Monday, April 29, 2013

Repairing Walls

One of the members of this Church (see yesterday's post) said to me: "The Church asked me to serve with two other women on a new Catering Team. The Church was a calamity at the time. For the first three weeks, only I turned up. That was hard. I wrestled with the temptation to go to another Church, to help them build its walls. Then the Lord showed me that the walls of this Church were flat. Today, we have a faithful team of eight or ten."

Sunday, April 28, 2013

Gospel Message Church

This morning I worshiped with the Gospel Message Church in Borchards township, some 450 km / 280 mi east of Cape Town. I took this photo from the platform, where I was seated with the pastors and elders. Children (pictured), teens, and adults all played a significant part in the three-hour service. I was told that the Church was Pentecostal -- but no, it was Evangelical African plus amp. Seats are at the back, with an open space at the front, mainly for dancing. The sermon (1 Cor 1-4) focused on God's riches in hardship, and the need for spiritual warfare. OBSERVATION: I slipped out of the Church to take a call on my cellphone. They sent after me to fetch me back -- in Borchards, they said, it was not safe to walk outside. You may click on the photo to enlarge to VGA.

Saturday, April 20, 2013

90th Anniversay Bash

Here's a photo of the "90th Anniversary Bash" of the Bible Institute of South Africa. A particularly interesting aspect of the occasion, for me, was a number of surveys of trends in theological education and in the Church in South Africa over the past few generations. That's Acting Principal Dr. Pete Smuts on the left. The room is filled with various luminaries. Spot wife E.
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NOTE: The Bible Institute adopted this photo on its Bible Institute Facebook page.

Bible Institute Address

E. and I attended a Celebration Breakfast of the Bible Institute of South Africa today -- its 90th Anniversary. The keynote address was delivered by Rev. Dr. Clive Tyler (pictured). He quoted a local minister: "Put your Bible under your coat! It is a problem. It divides people." Rev. Tyler said however: "The whole point is to separate! But it must be done in an irenic spirit. We have to be patient. Let God do His own work." He said: "Peace and affluence are the two most awful gods." OBSERVATION: Rev. Tyler was one of my regular lecturers more than thirty years ago.

Sunday, April 14, 2013

Mighty Kids Arise

This afternoon E. and I attended a Mighty Kids Arise event – a combination of child evangelism and ministry by children and an aspect of the global focus on the 4/14 Window – that is, children between the ages of 4 and 14. E. is pursuing a call to ministry to children. That's the senior pastor of Logos Christen Gemeente on the left, Pastor Gerhard Barnard (with his iPad).

Friday, April 12, 2013

Wind-Up Torch

Alas, I think my electronics "career" may be coming to a close. But first some world history. Wind-up torches / flashlights have been around for a long time: The image shows a German device from World War I. However, shortly before 2000, it became possible to use entirely new technology -- if one pushed it. So I had a design published in 2000, which was the first wind-up torch to be powered by super-capacitor -- and my first electronics "cover". Then in 2002, the Faraday Flashlight (not my design) appeared on the market -- using similar new technology, but a different concept for the generator. Having said this, my last electronics article should be published in July this year (it has been accepted) in Everyday Practical Electronics -- the UK's no. 1 electronics magazine. I wrote it more than ten years ago, and mislaid it. And it is a wind-up torch. My mind is still full of designs, yet my electronics tools and components are now packed away (see also Writing Ambitions).

Thursday, April 11, 2013

The Same Blood

South Africa is teeming with evangelists, and I am privileged to know a few. Some are very well trained (see Beckoning and Calling), some are completely untrained. This morning I heard an evangelist preaching in a street café. His small audience was enormously enjoying his preaching -- or cajoling. He preached: "We have received the blood of Jesus! Now we all have the same blood running through our veins!" OBSERVATION: (Metaphorically, yes -- but this is the first time I have heard such a doctrine).

Monday, April 8, 2013

The Turning-Point

Over breakfast, a minister told me of the turning-point in his crisis-hit congregation, which at one point dwindled to less than 20 people, but was now booming as before. He spoke of premises and policy and so on. I said: "No, what was the real turning-point?" He said: "I travelled all the way to the Eastern Cape to conduct the funeral of a member. It changed the way that people looked at me." (And it was all expenses paid).

Monday, April 1, 2013

Ministry Through A Dometic's Eyes

I was talking to a domestic worker about a new minister in her Church. I took the doctrinal view -- the call, and so on. She said simply: "It's like a new domestic worker in a home. Everything remains the same, yet everything changes!" OBSERVATION: It hadn't changed for the better for domestic workers -- but she didn't mind. That's not what a Church was about for her.