Sunset & Blessings

It was such a blessing to open The Gathering's Soup Kitchen again last night to serve our regulars and it was great to blessed with such a spectacular sunset just before we began serving.

What's really blessing me at the moment is our growing relationship with the local Neighbourhood Watch.

The Generosity Is Real!

Following on from yesterday's post I felt the need to salute the generous heroes (locally & abroad) who quietly give to make it possible for The Gathering, My Father's House, the Night Shelter and countless others to be able to reach out to the most vulnerable and provide them with food parcels, soup kitchens, sandwiches, food vouchers etc.

The generosity is real, as is the desire by many to help in whatever way they can to ensure that the most vulnerable are cared for, particularly in provision of the most basic human need of all.

The Hunger Is Real!

"Our lockdown has revealed a very sad fault line in our society that reveals how grinding poverty, inequality and unemployment is tearing the fabric of our communities apart" - President Cyril Ramaphosa.

Talk about stating the obvious!

President Ramaphosa then goes on to share some very nice words but no clear action plan other than more talking shops. Meanwhile the media is full of headlines like this: "One in three adults in SA goes to bed hungry, according to latest research", which really comes as no surprise to those of us who have been working as hard as we can to ensure the neediest and most vulnerable enjoy a degree of food security.

Sadly, here we are 55 days in to our lockdown and still the most basic need of the most vulnerable is failing to be addressed by the government. But this is the disturbing reality out here and it's compounded by the ineptitude of a political system that just doesn't appear to care.

Blessings

One of my passions in church and mission is working in partnership with other churches and NPOs, and one church we've known, loved and worked with for quite a while now is Father's House over in Simon's Town, led by our dear friend Shaddie.

Before the lockdown they had stopped meeting as a church on Sundays in the regular sense and were reaching out to the homeless on Saturday afternoons. They truly are being the hands & feet of Jesus in the community. Once lockdown started the homeless were rounded up (that's a rant for another day!) so they refocused their efforts on the informal settlements in an area called Redhill in the mountains above the town.

They now have a separate NPO called My Father's House and together with some other local community groups are feeding almost 4000 children everyday.

10 Books I Have Loved Pt 3

Having written about ten fiction books I have loved and ten non-fiction books I have loved, I thought I would finish the series with ten Christian books I have loved. I thought about splitting this in to two parts between academic and non-academic but realised that one of those posts would just be way too boring. LOL!

So here are ten Christian books I have loved all for very different reasons and at different stages of life.

Jim & Casper Go To Church was an eye opener and really helped to shape my idea of what church should or shouldn't be. Jim is a pastor who pays Casper, an atheist, to go to church with him. The point is not to get Casper saved, but to get an outsider's perspective on what we as Christians often think is OK for church. The most sobering moment in the book comes when Casper asks "Is this what Jesus told you to do?". For me, as a pastor I knew that I never wanted to be asked that question by anyone. If you're in church leadership, you really should read this gem.

Last Normal Photo

I was inspired by a recent BBC News article in which they had asked people to send them their last 'normal' photo taken on their phones before their lockdown began. I really like this idea so I'm posting mine and Paula's #LastNormalPhoto from the day before our lockdown began on Friday 27 March (that feels like a long time ago!).

Is There Another way?

It strikes me that there are pretty much two basic arguments about lockdowns around the world. There is the argument for blanket ends to lockdowns to let life and economies get back to some semblance of normality, then there is the save lives side which advocates for lockdowns to remain and for people to be more self disciplined in their actions.

Happy Place

It was so good to be doing our Soup Kitchen again tonight, especially as it's also a sneaky way to catch up with some of our church members.

It was a slower kitchen than normal but it was great to learn that this was because the Neighbourhood Watch had been busy distributing food parcels around the community today, that means a lot of people have got food for a little while now.

The Lunatics Are Running The Asylum!

It seems official (to me at least) that the lunatics are indeed running the asylum.

In our local shop today I was amazed to see that certain herbs and spices weren't available either because they aren't deemed essential, or because their manufacture isn't. Either way they're deemed non-essential which is bonkers.

This begs the question: who gets to decide what is or isn't essential?

10 Books I have Loved Pt 2

In 10 Books I Have Loved Pt 1 I talked about ten works of fiction that I have really enjoyed. Today I'm going to talk about ten of my favourite non-fiction reads and there are some belters in here.

I tend to read more non-fiction than fiction these days and particularly enjoy autobiographies, though I've not included any here. I'm also a fan of World War 2 literature and have fallen in love with Anthony Beevor's writing.

But I'll start with a book I think everyone should read. Paul Foot explores the franchise thoroughly from beginning to now, and leaves no stone unturned exposing some of the lies and myths surround the democratic vote (in the UK), as well as chronicling how we got the franchise which was finally made universal in the UK after WWII, yes, it really is that recent.

10 Books I Have Loved Pt 1

Having posted about 10 things I love about my home..., I'm going to do a couple of posts about 10 Books I Have Loved. This first one will be about 10 works of fiction that I have really enjoyed. They're not necessarily my all time favourites, just books that were a thoroughly good read and worthy of their spot on our bookshelves.

I'll start with my first ever Ben Okri... I tried reading this on holiday in Turkey in 1992 and really couldn't be doing with it. Then after we'd been to Tanzania in 1998 I picked it up again and suddenly it made a lot of sense and a whole new world opened before me as one of the best storytellers ever told an amazing tale.

I think having lived in an under developed part of Africa it helped put the  themes of the book in to context and it really brought a level of understanding I was incapable of back in '91.