Distracted or disstressed, going underground.

I enjoy the London Underground. I suppose I enjoy it because it is a novelty and I don't have to depend on the tube to get to and from work each day. I've been staying with Craig and Kath in Wimbledon (which is a train rider's dream! You go on the underground, overland rail and a tram to get to their place!)

This morning, however, as I stood in an overcrowded train carriage I felt a bit sad for the people around me. There they were squashed in like sardines, so much so that people had to get out of the train to let passengers off, and then when the train left the station some people were left behind because there wasn't enough space for them.

What made me sad was that I noticed two common emotions - the people on the train with me were either distracted or distressed...

Those who were distracted had iPods, cell phones, newspapers and books to keep them from noticing the people around them. I wondered what most of them thought about their fellow passengers, what they thought about me? Do they notice the diversity, the gifting, the beauty and the mutual humanity in those other 'squashed' people? Do they think about the parents who leave their children very early, and come home late? Do they wonder if there are people on the train who are struggling to make ends meet? What about the foreigners from all over the world who've come to London in the hope of finding a better, safer, life - working as cleaners, or in a warehouse or shop. I wondered how long it took for one to become dull to the lives of others.

So, I prayed for each person that I saw. I didn't know what to pray for, but I asked God to bless each one, to bring joy and fulfilment into their lives - I do believe that is God's desire for every person and so I asked God to work that miracle for each person.

The other type of person that I saw were those who seemed distressed. These people rushed down the platform, looked at their watches, chewed their nails, bounced their legs, looked over their shoulders, and generally appeared under threat. Perhaps the threat came from without - they had been late for work once too often, or they had an important meeting to get to and were running late. Perhaps the threat came from within - many of us live with these kinds of threat - the pressure to perform, unrealised hopes and dreams, low self esteem, dissapointment at poor choices, secrets kept from loved ones, the inability to face plain truths...

Regardless of the pressures, I know that there is a way that is different, it is the way of peace that Jesus died for. It is a life that is not driven by performance, greed, or achievement. Rather this life is driven by affirmation, acceptance, and most of all, love.

So, I prayed for each of the persons that I saw who was distressed. I asked God to grant them inner peace, and victory over the struggles of this day. I prayed for their extended families, their places of work, and for their hopes and dreams.

I was left wondering how one makes a difference among people who are distracted and distressed, when you yourself suffer from these malladys... I suppose my insight and compassion comes from understanding, and so it makes me more willing to minister and more eager to help. How can one reach such persons? How does one care?

I need to pray a bit more about this one! But, I am pleased that I had this experience. It has enriched my life, broadened my insight, and offered me a fresh perspective on the needs of others.

If you encounter someone who is distracted or distressed, why not offer a prayer on their behalf? Who knows what the result may be!

Corrupted science - a whole new persepctive

Science, like religion, requires a measure of discernment! Not everything that you read in a text-book can be trusted (it's not like the internets you know! ;-) But, did you know that even some of the world's most respected and lauded figures in science had a few skeletons in the cupboard?

This great book by John Grant (see the review below) gives an exceptionally well researched and insightful overview of corrupted science (both in the sense of science that's just plain wrong, but also where science was used to further the cause of 'wrong').

John Grant's handsome little hardcover book "Corrupted Science: Fraud, Ideology, and Politics in Science," is an eye-popping tour through the history of bad (very, very bad) science, from eugenics to geocentrism to Lysenkoism. Grant -- whose stern historical tone is liberally relieved with bravura dry sarcasm -- approaches his topic from the general to the specific.

The book begins with a fine, brief history of fraudulent scientists, categorizing their frauds into self-deception, hoaxing, "cooking" (fudging research), and forging (a taxonomy from Charles Babbage's "Reflections on the Decline of Science in England"), and then ranges back and forth through history, revealing the minor and major frauds of respected figures like Newton, Galileo and Marco Polo to outright scoundrels like Ruth B Drown, who sold fake radio-based cancer cures to desperate, dying people for decades.

After this delightful and enervating overview, Grant moves on to different social causes of fraud: ideological scientists who fooled themselves (for example, the discoverers of "menstrual rays" and other improbable phenomena); then military fraud (CIA psi experiments, military waste on secret flying military bases that didn't, and, of course, Star Wars, junk Patriot Missiles and the Missile Defense Shield); religious fraud (bans on teaching evolution, intelligent design, und so weiter); then ideological attacks on science (the burning of the Library of Alexandria, the American Eugenics movement; anti-masturbation campaigns, young earth and New Age crackpots); and then finally onto the book's third act, a chilling exploration of the political curtailment of science.

