The Tokoloshe

I have known people who have seen the tokoloshe (an African demon). I interrogated them, too (which means that I questioned them intensely), and they insisted that they had seen him and interacted with him. Perhaps "insisted" is the wrong word, because they simply explained what happened. Have white people ever encountered tokoloshes? The answer is yes. OBSERVATION: Many people would have a problem with my language here: there are people who claim to have encountered tokoloshes, yes. But tokoloshes? Gemini AI calls them "hallucinations", ChatGPT calls them "folklore", while DeepSeek AI calls them "cultural". But one would anger many people with such talk.

Leadership Training

What's the difference between American and African Church leadership training? I have studied both. In America, Church leadership training tends to focus on the leader. In Africa, it tends to focus on aspects of ministry: pneumatology, homiletics, ecclesiology, prayer, and so on. To put this another way, in Africa one may not see much about leadership in a Church leadership curriculum or textbooks. In America, one will.

Last Ditch Miracles

A man lost his job in one of our northern provinces, and travelled south with his wife to seek work in Cape Town. Over time, their situation looked increasingly bleak -- until he had only two coins left for two calls. He prayed, then opened the Yellow Pages, sought out two numbers, and made two calls. He said: "Both businesses granted me work immediately, subject to a satisfactory interview." He said: "I didn't believe in miracles, but now I do." OBSERVATION: There seems to be a theological or philosophical question here. Do we believe in miracles in principle, or on experience?

The Bread of Life

I hope hereby not to be unfair to the Church I attended on Sunday. The service and sermon -- which were intelligent -- went round in circles as to what was meant by "I am the Bread of Life". I went to a commentary, which essentially said, Without bread, you are dead, and it has to do with salvation. I think that what was missing in Church was an interpretative key -- which is conversion or salvation. Without the experience of such, one cannot get to the meaning of this and many other passages in the Bible. This, I felt, was probably absent on the pastor's side.

Prayer and Numbers

I needed to check my father's Gilbert Islands files today (he was Chief Missionary there). I received a request from someone researching the origins of his Church's Statement of Faith. But in my father's papers, I found this (above). My first real prayer request was that God should wake me up at 3:00 am to type out numbers. I woke up, looked at the clock, and it stood at precisely 3:00 am. I typed these numbers before I went back to sleep. I did not know until today that my father had kept these numbers. OBSERVATION: I found this amongst papers dated 1967. I may have been seven years old.

Near Death Experiences

There is a fairly widespread awareness today of Near Death Experiences (NDE's) -- by which I mean out-of-body experiences rather than "close shaves". Before the advent of the Internet, many ministers were unaware of them. However, I became aware of such experiences early on in ministry. After seven years of full-time ministry, I met a man who told me he was standing on a ladder, working on a gutter, when he fell over backwards, hit a post with the back of his head, and fell into a coma. He would not have pulled through, he said, unless two women at his hospital bedside had implored him to wake up. Yes, but how did he know that they were imploring him, if he was in a coma? He said that he watched it all from above. I believed him -- and listened out for similar clues. They were all over. Personally, about a dozen people may have shared their experiences with me.

‘Crazy’ Stories

I said to someone today that I have heard so many "crazy" stories in ministry -- where people were just overwhelmed and had to tell their minister. I couldn't tell them no, you didn't see that, it can't have happened, it's impossible. Here's a more ordinary example. I went to visit a (youngish) woman, who was terminally ill. A Roman Catholic convent took her in, to care for her. On one of my visits, she told me that a nun had come to her bedside, and a halo appeared around her head, "just like you see in the paintings". She reached out and asked, "Can I touch it?" The nun was very excited to hear that she had a halo. The nuns cared for her until she died.

Perplexing Faith

A good minister friend did something that has given me something to think about ever since ... He resigned his ministry at a time when his Church was perhaps on its highest high. At the same time, he took a faith decision to (quote) “just stand firm, and watch God's saving work for you take shape”. Therefore, he waited on God alone for his future. He refused to be proactive in any way -- even to speak of his situation. That way, he said, he would know that it was God when anything occurred. Days turned into weeks, and weeks turned into months. He confided in me that his money had almost run out. Still he refused to be proactive. I found myself increasingly perplexed by this, as if it were my own situation. At the 11th hour, he received a call.

Demons

N told me that he was seeing demons, and he was terrified. I said what do you mean, seeing demons? He said, "Like this!" and he held his hand before his eyes to indicate their closeness. He said, "They stare at me! They talk to me!" I asked him a few questions. He described them in detail. OBSERVATION: Demons. I have heard a few stories of demons. People's stories seem uncannily similar. I hope never to meet one.

Near Death Experience

Reading of a new book today on near death experiences (Imagine Heaven, by John Burke), I was reminded of my own experience with people who have had near death experiences. Here is an example. A member of my Church, H suffered a brain haemorrhage. When I went to see him in hospital, he was lying on his back, and had a long, curved wound on his head -- a craniotomy. He said that he couldn’t see (he regained his sight in time). He was very excited. He said, “I met the Lord Jesus! I met Him! I met Him!” I said what do you mean, H? Was it a vision, or a dream? “No!” he said, “It was Him! I really met Him!” OBSERVATION: I became aware of such experiences early in my ministry, and have heard many more since.

