Negative

A young wife and mother came to see me. Her husband had been unfaithful. Suspicions were confirmed when his lover confronted her and taunted her. She was tearful -- and angry -- and the children, she said, were disturbed. Among other things, I asked her if she was safe. She said: "He doesn't raise a hand to me." I said: "I mean, HIV." She said: "I have been tested three times. It was negative, negative, negative." I said: "That doesn't make you safe."

Cape Town's Steepest Street

With a new year of life, I have taken up a new hobby. Cape Town has three famed mountains in the middle of it, together with city streets which surely must compete with the steepest in the world. I decided to find out which of them really is the steepest -- and so I installed a clinometer in my three-wheeler today. It has long been rumoured that Bellevue Street below Kloof Nek is the champion. I determined that this has a 10½° inclination -- which is tame. On a hunch, I tried Signal Hill Drive. This is more dramatic, at 13½° at one point. However, the champion (so far) is Longmarket Street in central Cape Town, at 17° at the top. As I came down Longmarket Street (my brakes not doing too well), a large bakkie / pickup was spinning its wheels trying to get up. OBSERVATION: If any of yous has a suggestion, I'd love to test it. (17° is incidentally 38% of "absolute", such as extreme army vehicles can do).

Saved Or Improved

There is a saying to the effect that people can only be saved, not improved. I consider that there is a lot of truth in this. It is a notion which I think has a lot to do with good preaching, a lot to do with successful Christian counselling, a lot to do with a healthy spirituality in the Church. OBSERVATION: In saying that people can only be saved, one implies that one can begin with people only on a level of (Spirit-inspired) abnegation, not from where they are.

Lightning Sentinel

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Each year, more people are killed by lighting than by most other natural hazards, including hurricanes and tornadoes. No wonder, then, that lightning protection agencies have described the danger of lightning as "underrated". This Lightning Sentinel (my own design -- click on it to enlarge) was tested over a period of a year and a half. In most cases, it picked up the possibility of a thunderstorm well in advance of any thunder or lightning on the horizon. In its simplest form (see Figure 1) the Lightning Sentinel illuminates a green LED when atmospheric charge lies within normal limits, and a red LED when this rises to a risk level. Figure 2 shows how a 5V relay may be added, so that the circuit may be put to more serious use, e.g. triggering a siren. The Lightning Sentinel may also be used as a monitor of atmospheric charge, and this may yield very interesting results. The charge is presented at point C (Figure 1) as a fluctuating voltage. The "engine room" of the circuit is comparator IC1a, which includes an Antenna and an Earth. Note therefore that the circuit is ground referenced (to Earth), since one is measuring the potential difference between the atmosphere and the earth. IC1a is followed by comparator IC1b, which compares the potential (voltage) at IC1a pin 1 with the fixed potential presented to IC1b pin 6. R2 is initially wired in parallel with R4 to present a lower potential at input pin 6, and is used to calibrate the Lightning Sentinel, through VR1, to the daily minimum charge (which lies between the illumination of the red and green LEDs). This minimum charge is estimated over a week or two. Once calibration is complete, one terminal of R2 is snipped as shown in circuit diagram Fig. 1, and the Lightning Sentinel is ready for long-term service. VR1 is a multi-turn preset. The Lightning Sentinel draws about 10mA current on standby, and is ideally powered by a regulated DC plug-pack power supply between 6V and 35V. See Atmospheric Monitor [2] for the design of the aerial. OBSERVATION: In my view, this is about the most interesting thing one can do with electronics apart from radio and metal detecting. This represents my first (until now) unpublished design in a long time. I know several people who were narrowly missed by lightning, including my late wife Mirjam, who was missed by about four metres / yards.

Birthday Tea

After Church today, we had a special tea for my birthday (pictured). I asked in the kitchen: "Who organised this?" Three women pointed -- with giggles -- to a deaconess. The deaconess responded: "The truth will be told." I'm not sure that I've figured it out yet -- but anyway, thank you folks! You may click on the photo for VGA.

