Book Signing

Signing yet another book in Malta. Wife Ester by my side. Here, we were in the ancient city of Mdina.

St. Joseph's Day

St. Joseph's Day in Malta. I snapped this trumpeter in a parade. I am reflected in the trumpet. It is the feast day of Saint Joseph, husband of the Virgin Mary -- a solemnity in the Catholic Church. You may click on the image to enlarge. Malta is 82.6% Catholic.

Malta Ahoy

This could be my last post in a while. Tomorrow, I fly to Malta, to deliver the Annual Philosophy Lecture. Wife E follows me a day later. We are to stay in a Baroque palace (pictured). I have said that the Philosophy Sharing Foundation, which is bringing me across, has a "sense of occasion". Not many have it. OBSERVATION: I would consider it necessary to life. No great thing can be accomplished without a sense of occasion.

My Free E-Book

I received an e-mail from my publisher, offering me a free e-book. But where? I found I needed to open another page. There, I picked up a code, and clicked through to the book page. Through a series of screens, I entered the code, shipping details, and personal details. Then I called up an account (fortunately I'd already opened one), to download the e-book. But how to read it? Now I needed the Linux terminal. I downloaded an e-book reader. I called up the downloaded book. It was unreadable. It had a hidden menu, through which I reformatted it. Finally, I could read the e-book. OBSERVATION: That was about twenty steps, some of them not for beginners. How about: 1. Click here to download. 2. Enter your code to read.

Chromebook

At the beginning of 2024, my Lenovo computer, running Linux Fedora, blew out -- apparently due to Eskom, our electricity public utility. At the time, we were having blackouts by the minute, not the day, in the Koukamma district. I replaced that computer with an Asus Chromebook, which runs Linux Debian -- assuming that one activates Debian first, and downloads some Linux programs. In the 15 months I have used it, my Chromebook has improved before my eyes. Especially its Linux file system, which has become far more robust. At first, this required many reboots after crashes. I run the Chromebook mostly as a Linux Debian computer, which gives it enormous power. OBSERVATION: Chromebooks are now more popular than Apple Macs.

Entrance

I took this photo yesterday of an entrance to Canal Walk shopping mall in Cape Town. It reminded me so much of nondescript messages that greet churchgoers today. OBSERVATION: It would seem hard to distinguish whether this is a shopping mall or a Church. In this moment, I don't have any particular Church in mind! It could apply to thousands of Churches.

Threats and Intimidation

When I moved from suburban to urban ministry, some things greatly changed. In important ways, one is dealing with a vastly different situation. One change was threats. In suburban ministry, as minister, I received one threat. It was a deacon. In urban ministry (but twice the period of time), I have estimated that I received more than 100 threats. It was all sorts. OBSERVATION: I tended to take the threats at face value at first. An attorney said to me one day, "Do the threats come from an amateur?" If so, they likely qualify as intimidation, and intimidation is an offence. And yes indeed, most threats came from amateurs. Even when they did not, they were professionals acting like amateurs. To some extent, I became used to it.

Prayer and Numbers

I needed to check my father's Gilbert Islands files today (he was Chief Missionary there). I received a request from someone researching the origins of his Church's Statement of Faith. But in my father's papers, I found this (above). My first real prayer request was that God should wake me up at 3:00 am to type out numbers. I woke up, looked at the clock, and it stood at precisely 3:00 am. I typed these numbers before I went back to sleep. I did not know until today that my father had kept these numbers. OBSERVATION: I found this amongst papers dated 1967. I may have been seven years old.

Handling Disruptions

I have blogged in the past about typical disruptions – intrusions – one may experience in city ministry. I have usually dealt with it by engaging with disrupters, and persuading them to continue the conversation later. Here's one example, among many. One evening we had guests leading the service. I was seated in the congregation. A man with a cigarette behind his ear walked to the front, held a hand in the air, and took over the service. In front of a full Church, I walked to the front, and said: "Hey! It's great to have you here! What's your name? Can we do this later?" He was completely distracted, and left. A deaconess came to me after the service and reprimanded me: “That was dangerous! That man was high! Don’t ever do that again!”

Gender Based Violence

This one is not for sensitive readers. One often imagines, by gender-based violence, men being violent towards women. I have put on this blog that, through ministry experience, I have found that women are violent towards men, too -- perhaps equally so. Today, (click here) CNN published a report that 1 in 3 women are physically abused by men, and 1 in 4 men are physically abused by women -- however, "there has been less reporting of male abuse, so the statistics are not correct". OBSERVATION: From my experience in ministry, women may be unusually vicious: they may throw a pot of boiling water over him, give him a rock in the face, or put a broken bottle in his neck.

Near Death Experiences

There is a fairly widespread awareness today of Near Death Experiences (NDE's) -- by which I mean out-of-body experiences rather than "close shaves". Before the advent of the Internet, many ministers were unaware of them. However, I became aware of such experiences early on in ministry. After seven years of full-time ministry, I met a man who told me he was standing on a ladder, working on a gutter, when he fell over backwards, hit a post with the back of his head, and fell into a coma. He would not have pulled through, he said, unless two women at his hospital bedside had implored him to wake up. Yes, but how did he know that they were imploring him, if he was in a coma? He said that he watched it all from above. I believed him -- and listened out for similar clues. They were all over. Personally, about a dozen people may have shared their experiences with me.

Liking One's Own Book (Not)

Do all authors like their books? I am in the unusual position that I do not like my latest (draft) book. My last book, published by Resource Publications | Wipf & Stock, I loved. I think my latest book is a very good product—perhaps what troubles me is that it includes conflict. According to xAI, the above "reflects a broader discussion in writing communities about how an author's personal feelings and the content's emotional tone can influence their attachment to their work ..." DeepSeek AI comments, "An author's dissatisfaction with their own work doesn't necessarily reflect its quality or how it will be received by others. Many works that authors have been critical of have gone on to be highly regarded by readers and critics alike."

Salt Food Market

This is (you guessed it) Cape Town's Salt Food Market on a rainy day. It describes itself as "an emporium of deliciousness with incredible food stalls, epic vibes, and variety to suit every taste!" They offer free wi-fi. You may click on the photo to enlarge.

POSTSCRIPT: One never can tell with posts. This one instantly jumped into my Popular Posts list on the right.

Fabulous Price

My book Everything, Briefly is available at last through Amazon South Africa for a cool (click here) R1,152. This is, needless to say, a fabulous price. But one may buy the (click here) Kindle version through Amazon USA, for R63. One may easily use a virtual Kindle: https://read.amazon.com/landing OBSERVATION: The price is illustrative of a wider problem in South Africa, with books. For those unfamiliar with the South African currency, R1,152 is equal to 38 McDonald's cheeseburgers.

5 Minute Queue (Not)

I arranged in advance to pick up foreign currency at the bank today. On arrival, I waited about a quarter of an hour in a queue. They then handed me a piece of paper (pictured), on which was written, "Your estimated queuing time is 5 minutes." I now waited about half an hour in a queue. Finally, in a little office, it took them about a quarter of an hour to hand over the foreign currency. An hour in all. OBSERVATION: This is not too bad, compared with some government institutions.