African Christian Leadership

My swan song for Fuller Theological Seminary was a simple paper: What is African Christian Leadership? A stunning fact is that, while there are many thousands of books on Christian leadership, I could locate not one that originates in Africa. It would seem that the reason for this is that, in Africa, the Christian leader is not the focus of Christian leadership. So I chose to study every African Christian leadership curriculum I could hunt down: a dozen in all from Cameroon, Kenya, South Africa, Togo, and Uganda. Their aggregate emphasis is shown in the diagram (click on it to enlarge). It will be seen that the typical Western emphases come last in Africa.

Best Time For A Group

With Mirjam's passing, the only thing that crashed in our Church was my own Minister's Bible Study group. Everything else was magnificently reorganised (Mirjam influenced most groups in our Church, and led a few). Anyway, the question now was what would be the best time of week to resurrect my group. We put out a simple questionnaire on a Sunday morning, and this was the result (pictured): weekday evenings seem best, but we are now refining the inquiry.

Marriage Counselling

A couple in our Church went for professional marriage counselling. The counsellor said they needed to get out of each other's hair for a week, cool off, take time to think. Would they commit to a week of silence between them, from that moment on? They agreed. The husband got into his car after the session, and his cell-phone rang. It was his wife. She said: "He's talking rubbish!" OBSERVATION: Unfortunately, that was the last counselling session they had. They got divorced.

Impediments Of Academia

Writing academic papers is something else. Over breakfast at a café this morning, I went over a rejected linguistics paper. I had used a definition from the Oxford Dictionary of Linguistics. They faulted the Oxford Dictionary. I had used a definition by David Crystal, linguistics professor OBE. They faulted David Crystal. But correctness apart, one chooses a definition and stands on it. This is the kind of thing one has to contend with regularly when submitting papers, which I think must impartially be called obstructive. On the other hand, trendy work of poor quality is common (take a look at the Sokal Hoax). OBSERVATION: Having said this, the journal which offers detailed feedback does one a valuable and uncommon favour. This particular paper, incidentally, was checked by two linguistics lecturers before submission. While it may not have passed muster in toto, I think my comments here are valid.

AIDS And Self-Blame

A young woman greeted me in the street. She had fallen apart since I last saw her. I said: "What happened to you?" She said: "I have AIDS, Father." OBSERVATION: It clearly wasn't the AIDS, though, that had caused her to fall apart. But AIDS can lead to self-blame, and I think that was the story.

Bus Terminal

This morning I waited for a passenger at Cape Town's central bus terminal. The 05:50 bus from the east (which I was waiting upon) arrived at 07:15. However, I was well prepared. I sat in the terminal building and revised an article on Moltmann.

Life Questions

A member this week sent me the following "life questions", which would seem to me to be without equal: ▪ Who and what is the centre of your life? ▪ What kind of person have you become in your life? ▪ What will be the contribution you’ve made during your life? ▪ What will be your main communication of your life that you believe and will teach to others? ▪ Who will be the people / community in your life that you chose to associate with? OBSERVATION: The questions are attributed to Ron Rackham, who was laid to rest last week. I suggested the further question: "Who would you want to be at your funeral?" as funerals may be very revealing.

Stage Fright

I invited one of our young members to give her testimony in Church this morning. She got through part of it, but she suffered stage fright. I left the pulpit, sat down next to her, and sought to prompt her, but she had lost the thread. I am proud of her that she tried.

I Junk Ubuntu

I junked Linux Ubuntu. After a fashion. The new Ubuntu (11.04) was just too cumbersome. I want to get on with work, not wait ten seconds, or even five, for mail or photos to come up. So I installed Xubuntu -- which is Ubuntu underneath, yet uses the snappier Mac-like Xfce interface. The installation didn't vanish my data, it didn't blow my apps out of the water, and it worked first time, everything intact. OBSERVATION: However, I installed it through Ubuntu. If you have Ubuntu, and you wish to swap to Xubuntu, you tick xubuntu-desktop in the Synaptic Package Manager, then select Xubuntu Session when you boot up your computer (at the bottom of the screen at login). The image shows my new Xubuntu screen (click to enlarge).

