Phew - What a Scorcher!

My last post described our rather drawn out attempt to obtain a 2 month extension to our visas from the Department of Home Affairs. All this was meant to come to a happy conclusion last Friday as we returned to collect them. But no, we were told they were still being processed. So we make a fourth attempt to settle the issue this Thursday though, presently, faith levels are not high!

On Saturday I attended the Jubilee Joining Course with about 40 others to see how those looking at membership of  the church here were taught about the Vision and Values of Jubilee. From mid morning there was an increasing and uncomfortable pain in my stomach. Long story short, as they say here in Cape Town, but I was to discover that I had picked up the office bug as a number of staff have been suffering the same way. The unfortunate thing for me was that on Saturday evening we went to a 50th birthday party for one of the staff members and I really was not in a state to eat or dance, but I did manage to open the proceedings in prayer!

Sunday morning and I was preaching on the Power of God at Jubilee. It was extremely hot, but we had a really good morning. By the time we got to the repeat meeting in the evening, after a day of constant sunshine and very high temperatures, the building really was feeling like a furnace. Cape Town gets perhaps 3 or 4 days each summer of really high temperatures so it’s not worth the very high cost of installing A/C and one hopes that a Sunday is not one of the really scorching days. But this last Sunday it was. I don’t think I have ever felt so hot in a Sunday meeting in all of my life. A student fainted because of the heat and by the time I stood up to preach  I felt so overwhelmed with the heat that I really had some difficulty keeping focus for the first few minutes - possibly because I was talking about waterfalls - if only!

But Monday was even worse. Debates rage about the exact temperature reached, but it certainly registered into the 40s on our car thermometer and there are claims that it was the hottest day in Cape Town for 40 years. It was hot, hot, hot with a searing wind, just like we have sometimes known in Dubai, but no A/C.

Fortunately by Tuesday it had cooled down a bit, which was just as well as we had the first day of a 2 day Conference with Mark Driscoll. Mark was challenging, provocative  and, by his own admission, at times aggressive! In the evening men’s meeting he said he would give us all a kick in the batteries; which is what I think he probably did. A second day with Mark today and the promise of good things to come in the future with 74 Cape Town churches sending leaders to this event.

This will probably be my last blog until the week after Easter as from this Friday we are travelling for about 3 weeks up to and around the Durban area. It’s going to be a kind of church crawl, as compared to a pub crawl, as we visit various churches, meet up with a lot of old friends, teach and preach a lot, including  joining in a Conference that Terry Virgo is speaking at in Durban and where I am also teaching at a seminar. We hope to get a few clear days as well and to enjoy the drive which will probably be at least 6,000 kilometers.

All being well we will be back in Cape Town in time for the Easter Services - but will we have that extension to our visas? As I was told recently, if anyone can sort out the Department of Home Affairs then they’ll leave a bigger legacy in South Africa than Nelson Mandela.

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