Here's a challenge for Pretoria weather... Zeta park se *&%

My friend Wessel posted a great picture of his son playing at one of my favourite places in the Pretoria area, Zeta Park. I remember spending quite a few winters days there lying on a blanked trying to get some reading done for my then incomplete doctorate while little Courtney played on the slides, jungle gyms and swings... Wessel is quite right. Pretoria does truly have the BEST weather out there! See Wessel's post here for more details: http://wesselsplace.blogspot.com/2008/07/fun-at-zita-park-and-update-on-bertie.html

BUT

Wes, this is my hangout... It's a little bit sandy, and it can be a bit wet... There are no swings or jungle gyms... BUT, it is Cape Town ;-)

I miss you my friend! Blessings,

Dion

Liam on the beach.

Courtney, my beach princess (Heck, she is growing up WAY too fast!)

That's me in the nappy... Not really, it's Liam and Megie. Oh and Charlene, here are some more photos of the kiddies!

Sometimes we forget...

My students used to get tired of me reminding them that our task is not only to help persons to find forgiveness from their personal sins, but also to the whole cosmos to be liberated from structural sin...

Here's a reminder again:

Sin and evil are concretely expressed not only in individuals, but also in structures.

- Tito Paredes
director of Centro Evangelico Missiologico Andino Amazonico

What a twitter feed would look like during 'dawn of the dead' (other Zombie movies are available ;-)

I thought this was quite funny! What do you think a twitter feed would look like during a Zombie attack (and YES, of course they..... do exist (not really, but who cares... Dawn of the dead was hilarious!)) Click this image to enlarge it.

Oh, and follow me on twitter: http://www.twitter.com/digitaldion

Reasons to be thankful!

I have many reasons to give thanks... Here are just two of them. Charlene and I chatted today and she asked me to post a photo or two of Courtney and Liam to the blog... Well, here are my darlings. They are both doing so well in our new surroundings.

Please continue to pray for our family!

This does not please God!

Today I am teaching a half day class on 'new media' at Media Village in Kalk bay. The drive there from Somerset West takes one along some of the most spectacu;ar scenery in the world! The ocean and the dunes are truly a sight to behold. Today is a cold, wet, stormy day in the Cape.

As lovely as bature is, so depraved is human nature along this route! This picture shows a sea of impoverished humanity living in shacks made of thrown away cardboard, sheet metal and plastic. I can only imagine the suffering - no warmth, no food, no medicine, no electricity, no sanitation.

God is not pleased by this!

When people ask me why I gave up the aclaim of my teaching post to do the work I do now I need only show them this photograph of Khayelitsha (a Xhosa word meaning 'our new home'). Yesterday I chaired a meeting where we solicited a substantial sum of money (well over a million rand) for this community. The money will be used to create jobs, feed people, offer basic medical care and education. I believe God is pleased with that! That is the work of ministry - establishing justice, equity, and suffieciency through generosity and grace!

Please pray for them, and for me.

A lovely service in Paarl - what I miss about preaching

Megan, Courtney, Liam and I have found a wonderful home at Coronation Ave Methodist Church here in Somerset West. I appreciate our Pastors Philip Buckland and Steven Lottering - I am always encouraged and uplifted by the services they lead.

This morning, however, I preached at the Paarl Methodist Church at the invitation of my friend Angus Kelly - see http://www.gruntle.co.za it was fantastic to be there! I left Somerset West in the dark, and arrived in Paarl in the heave Cape rain! But, it was wonderful! Angus and Heather are blessed with a wonderful congreagation who are hoapitable, welcoming, involved in their Church, and wonderful to worship with.

I realised just how much I miss regular preaching (like I used to do at Bryanston Methodist Church most weeks). I am over the 'numbers' thing. I have served in enough large Churches to know that it is not the size of the congregation that counts, but their sincerity and love for our Lord. Bryanston was blessed with both (numbers and sincere love).

Sure I have been preaching and speaking somewhere every week in the last 3 months... But, there is someting very special about jouneying with a group of people that you know and love. At Bryanston I would think of the people I know, those whom I had visited in their homes (and even some in their places of work), seen in hospital, prayed with, and sought God's direction, help, and wisdom for - that 'Pastoral' background made the messages so much more meaningful. There is a depth to the Gospel that comes to the fore when it is birthed in a real world pastoral context.

That's what I miss... Getting to know people, and searching for God's words of challenge and encouragement for their lives (and mine)... There was an intensity and a depth to my preparation, I longed to hear what God would have me say to them, and then I would enjoy weaving together words and concepts, parables and pictures that would inspire, encourage, challenge, and even rebuke.

I miss that weekly discipline!

iPhone 3G mania in New York... You couldn't make this stuff up!