Deathbed Care-Givers

There is a class of people I would like to give tribute to this morning: the believing women who are deathbed care-givers. I have come across two such women this year. They sacrifice their lives to give others loving care in their dying. This is not about money -- it is about love and sacrificial service -- the imitation of Christ. Most people don't even know that they exist.

Things Are Really Going

Our Church secretary said this morning: "Things are going in this Church! I mean, really going!" By which she meant that everything is being stolen.

Flat Out

I wrote to a deacon last night: "I am so tired. I should have worked flat out this week, but I worked flat out last week, and I do one week flat out but not two weeks flat out. That is not in my bag of tricks."

Tenant Complaint

Our Church has sprawling properties, and on these properties, we have a few tenants. In terms of lease agreements, we are responsible for the upkeep of the premises. One of our tenants, this week, summoned our Property Steward. He pointed to his ceiling and said: "The ceiling is leaking!" Then pointing to his desk: "It's falling on my traffic fines!" OBSERVATION: We're really sorry about the traffic fines. However, if it weren't for the traffic fines, there wouldn't be anything getting wet!

Memorial Service

Today I attended the memorial service of Val Hounsom -- wife of Congregational minister Rev. Craig Hounsom. She died just two weeks after he was inducted into the ministry in Cape Town -- a tragedy, not least because she was a power in his ministry. Craig paid tribute to his wife, and preached the message. He quoted me from the pulpit: "Stay at your post!" The Church is Union Congregational Church -- which was more or less full for the occasion.

Door Assault

This week, someone used heavy force to try to break through our Church's large vestibule (entrance) doors. There was some damage, but the attack was stopped by a large beam across the door. OBSERVATION: If anyone had got in, sensors would have sent a signal through to armed security. A few weeks ago, our stained glass got shot full of holes. Usually, damage doesn't top R10,000 ($1,500) a year -- but this is getting to look like a baaad year.

Application For Graduation

Last night I received an Application for Graduation (pictured) from Fuller Theological Seminary (FTS) in Pasadena. It's taken seven years. In 2003, I was exploring options on behalf of one of the world's remotest Bible colleges, Tangintebu Theological College, for setting up a degree programme there. A link with FTS was a possibility. But even before I got to FTS, Tangintebu had rejected the option. Nevertheless, I visited FTS -- and applied for an MA with their School of Intercultural Studies. I didn't seriously consider that I'd be accepted, and didn't ask after the cost. Only after I was accepted did I learn that it would cost me about a quarter-million rands, in all. I was aghast. That's equivalent to dozens of MA's in Africa. But wife Mirjam told me to do it, and said she would cover me. It never came to that. I received a one-third grant from a US industrialist, and the invasion of our house by a mob landed me with a strange windfall. However, it cost me all of my savings.

Call To Worship

The Call to Worship is a staple of Church liturgies. In our own Church, it is typically one or two selected verses at the beginning of a service which focus one's attentions on the Lord. Apart from this, however, I always include a personal call to worship shortly after these verses -- just one or two sentences about what we are on about.

Islam's Profile

Islam has a fairly high profile in South Africa. Here is a current example: a sign in a local food store (Woolworths), wishing patrons Ramadaan Mubarak. Muslims number about 1½% of the population (2007). OBSERVATION: One is unlikely to find similar signs displayed for Christian festivals. Christians number about 74½% of the population (2007).

Almost-Prize

I almost won a prize -- from the UK's no. 1 electronics magazine. In next month's edition, I receive "honourable mention for displaying great ingenuity" (click on the image to see). In the past, I received three prizes from this publisher (oscilloscopes all) -- and an award. This was all for electronic design.

