Vespa Restoration

Isn’t she lovely? This is an Italian Vespa pickup (called the “Ape”) in the process of being restored by a friend of mine. I drive its modern clone, the Bajaj pickup, which is made in India. That’s me in the photo.

Dealing With Slander

During three months of last year, I was systematically slandered (I thought it appropriate to delay any blogging on the topic). This is not too unusual in ministry, and ministers who have escaped it may count themselves lucky. Ultimately I met with three deacons and the person concerned. I considered that this was a spiritual matter -- not finally about facts, or rules. Where would the spiritual advantage lie? I read out a list of accusations, and said that I would readily confess to them if I knew of anything to confess. However in one case, I said, I could confess -- yet I had not committed that sin anywhere near the time and place that were claimed. My accuser laughed -- and said nothing. I said that I could further confess that, in spite of nine years of training, I didn’t have a clue as to how to lead a Church. My accuser said, “That’s not true! You’re a fantastic minister!” He offered an emotional apology -- which was accepted.

Literacy Programme

This is our intern P. introducing himself this morning to a full hall of delegates of the Maryland Literacy Programme. Sister M., on the left, is the “patron saint” of the movement. We provide our facilities free of charge to Maryland. OBSERVATION: The movement not only teaches literacy, but seeks to give people “a meaningful voice in society”. I find, however, that this may have an aggressive aspect to it. Today I said to a delegate, “We need this programme.” She said, “It’s very wrong that we do.” See http://www.adultlit.co.za/ for more.

Reading and Writing

I decided to work out how many pages of reading and writing I do for a given Sunday’s service. It’s hard to say exactly, but perhaps 100-150 pages of reading (with re-reading), 30 pages of writing. OBSERVATION: To some extent, this will be a reflection of the priority I afford services of worship "in the larger scheme of things".

Meat On The Coals

While on holiday/vacation earlier this month, I stayed with a priest in Britannia Bay, on the south-western coast of Africa. The photo shows him roasting a fillet on the coals. OBSERVATION: It’s very easy to do. The fillet is plastered one side with a thick layer of mustard, then very coarse salt is packed onto the mustard, and this side of the fillet is flipped straight onto the coals. The same is repeated for the other side. With a small(ish) fillet like this, it requires just short of 15 minutes each side. The coals must be hot, as seen in the photo. The mustard and salt then peel off. If desired, the fillet may finally be sliced on top and a little sherry poured into the cuts.

Mixed Success

During my years of ministry I have had five pastoral staff “under me”. This included two “probationers” (trainee ministers), and three Youth pastors. One of the probationers (see photo) was ordained and entered the ministry. However, the other one needed psychiatric care before my supervision was through (no jokes, please)! One of the Youth pastors did very well, a second one did well but burnt out within a year, while a third was a mistaken choice. OBSERVATION: Burnout is something I intend to avoid with our current intern (not to speak of psychiatric care)! As I see it, the failures were not due to my style, but to typical dynamics of ministry. At that time (many years ago), I didn’t pick this up soon enough.

A ZIP Code For Africa

UrbanMinistry.org in the U.S.A. just released rankings of (combined) social justice and urban ministry blogs, “compiled using Technorati authority” (http://www.urbanministry.org/top2008). There are clearly some blogs which are missing, though -- and this includes my own, which Technorati authority puts in the top twenty on that list. OBSERVATION: Perhaps the UrbanMinistry.org list is a U.S.-only one, although this is not stated. Someone should finally assign a ZIP code to Africa, along with California, Texas, Florida ...

Heartbreaking Impasse

I was faced with a “heartbreaking impasse” today. J., who is terminally ill, had apparently checked herself out of hospital. Two hospital porters had put her on a stretcher, wheeled her to a taxi, and lifted her in. She ordered the taxi to the Church. Someone said, "She's foaming at the mouth." Another said, “It's her last wish.” She demanded to be carried into the Church. But how? And what then? She cried in pain whenever anyone tried to move her an inch. I said, “J., settle down. Let’s talk about what we can do here.” But she didn’t have a mind to talk about anything at all. It was all shouting and panic. After some negotiation with a local hospice, we ordered the taxi to the hospice, and asked the taxi driver to bill the Church. As the taxi drove away, someone said, "It breaks my heart. Was there nothing we could do?" OBSERVATION: The Bible speaks of fish that are caught in a cruel net, and birds that are taken in a snare. J. is in the net, in the snare. The photo shows J. in the taxi as we seek to negotiate a way forward.