Yup, I would CERTAINLY join this line! It's worth a week's leave ;-)

You couldn't make this stuff up and it could only happen in New York but engadget is reporting that a line has already started outside the Fifth Avenue Apple Store. The iPhone 3G won't go on sale for a week but there is photo documented proof that at least 10 people are already in line to guarantee they can pick up the new iPhone next week. We haven't heard any word on lines forming near podcast co-host Matt Miller's home in Washington but no one's heard from him for a few days. He usually waits until the night before to camp out for an iPhone though.

Well done guys! You've earned your 'Apple credentials' - the Lord is reserving a special place for you in heaven! As an aside, I can almost guarantee that most of these people are assistants and interns for people like Leo Laporte and Kevin Rose....

WP jou lekka ding!

Western Province Rugby... Whether we win or loose against the Cheetahs today does not truly matter in the big scheme of things... As Thomas Aquinas used to say 'quid ad eternitatum?' [what is it in the face of eternity?]

Victory is not a measure greatnes when you're God's own Rugby team!! ;-)

Today I am going to Newlands in Cape Town again to watch Western Province play the Cheetahs... My father in law (and in love), my daughter, and my friend Pete Grassow - http://rockinthegrass.blogspot.com - are coming along, and today we have the privelage of being in 'the Box'!

update: The outcome of the game was a score of 9 to Western Province and 3 for the Cheetahs. Not the most exciting match in the world (that was last week against the Bulls!), but it was great to be there! Courtney, Pete and my dad enjoyed the box - good food and a good red wine!

Good advice from Merlin Mann... Don not handle your firearm in therestroom...

Thank you, Merlin, for snapping a picture of that sign.
Originally uploaded by Carla216.

Yes, I found this photo from one of my contacts, Merlin Mann (of 43folders fame and youlooknicetoday)....

I never wear my firearm to the restroom... Particularly NOT when I am dressed as a stormtrooper.

How about you?

Why James Fowler was correct, and Holiday Club IS the mystery of the Trinity

James Fowler, then developmental psychologist and theologian said that 'the Christian faith is caught not taught'. He is absolutely correct!

My daughter has been attending a youth holiday club at our local Methodist Church (Coronation Ave Methodist Church). It is a Horton hears a who? themed holiday club. She has loved the week!

This evening the parents were invited to come ans see some of what they've done. Here I was reminded that it is the relational aspect of the club that most attracted her, and that helped her to grasp the message that 'no matter how small a person is, they're special and valuable, and loved by God'.

Of course this was also the central message of Church fathers such as Tertullian and Augustine, and the scholastic theologians (most noteably Thomas Aquinas)... The mystery of the Trinity (a loving relationship of three persons) is also the mystery of the fullness of all life - loving relationships between persons and other persons, and loving relationships between all persons and God!

This love cannot be taught... It must be caught! John, perhaps I need to revise my eclesiology! The community of the Church IS important!

Christ's love, and our responsibility, for the world (Dietrich Bonhoeffer)

Another great quote from Sojourners!

This love of God for the world does not withdraw from a reality into noble souls detached from the world, but experiences and suffers the reality of the world in the harshest possible fashion. The world takes out its rage on the body of Jesus Christ. But he, tormented, forgives the world its sins. Thus does reconciliation come about.

- Dietrich Bonhoeffer Meditations on the Cross

It's about time! Perhaps we should START treating Bush like a Terrorist?

Some years ago I was almost denied a visa to go to America because I had some instances on my 'criminal' record that related to run ins with the South African Apartheid police (before the end of Apartheid of course). Nothing serious, just a few minor instances of being with a certain Bishop and some colleagues at certain political rallies and funerals in the late 80's and early 90's... That, coupled with the fact that I had been conscripted in the South African defense force (and so was supposedly trained for war and terror), AND had written a paper on the 'Just war theory' (by Aquinas, Grotius, and Pufendorf... Yes that is actually his name... Pufendorf...) while at Stellenbosch University almost stopped me from getting into the USA! Thankfully, the person who conducted the second interview was quite sensible, willing to listen, and understanding.

However, this report left a smile on my face.... I wondered if George Bush should not have a travel ban placed upon him? After all, the world has become much more dangerous since he started waging his war OF terror.... Sorry, that should read war ON terror...

Good for you Mr Mandela. Now that you're getting too old to want to travel you can go everywhere they never let you go when you were young enough to need to go there....

George Bush has signed a special bill that allows Nelson Mandela to travel freely to the USA without going through a special process because the DHS classes him as a "terrorist." Nelson C. adds, "Now, if only people who aren't world leaders could get off watch-lists so easily...."

A US senator said the new legislation was a step towards removing the "shame of dishonouring this great leader".

Under the legislation, members of the ANC could travel to the United Nations headquarters in New York but not to Washington DC or other parts of the United States.

Link (Thanks, NelsonC!)

See also: Nelson Mandela and the ANC are on the US terrorist watchlist and need waivers to enter the country