somewhat stressed at the time’. I was never really very happy with this as at the time I don’t think I was stressed at all.
After that I sometimes had moments in the shower when I wondered whether it would happen again and used to concentrate very hard on what I was doing in the ablution routine! There was an interesting outcome to this story which occurred about a year later. Sue used to read a medical column, always included at that time in the Saturday Telegraph and not surprisingly authored by a a qualified doctor. ‘Look at this’ she said to me. I read the column for the week which recorded how this doctor had himself visited a Scottish women doctor whom he obviously highly regarded. He went to see her because he had been swimming, came out of the pool and then, you’ve guessed it, lost part of his life - he simply couldn’t remember what happened after he left the pool, there was just a blank. The doctor he was visiting suddenly lit up with the cry,’ You’re the person I have been wanting to meet’! In her medical research she had discovered that there is a syndrome recognised in France, but not in the UK, where individuals having had some contact with water suddenly lose part of their life and cannot recall what they have done or what has happened. The good news (at least for me, but possibly not yet for you) is that this is something that only ever happens once in a person’s life, it never gets repeated. As you can imagine since reading that article I have taken my showers with a sense of complete freedom.
Anyway, all this came flooding(!) back to me in the shower this morning as I remembered that particular shower (though not the immediate aftermath) that I experienced in Cape Town 10 or so years ago. Then I thought of the time that I am aware of. We’ve already had 12 Sundays in Cape Town; though strictly one was in Dubai, and there are only 8 more before we return to the UK for Christmas. So time passes quickly on and those of you who promised to keep in touch by email and haven’t are running out of it! No condemnation… More importantly it’s always sobering to think of using the time well that God that has given to us and which we can remember. Meanwhile enjoy your shower tomorrow morning, but do beware the water.
Being in South Africa, and I suppose this is true of being in any other country which uses English as a main language, reveals some fascinating language differences. For example South Africans commonly express things with a negative whereas we would use a positive. So in a Church service I’d say ‘will you please sit down’, but here in Jubilee you are more likely to hear, ’won’t you sit down’ to which which I have an overwhelming urge, so far resisted, to shout, ‘ No’! Then there is the use of the word now. In South Africa you have to differentiate between now now which means immediately or just now which could be any time from here to the end of your life. So if someone tells you, ‘I’m going to take you out for a delicious steak just now’, don’t get too excited, it could be a long time before it happens. What you are looking for is a now now steak; that’s worth getting excited about. Then there is the confusing use of the word couple which of course for us in the UK always means two, but in South Africa seems to mean anything from 2 to 3,000 (if not more). For a couple to tell you that they have a couple of children can be extremely confusing. How many are in this relationship and how many children do they actually have? So if a husband and wife tell you that they are coming round for a meal just now, with a couple of their children, you haven’t really got a clue as to how many are coming or when they will turn up. It reminds me of the time when years ago as a very young Pastor an American told me that they were all coming round for coffee. I was expecting the entire church, but actually it was only the one guy with his wife!
Steve van Rhyn has a quite delightful stock of phrases which he uses when preaching. For example in Steve’s vocabulary people never arrive, they ‘rock-up’. And where we would speak of someone being ‘top of the pile’ Steve uses the far more descriptive phrase of ‘top of the log’. In the UK we are fairly familiar with certain catch phrases that seem to be popular for a time. So a few years back we were ‘kick starting’ all sorts of things and more recently we’ve all been trying ‘to sing from the same hymn sheet’, which is strange really as in NewFrontiers we never do sing from a hymn sheet! Mind you within NewFrontiers we also have our stock phrases, the chief of which is we are in transition (If I had a pound for every time…….!). There is also the highly descriptive phrase sometimes used these days for referring to someone we may be a bit concerned about that ‘he’s one sandwich short of a picnic.’ Which brings me to my all time favourite expression here in South Africa. A few weeks ago a lovely lady here in Cape Town was referring to someone she was a bit concerned about asking me whether I thought ‘his cheese was slipping off his cracker.’ Beat that!
So last Sunday I was preaching at Langebaan on the West Coast and once again found myself in the midst of language differences as they have repeat meetings on a Sunday now ( which has almost become a NewFrontiers value), the first service is in Afrikaans and the second in English. However they let me preach both times in English as they reckoned that my Afrikaans wasn’t up to much. Mind you I do know the Afrikaans word ‘lekker’ which means ‘really good’ and is a word almost universally used over here even by those who only speak English. So we had a really lekker time with the church - one I’ve visited reguarly over the last 11 years.