Task vs. Community

I handed in my monthly minister's message at the office this morning. Essentially I say that this is to be a "back to basics" year for us, where we focus on our task. OBSERVATION: I had the sense, in 2008 (I didn't put this in my message), that our emphasis shifted a little too far towards "community". I consider that this is not healthy. Community is a by-product in the Church, and fails as a focus.

A Late Student

A monk recently told me the following story of life at the monastery. A novice needed to hand in a doctoral dissertation by 8 p.m. sharp. His supervisor said, “If you don’t feed it under my door by 8 p.m., you’re disqualified.” At 8 p.m., the novice wasn’t ready -- so he slipped just three sheets under the door. He worked all night long, running up and down, slipping ever more sheets under the door. In the morning, he said to his supervisor, “It took me a while to get it all under your door. God is love!” His dissertation was accepted.

"Definitely Not Ministry"

I called in at the Church office this morning. I said to our secretary G.: “This is a year of discernment for our intern. He’ll be deciding whether to go into ministry or ...” G. said passionately: “Definitely not ministry! From what I’ve seen! [of my own ministry]. I'm surprised your health isn't destroyed. Definitely not ministry!” OBSERVATION: Ah, to feel understood. However, it needs to be added that the benefits are as pronounced as the perils. There’s an equal return on the risk. It's a special privilege to deal with the highest of things, to see people in their most personal moments, to have such multi-faceted work, to have so many issues to think through, to enjoy a satisftying degree of independence, and to see the works of God in the Church.

Team Without Members

Here’s our Worship Team on Sunday, as seen on our “cry room” video feed. Here’s how you do a Worship Team our way: scrap team members, scrap rehearsals, scrap arrival times and dress codes, and see what happens. OBSERVATION: Two of the team are in fact on a roster every Sunday: our pianist and (at the lectern here) our worship leader. Due to the chaos of our society, anything else would seem unlikely to work.

Eleven Languages

With eleven official languages in South Africa, it would seem no surprise that local authorities sometimes miss the finer nuances of translation. I took this photo on leaving Laaiplek, north of Cape Town. OBSERVATION: Usually, as is the case here, one finds “benign” mistranslations in South Africa, unlike the blunders one finds e.g. in Asia. (In our Church, at least six of our country's official languages are represented).

First Counselling

Our new intern P. joined me for the first time this morning for a counselling session. I asked him to ready himself to give advice, and to select a passage of Scripture to read. We counselled a congregant who clearly needed help in normalising her life (basic health care, and a relatively peaceful home), yet in these important areas she was not winning through "the system". She was depressed. I sought to assess the situation, looked at practical interventions, and offered spiritual advice, then handed over to P. A core advice that P. gave was that she should shift to an “outgoing” focus at various levels (her inwardness was compounding her troubles). OBSERVATION: P. acquitted himself well. I would not have been as capable in my days as an intern.

Services For The Poor

I have gained a reputation in our area for conducting funeral services for the poor -- which I do free of charge (our Church sets fees, but I am permitted to waive them). OBSERVATION: Such funerals tend to have their own character. The people involved tend not to have a culture of speaking in turn, or of coming on time. The deaths are often unnatural, and the services are likely to involve some turmoil (e.g. fist-fights at the last one).

VGA Photo

At last, the first ever VGA-resolution photo of Thomas Scarborough on the Internet (the first that I’m aware of, at any rate -- you can click on it to enlarge to VGA). I was relaxing on a farm here, earlier this month. A colleague came over to see me, and took the photo. OBSERVATION: I think we were discussing Charles Sanders Peirce at this moment -- something about the critical missing (non-existent?) pages of his life’s work (see §356 of the Collected Papers).