Deceased Relatives

"Deceased relative" jokes are commonplace in South Africa. The exasperated boss, for example: "This is the third time your grandmother died this year!" However, there is a lot of truth in the caricature. A typical European will have two parents, an uncle and an aunt, a brother or a sister, and four cousins. That's nine blood-relatives in two generations. But in some local societies, there may conservatively be fifty blood-relatives over the same two generations. Add one generation, and the figure may be quite stunning. Then stories of deceased relatives no longer seem far-fetched. OBSERVATION: These differences also make for significant differences in worldview. See Views of Death.

Bywoningstal

Yesterday a member showed me the bulletin of another Church. At the bottom of the third page there was a figure: the Bywoningstal (attendance statistic). She specially pointed this out. I said: "This really really does not sit well with me! I couldn't live with that!"

Church Fundamentals

This morning I addressed our congregation on the fundamentals of a sound Church – that is, what a Church needs in order to be on a spiritually sound footing, and equipped to succeed. I said that we don't need "human" aids – for instance, a polished image, a good band, or motivational programmes. I said we need to check the following (modified slightly for this blog): ▪ Do we have a balanced, biblical ministry – preaching, teaching, pastoring, evangelism, prophecy? ▪ Do we have balance in the Christian life of our members – rooted in the Word, staying in prayer, faithful in worship and fellowship, serving others in love? ▪ Supremely important: is the priesthood of believers working in the Church – or ministry by members? ▪ Do we ensure that we do not entertain what the Bible calls "bad leaven" in the Church? Do we encourage members to give with Biblical giving – so that the work may be strong? ▪ Is our administration working – and do people feel secure about the way that we administer the Church's finances?

Apologies To Correspondents

When I installed the latest version of Linux Ubuntu, I lost all e-mails since the 21st of June (exactly two months) -- which I had failed to back up. This included about three-hundred unread e-mails, none of them junk. Regrettably, these e-mails are unlikely to be answered. If you are one of my e-mail correspondents, and if you should read this blog, do please re-send your e-mail. Apologies for the inconvenience.

Unimpressed

I installed a new version of Linux Ubuntu -- like installing a new version of Microsoft Windows. I am unimpressed -- with the installation, that is. Firstly, the installer crashed, and rendered my whole system inaccessible. On my second attempt (booting from a DVD), the installation worked, but vanished all my data -- everything. Also, it commandeered my precious African broadband for eight hours (I instructed it not to). Apparently the data has merely been shunted elsewhere -- I have found some of it, but not all. And the installation blew most of my old applications out of the water (I instructed it to keep them).

Stop The Funeral

Many things would make interesting reading on this blog, yet for various reasons don't make it onto the page. Here is something that I can now post, where I couldn't do it before: About 40 minutes before a funeral service, the ANC informed me that the ICD wanted me on the line. The chairman of the ICD told me that there were various attempts to stop the funeral through the courts, and it couldn't go ahead. The Church filled up, and police, undertakers, and press milled around. Some radio reporters picked up that something was amiss, and they questioned me. I got quoted in headline news "on the hour". With 5 minutes to go, the chairman of the ICD informed me that the problems had been resolved, and the service could go ahead -- although, he added, he had been spoken to despicably by the head of the NFDA. I thanked him for his negotiations.

Mum Version 4.5

A major challenge of Mirjam's final illness was that they kept pulling her back from the brink -- something which would have been unknown until fairly recently in history. One week she would be in a critical condition -- the next week she would be out about town. I'd tell people one Sunday that she was seriously ill -- the next Sunday she would breeze into Church looking just fine. This was deeply confusing, for both of us. OBSERVATION: Related to this, the life-saving interventions were so powerful, they changed who she was -- in ways that it was difficult to define. She was still herself -- but on the other hand she was not. I joked with son M. (and with her): "We have Mum Version 4.5."

Funerals By The Book

Many ministers play funerals literally by the book -- and I suspect it is because of the sometimes explosive nature of funerals. It's a brave minister who says an original word. I am incorrigible, however, and never fail to say something original. Today, apparently, I got it right. I received a message on my answering machine tonight, on behalf of the family: "We were so, so happy with everything you said at the service today." OBSERVATION: Technically, it was a memorial service, but to many people a funeral is a funeral is a funeral, so I just say "funeral". See also: Don't Mention (Death).