The Worst

If you want to know how bad it ever gets in ministry, this is about the worst. These are two e-mails from criminal attorneys, sent to me several years ago now (you may click on the image to enlarge). I had been professionally framed -- and the e-mails reflect the confusion and dismay. On the morning of the 6th December (the date in the top e-mail), I in fact addressed our Women's Association Christmas Party, and nobody had a clue how close it came. Talk about divine deliverance!

Solar Spider

I was excited yesterday to discover that, as far as I can see, my 2007 copyrighted concept of an electronic Jumping Spider has gone into production. As simple as it seemed, the prototype took me a year to develop -- the history is told on HubPages. That spider had an external power source -- but I knew that a commercial version would likely need to move most if not all of the power inside the spider. But that was way beyond my engineering skills. It would need to be a very clever engineer who succeeded. Now the Chinese did it, and the end result costs less than R20 / $3 wholesale. It's called the Solar Spider. Although I won't be making any money out of this, and admittedly it's a variation of my design, this could be one of my "big ones" -- and I would think that this is only the first generation -- there'll be better versions to come. OBSERVATION: I also cooked up (unpublished) variations of this theme.

Scorpion Lover

A congregant was ejected from her home by her lover -- without any place to go. I said I could intervene. "No," she said, "I don't want to go back." She said there had been no sign that anything was amiss. "But," she said, "a week before, I received a warning in a dream. My lover metamorphosed into a great scorpion."

Programmable Robot

One of my claims to fame was a programmable robot I designed (which see), published in Australia in 2004, and in the UK in 2007. It was described like this: "This programmable buggy is fully manoeuvrable and has PWM speed control and H-bridge MOSFET gearmotor drivers. It also sports bump and respond, random motion, programmable sound, light sensing, and EEPROM byte-wise programming." OBSERVATION: I programmed it so that when the Australian publisher unwrapped it and put it on the floor, it wiggled its rear, played a few lines of "Waltzing Matilda", then did a dance. (I have other things to amuse me nowadays).

Dips In Attendance

This year, our Church has experienced curious dips in attendance. Curious, because many services continued to be up to full strength. Our Harvest Festival was "full". Our Good Friday service must have been the best-attended in living memory. Our Mother's Day service, too, was "full". But in between, we had some uncharacteristically low attend­ances. Importantly, though, this has not just been our own experience. This year, other Churches have experienced much the same -- dips as low as 20% of full strength (very much lower than our own). OBSERVATION: I have not heard any explanation for it -- although I can take a guess. Politically and economically, the country has had a lift, and local Churches tend to minister to the hard times.

Wheel Of Faith

This is a diagnostic tool in counselling, called the Wheel of Balance (there are variations of it). Basically, each of these areas of one's life should be in a satisfactory condition. I might rather call it the Wheel of Faith, because it really all comes down to faith. For instance, if one doesn't trust God for one's work, one will lose one's balance: relaxation will be a problem, sleep will vanish, one's spouse will be unhappy ... and so on.

Linux SUSE

Every now and then, I try another "live" version of Linux on my computer -- one can give Linux a try without altering anything on one's system -- then (if desired) install it free. Today I tried Linux SUSE. I tried this version of Linux (called a "distribution") a year-and-a-half ago, and reported then that it was "strange". But this time round, it seemed far more friendly (see image). One would have to use it longer than the fifteen minutes or so that I did -- but it seemed promising. Everything seemed to work flawlessly. OBSERVATION: I now use Linux Ubuntu (on my desktop) and Linux Fedora (on my netbook).

On The Warpath (Not Really)

It is said that the unbeliever, when convicted of sin, reacts with rage, while the believer, when convicted of sin, is pierced to the core. By and large, there will be a lot of truth in this. Our secretary claimed that I was "on the warpath" this week. Not really. If I was, I was gently on the warpath, speaking frankly with a few people. I e-mailed our secretary today: "The Lord has been touching people." There has been a movement of the Spirit. That is a joy to witness.