Here, Grant begins with Nazi science, and not just the gruesome death-camp experiments we're all familiar with, but also the bizarre attacks on "Jewish" mathematics and physics and the effort to create "German" equivalents that adhered to the ideological tenets laid out by Hitler's regime. Of course, there's plenty here about junk genetics, weird theories about the origins of disease ("earth rays") (!), and then, finally, a stomach-turning look at the human subjects experiments undertaken in the death camps.

Next up is Stalinist Russia, and of course, that means Lysenkoism, an ideologically correct biology that led famines that killed millions. The social factors that brought Lysenko (and his contemporaries, including Lepeshinskaya, who advocated the idea of "spontaneous generation of life," despite this notion having gone out with Pasteur. Grant does a great job bringing these personalities to life, and giving a flavor of the reasons that some scientists were forced to toe the line while others (physicists -- vital to the nuclear arms race) were able to conduct their affairs with relatively little meddling. I was also fascinated by his description of the junk psychology that doomed political dissidents to a lifetime in mental institutions and the notion that some psychiatrists may have turned in their diagnoses in order to spare their patients the worse fate that awaited them in the Gulag.

Finally, Grant closes with the systematic attacks on science under the presidency of George W Bush, and makes a compelling case that the failure of countries that tried to constrain science in order to make it comply with ideology is a real possibility for the USA today. Grant's relentless account of the Bush administration's attacks on health science, environmental science, geoscience, evolutionary science, climate science and other critical disciplines is deeply chilling. The political hacks who censor NASA and EPA reports are clearly of a lineage with the commisars who doomed the Soviet Union by purging the bioscience that undermined their political philosophy.

Exhaustively researched and footnoted, Corrupted Science is excellent reading for anyone who believes that science is worth fighting for. Corrupted Science: Fraud, Ideology, and Politics in Science, Author's website

What's the difference between a Nigerian 419 scam letter and Hank Paulson's letter to Washington?

That's a good question - what is the difference between a Nigerian 419 scam email and Hank Paulson's letter to Washington to bail out Wall Street in the light of the recent collapse? Not much (if you consider this VERY tongue in cheek letter from Hank).

Seriously, this is a matter of some concern. I listened to two guys speaking about the merits and de-merits of a bail out while our train was stuck at Sloane Square station last night. The one guy made a good point, he said that this kind of 'bail out' tends to encourage rewarding people with poor fiscal responsibility. In other words, it's a bit like South Africa's national airline, no matter how badly you manage your finances, the government will always bail you out (and more)...

Of course the converse is that if the Federal reserve does not bail out Wall Street many, many, many innocent people will loose homes, cars, and their livelihood... It's a tough choice.

But, here's a little something to put a smile on your face regardless. What's the difference between Hank's letter and a Nigerian 419 scam? You tell me!

Hal sends us this "brilliant satiric email phrasing Hank Paulson's giant Wall Street bailout as Nigerian spam."

Dear American:

I need to ask you to support an urgent secret business relationship with a transfer of funds of great magnitude.

I am Ministry of the Treasury of the Republic of America. My country has had crisis that has caused the need for large transfer of funds of 800 billion dollars US. If you would assist me in this transfer, it would be most profitable to you.

I am working with Mr. Phil Gram, lobbyist for UBS, who will be my replacement as Ministry of the Treasury in January. As a Senator, you may know him as the leader of the American banking deregulation movement in the 1990s. This transactin is 100% safe.

This is a matter of great urgency. We need a blank check. We need the funds as quickly as possible. We cannot directly transfer these funds in the names of our close friends because we are constantly under surveillance. My family lawyer advised me that I should look for a reliable and trustworthy person who will act as a next of kin so the funds can be transferred.

Please reply with all of your bank account, IRA and college fund account numbers and those of your children and grandchildren to wallstreetbailout@treasury.gov so that we may transfer your commission for this transaction. After I receive that information, I will respond with detailed information about safeguards that will be used to protect the funds.

Yours Faithfully Minister of Treasury Paulson

Stockings, pills and London doctors (from South Africa)

Last night I woke up with a cramp in my left (bad) leg like I have never experienced! You know the type where you're woken from your sleep and you want to jump around the room to stretch your calf but every move makes the cramp worse! Ha ha! It was quite funny!

Well, that was the first sign that all is not well with my steel-injected-peg-leg! This morning I noticed that it was severely swollen and that there were red and blue bruises all over my ankle and calf, within a short while most of my lower leg was blue. So, I stopped into a pharmacy who phoned the doctor - they were afraid that I had developed a deep vein thrombosis. But, I am thankful to report it is nothing as serious as that!

