I'm alive!!!

I am happy to announce that I am alive, and so were all people involved. (Myself and Ananias)

Today, on our way back from the airport from taking Ananias' wife to catch a plane a huge big metal jobby (which my friend Jaco tells me is used to hold containers on top of trucks) flew off a truck, bounced off its tyre and through my windscreen.

All I have is a very bruised arm and a broken car to show for it, but it was close! And I can count a few things that could have been different...

• If I wasn't changing gears when it hit me it would have hit my arm holding the steering wheel and I would have probably veered into the truck.
• If I wasn't wearing my sunglasses my eyes would have been peppered with glass like the rest of my face.
• If it had hit the car a few inches lower it wouldn't have been deflected by the body work, it would have flown directly into my upper body.

I am a little freaked out! And I have a new 6kg paperweight to help me appreciate what it means to be alive...

I don't mean to be melodramatic - but that was a bit too dramatic for my liking.

I'm not sure if I believe in God sparing people - because if I did I would have to believe that God intentionally doesn't spare some and that doesn't make sense to me. But... It does remind me that God wants me to enjoy every moment I have with everyone I have around me; to be who I am called to be without apology to anyone... and a whole bunch of other important things.

I am happy to say that my life is full, I am in many ways a gruntled human being. Life is a gift, lets treat it as such. Thank you to my friends for smses and calls!

Forgive them, they don't know what they are doing...

Another politician with a Messiah complex. Tony Yengeni. I heard him saying "Forgive them, they don't know what they are doing" on the news last night as he was booking in to Polsmoor prison. His crime, according to him: "Getting a car at a discount price..." - not that it had anything to do with a multi billion dollar arms deal or anything. Yea, I definitely do see the Jesus parrallels.

Anyways, I must say that I particularly like the Donkey in which he rode to polsmoor. If I'm not mistaken it was a Rangerover Sport, HSE.

Proof that, (in a very dubious, round about manner) the Messiah might actually prefer Range Rover to Land Rover... Definitely anything might me better than a Mercedes M Class. (Just speculation.)

Thou shalt not covet...

I prefer to think of the ten commandments as the ten suggestions. I insert certain conditions. Like: "Thous shalt not covet anything other than landrovers." I think this is valid - Moses knew nothing about landrovers and if he did he would have inserted the same condition. (Think how handy it would have been in the desert.)

The 2007 landy (Defender) because there can be no other. Will have a 2.4 diesel codeveloped by Ford Engine (better than Beemer if you ask me). A six speed box, and more comfortable chairs...

Covet covet covet covet covet covet covet covet covet covet covet covet covet covet covet covet covet covet covet covet covet covet covet covet covet covet covet covet covet covet covet covet covet covet covet covet covet covet covet covet covet covet covet covet covet covet covet covet covet....

Manna & Mercy...

If you haven't read Daniel Erlander's book (and its footnotes) you've missed out on a greatly clarifying, mind opening, quick, in depth, challengin re-reading of scripture. But this is not about that.

Its about my need to be corageous, to remember who I am, and who God called me to be. The first time I did the Manna & Mercy course with Allan Storey at Observatory Methodist Church it really got me excited. I had just resolved to follow God's call, I had big amazing and wonderful ideas.

Yesterday; doing the course again I was disapointed in myself. I have not been as courageous as I had hoped to be, I was challenged once again to stop being such a nerd, to remember that rules are meant to be broken and the gospel challenge is here to burst the world.

So I write this to remind myself next year, when I look back over my blog postings, to be more courageous, to watch for a new thing, to be who God calls me to be.

Paarl here we come...

Just been informed that we're on our way to Paarl! Great news, especially now that its confirmed and all lined up... Looking forward to being close to family and old friends.

Waiting for a station...

One of Michelle Shocked songs has a line in it... "I'm waiting for a station, just like - some people wait for a train."

One of the things about becoming a Methodist Minister is becoming itinerant... the church sends, and the people go. Funny that I often sing Thuma Mina! Send me! But when it comes to the crunch - I'm not sure I like being sent. Even though we hear rumours, we know where we might go - us probationers live a bit in the balance - It makes me feel a bit insecure.

But hey, I had no idea where Potchefstroom was - but we did find it, and we had a wonderful time there! Made friends with some wonderful people, so wherever next year takes us, it is in God's hands. (Even if its not what we expect.)

My colleagues here at college are restless, waiting to find out where they have been sent... tomorrow, the next day - soon. The tension is thick. Pray that we will all have the faith to know that wherever God's love takes us, God's grace can provide for us.

Counting the Cost of Crime

During my hospital visit today I met a man who had been robbed. Thugs beat him up badly, took his wallet and his cell phone. His name is Israel. The people who stole his stuff got away with a few hundred rands worth of goods, but this crime will cost him a lot more.

Israel told me that he has no way of contacting his boss and by now his boss will have found someone else to do his job. Israel has a family in Kunwana - a location in the middle of nowhere really, he's probably their only source of income.

Its amazing how when we count the cost of crime in SA its so often to do with banks and security companies - even the hospital bill that the state will bear because Israel is confined to a hospital bed.

But the cost is human. Israel and his family will probably survive - it seems that people have learnt to get by in this country, sometimes miraculously. But there is no way of telling how much the crime cost him.

Please pray for Israel and his family.

40 days of porpoise

My church is currently engaged in a mission.

The porpoise driven wife course, based on the book by Rick Warren. Its something of a phenomenon... I think he's even been on Oprah because of it.

But consider the implications... 40 days of porpoise! I've heard of rice diets, potatoe diets, cereal diets etc. etc. But porpoise? Do you have any idea how hard it is to find porpoise meat? I am paying a few hundred rands per kilogram to get porpoise from a guy who comes by my house at 2am on fridays. Why? - Because I believe that if my wife becomes completely porpoise driven she will be happy and complete. And what price is too dear for such a blissful goal?

The reason I'm writing this is to ask - does anyone have any recipes for porpoise? She's tired of porpoise and egg. And if anyone sees a porpoise (the bottom one is a dolphin) please harpoon it and post it to my home address.

Yours in porpoise,

Gus