I believe I’ve mentioned before that we belong to a very stimulating Lifegroup (depending on your context understand at this point; small group, cell group, home group, focus group, action group, growth group or ‘what on earth are they calling them now’ group). Well, last week we were discussing Terry Virgo’s sermon from the week before. The splendid Herma Adams, wife of church Elder Dave Adams, was saying how much she had appreciated what Terry has said about being fervent in prayer from the story of Elijah who had fought the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel and how he had built the altar and poured water all over the alter. In fact Herma went into great detail for about 5 minutes on all of this causing in me a rising sense of panic. I simply hadn’t heard Terry describing Elijah building the altar and pouring water on etc, etc. Was I fast asleep while Terry was saying this - after all I had only got back from Dubai the night before. Did I snore as I was asleep or had I simply blanked out. Was I losing my memory even. So eventually I could take it no longer and stopped Herma by exclaiming, I just can’t remember Terry saying any of that. ‘Oh no, he didn’t,’ she said,’ I was just having a bit of a preach myself.’ I then discovered that Sue was having exactly the same thoughts as me and was also on the edge of a panic attack thinking she had completely lost it too while listening to Terry. Anyway we were both greatly relieved as we had really thought for a few minutes that the cheese was slipping off our crackers.
We flew back from Dubai to Cape Town last Saturday after a very interesting few days in Dubai. With the change of leadership soon to take place there, the Friday meeting (not Sunday in Dubai) was a really important one. Steve Oliver told the story of his call to Dubai to the congregation; which seemed to be very well received and then I preached a message on God’s purpose for the Church. We were so glad to have been in Dubai at such a crucial phase of the churches’ history and Clive and Heather Cernic will be very much missed as they leave shortly before Christmas, but we believe that Steve and Heather Oliver are going to be very well received as Steve takes on the leadership of the team there. One of the the issues that was very much on the mind of people while we were there was the terrible flooding in Manila. A number of the congregation come from the Philippines and have family in Manila and we also have a church in Manila which was planted by Eden who used to be in the Dubai Church. So the contacts are very close and in fact Clive was due to fly to Manila just after we left to minister to the church there. However it seemed best for Clive to postpone this visit until things have returned to a more normal state so that he will have a better opportunity to minister and speak to the church then. So in Dubai we stood and prayed together for the saints in Manila during our Friday morning meeting.
Back in Cape Town for Sunday morning I was taken into one of the townships to preach at our church there. The journey proved to be interesting. The splendid young man who was driving me assured me that he knew the way until we hit a traffic jam shortly after we’d started out. From then on the nature of the journey can be judged from a number of his remarks which I quote as accurately as I remember: ’Well John I think I can work my way around this jam - John I am going to give you a bit of an adventure today - Lets pray; Lord may we have a great meeting, please Lord let us arrive safely and please keep us alive - we are now driving through one of the more dangerous areas, this is where a lot of the gangs are functioning - I am keeping my distance from the car in front at the traffic lights so if anyone jumps on us I should be able to accelerate and get away - I’m glad we’re not doing this in your (newer) car, but in my (older) car as it helps us to keep a lower profile - I think the building is along here somewhere - it must be a bit further on - I think we may have missed it - I think it must be down a road futher back - I’ll ask the way - I decided to ask that guy in the truck because I thought with his wife and kid in the car he probably wouldn’t attack us - here we are and only 45 minutes late, but they tend to have a long time of worship.’ Safely in the building I’m giving thanks that the prayer had been answered!
Great time preaching in the church - the only time I’ve ever preached to a congregation to have them on their feet and clapping during the message - or were they trying to suggest it was time I stopped, by dropping a gentle hint? But no, poor as probably many of them were, they were wonderfully responsive to the Word of God.
Got it right on the way back. Straight out of the township and onto the motorway. We weren’t shot, mugged or attacked. Back at Jubilee in the evening Terry was there to preach at a great regional Celebration. Super time and Terry very relaxed, but then he’d only driven 2 miles through the suburbs!
We arrived in Dubai from Cape Town at 5 am last Thursday morning. The real reason for our being here is because of leadership changes that are taking place in the Dubai Church. Clive and Heather Cernic who have done a brilliant job over the last 4 years are moving on and Steve and Heather Oliver from South Africa are coming to take up the lead here. As Sue and I have the longest and most consistent relationship with the Dubai church we were asked to be around at the present time. I spoke to the Leaders on Thursday evening and then on Friday morning Clive told the whole church of their intention to move on about Christmas. It felt a bit tense when I got up to preach immediately afterwards, but I spoke on standing firm in a time of change and by the end of the meeting people seemed really positive and faith filled about the future. We’re seeing people all this week and then I preach again this Friday after Steve Oliver has been introduced to the Church - though he has been here before and so is known by the congregation.