The doctor who saw me was from South Africa (a graduate of WITS University where I once studied as well). She was very helpful and kind and is fairly certain that there are no clots in the leg. The bruising and swelling are a result of the flight and yesterday's walking. However, to avoid anything more serious she gave me some anti-inflammatories, a few asprin (to thin my blood), and some very cool 'flight' stockings! So, when I fly home on Sunday I'll be the only guy on the flight in women's pantyhose (well maybe not, but at least I'll be the only one with a legitimate excuse ;-)

What's the downside!? Well, I had an appointment to see my friend Angie Shier-Jones at 14.00 and had to see the doctor at 14.30, so I didn't get to see her. Also, my leg is sore and my pocket is £65 lighter! Yikes, thank the Lord for Medical Aid back home! You can be sure that I kept my receipt and will try to claim when I get home!

Catching up on email, phone calls, and skype form the London Apple Store in Regent Street.

Each time that I come to London I try to make the time to visit four
sites. First, I always like to go into St Paul's Cathedral for a
short time of quiet and prayer. The scale of the Cathedral (plus the
fact that I often use it as an illustration in sermons and classes to
highlight how language has changed...), and the fact that it is a
place of quiet in a busy and bustling city, make it a special, and
must visit location. Second, I always go down the road across the
Millennium footbridge to the Tate Modern museum. If I can I spend an
hour or so walking around seeing what is on display. Today it rained
cats and dogs as I was crossing the bridge. Third, I always sure that
I get to the Apple Store in regent street! That is a spiritual
experience of a different kind! Lastly, I always seem to end up at
King's Cross at Platform 9 3/4 (the one from Harry Potter) - this is
not a choice, it always just seems to happen that way.

Well, here I am in the Apple store... It is a great place because
they have benches upstairs near the Genius Bar and Theatre where you
can sit and use free wifi. So, I made a few phone calls using my
'Skype out' credit - checking on some arrangements and meetings for
the week and returning some voicemail. Then I skyped home and had a
video chat with Megie and Courts. How amazing is that!? Free video
calling from London to South Africa at great quality and convenience.
Then, I downloaded all my emails, typed this message, and responded to
a few other emails.

I've done a lot of walking today (and some of it was rather quick in
order to get to my meeting on time). However, I'll need to leave this
Cathedral of Macintosh quite soon to get back to Kings Cross, collect
my bags and make my way out to Wimbledon (where all South Africans
start, or end up!) to meet my brother-in-law, Craig! I'll be staying
with him and Kath this evening! I always enjoy being with them, they
are hospitable in offering a 'stray puppy' like me a place to lay my
head!

On the steps of St Paul's Cathedral (with a Mac!)

I had a few hours to spare before my first meeting today, so I decided to do a bit of a walking tour of London. I checked my bags into 'left luggage' at Kings Cross station and then caught the Piccadilly line to Piccadilly Circus and walked along Strand and Fleet streets to St Paul's Cathedral from there. It is quite a long walk, what with my leg not yet being up to speed, but it was enjoyable.

This photo was taken on the steps of St Paul's Cathedral using Photobooth on my Macbook air... If it makes it onto my blog you know that I've found an open wifi signal somewhere along the line and have been able to send it through! It's cold, it's grey, but it's good times!

[thanks for the heads-up Gus. Now I know why my photos were not coming through! Here's the picture]

There's a first time for everything...

This is the first time I'm flying from the international section of Cape Town's airport (all my previous overseas travel has been from Johannesburg). This is a lovely airport! But, there is no gadget shop (good for the wallet though!)

I'll be landing at Heathrow early tomorrow morning. Have some marking and reading to do on the flight.

I miss Megie, Courts, and Liam already!
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At the heart of the people called Methodist - Ordination 2008

The atmosphere of worship is electric in the hall today. Thousands of Methodists have gathered to celebrate and set asside about 40 ministers who have completed on average 5-7 years of training for the Methodist ministry. Personally it is a joy to be a Presbyter for Rev Ronnie van Eck and Prof Jan Reynders, they have been close friends and a great inspiration to me. Both are older men with years of experience and training. Ronnie is a past school Principal and Jan is a Professor of Physics. Yet in spite of their success in their secular carreers they submitted themselves to the rigour and scrutiny of formation and training for the Methodist ministry. I had the joy of teaching them, and most of the 40 persons who are being ordained today.

I give thanks today that women and men still offer their lives in service of our Lord in the Church. Of course there are many who take the equally bold step of offering their lives to serve Christ in the marketplace and home. There can be no greater joy than intentionaly and passionately serving Jesus in achieving His will.

On a closing note, I love being in a radically multicultural setting with incredible vernacular worship! This is the joy of being a Christian in Africa!
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What counts... A reflection on love, friendship and the grace of Christ

10 hours is a long time to spend doing any single activity! Fortunately while driving I can take time to think, reflect, and pray.