Creative Output

The creative output (written) that is required of me in the Church this week is about 7,000 words. This is heavy (and it excludes my academic assignments). The way that I deal with this is to space it out day by day, and to try to have periods of complete switch-off in between. I also find it a good idea to put words to paper when I have them, and then to return to them.

Funeral Reunion

A congregant held her 40th birthday celebration in one of our Church halls -- inviting 40 guests (actually, it was her 50th birthday). She had apparently had successful chemotherapy, and was in good health. Yet she said to the guests: “The next time we meet, it will be for my funeral.” I said to her: “Didn’t that shock the guests?” She said: “No, they asked me what colour [scheme] I wanted.” Then she said: “I didn’t ever think of saying that -- it wasn’t my words!” A week later, I received a panicked call from her. She said she had lost the feeling down one side. And it happened as she had said -- her friends met again at her funeral.

Need For Speed

I'm less than two weeks away from the completion of an MA. I've said that one of the differences between a BA and an MA is the need for speed. As an example, my present ten-week course is worth 550 points in total, and I get a mere two points for the following: "Give a short summary of the MAJOR SECTIONS (outline) of the book in short summary paragraphs, showing how each section develops an aspect of, or gives support for, the main thesis."

Cape Town Stadium

.
I took this panoramic shot of Cape Town Stadium last night. The stadium has 250 VIP lounges, and 68,000 seats, and contains various cafés and shops. The secret to my being there was that they serve a great chocolate sundae just behind the camera. You may click on the image to enlarge to 260k.

Health And Peace

An old man said to me: "Health is the most important thing. So long as you've got that." I said: "Peace of heart may be more important." I find that failing health and peace of heart are a good combination. This tends to make things so much better. But failing health and emotional / spiritual distress may be a disaster.

"Young People" In Church

I fielded a question in a Church group this week: "Why are there no young people in our Church?" Well, it depends what is meant. If one is speaking of 25-35 year-olds, this is not the case at all -- and I rolled off a long list of names. We also have a fair number of 5-15 year-olds. However, 15-25 year-olds are sparse. The graph on the right shows the shift of age-spread during the first 13 years of my ministry here (click on it to enlarge). OBSERVATION: I'd put this change down to the priesthood of believers (ministry by members).

My CCO Concept

Browsing the Internet today, I am delighted to note that my CCO metal detector concept is now plastered all over. So is heated discussion. On the one hand: "Thomas Scarborough [has] excellent knowledge of the basics of electronics ... remarkable simplicity." On the other: "Unfortunately, ignorance is shown by editors of magazines who have published the BAD CIRCUITS of Rev. Thomas." So which is it? There's a demo of the CCO concept on YouTube -- only this modifies my original design, and I'm not sure who deserves the blame for its inadequacies. OBSERVATION: I can't find the schematic in question -- I suspect it's been erased from the Internet due to breach of copyright. If you read this post, and you have the "republished" design, send me a copy won't you?

Packing A Pickup

We put my three-wheel bakkie / pickup to some serious use for the Church today -- packing it with goods donated to our Church Fête (which will be held on the 5th of November this year). My vehicle carries half a ton. At R40,000 ($5,500) it is South Africa's cheapest half-ton bakkie, by far.

Binding The Minister

We wrote up a one-and-a-half page warning for a member of staff. One line referred to the fact that our member of staff had "bound" the minister. A deaconess was puzzled. What did this mean? In fact it referred to a Pentecostal ritual whereby one "binds" a demon. (The minister had been exasperated).

10-Year Flasher

Here's something different. It's a super-efficient LED flasher I designed. Using alkaline AA batteries, it should flash for ten years continuous (the proof lies in R1). There are various secrets to the circuit's efficiency. Perhaps most importantly, the LED is directly powered by capacitive discharge (C2). The LED needs to be ultra-bright. You may click on the image to enlarge. This design is copyrighted.

