Sunday, June 30, 2013
Muddy Service
I "attended" an Apostolic Church this morning. "Attended" in inverted commas here as one of this particular Church's key tenets is: no Church buildings. So they meet in the outdoors. This morning it was in the midst of some towering oaks. I needed to take off my shoes, and they clothed me in white raiment -- as all congregants were clothed -- then I had to sit down with the men in perishing cold mud (so much for my flannel trousers -- not to speak of the white raiment). The men carried staffs, and the women wore shawls. OBSERVATION: An apostle made me delete some photos that I took from behind the oaks -- it was a beautiful scene -- however he was warm and welcoming. Apart from some fascinating distinctives, the Church proclaimed the empowering of the Spirit, the authority of the Word, and salvation through Jesus. There was a strong emphasis on holiness of life.
Saturday, June 29, 2013
On The Road Again
I worked on my three-wheeler's rust, and rejuvenated its battery. Today, after it had been standing for about three months, it started first time -- "with a bang". Apparently designed like a front-loader (see Diesel Dumper), it must be the noisiest vehicle on the road. OBSERVATION: One problem with Indian vehicles (I have owned three) is rust -- due to their use of iron or mild steel. One needs to treat this aggressively. My three-wheeler represents a huge saving over a car / automobile. In its first year, it saved me an estimated R13,000 ($1,400).
A True Calling: A Tender Heart
My late wife studied women's calling to missions. She obtained a PhD on the basis of her research. Here are the last words that she wrote for the public: "A true calling must go through many moments of true repentance where our view of our selves is readjusted and also our view of God. May God grant to all of us a tender heart that is not too proud to declare that we are and remain people of unclean lips who need to be cleansed continually and that he is the holy God the Almighty." OBSERVATION: This observation was based on the research, which included countless interviews with past and present missionaries.
Friday, June 28, 2013
Parlous Pickup
Radical Leadership
My past MTh Supervisor (see Vincent Atterbury) holds a radical view of Church leadership. I agree with him: "All that Church leaders therefore require, to operate as effective leaders, and to effectively build up congregations, is a calling and a touch by Jesus Christ through His Spirit. ... Any other means, which might be described as a means of assistance, should be regarded with suspicion. God’s Spirit is sufficient to build up His Church. He does not need any means of assistance" (my translation, from Afrikaans). OBSERVATION: What prompts this post is an e-mail from the USA this week: "The church discussions are so often about strategies, frameworks, paradigms ..." And it's not only ministers who are tempted to think this way, but church officer-bearers and members. Dr. Atterbury is head of Education and Training of the largest Pentecostal denomination in South Africa (the AFM).
Thursday, June 27, 2013
African Kinship Terminology
In a recent blog post, I referred to a lad as my nephew (see School Desk). I soon realised that I was inclining towards an African kinship scheme -- so I edited the post, and called him my wife's nephew. In fact, properly, he is my wife's cousin's son. I mentioned this to my wife. She said no, he was not her nephew, he was her son. This will give some idea of how family terms (kinship terminology) in Africa differs from that in, say, England or the USA. I myself am now called a son and a brother and a brother-in-law, by people far more distantly related.
BB Metal Detector (556)
It's been a while since I've shown one of my electronics designs here. This one is Copyright © Thomas O. Scarborough, but feel free to copy it with acknowledgement (click on the image to enlarge). This is a self-contained Beat Balance (BB) metal detector. It is not the same as Induction Balance (IB). As will be seen, the concept lends itself to extreme simplicity. It also offers considerably better performance than Beat Frequency Operation (BFO) -- in this case about twice the sensitivity. This is I think my best design for simplicity and sensitivity combined (see BB Metal Detector for an even simpler design and a few tips on construction). Details of the coils are at BFO Metal Detector [2]. Place the coils for greatest sensitivity -- some patient experimentation will be required. VR1 may be a multi-turn potentiometer for more precise control. The "mirror" design ensures good stability. Note that this 556 is a CMOS device (e.g. the 7556), not the bipolar device.