Trusted Judgement

I find this a particularly nice photo of Mirjam (on the left) -- taken a year-and-a-half before her death, and half a year before she was found to be in critical condition. In my counselling, I so often encounter distrust, deceit, or self-interest in marriage relationships. Mirjam and I agreed on many things, disagreed on some -- but deeper than that, she really looked out for my good -- and I deeply trusted her judgement. OBSERVATION: What prompted this post was a reminder of her spoken will. She left me a spoken will, in three parts -- besides her written last will and testament. I deeply trust the judgement of her spoken will -- and no, I have not written it down, I shall remember it. You may click on the photo to enlarge to VGA.

Counselling

Two years ago, I worked out that I had counselled roughly one-third of our congregation at some time or other. This is a significant figure, and proves that counselling is an important part of my ministry here. I think that many people are not aware of this work (not least, I might add, the people who would fill my ministry with nonsensities)! OBSERVATION: I have formal training in psychology, pastoral counselling, and mentoring -- however, I consider that experience has been much more important. I was hopeless at first.

Flashback 1965

I remember this day. I remember standing there under the tarpaulin. It has to be at the beginning of my parents' missionary term in the Kiribati Republic (then the Gilbert Islands), as I am wearing a vest and socks. Those were cast aside in the years that followed. You may click on the photo to enlarge to 300k. Many photos in the mission -- like this one -- were damaged through heat and humidity.

What A Minister Knows

I won't be revealing any secrets here, but when it comes to who is doing what, or who is saying what in the Church, a minister tends to know a lot more than people think. I have often said: "All roads lead to the minister." It's simply a dynamic in Churches. What the minister knows may be a burden to the minister, but more often than not I find it very useful. OBSERVATION: Strangely, one of the last things the minister gets to hear is who is sick.

Owl Close-Up

I was perusing old photos last night when I came across this photo of an owl -- taken with an old Sony Mavica that I owned. I can't remember whether I took this photo or son M. -- probably son M. You may click on it to enlarge to 180k.

139 Days

A word of praise. A mere 139 days after Mirjam's passing, officialdom rubber-stamped Mirjam's appointed executor, so authorising the liquidation and distribution of her estate. This was a situation with no complications at all. We just needed to wait on the Apparat. If I understand it correctly, they clipped the papers in the wrong side of a file.

Ferrari vs. Mahindra

At the birthday party on Saturday (the birthday of a business tycoon) I was seated next to a man who drives a 6-litre 12-cylinder Ferrari 599 GTO. He said to me: "And what do you drive?" I said: "A 400cc single-cylinder three-wheeler -- a diesel -- Mahindra." He looked at me sympathetically and said: "That's all right." Then he added: "But I don't own a Ferrari as a status symbol. I own it for its ... its simplicity." OBSERVATION: Naturally.

Thirty Years Ago

I went to see an old woman of 92. I asked her whether she had been married. She said: "Yes," and she started sobbing. I said: "I'm sorry about that. Was it recently that you lost your husband?" She said: "Thirty years ago."

Ruining The Spirit

We had a so-called Mini-Fête yesterday. The result was extraordinary. Without having done a calculation, it was very much better than any previous Mini-Fête. The result bespeaks the quality of the event. Yet there were a few people who had not one good word to say about it, and did much to ruin the spirit. I said to the congregation that this "didn't fit with the joy of this Church". OBSERVATION: And if there are things that need to be fixed, well, one fixes them. In the meantime, I would like to see a few people. (The photo shows the Clothing Stall).

The End Of The World

I knew a man, during my present ministry, who predicted the end of the world. He ran over the calculations with me in the lounge of a local hotel (the Protea Hotel). It seemed an impenetrable maze of symbols to me -- in fact he explained some of it by means of what looked like large Phoenician characters. When finally it didn't come to pass, he was very deeply upset. After all, one must have invested a lot of emotional energy in so momentous an event. He was deeply disturbed that he'd got the calculations wrong.