Solar Eclipse

We witnessed a 65% solar eclipse in Southern Africa this morning. Not being ready for the event, I hastily resorted to a camera obscura to obtain an image (a small hole which projects an image onto a facing surface).

Famous Responses

I received some “famous" responses to the final draft of my Master of Theology (M.Th.) thesis. As a courtesy, I sent it to various leadership authors I critiqued. During the past few weeks, I received comment from Leighton Ford (brother-in-law of Billy Graham), Darrell Guder (Dean of Princeton Theological Seminary), and Michael Jinkins (Dean of Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary). Jinkins wrote: “You have done some very creative and careful analytical work, and I know you must be pleased with it.” OBSERVATION: However, there may be great differences between the academic scene in the USA and Africa, and it remains to be seen what the response at this side will be. (I now await final comment, then submit for examination).

More Serious Than Racism?

A local Dutch Reformed Church recently issued a statement about unity talks. Here follows my own translation: “There is light-years’ difference between people of Western and African cultures -- over liturgy, practice, morality, and polity.” The newspaper reported that the “racism” of this statement had led to “dismay” in the Dutch Reformed Church. OBSERVATION: I read this comment to the executive head of a multiracial denomination, and asked him what he thought. He said, “That’s not racism. The issues are more serious than that.” Let the reader interpret! Personally, I think these are all things that can be overcome, and should be.

Berg River Moonrise

Here’s a photo I took of a moonrise over the Berg River swamp last week. Perhaps one should rather call it “marshes” or “wetlands”. In the USA, a swamp may mean wetlands with woody vegetation, which this is not. Click on the photo to see it at VGA resolution.

Escape to Nature

Today our new intern P. joined me for the first time on visitation. The first person we saw was seriously ill, and very tearful. She wanted us to spring her out of hospital then and there because, she said, she needed to see nature to calm her down. She said (crying): “Whenever I was in trouble in life, nature always had a calming effect on me. But all I have is this wall.” This, however, was surely wishful thinking -- she was in too bad a way to be moved. She said, “If you can’t do it yourselves, please help me to arrange it.”

Informal Evening

We had a pleasant evening yesterday with our new intern P. and a Roman Catholic priest -- the first time I’ve met informally with P. This photo was taken outside, as light was finally fading. P. is showing the priest various locations in Canada (P.'s home country). Our talk was wide-ranging: astronomy, social work, calling to ministry, South African girls, definitions of evangelicalism, Catholicism around the globe ... OBSERVATION: P. would seem to thrive on the discussion of issues.

Church and English

The English language has a historical development, and there are educated prognoses for its future development (e.g. fuller vowels, standardisation of spelling, stricter syntax, auxiliary verb changes). OBSERVATION: In all of this, one wonders what the Church is doing to the English language. In many Churches, a kind of “trade English” has arisen, where English needs to be simplified a great deal for the sake of mixed congregations. This is so in our own Church. There has been a growing trend, too, to translate the Bible into simplified English (e.g. the Easy English Bible), and to simplify theological language (e.g. the South African Theological Seminary). I myself, of necessity, now speak a much simpler, less nuanced, English than I did in younger years.

Cut Throat

This is a section of stained glass in our Church. Note the scratch on the child’s throat. Someone said to me: “Whenever I look at it, it reminds me of Jesus' love for children.” OBSERVATION: Every time I look at it, it reminds me of a tragic incident in my ministry. A young boy had drowned in a swimming pool, and his father asked me to accompany him to the police morgue. The police station seemed deserted. We looked around, until we suddenly stumbled upon the little boy’s body. There was a large slit in his throat, which had been roughly sewn up. His father said, "He looks just as though he's sleeping." Then he said, “Why did they cut his throat?” I said, “It’s the autopsy.” He turned around and walked into the police yard, and sobbed.