Wednesday, June 26, 2013
"A-Bomb"
Stranger Than Fiction
Wife E. and I often study at the same desk together at night (she is studying Missions -- I just finished a paper on Ethics). In moments of distraction, she may click through my e-mails. She said to a friend recently: "You won't belieeeeeve what you see coming into his Inbox!" Her friend said: "Sometimes reality is something you could not think up if you tried."
Tuesday, June 25, 2013
Mennonite Library
Strong Results
If one Googles one's own name -- or anything connected with one's name -- one may obtain personalised results (therefore use another computer). Today, for the first time, I Googled all of my recent papers -- three theological, three philosophical. Selecting two key words (not my name), four of them appeared in Google's top twenty. Selecting three key words, four of them appeared at no. 1. These are strong results -- better than prescribed seminary papers would do. Top of the pops are Revisiting Aristotle's Noun (philosophy), then Reconciling the Personal and Social Dimensions of the Gospel (theology), then New Whorfian Hypotheses (philosophy -- shown). OBSERVATION: Actually, the "philosophy" papers are largely linguistics, with corollaries.
Monday, June 24, 2013
Urban Churches
This is a re-post of a post which has had enduring appeal on my blog: Urban Churches are unique in many ways. I have discussed this several times with colleagues: CONGREGATIONS: Tend more than other Churches to be a rich cultural mix, and a rich spiritual mix, haves and have-nots together, highly mobile (one-third turnover a year may not be out of the ordinary), far more visitors, and Church services may be chaotic. ADMINISTRATION: Events, meetings, and rosters may be harder to co-ordinate, small groups tend not to work as well in homes, people need to be enlisted and recruited faster, and finances tend to be unpredictable and unstable. ENVIRONMENT: More social trauma, greater social isolation, unpredictable work hours, unreliable transport, and many people approach the Church for help. MINISTRY: A more radical gospel required, a more radical faith found with many people, awkward hindrances to visitation, the requirement of "trade English" in ministry, more hardened people around, diffiicult youth, extreme counselling situations, and many special predicaments (squatting, threats, assault, vandalism, landlords, pimps). And Church planting in urban areas is precarious -- in fact the maintenance of established Churches is precarious. OBSERVATION: When speaking with non-urban ministers, they may not have heard of much of the above -- in fact, congregants in urban areas may not have heard it. I would see a lot of the above as being positive. It means, among other things, a more meaningful ministry, a more interesting ministry, greater dependence on God, and so on. It is, however, a big challenge. I have called urban ministry "riding a tiger".
Sunday, June 23, 2013
Valley Church
Today I attended Valley Church in Hout Bay (see the photo), about 10 miles south of Cape Town. The Church meets above a supermarket. It might be described as a co-existence of traditional and contemporary ways -- a blended style, some call it. The
message was on the "I am" sentences of Jesus. OBSERVATION: The sermon, while strong on Biblical content, tended much towards generalisms. This is not my style, as this allows much room for people to interpret a message as they will. At least one doesn't tread on any toes. You may click on the photo to enlarge.
Parakeet
Saturday, June 22, 2013
School Desk
Friday, June 21, 2013
An Invitation
There are what I would call calls, and there are what I would call invitations. A call is received from a whole Church, while an invitation is received from an individual who has charge over a Church. This week I received a tentative invitation to another Church -- the fifth call or invitation during my ministry in in Cape Town. OBSERVATION: It is an unusual invitation: a remote town in the middle of a semi-desert. I intuitively dismissed it. However, it is said that one should dismiss nothing when it comes to an invitation, because it may be of God.
Like Attracted To Like?
I have long thought that couples "rub off on each other" -- it is not merely a matter of like being attracted to like. This has been particularly interesting in my cross-cultural relationship and marriage -- to observe not merely that things do "rub off", but that there is a subtle exchange of cultural traits. I have noticed this especially in interacting with my son, who carries my old cultural traits before my marriage as a widower. OBSERVATION: Just one example among several that I can think of is personal property and sharing. In my own culture, one would tend to say: "That's my chocolate" (one of the more important examples I can think of) -- not to speak of a hundred different things. This is one area that has noticeably changed with me.
