
Urban Ministry Live And Unplugged
A Window On Urban Ministry In Southern Africa
Sunday, January 24, 2021
Good Workmanship (Not)

Sermons and Leprosy
As often happens with sermons, the preacher spoke of leprosy this morning. As a child (the 1960s), our world included lepers, and child lepers -- leprosy is most common in childhood -- but we had solemn instructions not to touch them. As might be expected, the leprous children chased the rest, including me -- and we (me and my friends) taunted them. It was a game of Catch-Me-If-You-Can. OBSERVATION: It seems to me there was no treatment programme, which I do not understand, as leprosy was treatable in my youth. Perhaps it was too remote a place.
Saturday, January 23, 2021
Catastrophic Failure
A young friend of mine studied Informatics in 2020. He averaged 20% for five subjects, which can only be described as catastrophic. I told him that the first time I wrote a Greek exam, I obtained 33%. This was not bad -- compared with my second attempt. For that, I obtained 28%. I asked my friends to help me -- and apparently over-compensated for my previous failures. On my third attempt, I obtained 80%, which was a distinction, through the London School of Theology no less. OBSERVATION: So, don't judge yourself by your beginnings.
My Whole World
News Websites Comparison
Feedspot lists South Africa's top 25 news websites: News24, Mail & Guardian, Sowetan Live, and so on. Would this blog come anywhere close? In fact, it beats nearly a third of them on Domain Authority, an important metric. Among others, it beats Africa Online News, Money Today, and Exclusive Africa. It outscores seven out of 25. OBSERVATION: While this says something for this blog, it isn't of course a news website, so not directly comparable. Domain Authority, to put it too simply, assesses a website's relevance, or as Crazy Egg puts it, it is "a measure of how well a website is likely to perform in search engine results".
Friday, January 22, 2021
Desktop Android
Ideological vs. Existential Christianity
Drawing On Spirituality
Thursday, January 21, 2021
Revision Done
Biden's Speech
Troop Carrier
Wednesday, January 20, 2021
Vision of the Future
High-Tech and Low-Tech
I was annoyed by the news that my brother-in-law had visited our father-in-law in the township, and his vehicle was vandalised. It has happened to me, too. I have been designing a device to pick up raiders a block away. The sensor, about twenty components, has already been accepted for publication. But the sensor still requires optics, plus a "sound bomb", plus additional circuity to prevent the bomb from unsettling the sensor. Sometimes low-tech is better. I now plan to design an alarm which relies on a trip wire. That is something my father-in-law could use, too. OBSERVATION: The only problem with a trip wire is it may only work once. After that, raiders may be looking for a trip wire.
Tuesday, January 19, 2021
Banned and Unbanned
Monday, January 18, 2021
Raft of Orders
I am a little surprised by President-Elect Joe Biden's intention to rescind President Trump's executive orders en masse. For instance The Times: "Joe Biden plans blitz of executive orders to break with Trump," or the Financial Times: "Biden to unwind Trump agenda with raft of exective orders." I am thinking on the Church, where one would deliberately avoid this, unless the Church's very survival were at stake. So I myself have needed to make some interventions sooner than I wanted to, following a transition, but nothing like this. OBSERVATION: Of course, Biden has a captive "congregation" (citizenry) while Churches do not. Yet it puzzles me that he takes this course, particularly as states are divided more or less equally, ideologically. Or he knows he is short of time.