Exodus in Laaiplek

Last Sunday I attended the Uniting Reformed Church in Laaiplek, a town about 150km (100 miles) north of Cape Town. One of the elders -- a big man -- led the service in a hearty, though somewhat staid way. He lamented the summer exodus, which had left the Church virtually empty (see photo). OBSERVATION: Our Church experiences the exodus, too, although not nearly as markedly as this (see http://thomasscarborough.blogspot.com/2008/12/christmas-exodus.html).

Blogged-About

As of this week, this blog no longer offers exclusive coverage of our Church. There is another blog now that covers its various ins and outs from the inside -- written by our new intern. It has the title Peter Goes To Africa, at http://petergoestoafrica.blogspot.com/. In his latest post, Peter describes his arrival in Cape Town, and his welcome by our Church.

Canadian "Intern"

I met this morning for the first time with our new Canadian “intern”, P. (see photo), who is to be with us for a year. I sought to assess his past education and experience, and how he’s been doing (he’s been doing fine, and has been warmly received). I laid out what I have in mind: 1. to give him the steering wheel in every aspect of ministry at some time during the year, 2. to give him maximum exposure to the inner workings of the Church (including the confidential things), and 3. to give him weekly academic exercises to aid his understanding of the situation here. OBSERVATION: It was a matter-of-fact meeting, and he seemed happy to play along with anything that might come his way. We’ll work out a more detailed schedule next week.

Talking Unbeknown

I visited an art studio/gallery, on the very edge of the marshes of the Berg River, far north of here. Something prompted the artist to ask me which Church I was associated with. When I told her (not letting on that I was the minister), she said, “Oh! That Church set my son on track. It really put him right. He once was a deeply troubled young man.” Then she stared at me and said, “You look vaguely like the minister.” I said, "I am the minister!" OBSERVATION: I bought this miniature oil for wife M. at the studio. I asked the artist whether she painted off photos, or from imagination. She said (pointing to the marshes), “Look there! I paint what I see from my studio!”

Salt Farm

For the past ten days, I was on a salt farm, resting, and doing preparatory research for "life after my Master's degree". It was a worthwhile time. The photo shows me harvesting some salt (it's tasty salt). They hand-harvest 100 tons of salt a year on the farm.

I'm Back (Almost)

After a month’s holiday/vacation, I feel invigorated for the next week of ministry! While on leave, I felt that, apart from the routine pressure that is ministry, no person deserves the endless “assault” I experience in urban ministry. I wondered, too, whether anyone really has an idea what the minister undergoes. Yet while I was so thinking, I read George Malek, a well known Church consultant: “The major problem with fear in clergy is our loss of a sense not of who we are, but who is served: The people? God, the one who calls the people? Ourselves that need to be preserved?” And I received the sense: forget about yourself.

Super Simple Counter

The freebie metal detector I previously designed for this blog is by far my most popular post. So here is another circuit I designed today. Counters must be among the more sought-after electronic circuits. However, even the simplest of them are complex. This provides a "super simple" solution, to count from 0 to 43,200 on a quartz clock face (60 seconds × 60 minutes × 12 hours). It would be capable e.g. of counting attendance at most major public events. Almost any cheap analogue quartz clock is used for the display. IC1 provides suitable waveforms across R2 to pulse the clock’s tiny stepper motor M1. IC2 both boosts the current to M1, and provides test pulses to “IN” (a quick indication that the circuit is working). Note that the speed of the counter is limited to a few counts per second. C2/C3 are non-polar. The input at “IN” needs to be binary 12V, which means that the voltage needs to rise higher than 8V then lower than 4V for one count. The input at “IN” could be provided by any one of many detection circuits available on the Internet (I might design one for this blog if there's a demand for a particular one). Note that before wiring up motor M1, its connections to its original clock circuit should be cut. OBSERVATION: Click on the diagram to enlarge it. To follow the electronics trail on this blog, click on the "Electronics" category top left.

NOTE: You may re-publish this design, on condition that you acknowledge the designer (Thomas Scarborough) and this blog (http://thomasscarborough.blogspot.com/).