Thursday, June 20, 2013
Diesel Dumper
My mechanic tells me that my three-wheel pickup is essentially the same as this (pictured) -- called a frontal dumper -- a very tough machine. That's me in the saddle. My pickup and the dumper have something else in common: the noise that they generate. See Steepest Street: Low-Down for a photo of my three-wheeler.
Wednesday, June 19, 2013
Popular Posts
I restored a few posts today (see "Off Air") -- those which I could, which Google ranks tops. They are, in order of popularity: Kruisfontein Interior (a curious post, it would seem, to be popular), Postliberalism, Sea Point At Night, Poetry And Science, and "Look Out For Each Other". I also put up again one of my most controversial posts: How I Did It -- yet I haven't restored my comments on that controversy, which is among my most popular posts on Google.
Tuesday, June 18, 2013
Ecclesiological Basics
E. and I had dinner tonight with three ministers (pictured). One of them has "celebrity status" (she is well known). E. is at left, perfecting the art of the evasive manoeuvre of the camera-shy. OBSERVATION: It is amazing how ministers of (very) different backgrounds can be deeply united on ecclesiological and spiritual basics.
Strange Thing
A strange thing happened to my limping blog yesterday. According to Google, I had nearly 1,000 page-views in one day. This is strange not only for the huge number of page-views, but for the fact that I have less than three pages left on my blog after expunging thousands of posts (see "Off Air").
Monday, June 17, 2013
Silken Tea-Bag
Wife E. and I had breakfast at the Bohemian Café Mozart in central Cape Town this morning. Unusually, she received her Rooibos tea (a popular local tea) in a silken tea-bag. You may click on the photo enlarge.
Sunday, June 16, 2013
Constructed Technology
In May, I wrote a short essay: Your Computer is a Construct, for a well known webzine. A construct is something "the existence of which depends upon a subject's mind". One public response: "I find that this essay is remarkably clear and convincing ..." A Roman Catholic priest donated an image for the essay (on the right). OBSERVATION: The above quote continues with the word "yet ..." Click on Discuss (on that web page) for the public debate, which is quite lively. This debate has, in fact, done a lot of good for the development of the essay.
Friday, June 14, 2013
Wetland Walk
Tuesday, June 11, 2013
Smoking
Audio Blind Aid
I used to be well known (perhaps still am) for electronic design. A number of my concepts were developed commercially after I sold the copyrights (which is not the same as patenting something). Here's a concept that I didn't get as far as a copyright, yet I think it still deserves to be developed if it hasn't been already. It was a device which gave the blind an "audio picture" of what was in front of them. But I shelved the idea when I ran into problems with the vertical plane (for instance, "picturing" stairs going down). But looking back, I should have partially developed this one, and let others run with the remaining problems.
Sunday, June 9, 2013
Camps Bay Anglican
O ne of my hobbies is photographing Churches. I took this photo this morning of St. Peter's Anglican Church in Camps Bay. It was a simple service. The sermon was delivered by the Venerable Julian Titus, on Luke 7:11-18. This passage is about the pity and power of Jesus in raising the son of the widow of Nain. He focused on the pity of Jesus.
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NOTE: For whatever reason, this turned out to be a popular post. I therefore "upgraded" the photo to a more expansive fisheye view.
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NOTE: For whatever reason, this turned out to be a popular post. I therefore "upgraded" the photo to a more expansive fisheye view.
Friday, June 7, 2013
Puppy Linux
Linux Fedora (an operating system) was becoming problematic on my old netbook -- simply because it was way outdated. Today I plugged in the latest Puppy Linux (pictured) with what one used to call a dongle. This works very nicely -- and pull out the dongle, and everything is back to Linux Fedora. Not only that, but if one plugs the dongle into another computer, Puppy Linux with (if one desires) all one's files is transferred -- it's like using the same computer. However, the Puppy Linux file system seems a little obscure -- compared with (for example) Linux Ubuntu.
Thursday, June 6, 2013
Missions
Missions may be harder than one thinks. I keep in touch with several missionary friends. Two of them had to evacuate their daughter to the West this week: "The doctor in the ER suspected some type of virus." What type of virus, no one knows. OBSERVATION: More often than such emergencies, missions just eats away at people's health -- and stamina.
Sunday, June 2, 2013
Cold Snap
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