Is this the most amazing city in the world? In certain respects I think it is. The ‘can-do’ attitude here is quite remarkable. A few years back they decided to build a metro system and bear in mind that it has to be constructed on and under sand. It opened just 3 weeks ago at 9.9.09 on the 9th of the 9th month 09 - good job they aren’t all 6s! (Note the eschatological reference here). It’s a great ride with an elevated view of Dubai’s stunning architecture and then plunging underground in the city centre. Clean, quiet but with the same 4 bars of music playing in the background all the time - a bit like listening to Windows opening up every few seconds. I was musing on the fact that in the time they’ve built this whole Metro system that in Brighton they haven’t even managed to remove the rubbish from the West Pier out of the sea! As for the handful of proposed building projects in Brighton - well as Brighton dithers, in the same time Dubai constructs the tallest building in the world. We went to view it the other evening and also saw what must be the most beautiful fountain in the world playing in front. This was quite astonishing. Every 20 minutes there is a kind of music, light and water show. The fountain erupts in time with the music (different pieces of music are used) and the effect is totally stunning. There was a major competition in Dubai to decide what to call their fountain. After all the suggestions had been considered the winner was declared to have come up with the amazingly original title of: The Dubai Fountain!
My laptop has suddenly developed a need for a password that has never been required before in order for me to acess my Emails. Why should this happen in Dubai - is it something to do with the sand or do they perhaps require an amazingly original password like ‘password’? Anyway, this is something that I am sure only Chris Leversuch at CCK can supply me with so I email him via Webmail ( my computer skills are legendary) only to get a message back that he’s on honeymoon until Oct 12th. Where’s the sense of commitment these days? Here I am labouring in the desert in temperatures of 100 degrees, needing IT back up and the man is on honeymoon!
We are staying with our good friends Tim and Coral who live in a complex that gives us an access to a very nice swimming pool. Sitting by the pool the other day, under a Palm tree, we had the rather original experience of being rained on by dates. We fly back to Cape Town on Saturday after our date here in Dubai.
In England you think Tesco, but in Cape Town you think Pick and Pay. A brand new Pick and Pay supermarket opened shortly before our arrival here and it is just a 5 minute drive away - very convenient. It’s situated in a complex that includes other shops, a gym, some residential flats and a car park. Not surprisingly the multi purpose use of the building has produced a few teething troubles, especially when refunds can be obtained for the parking if you’ve shopped in the Supermarket, though through a slightly contorted system. All of this was discussed in a letter to a local newspaper last week. Responsibly there was an immediate answer from the Manager of Pick and Pay, part apology, part pointing out the efforts being made to perfect the system and also part best wishes for all Pick and Pay customers whom they want to have a happy parking experience. I have never really previously considered the need for an experience when I park. But I notice that ‘experience’ is a buzz word these days. For your birthday, don’t have a boring present of socks or bath gel, go for an experience. There are companies that will drop you of a plane (with parachute) or arrange for you to make your own CD etc. It’s important to have an experience. I must admit a slight dislike of the approach of a Christian recording company in issuing its CDs under the heading of A Worship Experience. Why can’t I just worship?
We had one of those interesting conversations the other day that still surprises even after 41 years of marriage. I know this will bring in a shoal of emails expressing disgust and advice like, do it yourself, and shocked of Hove, but we have a family tradition that Sue always makes my sandwiches for me to take for my lunch. (Yes, I know - terrible isn’t it). So the other morning Sue was short of time and I was doing something extremely important for the advance of the Kingdom on the Computer and my wife says, “why aren’t you making your sandwich”. The truthful answer was that I didn’t know I was supposed to make my sandwich that morning after 41 years of not making a sandwich, so it came as a bit of a shock. I have obviously missed out in my married life on the whole valuable sandwich making experience.
Since last week we have had another very successful Senior Leaders Training morning. again, good attendance and I feel very good content for those that came. We looked at the Doctrine of Salvation, Applying the gospel and the Leader’s Devotional life. Another good Sunday too, enthusiastic worship and people seeming to appreciate the message on the Faithfulness of God.
Our Monday off took us on 90 minute drive to the coastal resort of Hermanus; a favourite of ours that we have visited many times in the years that we have been coming here. It is genuinely the best place in the world to view whales from the shore and they were so close to the beach that you could almost touch them. Others were spouting and jumping out at sea; it’s really quite a moving experience - there we go again.
Now we are packing and getting ready for about 10 days with the church in Dubai. This will include at least 2 Leaders’ meetings and preaching on the 2 Fridays that we are there. The trouble is I have now been to Dubai so often I begin to worry that I’ve told them everything that I’ve ever had to say. But we always so enjoy being with the church there; it’s a real privelege to think we can be with them again. So for the next few days we expect to be involved in the Dubai experience and neither of us will be making sandwiches.