Jesus: "Failed Mentor"

Stanley and Clinton define mentoring as "a relational experience in which one person empowers another ..." With this in mind, Jesus is frequently portrayed as the ultimate mentor. For instance, Campbell, Chancy, and Stanley state: "Jesus was (and is) the ultimate mentor." However, Andrew Murray suggests in his book Humility (1895) that Jesus failed as a mentor -- or maybe rather, that His disciples failed. As the prime example, Murray offers the words of Jesus: "Learn from me, for I am meek and lowly in heart" (Matt 11:29) -- and then the scene at the Last Supper: "There was a strife among them, which of them should be accounted the greatest" (Luke 22:24). So they learnt nothing. It was only when they received power from on high that things changed. OBSERVATION: The same logic may apply, in ministry, to preaching, teaching, counselling, leadership, and so on.

A Wasted Life

I went to see an old man in hospital -- as it happened, the day before he died. He said over and over again: "I have wasted my life. I have only realised it now." His wife said: "He was talking complete nonsense. He didn't waste his life."

"Slowly Now!"

Every Friday, our Youth enter the Church for 15 minutes of devotions. At the end of this session, one of our Youth leaders routinely says: "Slowly now!" -- presumably hoping to forestall a stampede on the way out. This week, I sat by the exit, to catch the stampede on camera. I had hoped for better photos than this, but they do nicely capture the pandemonium!

A New Direction

One of the vital characteristics of manna is that it falls from heaven only as needed, and it cannot be kept for the next day. And so it is, I feel, with solutions for the Church. One cannot derive power from the past, and one cannot reach into the future for answers ahead of time. I spoke to our Church leadership this past week about our Church's deepest spiritual need (see The Big Picture for some background). My ten-minute presentation was greeted with, I think, gladness and bafflement and conviction all at the same time. However, I believe that this marks a new direction for our Church. I wondered when this moment would come, and what it would look like. Now it remains to be seen how this unfolds.

Small-istic

There is a word in German which I don't think one has in English: kleinlich. Call it small-istic. One of my chief complaints with Churches I visit is that they so often are small-istic: Are you cosy in your pew? Did you know that Joy baked some apple pie today? Joe sends warm greetings from his caravan. And so on. It tends to happen in Churches which view the Church as "Community". OBSERVATION: There is some place for this, and there needs to be love, but I consider that this generally should be fairly inconspicuous. The Church is about far, far greater things.

DRC Uniondale

This cathedralesque Dutch Reformed Church (DRC, or NGK) is to be found in Uniondale, 600km / 370mi east of Cape Town. The Church was constituted in 1866, and the sanctuary built during the ministry of Ds. W.A. Joubert, 1878 to 1893. The tower was demolished and rebuilt in 1908, due to a dangerous crack. You may click on the image to enlarge to 300k.

External And Internal Indices

If you're flying a plane, you need to keep a fairly constant watch on both external and internal indices -- such as weather conditions (external) and fuel level (internal). I find that I am doing that continually with ministry: the priorities and tasks of ministry (external) vs. my own energy level and moods (internal). I do this more or less instinctively now -- although I didn't do it early in ministry, and I ran into serious trouble.

Church And Police

It's eleven days since we reported to the Sea Point Police that someone shot our Church full of holes (see Double-Barrel Shotgun). Despite continual efforts from our side, there has been no response from the police. I said in a leadership meeting tonight: "If someone had shot thirty holes in the SABC building, or thirty holes in the ANC office, there would have been police crawling all over it." Last week our secretary said to me: "Maybe they'll listen if the minister speaks to them." She put me through to a police officer. I said: "It's quite serious if someone shoots a Church full of holes" -- and the officer put the phone down.
.
NOTE: Since posting this, I need to add: There was no response that we were aware of.

The Big Picture

The big picture is that, when the minister's wife died, our Church suffered a huge blow. She was a phenomenal person. A member said to me last Sunday: "When Mirjam died, we all died." For the first half year after her death, we just needed to keep walking, and get through. But that kind of "keeping on keeping on" will not sustain a Church. Now I have had a short furlough, and I am more revived. I have said that we now need a "prophetic" approach in our Church -- by which I mean that we need to speak directly to our situation with Scripture and discernment. It cannot merely be "business as usual". One of the reasons why I say this is that Mirjam had such "prophetic" input with virtually all of the groups of our Church, in some way. Her functions have been replaced very nicely, but not her prophetic role.