In a Picture

Surprisingly, I don't seem to have mentioned it on my blog. It is in the Afterword of my new book, as to how the book came into being: "A synopsis of a new metaphysics appeared before me in a picture." That picture would seem to be attested by the fact that publishers snapped it up in 11 days (the average is said to be 150 days). Yesterday, I revisited the scene, in a South African town, where the pages appeared to me. Two years ago now, when I looked at this car -- respectively, its remains -- it was replaced with the synopsis.

Accompanied

I frequently come across this sentiment among artists, and I feel it myself. Here are some 10 seconds of Albert Hammond: "I've always felt somebody's taken me by the hand ... even though everything seemed to be uphill for me."

Angels Dancing

I once went to perform the "last rites" for a dying man. Another minister was present as I did. When the funeral came, he addressed the congregation. He said excitedly in Afrikaans, "When Rev. Scarborough served Holy Communion at the bedside [he thrust his arms in the air and wiggled his fingers], I saw lights dancing over the departed!" He said: "It was the angels coming to fetch him! It was the token of God's grace!" OBSERVATION: This kind of report is not a complete rarity. One comes across "supernatural" reports fairly regularly.

‘I Saw Heaven Opened’

 During her final illness, my late wife Mirjam said repeatedly, "And I saw heaven opened" (Revelation 19:11). I still think on it now. In the Bible, it refers to the judgement of the kings of the earth. She can't have meant that ... or could she? I thought at the time that she meant to say that our faith was "vertical, not "horizontal" -- it came from heaven; it was of another order. That would have fitted the bill. Perhaps she did see heaven opened? Or she meant that heaven had opened in her mind's eye?

Healing

Many years ago, just before I stepped into the pulpit one morning, a deaconess handed me a letter. It was from a young mother, whose infant we had been praying for. It began: "When it took seven hours to operate on Candice [her infant], I was so frightened. But then I remembered Sea Point Congregational Church members were praying for Candice." Here's how the letter continued -- you may click on the image to enlarge.

Decisive Dream

Dreams play a major role in the spiritual life of Africa. A young man E told me this story: his grandfather, he said, diligently taught him right living, and he faithfully took him to Church. But when his grandfather passed away, E became absorbed in work and money: on Sundays, too. He had been making good money, he said, and had just received a generous bonus. But on his way home, with the bonus in his pocket, he had an accident on his bicycle, and seriously injured his arm. He said to himself, "I’ll never make money again." As he was recuperating, his late grandfather, together with his late pastor, appeared to him in a dream. Each of them was holding a Bible. They said, "E, we did not teach you like this. You must get back to Church." This made such a profound impression on him that, after that, E travelled about 30 km (20 mi) to Church most Sundays. When I first met him, he was still bandaged from the accident.

A Child Healed

A question ministers hear from time to time is, "Have you witnessed a miracle?" They may hear this from other ministers, too. Here's one for readers to judge. Fifteen years ago, I was just about to enter the pulpit when a deaconess handed me a letter. It was from a young mother, whose infant we had been praying for. It began, "When it took seven hours to operate on Candice, I was so frightened. But then I remembered Sea Point Congregational Church members were praying for Candice." Here's how the letter continued -- you may click on the image to enlarge. 

Praying for a Miracle

When my late wife Mirjam was diagnosed with incurable, in fact virtually untreatable cancer, people said that they would pray for a miracle. She was very much loved in the Church. A year later, however, when some people understood that she was at death's door (most did not seem to understand it), a few said that there had been no miracle. She said to me, "They got their miracle! I lived another year!" OBSERVATION: She was certainly not expected to live this long. The hospital was proclaiming a miracle (that is, a miracle of survival) quite some time before she died. Notice her own conviction that it was a miracle. 

Signs Of Grace

In general, I do not think that God panders to quirky requests for personal answers. He has other ways of working. But sometimes, I think He gives people special grace at critical times. A refugee, a family man, shared with me how, in the midst of his family's greatest hardships, his boss launched into an irrational tirade at him. He prayed in despair, "Lord, if you are still with me and my family, please give me a sign. May my boss call me before 9:00 pm tonight, and apologise." A boss calling a lowly refugee to apologise? In this case, it was a fabulously wealthy boss, too, with many other things on his mind. However, just before 9:00 pm, the boss called and apologised.

Juvenile Miracle

A young boy in our Church -- J -- was at school when his teacher said to the class, “You give me a headache!” and she sat down at her desk with her head in her hands. J walked up to the teacher, and put his hand on her head. He said, “In the name of Jesus, headache go away.” A few minutes later, the teacher said, “Child, come here.” Then she said, “The headache has gone.”