Song For A Tycoon

I was invited to a tycoon's birthday party today (that is, he owns ten companies -- pictured). In his country of origin, it is customary for every guest to pay tribute to their host with a few words. I decided to put a twist on it, and to sing him a song. People clapped and cheered. OBSERVATION: I have never done that before. I could have a singing career ahead of me.

God's Provision

Our suburb -- and surrounding suburbs -- are much sought-after by political and economic refugees. However, it is very difficult (and expensive) to find a place here. So a family of six in our Church -- resident in our area -- were given notice. This was six -- while finding a place for one is hard enough.The father showed me his pay slip. The situation was a disaster. I ran through the history of God's provision for them, and said that this was (yet again) God's territory. Astonishingly, prayers were answered. OBSERVATION: Our Church is full of stories of God's provision like this, for "His precious ones".

Folk Theology

I had a large meal of samp and meat for R20 / $3 at Nobantu Restaurant in Cape Town this morning ("Nobantu" meaning "Popular"). I glimpsed these words (pictured) on the back of a restaurant chair. If I'm not mistaken, "gukuba sela" means "because of theft" -- no doubt intended for chair thieves. OBSERVATION: It's the only restaurant in Cape Town where I have seen tripe on the menu.

David Wilkerson

I recently found a kindred spirit in David Wilkerson, who died in a car / automobile accident last month. I found his book Dearly Beloved at Mirjam's bedside -- and began to read it. It contains a spirituality that resonates with me in many ways -- perhaps not least because Wilkerson was also in urban ministry. The book was published in 2009.

Key Witness

I didn't blog about this sooner -- for what would seem to be obvious reasons. Over the past two months, both the Church and I received repeated threats of litigation. The charges against me personally were cooked up. Worse, my key witness seemed to go to ground. But last week he / she testified to our Church leadership. The testimony was the same as mine. That finally set my heart at rest.

Seasons [2]

This post is about another season in ministry. I would estimate that, a few years ago, I was dealing with about 400 requests a year for material or financial assistance. There were sometimes queues of people waiting for me. People still joke about the day that I handed over such a queue to our soft-hearted Canadian intern -- because charitable funds were limited, and he needed to make decisions. But today, such requests for help have dropped below 100. (That's our intern on the left of the photo).

Vision And Imagination

For my MTh thesis, I identified vision as a key characteristic of the "transformational" minister (a minister develops a vision, then drives that vision). But today, for the first time, I read what adds up to the following: the vision of the "transformational" minister is merely imagination -- that is, a minister imagining a plan. But vision means to see the condition of humanity without God -- for example, as Isaiah did (Isaiah 6:3-8). Only then does imagination play a role, as a response to vision. OBSERVATION: One of my MTh findings was that driving vision is highly problematic in "transformational" ministry. For example George Barna: "Putting it into practice is punishing."

OK About AIDS

A young woman turned up at my door yesterday. She said: "You said you would talk to me." It took me a moment to orientate myself. Yes I had said so, when she informed me that she had AIDS. Now she wanted to tell me the story. Two men had raped her, and she had been infected with HIV. A child was born of this, and the child now has AIDS. She said: "They caught the two men and sentenced them, so I feel OK about the AIDS."

List Of Books

Many years ago, I drew up a "lifetime" list of books to read. Most of these were chosen on the basis of being referred to often in more general reading -- they were "criss-crossed by tracks". Some of them took years for me to obtain. About a year ago, I got through every book on my list. Some examples: Wittgenstein's Philosophical Investigations, Kuhn's The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, Aristotle's Metaphysics, Lyotard's The Postmodern Condition, Saussure's Course in General Linguistics -- and many more. It's one of the best things I did.

History Repeats Itself

Last week, son Matthew visited Scarborough Castle (the photo on the right). I myself visited Scarborough Castle as a teenager (the photo on the left). You may click on the photos to enlarge to 460k. OBSERVATION: Matthew is studying for a Master's degree at Durham University about 90km / 60mi north of Scarborough.