False Gossip

I have the sense that the risk of false or titillating gossip in a Church is higher than it is e.g. in a business or a sports club. One would expect the very opposite -- yet I suspect that this is the reason behind it: in a Church, false gossip has far more potential to shock, and there is a breed of person who looks for such opportunity.

Determination

I was trying to photograph this girl, but a boy on her left was aggressively vying for the attentions of my camera, wrenching her clothes. She was determined to have her picture taken -- and the photo captures her determination. You may click on the photo for VGA.

Queues

A ubiquitous feature of life in South Africa is the queues. Today I spent two hours in three queues, seeking a new driver's license. I now have a piece of paper which promises me one. However, I took some work along, which nicely filled the two hours. A woman on my left was working a Blackberry, and so was a woman on my right. A young man was swapping places with people in the queues, presumably trading places for a living -- a professional queuer.

Academic Writing

I'm close to the end of a second postgraduate degree. The purpose has been, in the first instance, to obtain a "license to write". Now I face the decision as to whether I should pitch my writing at academic journals or at "academic" magazines. There are big differences. As an example, journal writing typically needs to be finely tuned, while magazine writing needs to be compelling. OBSERVATION: I've had about 25% success rate with journals during the past year or two. Prior to that, I had about 90% success rate writing for magazines.

How I'm Doing

People often ask me how I'm doing, after the death of my wife. I said in my Pastoral Report last week: "I felt not only that I had lost a wife, but that a large part of myself had died with her. On the other hand, this has strangely filled me with deep appreciation to God for all His mercies and wonders." The short version of that is: "The Lord has lifted me up." Yet it is a grief that she is gone -- and I find that I have become very nervous. For most of my life, Mirjam was there to back me up. I can't turn to her now.

(Not) Naming A Suspect

A member asked me if he could share something with me in confidence. I said yes. Someone had just committed a crime in the Church -- and he revealed to me who it was. Then the police asked me if I had a suspect. I said yes. They asked me to name him. I said no. They said I was hiding the suspect. However, supposing I had revealed the suspect. I would have broken the confidence of the informant. Also, a prominent man would have been arrested. And then one needs to weigh up: the desire to get on with ministry, the potential repercussions of the crime, and the distractions of the legal system, which can be huge. OBSERVATION: I decided to share the information I had with our Church leadership, and together we decided to "can" it.

Stump Speech

For my studies in the USA, I need to prepare a stump speech (politicians used to stand on a stump to deliver a speech -- sometimes the same speech time and again). It's a pretty mindless assignment. However, one needs to prepare a speech, based on a single theme, taken from Titus or Philemon, which one could turn into, say, five minutes or forty minutes of speech, as required. There's a technique to enable one to make an instant call as to how long it will be.

Third World OS's

Following on from my previous post on Operating Systems (OS's), here is a pie graph which represents the OS's people use when they read my blog (72% of my readers are in the Third World):
.
. . . . 44% still use Windows xp
. . . . 33% use Linux
. . . . 10% use an unknown Windows
. . . . 9% use Windows Longhorn, and
. . . . 4% use Mac OS X
.
As will be seen, Linux is strong. Windows Longhorn is an interesting accident of history -- a "free" Windows. OBSERVATION: US academic institutions' help desks may refuse to deal with queries where Linux is involved -- it is off their radar. My own seminary insists that I buy Windows or OS X -- both American products. The graph suggests that this attitude is parochial.

OS Junkie

I'm an OS (Operating System) junkie. This year, I've test driven more than a dozen OS's, just for fun. The one pictured here is Linux Kubuntu. I've tried the latest Linux Ubuntu, too -- and think it is daft. Fortunately it has a "retro" switch, to retrieve the old look and feel. It certainly is fast. OBSERVATION: Various versions of Linux top my list of favourite OS's. I look first at the file system and the management of software / drivers. These, for me, are the litmus tests of Linux distributions. Windows just annoys me.