We’re off to Dubai for about 10 days. This is a bit of a surprise for us, but we’ve been asked to go for a ministry visit and the circumstances are such that it certainly seems the right thing to do. By a cruel twist of fate we fly out next Wednesday at 6pm just as the Band is gathering and refreshments are being prepared and excitement is at fever pitch for the church dance later that evening. As the first waltz plays we should be in the air and I don’t think the cabin staff will appreciate an onboard salsa or swing. So all that we had been preparing for in the dances classes has fallen away. But there is more. Last Tuesday was the last of the dance classes and although we knew that we can’t get to THE DANCE we were planning to hone our skills for the last time. However my wife’s love of gardening caused even that to become impossible We have a communal garden here at the flat, which we share with others in the complex, but Sue was frustrasted by 2 nettle filled garden tubs on our patio. So on Monday she purchased 2 geraniums and asked me to move the tubs so that when planted up they would be in the best viewing position. It was a mistake. I pulled my back moving the pots and therefore any idea of doing the Swing on tuseday evening with the kind of energy, flow and sheer athletic ability that is expected of us was no longer possible. So, Strictly No Dancing.
We had a good Sunday. I was asked to preach the final message of 3 in our series on I will pour out my Spirit. I was specifically asked to preach on Baptism in the Spirit and a number of people really seem to have encountered God in a new way.
On Monday we had fish and chips at Hout Bay which is a little town just oustside Cape Town. We sat with a magnificent view of mountains and fishing boats, seals and open water while we ate. Later on we drove around the altlantic seaboard side of Cape Town past some of the really trendy and youth filled beach areas like Camps Bays. Obviously we were tempted to stop and join in but persevered with our drive and some wonderful coastal views.
Steve has been in New York with Tim Keller the last few days and Lex is right now preparing to fly to the UK for a weekend with the Catford Church. He should be at the CCK Staff Prayer Meeting next Tuesday morning. Malcolm Hurter flew down from Durban yesterday to spend a day with us - it was really good to see him again and catch up on his news etc.
So life continues tobe busy. We have our second round of Leadership Training this Saturday where I am speaking on The Doctrine of Salvation; doing a quick over view of Romans 1-8 in 45 minutes. I’m also due to be preaching again here in Jubilee on Sunday.
After that I’ll be preparing for Dubai and nursing my geranium back.
Our TV is broken. As we have no radio here but quite a full TV package we’re rather dependent on it for the news; to which I am somewhat addicted. Our excellent flat agent after struggling for a couple of hours last evening with 3 handsets and thousands of buttons is planning to send it to the menders. I’ve never been a fan of Christian TV but couldn’t resist watching Joel Osteen last Sunday (and also Mark Driscoll preaching at the Crysal Cathedral!!) and Joel informed us that ‘Every setback is a setup for a greater comeback’. So I can’t wait for the TV to return!
On Sunday I preached at Macassar about a 20 minute drive out of Cape Town and planted out in a fairly poor area 5 years ago. There is obviously a high church going population there as when we drove through there were lots of people walking about in dark suits obviously on their way to a service. We followed those wearing jeans and arrrived in the right place. Really friendly church and we had a good time with the 3 leaders and their wives after the service. Being South Africa there was no lack of food for lunch.
Back at Jubilee in the evening Steve preached the second sermon in the series on ‘I will pour out my Spirit.’ Good response and we prayed for a lot of people at the end of the meeting. I am scheduled to finish this short series this week by preaching on Baptism in the Spirit.
Monday was truly awful for weather, the rain just poured down all day, Every time we thought it was about to get better it got worse. Stayed in mainly and read. Have been very much enjoying John Ortberg; Faith and Doubt (especially the faith bit) and a remarkable book; the first in a trilogy by Amitav Ghosh called Sea of Poppies. Set in India, though much of it concerned with a voyage from India in an old slaving Schooner it is beautifully written and utterly compelling.
Every other Tuesday I am giving half an hours teaching to the staff here from the book of Revelation. We’ve just finished the first chapter so I am getting a little concerned that we’ll get through before the Parousia; so I think I’ll have to increase the pace somewhat. You may think that the dance classes are good preparation for that, but last night we failed to attend. I am dreading facing the barrage of questions and enquiries and possibly even abuse that will now come from companion dancers at our failure to persevere. Truth to tell, it was the agent working on the TV that kept us back at the flat. But there is another far more intriguing reason also which I should be able to reveal next week. Meanwhile the dance class can rest assurred that the setback of our non appearance is actually a setup for a greater comeback at the dance class next week.
