From my heart

We went fishing again ... and learnt some life lessons. Easter Weekend my wife and one son went to a training camp, so my other boys and I went fishing on Saturday. Being Easter Weekend we got shown away at a resort because it was full and at the next resort we got place in the bundu (bush). It really was not a good spot to fish because of the tall grass on the riverbank, water hyacinths drifting over the lines and the build up of algae (like pea soup).  We brought several kinds of bait and flavourants and were sure that we are going to catch something. Diagonally across from us there were some fishermen camping. Obviously they were there for the weekend. And they were striking and pulling out fish regularly. They were casting towards our side of the riverbank, about 30m from where we were. So we were hopeful. But we caught nothing, some good bites, lots of bait lost, one line lost when Hedrik cast right across the river and ran out of line unexpectedly. Quite frustr...

Maputo 6/1/2014 Temperatures were in the high 30s when I went for lunch, I guess about 37C. Even walking from the office to the restaurant was torture. Sprawled between two parked vehicles, his head barely in the shade I saw him. He could not have been there last night, otherwise the vehicles would not have parked the way they did. He was laying in an awkward position, somewhat on his back, with his upper body resting on his left side, left arm slung out and the other resting on his body. He is very still, and from where I am walking I cannot see whether he is breathing or not. In the full sun, head barely in the shade.  Locals were passing by, as I was, on all side, perhaps casting a cursory glance in his direction. A traffic policeman merely 20m away from him, surely he must have seen him, someone must have told him. And I felt just like one of the travelers passing by the injured man on the road to Jerusalem. Who is going to be his Samaritan? He is laying ...

Our minds do weird things when we are confronted the the possibility of impending death or suffering.  Technically I was not in that situation, but the doctor gently urged me to do an abdominal sonar. And there was some concern in his voice. Why? Because the hepatitis tests proved to be negative, I did not squirm with pain when he did a pressure test on my gall bladder, and we have a family history of pancreas cancer. So until I had the scan done my mind went on weird and long overgrown paths. I contemplated life, and death, and what lies in between. I made sure that I had the contact details of my life insurance agents at hand in order to contact them if necessary. Late one night, when I could not sleep, due to discomfort and worry, I thought about my epitaph.  What would it be? And the words came to me...  "He worked himself to death".  Thinking about that, it shocked me, but I know it is true! He worked himself to death. I allowed work to consu...

The "what else"  from my jaundice bothered me a lot, because even after I returned to my normal colour, I still felt nauseous and had pains around my liver and pancreas, all pointing to possible serious pancreas problems. So I went for an abdominal sonar.  Had a good chat with the radiologist whilst she was dons the sonar. and the outcome: No strange bumps of lesions on my pancreas, kidneys are fine, spleen is fine, liver is fine but a bit fatty. gallbladder and bile tubes swollen. Conclusion: gallstone temporarily blocked the bile tubes and that caused the pain and nausea.  The stone went through but it left me quite yellow and sick. Now the bile tube and some of the pancreatic tubes are inflamed and I have to wait it out. Fortunately I got some good meds so I can eat and sleep again.

And what is Life? An hour-glass on the run, A mist retreating from the morning sun, A busy, bustling, still-repeated dream. Its length? A minute's pause, a moment's thought. And Happiness? A bubble on the stream, That in the act of seizing shrinks to nought. And what is Hope? The puffing gale of morn, That of its charms divests the dewy lawn, And robs each flow'ret of its gem -and dies; A cobweb, hiding disappointment's thorn, Which stings more keenly through the thin disguise. And what is Death? Is still the cause unfound? That dark mysterious name of horrid sound? A long and lingering sleep the weary crave. And Peace? Where can its happiness abound? Nowhere at all, save heaven and the grave. Then what is Life? When stripped of its disguise, A thing to be desired it cannot be; Since everything that meets our foolish eyes Gives proof sufficient of its vanity. 'Tis but a trial all must undergo, To teach unthankful mortals how to prize That...

When I die… When I die when my coffin is being taken out you must never think i am missing this world don’t shed any tears don’t lament or feel sorry i’m not falling into a monster’s abyss when you see my corpse is being carried don’t cry for my leaving i’m not leaving i’m arriving at eternal love when you leave me in the grave don’t say goodbye remember a grave is only a curtain for the paradise behind you’ll only see me descending into a grave now watch me rise how can there be an end when the sun sets or the moon goes down it looks like the end it seems like a sunset but in reality it is a dawn when the grave locks you up that is when your soul is freed have you ever seen a seed fallen to earth not rise with a new life why should you doubt the rise of a seed named human have you ever seen a bucket lowered into a well coming back empty why lament for a soul when it can come back like Joseph from the well when for the last time y...