The BBC

There was a ripple of panic among us as the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) asked us last week whether they could commandeer our Church for a BBC film. By our standards, this seemed a major logistical challenge -- although the BBC would surely take most of that in hand. A leadership meeting decided that we would in principle welcome the BBC -- the rest would surely work itself out.

An Angel – Of Sorts

I retold an episode today which may have been the worst day for Mirjam and me in ministry. More than ten years ago now, a viciously fought vote went the wrong way in the Church -- by one vote -- one vote short of a two-thirds majority. We were both exhausted, disconsolate, and tearful, and Mirjam suggested that we take time out together in Cape Town's Company Gardens. We walked down the long Avenue (pictured), when all of a sudden, a fat Coloured man stepped into the Avenue in front of us, and he sang: "God will take care of you, He will take care ..." Then as suddenly as he appeared, he disappeared. Thanks to www.what-to-do-in-cape-town.com for the image.

Minuting Problem People

In my experience, there is a tendency in the leadership meetings of a Church to omit painful incidents from the minutes -- whether they be about Church staff, or about problem members, or about problem people outside the Church. However, it can be a mistake not to put such things in the minutes. When finally you need to dismiss a member of staff, or defend the Church against a law suit, or prove extortion and so on, you need those minutes -- even if you didn't think you needed them then.

Burial Pleasure

Being asked to conduct a funeral or burial is a commonplace in ministry. Sometimes there will be a question over whether I will do it -- for instance, someone not associated with the Church. In such circumstances, I not seldom find myself saying: "It would be a pleasure to bury So-and-so." I said something like that yesterday. The answer was: "I know what you mean." However, I'm not sure it sounds much better if one says: "It would be a privilege to bury So-and-so." Help me out, blog readers.

St. Stephens DRC (3-D)

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It's been a while since I published a photo of a local Church. This is St. Stephens Dutch Reformed Church in central Cape Town (the Christaan Barnard Memorial Hospital in the background on the left). The Church was originally built as a theatre in 1800, and converted to a Church in 1843 -- apparently being named St. Stephens because founder members were pelted with stones (it was established for emancipated slaves). OBSERVATION: This photo is in 3D. Lazily squint your eyes until the images overlap and snap together. You may click on the photo(s) for 450k resolution and enhanced 3D.

Under Orders

I had a counselling session this morning with a lovely young wife and mother from Central Africa. A marked feature of her situation was that her life was essentially "under orders" from the wider family. It reminded me a little of the life of a monastic order: her work, her residence, and her family life all "under orders". OBSERVATION: This afforded the opportunity to inquire what God was doing in her life, if her life was so ... well, ordained.

African Drums And Italian Opera

Yesterday I listened to a (live) combination of African drums and Italian opera. I thought it was fantastic. As unlikely as it seemed, the performers really made it work. But tonight I spoke to an African opera singer. He said: "No, no! You can't corrupt the opera with African drums! Opera was written to be opera! The way it was set down, that is its perfect form!"

Domestics Service

Last Sunday, as we do once a year, we handed over the service completely to our domestic workers / servants. This morning I received a message on my answering machine: "My husband and I visited your Church on Sunday morning. ... We thoroughly enjoyed it. It was quite unique. ... It was the highlight of my whole week, that Sunday service. It was a blessing to my husband and I both."

Pot Shots

One gets some classic pot shots in ministry. I experienced one last month. I told a woman that she ought to keep her word. She said: "Is it true that Reverend has lost weight?" I said: "Nearly ten kilos (twenty pounds)." She said: "If you can't let go of issues, Reverend, your health will collapse." Oy vey.

Liaison Officer

I suggested to a well known journal that I might serve as "a kind of liaison officer", and give it a more African flavour (African theology is important, but little known). Last week the editor got back to me, saying that he was "very excited about your suggestion". I hadn't anticipated such a positive response -- yet journal work is no "walk in the park". I'll first need some time to work on the idea. It could take me in a new direction.

