Theology and aeronautics...

I met an aeronautical engineer once. His job was to design the front wing on formula one cars...

But thats beside the point. All I have is a question:

"Is theology to religion, as aeronautics is to flying?"

Just wondering.

Collaring! (A blast from the past)

Originally posted on Sunday, November 07, 2004:

On Sunday the 31st of October 2004 I was collared! My circuit of churches has sent me on my journey into the ministry. I guess its all too much to take in and understand at the moment, but it slowly seeps into my soul, like the gospel.

Today I blog from my favourite coffee shop in Cape Town (Kalk Bay actually) The Olympia Cafe! It's Tuesday and I'm on leave for a month - a beautiful day and time for me to reflect on where God - the one who holds me by the colar is taking me! The crazy guy at church thought the colar was hilarious and kept asking me to bark like a dog! Prophetic? I hope not.

But I did just see a big great dane walk past the window - ginormous compared to the person who held its leash - it could have dragged her from here to Somerset West, but it chose to submit - actually it was holding the leash in its mouth, walking along happy as mud!

If I was a dog, I would want to be a Great Dane - big, gentle, strong and quite affectionate. God gives me the freedom to bolt and run off, but I choose to wear my collar and with all my heart, I hope to hold the leash in my mouth, knowing where God is leading me every moment. (I can only pray that God will give me this grace.)

Leaving the congregation at Church Street is sad for me, relationships built up over the past couple of years will fade again, I confess I have guarded my heart with the knowledge that we would be moving off. I guess its a hazard of ministry, developing a hardened heart that won't let people in for fear of being hurt by departure etc.

Oh well, its a journey and I am just young - life with God goes on and I grow with it. Hopefully with the leash in my mouth, excited about the new adventure that my master leads me on.

(Woof!)

Happy Spring Day...

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

The stakes have never been higher...

"In the front pews the old ladies turn up their hearing aids, and a young lady slips her six year old a Lifesaver and a Magic Marker. A college sophomore home for vacation, who is there because he was dragged there, slumps forward with his chin in his hand. The vice-president of a bank who twice that week has seriously contemplated suicide places his hymnal in the rack. A pregnant girl feels the life stir inside her. A high-school math teacher, who for twenty years has managed to keep his homosexuality a secret for the most part even from himself, creases his order of service down the center with his thumbnail and tucks it under his knee...

The preacher pulls the little cord that turns on the lectern light and deals out his note cards like a riverboat gambler. The stakes have never been higher."

- Frederick Beuchner in Telling the Truth
(Quoted from Soul Survivor by Philip Yancey)

Brilliant!

I'm not so sure about this world

From the Mail and Guardian online... (www.mg.co.za)

18 July 2006

Sending a message: An Israeli child writes a note in Hebrew onto artillery shells that will be fired towards Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon on Monday. Ehud Olmert, the Israeli Prime Minister, dismissed hopes of a quick resolution to the conflict on Monday night, vowing his military would continue operating at full intensity. (Pedro Ugarte, AFP) Read more

Here in South Afruca my wife teaches kids the same age as the one in the picture. Their lives are more complicated than I remember mine to have been - scary world we live in.

Magic Time

Been home since Sunday 9th July...

Couldn't really find the words to say what it was like to be back in Cape Town, with familiar family and friends - especially new family (baby Luke on the left - he's smiling 'cos he thinks I'm a boob). With time at my disposal to sit - to do the things Heather and I like to do - like eat, sleep, read funny books like spud arb around - goof off and drink Vida E Coffee!

I was reminded that its important to stop for a while and remember who you are - not what you do. I study and do the things that I do a lot, to the detriment of who I am. I guess thats why wisdom tells us a day off is a good thing. So I am dedicated to taking my leisure time more seriously - and also my work time - in their place of course.

The good news is that the rumours of being nearer to family in the new year are getting louder! So hold thumbs for us.

* * *

For my Birthday my brother gave me a CD voucher - which I spent tonight on Magic Time, a new (2005) CD from Van Morrison - definitely a bit of old school Van Morrison shining through - thats what rhythm and blues was! (Before my time.)

* * *

The view from my sister's stoep (best place for a cup of coffee in Cape Town)

Cuzin Patrick! Seems like a few days ago we were fishing and you ate all the bread. Now we's old and all grown up, aint that sad. Congratulations on yours and Jacqui's engagement - much happiness to you both!

Michelle and Andre - it was good to see you - Michelle stay strong, thinking of you and sending lots of love (you're a wonder!)

Had more pictures to post, but blogger is being difficult - will post some more in time!

Sam - thanks for the music guy! The band sounds real. 

vida e cofffeee! 

Kalk bay pier with cousins/friends