Today we went visit a family member that is in the terminal stage of cancer. She was always a great hostess and made sure that when you visit, you lack nothing, and she is trying to ensure that it still happens, even if she is bedridden and cannot feed herself. She make sure that you lack nothing, that you eat enough and that you have enough soda or coffee to drink and cookies to eat. But to see her like that, at 35kg, not able to feed herself, is heart breaking. But in her words, "I do not want anybody to say that they did not enjoy the visit, do not cry...". But for Wehan it was too much, he chatted with her a bit and then started crying and retreated to the car where he stayed for the rest of the day. Marnus on the other hand sat at the end of the bed at times and held her hand. He is like Hanlie, full of compassion and not afraid to show it. I did not like it, I saw my own mother pass on like that when I was 12 and I still do not like to see that. But she is rea...

This week I am thinking a lot about family. All of us are born to a biological family, but not all of us belong to our biological families. Some of us grew up with our biological families, but never became friends, some of us grew up with adopted families, some of us never had families to call our own. Families are also not always a safe place, look at Cain killed Abel, Jacob stole from Esau.   But it is not always blood and DNA that makes us family.  Family are those that accepts you, that want you in their lives, that love you, that support you. Take care of your family!

You know you are stressed and need to switch off when you have nightmares about work on your second night of leave!!!

Some time ago I wrote a post about   Being Real  and this is sort of a continuation of that. Recently I wrote a post about why we should not celebrate Christmas.. And along the same lines there are arguments about having Sabbath on Saturday or Sunday, and keeping the Jewish feasts, and only eating certain foods or discounting certain parts of the Bible, or having scientific proof that God exists. But does all of this really matter? Really? Why should we care about celebrating Christmas of not? Or on what day we rest? Or what we eat? Is it that important that we start fights about it, even wars! No wonder that non-Christians look at us with skepticism. Christians are the most flaky, hypocritical and indecisive people I have come across. We judge each other, we kill each other, we steal and slander. And all that because we have forgotten what is important! We have forgotten why we call ourselves Christian (recently I choose not to call myself Christian ...

Just as we had dinner this evening, the power went out ... load shedding! So we lit the candles, and switched on the emergency light in the kitchen. Before long the laptop batteries ran out, and a while later the cellphone batteries. So there we were, just like when I was a kid, on the farm, no power, no lights and only ourselves to keep us busy. The kids got bored quickly, there were no tech to keep them busy. I was fine, because no phone and no internet meant that I could not respond to support calls. (blessing in disguise). It is fine, but this was the second night in a row, last night we had an impromptu braai, with friends of my wife and the kids had friends to keep them busy. So what brought us to this?  When I was a kid, in the rural areas, any flicker of lightning would cause a black-out. But it was not an issue then. We were prepared for it. And we were not so utterly dependent on technology to keep ourselves busy. Our electricity provider, in the las...

I love trees, even since I was small. They provide shade to rest under, branches to climb and explore. Trees at old homesteads contain a treasure trove of captured items, like the bike below (not my photo). Trees provide rest for the soul, trees provide life, trees are life! : Trees BY JOYCE KILMER I think that I shall never see A poem lovely as a tree. A tree whose hungry mouth is prest Against the earth’s sweet flowing breast; A tree that looks at God all day, And lifts her leafy arms to pray; A tree that may in Summer wear A nest of robins in her hair; Upon whose bosom snow has lain; Who intimately lives with rain. Poems are made by fools like me, But only God can make a tree . But sometimes, trees are subject to the elements of nature, to floods, to fire, and they get burnt, and hurt and broken.  Sometimes the trees survive, sometimes not. But those that survive recover slowly, shedding dea...

Bearing false witness, lies, slander and gossiping .... In South Africa we are having our fair share of high profile court cases, in fact the Oscar Pretorius media circus just ended, and there are a couple more on the way. And in a couple of them the judge questioned the integrity of some of the witnesses, meaning that he thinks they are lying.  And who does not like a juicy story, right from the source who  heard it from a friend's cousin, twice removed on her mother's side that works close to the source's secretary. And the embellishment when we spread that story as the truth! Or we are telling the truth, as we see it, to someone not entitled to the information. Our viewpoint, our interpretation told to eager ears. False witness started wars (the Gulf War?), got people killed, burned at the stake, caused people to loose their jobs, loose their integrity, loose their trust, or cause family break-ups. And why is it happening? Because you want to satisfy your...

