Our God Is A Great Big God....

Bald Eagle

One can only say WOW!

Today is where your book begins...

"No one else can speak the words on your lips,
Drench yourself in words unspoken,
Live your life with arms wide open,
Today is where your book begins,
The rest is still unwritten"

-Natasha Bedingfield-

To speak, to listen, to be heard!

Why is communication so hard?

We are encouraged to talk to God in prayer often. We are then encouraged to listen to Him because communication between us and God is a two way thing!
Yet I still wonder whether I’ve actually heard from Him or whether it’s just my imagination!

When a couple get married the age old advice is to have good communication between both parties.
I wonder at times whether that is coming from people who actually desire it for their own relationships but haven’t quite worked it out!
I’ve even shared such advice with those about to get married!

We are told the way to maintain and build good lasting friendships is to communicate regularly with each other and to share about those things that we have in common. That worked for me when I worked as a train driver and used to see my friends regularly in the staff canteen!

I live in a place where even those who are considered as un-educated (considered by some) can often speak more than one language, yet communicating across cultures often seems to be almost impossible!

Why is communication so hard when it’s the bases for so much of our live?

Could it be the work that it involves?

Could it be that it takes both the listening and the talking?

Some of us are good listeners; some of us are good talkers. Rarely do you find that a person is good at them both, WHY?

The ways in which many of us can communicate have never been easier with all the various devices at our disposal.
But some will say that they themselves cause us to be bad communicators (I’m sat writing this rather than sitting talking to my wife who is actually sitting reading and not talking to me!).

I for one have a problem with poor communication.

Do you?

Beautiful Jeffrey's Bay

Our Beautiful Jeffrey’s Bay

Lithemba

This young boy is Lithemba.

2007/04/19 - 2009/07/18

Lithemba lived with his mum Nokuzola in a small house in one of the townships in Port Elizabeth.

He had fits during his early days which left him unable to have a normal life. Lithemba couldn't communicate through words and his little body didn't grow as other children, he had cerebral palsy. However Lithemba was such a delight to meet.

I met Lithemba when I went out with Daniel Meyer who runs 'Timion' (Timion means precious). Daniel and Anika, and their team work with precious children like Lithemba. You can find out more about the work of 'Timion' by clicking this link: http://www.timion.org/

I joined Daniel on a cold and wet day and travelled with him and his team to visit some of the children who the Timion project make standing frames for.

We arrived at Lithemba's home and were welcomed in by the family. Daniel had brought the newly constructed standing frame for Lithemba; it was a little big but a few adjustment sorted that.

In watching Daniel minister, I was blessed to see something of our Heavenly Fathers heart of love for precious children like Lithemba.

Lithemba wasn't really shore about the new frame but was wheeled around in it by some of the family and his little smile and laughter was soon beautiful to see.

I never really got to know Lithemba as this was to be my first and only visit before he passed away and went to be with Jesus. I'm left with sadness for his family who have lost a precious family member but delight that Lithemba is now able to enjoy life with Jesus that must be even more precious then he himself is.

Please pray for the family, particularly Nokuzola, Lithemba's mom; that their grief will pass soon and that they will take comfort in knowing that Lithemba is now with Jesus living life to the full.

God bless you Lithemba.

Rainy Days!

That's Lavender, and shouldn't be planted in ponds!

Oop's!

My Aloe Bed!

Ephesians Study One

It's a wet day in J'bay today. We have a cold front passing through that has been predicted for some days now.I wonder at times where all the rain comes from, it seems to fall with such ferocity!

We had our small group meeting last night, we started looking at the book of Ephesians.
The group was small with some of our members away in New Zealand, however it was a really good meeting.

We looked at Ephesians 1:1-15 and in particular verses 3-14 that are concerned with the spiritual blessing each of us have as those who are 'in Christ'.
Being a Christian can never be ordinary if one actually realises all we have as those who are 'in Christ', while discovering all God intends for us as part of His big plan for all creation.

The final question of the study asked:

If Christ is at the centre of God's plans for everything, is he at the centre of yours?

What a searching question we have to ponder over this coming week!

North Point Sunrise

Go Sharks!

 

Chilling to the bones!

This is my brother; the one on the right!

"I love ya bro"

A call for prayer

Most of you will know that my step mum, my father’s wife, has a very nasty form of cancer that looks likely to be taking her life. Pat is such a wonderful person and has always been a joy to be around; her bubbly nature makes it so hard to imagine her being so sick.

My dad at this time is trying to spend every precious moment with her but has to deal with the real fact that she may leave us at any moment. He feels pretty bitter towards God and wonders why this is happening.
It’s hard to answer such a question, one can only say that God doesn’t cause things like cancer and He doesn’t use such things to punish us (in fact God doesn’t punish us, ever).
Our bodies grow older and wear out. As they do we can be prone to such things as cancer (not that cancer affects only those older in life). I believe that God doesn’t choose for us to experience such things but shares in our pain when we do. He wants to surround us with His love even as we go through such horrors.
We have a God who loves life and loves us so much that He gave His son to die for us all. Such a God doesn’t choose to inflict anyone but witnesses, I believe through real pain, ever person who experiences any of life’s tragedies.