Today my thoughts were filled with many varied things... I thought about the beauty of South Africa, I thought about the Church, and the denomination in which I have the joy to serve... I also thought about the challenges we face in our land (the recalling of Thabo Mbeki by the ANC leadership... this does not bode well for our future, in spite of the fact that Mbeki was a weak president when it came to the things that truly matter - HIV/AIDS, poverty and racial reconciliation). I thought about the joys and blessings of my new post. I have met incredible people (like Johan who serves as a missionary in the Ukraine, Nour who has come from Egypt to learn how to serve and pray, Lloyd Reeb from the USA who is doing incredible work with business people, Mark Anderson from YWAM, Aaron Walsh who leads a remarkable contemplative 24/7 prayer ministry in New Zealand... The list goes on and on!)

I thought quite a bit about the remarkable man that I serve, Graham Power. Graham is a wonderful Christian leader. Sadly I have not encountered that many selfless, courageous, sincere, and truly Christ loving leaders in the Church... Graham is a source of constant inspiration. He attends to the spiritual disciplines of prayer, fasting and giving with regular and concerted discipline. He is patient, and at the same time has a measure of drive that is refreshing and encouraging. Graham has no guile - he is sincere and honest.

I thought about myself, I thought about the blessings of what I'm doing, and the wonderful blessing of being back in Somerset West with my family. I also thought about those things that I miss... I can't tell you how much I miss preaching weekly (Bryanston Methodist church means so much me, and I miss everyone there a great deal - we journeyed together through some very blessed, and some very difficult times)! I miss teaching... Heck, I can't tell you how much I miss being the classroom and seeing students engage with new concepts, watching the 'penny drop' as they suddenly see how things fit together, and what role they can play in achieving God's will and helping others to do the same. I miss the time I had for academic banter, I so enjoyed conversations of a deeply technical nature with my friends Wessel Bentley and Neville Richardson. I miss not having the freedom to attend academic conferences, and the struggle to find the time to do research... I miss Xhosa chapel services at the seminary! Heck, I miss singing the Lord's prayer in Xhosa or the 'Siyakudumisa Thixo' - I still sing these to myself almost daily.

But, I have been blessed with many good friends, many wonderful experiences, and many opportunities to serve in each season of my life. This one is no different.

What matters most to me is my love for Christ, the joy of knowing and serving him, and the excitement of finding a whole new way to know Christ and make him known in the marketplace. What matters most is the blessing of being married to Megan, a beautiful, patient, caring, intelligent and loving companion in this journey. She is more gifted and Christlike than I am - I draw great strength and stability from her. What matters most are my children Courtney and Liam. I cannot imagine life without them! Courtney is such a wonderful young woman, she has a small little heart like mine, and she too seems to have a natural proclivity for reaching the outcast, the mistreated, and poor of our world. Liam is an indescribable gift... I still look through the photos of his birth, how sick, small, and frail he was. Megan and I still cry from time to time when we think how close he came to death on numerous occasions in those first few months, and the challenges that lay ahead for us wit his special needs. We feel unworthy, but grateful, for his life!

So, today I am in Bloemfontein - this is a city in which I did my compulsory military training. The only fond memories I have of this place are attending the Trinity Methodist Church, and praying on base with my friend John. Today, however, I made new 'good memories' as I drove here with my daughter Courtney. She's asleep now. I thank God for her, for Megie, for Liam, and for our wonderful life.

I will miss them in the next weeks.

Gadgets for my 'road trip to Ordination' in Bloemfontein

Well, Courtney and I arrived safely in Bloem - we made it in 9.5 hours, which is not bad considering the road works along the way.

Courtney is in bed watching the Pink Panther movie. I, however, have some work to do (reports to write, a chapter to finish and some marking to do)... So, here's my bag of goodies for the trip:

1. Apple Macbook
2. vodafone 3G hsdpa modem
3. garmin quest GPS
4. fuji digital camera s7000 - a fine digital camera with a superb lens AND most importantly it takes standard AA batteries. I've had this cam for 3 years now and it is still my 'go to' camera
5. iPhone
6. Nokia E90 (with which I took this photo and am writing this post).

With this I can work, stay in touch, and get a bit of relaxation as well.

Tags: Macbook, Air, iPhone, Bloemfontein, Ordination, "road warrior"
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Snow in the Hex River pass

Isn't this lovely? Snow on the mountains of the Hex river pass. It's been a cold winter in the Cape.

We give thanks to God for the beauty of South Africa!
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On our way to Bloemfontein for the Methodist Ordination service

On Monday I start about 7 weeks of international travel (England, Argentina, Chile, Brazil, Kenya) - however, this weekend I was asked to be a Presbyter for two of my past students at their Ordination service. I couldn't get an affordable flight to Bloem so I decided to drive.

Since I'll be away for so long my darling daughter Courtney decided to take the 'road trip' with her dad! How cool is that!? Here we are in the car in du Toit's Kloof.
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