Gauteng is one of the most populous and industrious provinces in South Africa, and I suppose it also has the highest incidence of industrial water pollution and wastage. It is therefore not surprising that parts of Johannesburg are without water for two (2) weeks or more now. Because of ...? drought, wastage, mismanagement of infrastructure, lack of maintenance, who knows? And the people are struggling! Those with swimming pools and bore-holes can still manage somewhat, but what about those that do not have the resources like swimming pools, boreholes, money to buy water, what are they to do? Steal water from the church? Yes, with all the wastage and pollution it might as well be a Finger-pointing from God!  But really Pastor, turning wine into water? I have no doubt that Jesus performed miracles, and that miracles are still being performed today ... but only to the glory of God.  But to have people arrested because they were making tea with 'holy water...

A couple of weekends ago I spent almost the whole weekend at J akaranda Childrens Home  in Pretoria, South Africa. Friday evening I watched my family members participate at the TTA Development Tournament that was hosted there, and Saturday I cooked about 17kgs of boerewors for boerewors rolls (hot-dogs).  There is a development program for the Children's Home kids called  Defend with Integrity . On Friday evening I watched the kids participate, and on Saturday I saw them outside the hall. Some were participating in the Taekwondo tournament, some were playing rugby in the open area and there was one or two that was hanging around the braai and pancake area. It took a lot of self control not to give in to the emotional manipulation, to dish out boerewors rolls. But it was not easy, these are children, that do not have much. These are children that probably envy those that have a family and a stable house to live in. These are children that are put to...

Being real! I just love this video! It is real on so many levels! The world expects of us as Christians to act like monks and nuns. Cloistered away, no use to the world. But this nun surprised the judges (world)! As Christians we should be the salt of the earth, not hidden away, living among the people, showing them that we are real, that we are not holier-than-thou, that we are still human. However, we have one difference, we know God.

67 South Africans killed at T.B. Joshua's building collapse First of all my condolences to all the families that lost family members in the building collapse. But like the rest of the world, I would like to ask what happened there? TB Joshua under pressure over fatal church collapse Just what happened there whilst people were praying? Is there any truth in the claims of a plane crashing into the building? Or is the most likely explanation the collapse of the building due to unauthorized building alterations? Image from http://www.sundayworld.co.za/ So let us look at what happened and what is the impact. On a material level the building collapsed, it is a fact. Apparently it was the multi-story hostel that collapsed. This can be due to structural weakening (plane crash of unauthorized extensions to the building or inferior materials used by the builder) On a spiritual level this is fuzzy/confusing. Why would God allow this? Why ...

Don't you think that pop idols / musicians sometimes think too much of themselves. They start to sing, obtain some kind of following (sometimes thousands of supporters), and then they start to think that they can command and rule. But this stunt of Kanye West wanting everybody to stand before he sings a song is bizarre, he even sent his bodyguards to see why the people in wheelchairs are not standing! Come on, Kanye ,  you are not God,  you can loose your talent! http://www.channel24.co.za/Gossip/News/Kanye-West-tells-fans-in-wheelchairs-to-stand-up-20140915 But South Africa also have its own bevy of divas in the music world. There are those that question certain songs on a CD during a joint project, and those that drop songs from CDs because the inclusion of certain songs are questioned. Then we have a couple that think that they are above the law. Come back to earth, your head is going to explode (maybe it should, then you are normal sized again). But the worst...

This is a date the world will never forget. A remembrance that started on 11 September 2001. I, however, started remembering 9/11 in 1975. The day my mother died. She looked so frail, yet strong in that hospital bed.  I was 12 at the time, and I was crying when I came into the room. She looked at me and said "Don't cry, I am not dead yet". As I stood next to her bed, she comforted me as only a mother could. When it was time to go home, I greeted her and said I will see her the next day. It was the last time that I saw her, she passed away early the next morning. My dad stayed with her, and just before she slipped away early in the morning, she quoted Psalm 23. And then she was gone. She had time to prepare, she knew she was sick for almost 7 months, and she went gracefully, as a mother should. Most of the people in the World Trade Centre did not even have 7 minutes, and the world remembers this day. And I remember this day. 11 September 1975. The d...