One day their will be a time and a place where their will be no more cancer, of any kind, that can afflict us. It will be a time when all who respond to His love will know and live with Him in a new heaven and earth, a time when we will experience life as God really intends it.

No answer to the question of ‘why this is happening to Pat’ can take the pain away from those who know and love her. But I say lets not focus on the ‘why’ and seek the love that Pat needs, that my dad needs and that all of us need as we face any form of hardship. That love can be found in God; we experience it through Jesus, and through family and friends as we make ourselves available to be instruments of His love.

Please join me in prayer; seek for Pat to experience the eternal love of God and release from any pain and suffering. Pray that my dad will remain strong and that he will know the love and support of God as he stands by his lovely wife Pat.

Thank you

Building Life With Jesus

I took these pictures while walking on the beach at Jeffrey’s Bay. Someone has taken a lot of time to build such an impressive feature.

Looking at this feature now makes me think about our lives as Christians.
When we first come to know Jesus as our Saviour we often have so many things that need to be sorted out in life. We bring those things to Jesus in prayer and He sets out to work with us on each of them.

But it doesn't stop their does it?
We think that we've given it all over to Him only to find that theirs another coarse that needs to be placed on top of the other!
And so the journey goes.

However, as the picture shows; with each course that we lay, one on top of the other, the feature gets stronger. Our lives get stronger and stronger as we lay our lives daily before the Lord, one course at a time.

One last thing; notice how the feature tapers off towards the top and points towards the heavens?
All those items in our lives that need to be worked through gradually become less and less as we build with Jesus, as we become more like Him.
Don’t let discouragement over the sheer magnitude of issues in life that need Jesus' touch stop you from building; the end product will be worth all the toil.

"A life of Christ-likeness that glorifies its Creator".

6 And I am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns.
(Philippians 1:6, NLT)

29 For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.
(Romans 8:29, NIV)

Final day of Christmas holiday 2008

Louise and I had a lovely day together. We kept it simple, we walked on the beach, had a dippy ice cream (yummy) and just enjoyed each others company. The weather was beautiful which made the beach walk a real delight. We walked some way, then stopped for a while on a sand dune and just watched the sea and took in our surroundings.
Man Jeffrey's Bay is a lovely place.

We finished our day by visiting one of our favorite restaurants in town; The Mexican. We had a lovely meal together, enjoying conversations and generally just kicked back.

We both would have liked to have done more with our holiday time but that wasn't to be. I can say however, that finishing the holiday in such a great way made the time very special for me.

I love you my wife; Happy holiday and a Happy New Year to you!

Quote of the Day

Taken from Google's 'Quote for the Day'.

"You are built not to shrink down to less but to blossom into more."
(Oprah Winfrey)

I'm not a big fan of Oprah, but hey what wise words?

* Respond to God's Spirit and you will blossom into more. *

Frustration or Realisation!

Should a church play to its strengths?

The answer to this question is obviously 'yes'!

I'm part of a church that is mostly made up of believers who are retired. Each and everyone of them are great folk; folk who have been walking with the Lord for a long time. The trouble comes into my picture when I look at how we do church.

When you have a congregation that, may I say, is made up largely of older folk the way church is done is traditionally. I don't have a problem with tradition, I can even say that on some matters of the faith I'm pretty conservative and traditional; my problem comes when I look at the vision for the church and at what I feel God is calling me to do in my own relationship with Him.

As a church we want to reach out to families, we want to be a family church that can minister into the lives of all believers from all generations. With this is a desire to reach those still outside the kingdom, again from all generations.

What a great vision?

In my own life with the Lord, I feel that He wants to use me to reach young families, both those who are already believers and those that aren't.

What a great calling?

Put my churches vision together with what I believe is God's calling for me and we should have a match made in heaven!

But this isn't the case!

My church thinks its providing a place for all generations, that its family friendly - NEWS FLASH - Your not!

We have a great Sunday School ministry (although, most parents drop their children off but don't join the service), we have an evening service that is great for those without children (If you have children you are likely to be putting them to bed while the service is running) and we have a morning service that is great if you are of the older generation!

Last night at a meeting, some congratulated themselves because we are a church that pretty much always sings hymns. Two retired folk joined us last Sunday and said they would only come because we are a hymn singing church. How great it is to be a hymn singing church; we have attracted two more retired believers to our church. But how many from the younger generations have we lost because we are only a hymn singing - traditional church I ask myself?

Should we as a church play to our strengths?

Again the answer is 'yes'!

With this being the case; shouldn't my churches vision be one where they actively reach out to older folk, concentrating all their efforts on doing so?

But where does that leave the younger generations (I'm not just talking about youth, but young families and alike)?

Where does that leave me, and what I feel God is calling me to do with my life?

FRUSTRATED!