Restaurant Counselling

I have called it "restaurant counselling", although I'll also do it under trees, or on a hiking trail, or walking on a pavement / sidewalk. Someone approached me this week with a problem. I said: "Come, walk with me." I first came across such counselling about fifteen years ago. Now I do it myself, several times a year -- although most of my counselling sessions are still in my vestry. OBSERVATION: If it's a restaurant, it needs to be a quiet corner, without the manager hovering over one.

Swiss Bureaucracy

During her final year, Mirjam's (my late wife's) finances slipped out of her control -- so among other things, she didn't pay the Swiss Confederation her regular pension amounts for 2010 (she was Swiss). After her death, the Confederation came after me, demanding a large sum of money that I can't pay. But we were married in South Africa by antenuptial contract. According to that, I am not liable for my wife's debts. It is a contract which is fairly much held sacred here. But the Swiss Confederation won't have that. They state that they will pursue me "no matter what matrimonial regime exists". That is, they claim to overrule South African law. So, I handed the matter over to the executor to figure out -- and thought that was the sum of it. However, the Confederation then picked up that Mirjam lived four days into 2011 -- and they're coming after me for that. Not only that, but because the four days fall within a new year, they are demanding many pages of information to recalculate Mirjam's total means -- including such information as who might have paid for her breakfast. I handed that to the executor, too. Oy vey.

Photo Stitching

There are many thousands of first class software packages for Linux -- free. Most recently, I wanted something that would stitch photos. I found a very nice solution in Fotoxx. The photo shows a chance meeting I had with myself at one of the many cannons that is littered about the city. OBSERVATION: Our secretary comments: "But really, one of yous is enough!"

Rock Flowers

I took this photo in the Karoo semi-desert, east of Cape Town. As best I know, these hardy flowers are cephalophyllum tricolorum. They pop up everywhere in the early spring. You may click on the photo for VGA.

Arranged Marriage

A young woman came to me for counselling. She was a believer, yet she had a weakness for men, and this had got her into considerable difficulty. I suggested that she could ask her clan to arrange a marriage for her. No, she said, this might not work -- and anyway, half of her people didn't go with that any more. OBSERVATION: This having been said, the divorce rate is "much lower" for arranged marriages (says Wikipedia). They are also said to reduce marital strife.

Double Talk

If you ever wondered, at school, what possible significance conjugations might have, here is a salutary lesson. I spotted this sign in Cape Town's Buitengracht Street this morning.

Double-Barrel Shotgun

I took a closer look at the damage to our Church's stained glass this morning (it took about 30 hits over the weekend). There were two large scatter-patterns. This suggests to me that someone fired at our Church using a double-barrel shotgun. Someone e-mailed me: "A dead Church will not attract demonic attention, so you must be doing something right!"
.
NOTE: Since posting this, a stained-glass expert guessed pellet gun. A security chief guessed shotgun.

Suurbraak Anglican

Suurbraak is an old mission station off the beaten track near Swellendam. This is St. Michael and All Angels Anglican Church in Suurbraak. Built in 1880, it belongs to the George Diocese. You may click on the photo for VGA.

God In The Picture

Last week I counselled a woman. This week she approached me, and said: "You were a great help, and I want to tell you why. You brought God into the picture, and quite honestly I hadn't thought of Him before that."

African Christian Leadership

For my final MA paper (a short one), my professor kindly agreed that I should study what African Christian leadership is. Of course I can't just say what I think it is -- I need to find out what it actually is, which may not be easy. Just by taking a quick look, I can see already that it is very different to typical American Christian leadership. OBSERVATION: The idea for this paper came about when my professor asked me what African Christian leadership literature there was. I found no published works. I asked my former Christian leadership professor. He knew of none. What therefore is African Christian leadership? I shall seek to pursue this mostly by examining curriculae in Africa.