South Arica is looking forward to hosting the Football World Cup in 2010 and so there is a lot of preparation for that event taking place right now. The Airport in Cape Town is being largely reconstructed and there are some huge projects taking place on the road systems as attempts are made to improve difficult junctions and streamline traffic flow. Of course, as so often happens, the work on streamlining traffic flow means that in the meantime the traffic slows down because of the work being done. My journey to the office can be done in under 10 minutes quite easily but in fact takes up to 35 minutes in rush hour.
On Monday we decided to drive around the city centre to remind ourselves of the general layout. In the past few years we have tended to head straight for the massively redeveloped Waterfront which is now one of South Africa’s major attractions. However in driving around the centre we followed signs for Signal Hill and at the top found oursleves with a magnificent view of one of the new football stadiums now being built far below us. Obviously a number of these are being built across the country at the present and I am hearing some concerns in the media as to how these can all be well used once the World Cup is over. Some Cape Townians are planning to be ‘out of town’ during the World Cup in the hope of letting out their properties for an enormous rent - whether fans will be prepared to pay such rent waits to be seen.
A real highlight this week was to attend the Helderberg Church on Sunday morning for a welcome to Gary and Nicky Welsh. Gary is now taking on the lead having served as an Elder there in the past; but more recently he has been in Durban. This means a bit of a new start for the church and it was excellent to see some friends whom we haven’t seen for many years as inevitably people move away to other places. However it proved to be quite a time of reunion.
Back at Jubilee in the evening Lex got us off to a very good start for a 3 week series on ‘I will pour out my Spirit” - I am scheduled to complete this series in a couple of weeks time.
I also spoke to the Western Cape Leaders this Week on my reflections on 40 years in Christian ministry. I first gave this talk to the Sussex pastors earlier this year - it’s travelled a bit since then!
And finally the dance class. Sue and I are extremly disappointed that by last night all the more mature dancers had fallen by the wayside. However we continue to set a good role model with me doing the waltz with a 21 year old to help her along and Sue being swept off her feet by a very enthusiastic young student to do the Swing. Last Sunday one of the upcoming dances was advertised during the notices by a young lady in a magnificent ballgown. She had the congregations full attention. The Elders were lamenting during the week that they had failed to give a prominent enough notice for a new membership joining class. I suggested bringing on the student in her ballgown to do it; it could help the membership numbers soar.
The last week has been full of interest in terms of seeing different people, enjoying the beautiful Cape Town area and teaching in various contexts. It’s been good to reconnect with couples we’ve known in the past who’ve invited us to dinner; one couple that I remember vividly talking to at a wedding in Cape Town 20 years ago when they themselves were young newly weds. Now they have lovely teenage daughters - how time passes! Mind you, 20 years ago our 2 sons certainly wern’t married but we now have 7 grandchildren - much missed at present, but we do have skype.
Lat Saturday we started an 8 part Senior Leaders Course for the churches here in the Western Cape. About 190 had pre-registered and 158 actually pitched; which was great. I spoke on the Glory of Christ, Steve van Rhyn on a call to Leadership and Lex gave a great challenge to Leaders on our Call to Mission. The fellowship among the different leaders was excellent and we feel the Course has got off to an excellent start. There is always a need for more Leaders in a local Church; we hope this course will really help serve in that area.
After Steve had preached an excellent word on giving on Sunday, closing the long Phillippians series on Lasting Joy we considered how to have another joyful Monday and it was off to see the flowers again. The flowers up the West Coast in early Spring are just phenomenal and the weather was just perfect - mid 20s and and clear blue sky. How do you get sunburn in winter? Answer, come to Cape Town.
Every 2 weeks, after the Staff Prayer Meeting on a Tuesday, Steve has asked me to do half an hours teaching to the Staff from the book of Revelation. Actually, he asked me to do the teaching and I suggested the book of Revelation. We had an easy jog through the first half of chapter 1. At the moment I am just softening them up for seals, trumpets, bowls of wrath and locusts with women’s hair in the future.
Back at the flat we have been part building site and part disconnected. Damp had been seeping into the flat for some time so we’ve had builders in for several days. At least builders some times in, because when they should be in there are sometimes not in because they are out on another job. Now where have I heard that before? Also our phone has ben disconnected because the flat owner hasn’t paid the bill. This of course also means we cannot use email, twitter etc from home. Amazing how bereft and isolated one can feelwhen these modern means of communication are no longer available. We sit there wondering what to do. Ah, we’ll watch TV, but now the signal isn’t working. It’s a good thing we have the dancing clases!