New Horizons

Jesus is calling us to join Him and scale the peaks. Its as we do that we get to share his beautiful view of creation.

Lets not just play it safe at the foot of the mountain in the visitors centre, looking at pictures of what could have been.

Where's your aim?

Aim at heaven and you will get earth thrown in.
Aim at earth and you get neither.

C.S.Lewis quote.

Tis Christmas time!

Don't worry; the news reported that all landed safely, Santa just had a closer shave then normal!

So, its that wonderful time of the year. I love Christmas.

However, as I sit and write my Christmas blog entry I can't help thinking about friends and family afar.
Its not the easiest of Christmas' this year.
I want to remember my uncle Peter, cousins Gary and Michelle. Sadly for the family, we have recently lost my Auntie Maureen. To my uncle and family, please know that we feel deeply for you as you remember your wife and mother at this time.
Next to this I remember my Dad and his lovely wife Pat who I've grown very attached too over the years. Pat, sadly has been told that she has a cancerous tumor. This caner has been diagnosed as terminal; needless to say, such news has really knocked us all.
All this has come about so very quickly; Louise and I feel so desperately for both Pat and my dad. We want you guys to know that we love you and are lifting you both up in prayer.

Christmas can be so hard when we think about those we know and love who are suffering. Being away from large parts of my family is hard enough but to face up to such news just makes everything so much harder.

I can say that I'm not only feeling sadness at this time. I'm feeling very thankful to God for this past year that He has blessed me with.
Its a year that has seemed to have flown by but one that has been filled with great times.
I was able to fly back to the UK for a month earlier in the year where I saw loads of my family and friends; Louise and I had such a great time. It was just amazing to be able to enjoy fun times with those I love and care for so much.
But that's not all, my mum, now in her retirement, boarded a plane and spent seven weeks here in South Africa. When she rocked up in Port Elizabeth airport I was just so happy.
It was great to have her here and to be able to show her our beautiful home.
We managed to do so many fun things with her but the highlight remains a day that mum and I had all to ourselves, a day when we both road elephants; yes we both had a ride of a lifetime on the back of one of the most amazing animals God has created.

It was hard to have to say goodbye to my mum but my pain was soon replaced with a pain of a different kind. I was rushed to hospital with a suspected heart attack!!
Thankfully it was only a nasty stomach ulcer, but it was a massive scare to say the least.
I want to say that my new family here looked after me so well and I'm so thankful to God that I haven't only been blessed with a loving wife but also with a loving mother, father and gran-in-law (YOU GUYS ROCK).

Not all distractions are nice eh? Mum will be coming out to South Africa again, I hope for a less hard time when she has to leave!

What else can I share, well their is the exciting news about being called by my church. They have called me to be a student pastor.
This has opened the door up for be to be able to apply to the Baptist Union of South Africa to join their ministers list.
I had hoped to have had an interview by now but was told that I first had to do a module on Baptist Principles and History. I have done this and in doing so had to write the first exam I've written in some twenty five years! I passed though, YAY!!
Now, in the new year, I hope to be able to get on with having the interviews and finally get on the list.
You know, God knows what He is doing and both Louise and I continue to wait for His will to be done. In the mean time, we continue to learn, I continue to work through my studies and hope that one day soon, we will have even more opportunities to serve Him.




Christmas is often a time when people rush around trying to get that final gift. Its not quite like that here in Jeffrey's Bay. Life here tends to be a bit more chilled-out, Christmas is a little less driven by retail sales figures.
While I think about retail; we've seen some massive changes in our quite little seaside town.
We have our own shopping mall (yes, I too like shopping and spending, though these days we tend to do more window shopping!).
It is great for our town; the shopping mall is just on the fringe of Jeffrey's which means the town of Jeffrey's has still been able to keep hold of that small town feeling.
Louise and I are really enjoying the mall (we even have a McDonalds!); one of the things we enjoyed in the UK was being able to walk around places like Sutton together and having a nice cup of coffee somewhere. Such trips out have been missed by us both, but no more.

Ok, I'm conscience that this one entry is getting a little big. I've shared some of my highlights from the year, I think I will close now.

I want to close by saying a massive Merry Christmas to all who read my blog, to my friends and family both near and far; I love you all.

I can't finish without mentioning the most important part of Christmas for me; JESUS.

I recently preached a sermon at our evening service on celebrations. In my message I spoke about three different types of celebration:

1. The celebration in heaven that occurred when Jesus was born into our world.
2. The celebration of Communion.
3. The celebration that takes place in heaven when a sinner repents and turns to God.

We all love to celebrate don't we, particularly at Christmas time?

I love to celebrate and I love every part of the Christmas celebration.
But what I love most about Christmas is Jesus.

Lets celebrate this Christmas wherever we may be.

Lets celebrate Jesus coming into our world.
Lets celebrate the wonderful gift of life Jesus' death has made possible for us.
Lets celebrate the new life each and every person who enters into a relationship with God through Jesus has.

Lets celebrate and lift our praise and Joy to God who makes Christmas possible.

Happy Christmas to you all.