RIP Mowgli

The cat died. She bled profusely from the nose, so presumably suffered a severe blow to the head. I suspect that she fell from a height -- yet cats are usually good at that. After Mirjam's passing, I referred to me as "we" -- me and the cat. The photo shows her on my office desk. But she was a reckless cat. I joked that she had already used up her nine lives.
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NOTE: I since found out what happened to her. She fell from the roof and hit the front steps with her snout. She made it across the garden to the driveway, where she died.

Honourable Shots ?

This photo would seem to typify a national pastime in South Africa – shooting at signs. The gunman / gunmen were pretty good shots here. I would, however, question whether the lowest two shots were quite honourable. You may click on the photo for VGA.

Rat Doctor

I don't like to incur unnecessary expenses for the Church. One of my more famous moments was when I needed a whole lot of stitches to my face. A doctor told me that he'd been practicing heart surgery on rats, and he'd done a whole lot of fine stitching. He said he could try to stitch me up – or he could call a plastic surgeon. I took the “rat doctor” -- and he did a very good job. OBSERVATION: We have an arrangement whereby the Church covers what is not covered by medical aid. This wasn't covered by medical aid.

Jaywalking Critter

On my recent holiday / vacation, the road was crawling with these handsome critters (pictured – that's my vehicle on the left). I decided to pick this one up to save it from itself. It didn't even retreat into its shell -- it seemed (as far as a human can tell) annoyed that I had disturbed it. You may click on the photo to enlarge to VGA. The photo was taken near Rocher Pan on the West Coast.

Offence Of Laity

For several years, I was chairman of our area Ministers' Fraternal. As time went on, I permitted lay leaders to slip into our Fraternal meetings –- which was perfectly acceptable to a Congregationalist like me. However, I didn't realise that this would be an offence to a certain episcopalian Church. In fact, they withdrew from the Fraternal in protest. I went to see the priest. I agreed for the sake of Fraternal relations to seek the exclusion of the laity (accepted by the Fraternal) – with the exception of special input from laity.

No Coffee

I was talking to a mielie boer (an Afrikaner corn farmer) in the country last week. He explained to me: "The problem with losing a wife is, you wake up in the morning and you open your eyes, and you call out: 'Koffie!' ['Coffee!'], and she's not there!"

Verlorenvlei

This is my vehicle, north-bound last week. In the background is Verlorenvlei (“Lost Lagoon”), perhaps 250km / 150mi directly north of Cape Town. You may click on the photo for VGA resolution.

Suicide Twist

A woman in our congregation, B., asked to see me. She told me that her husband's best friend had committed suicide -- even though he was a devoted, believing Christian. Was this an unforgivable sin? I said no, he was saved by faith – yet he was throwing away great blessing by cutting short what God was doing in his life. Shortly after this, B. committed suicide. I asked her husband about his Christian friend. He said there was no such friend. OBSERVATION: I am now (all the) more sensitive to why people might wish to discuss suicide. Another minister commented on this: “One cannot presume [too generously] what God's judgement will be.”

(Non) Blogging While Away

I did find an Internet Café in the country – a single computer terminal in a village on a marsh -- only one such terminal, among several villages. Apart from costing many times more than a connection in the city, it ran Windows 7. This is so saturated with features that it bogs everything down in rural Africa. Then my blog, which recognises me when I log in with Linux, refused to recognise me using Windows 7. I didn't blog.

Adventure

This morning I set off on an adventure in my diesel three-wheeler (pictured) -- a day's journey to visit a Roman Catholic priest. Then I'll head for a farm on the Berg River marshlands, where I hope to work on some seminary papers. I may or may not be out of range of my blog (I'll post if I have contact).

Children's Bibles

In Church this morning, a member handed out children's Bibles (the One Year Children's Bible by Tyndale House Publishers) to every Sunday School child and teacher. OBSERVATION: I have the suspicion that there were some very lucky children who don't belong to the Sunday School, who received a Bible even so -- we don't always know who's who in our Church. This is an expensive hand-out, yet one we consider to be money well invested.