Dum da . . . . dum da . . . .

As I slipped on the wettie, and lowered myself into the chilly waters of Gansbaai the thought, "I could be eaten", never crossed my mind. I looked at Steve, who was grinning like a madman, and said something forgettable - to which he replied, "This is SO cool!!"

Myth number one about shark cage diving. It's scary. It's not.

It is thrilling, amazing, awesome but not scary. The sharks aren't aggressive, they don't want to kill you. They are curious.

The other element no one tells you about is that when you are told to go underwater you enter a world of silence. Not a sound. You see this huge beast swim past the cage (or ram into it, or stick its nose in and bite it - yes that happened to us too) but it is mute - quite a bizzare experience.

Then of course there was Jeff. The 15 year olf British kid who from the second he stepped off the jetty got sick. I saw him hurl overboard into the path of a circling shark. I think if I had asked Jeff, he would have been more than happy for me to tip him off the side. Poor kid.

But by ther end of the day, I was starting to feel a little queezy myself. It probably wasn't helped by the chuming. There were 2 'crewman' on board whose sole responcibility was to fill a big bucket with fish parts, fill it with sea water and then stomp in it until it became a watery soup of shark fragerance. Then they would slop it over board. For 4 hours. After a while when you went under to view the sharks you would see the fish bits float past your mask and no doubt into your nose, mouth and ears. Another hidden gem of shark diving.
(For those of you shaking your heads, apparently chuming does not lure sharks into the beach to eat people as it has been rumoured. So there.)

But, it was unreal. Thanks to Steve for making it happen. Thanks to God for making such awesome beasties. And thanks to Hayley for sending me off with a smile!

Read it and be at peace

Here is a blast from the past my brother posted on his blog.

Read his post and be at peace.

The irony is that I finally used my b'day money and just went and brought some new clothes.
Now I feel like I've let the side down! :)

Scott

(BTW; that is me at the back and Craig in the front. I'm the one with the 'news readers hair piece' loo9k. Oh, hang on, that doesn't really help does it?)

No TV

We've done it.

We've made a stand.

No TV after 7pm at night.

For the next week. (I've long ago learnt my lesson about unrealistic goals).

Which for me is basically no TV (Hayley sometimes slips in a Dr Phil at lunch if she can).
Last night, as Hayley wrote a talk, I spoke to a friend back from OS and then read lots of my book. But after that I couldn't get to sleep.

Still with 1 night down, 6 to go, I'm feeling good.

But (for all you fans out there) I am haunted by the words of Homer . . .

"No TV and no beer make Homer go mad!"
















Good thing I haven't given up beer.

Scott

He's back

OK, CD review time.

Reviewers always seem to me like one of the faceless masses who just couldn't make it themselves, so I'm going to try and not be that guy. I'm doing this shout out cause I love The Boss.

Devils and Dust is pretty good. It grows on you. Some 'one man one guitar' stuff and some band numbers too.

Highlights and Low lights . . . .

Highlights:

• His story telling is alive and well. You will become part of tales of a bareknuckle boxer reflecting on his life, an uncomfortably graphic story of a visit to a prostitue (and how immensly unsatisfying it was) and even the story of Jesus walking up to the cross and the words he used to comfort his mother. Nice and diverse.

• No anthems, but the haunting sound of Bruce comes through loud and clear

• I got the double CD which includes a DVD

Lowlights

• The best story telling isn't always paired with the best musical tracks.

• He is becomiong less and less articulate, to the point that even a seasoned Bruce fan will have trouble working out what the heck he is singing about without the words

• You will have heard some of these tunes before - some of them sound suspiciously re-hashed from previous stuff.

But hey, I'll buy every CD he makes, cause you can't argue with the Boss.

Scott

I don't have much to say at the moment but I thought I would share this:

I just had an afternoon snack of some chilled dates from Libya.

So there.

Scott

Three posts in 3 days.

I must be trying to avoid something. Proctastination is a great inspiration.

Don't skipt the last 2 posts if you just arrived - I enjoyed them both. But also don't miss out on checking out this link

http://www.weebls-stuff.com/toons/ultimate+showdown/#start

Ever wondered what would happen if all the superheroes fought each other in the ultimate show down?

Well, now you know.

Scott

The greatest adventure story ever told

It's a big call for the title of a book, "The greatest adventure story ever told", and I must admit, I was skeptical. But if you've got some spare cash, you'd be hard pushed for a more mind bending adventure. It might be a boy thing, but I'm pretty sure this will bake your noodle either way.

Shackelton started off to cross the Antartic - but before he even landed, his boat (The Endurance) got caught in an ice flow and over a period of a week or 2 the most modern and expensive ice going vessel of 1914 was crushed into pieces no bigger than your dining room table.

Thus began a 2 year (that's right, 2 year!) trek of survival. They spend most of it camped out on an ice pack drifting slowely towards a deserted island (no palm trees and coconuts here though - just a frozen lump of rock) from where they could launch their row boats for the 650 mile journey across the worst sea in the world to another lump of rock where there was a whaling station.

For 2 years they ate penguin and seal blubber, were almost never dry, spent 3 months in south pole winter (24 hrs of darkness) all got frostbite, had to kill and eat their sleigh dogs . . . the list goes on. But instead of re writing the book here, I'll let you go read it yourself.

It taught me 2 things.

1. The burden of command. For those of us who have people under their charge it can be a weighty load to bear. Most of us aren't trying to keep 27 others alive on an iceberg, but to be a leader is like being a parent, you worry that your best might not be good enough.

2. You can always push harder, go further, last longer. I now believe that we usually fail because we give up, not because all is lost.

"Success is never final, failure is never fatal. Courage is what counts.”
Churchill

Wortelgat 2006

Just got back from another great camp. It's our fav. spot with some of my fav. kids.
It is very photogenic, esp when it comes to QT's. Also had lots of first timers on camp who all clicked really well. We are tired but thanking God for another great weekend.

The only trouble was the bus. We got the campsite late, bouncing down a dirt road in the country. We went down the wrong path, ended up in a neighbours farm, and when we tried to reverse out got bogged! So at 9:15pm we unpacked the puss, got cars to shuttle the luggage, and Leights lead the kids on a night hike to the cape site. Then a tractor came and pulled the bus out. We ate dinner at 10pm and then all crashed.

Then on the way home on sunday, our bus had to stop 5 times becuase it was getting air in the fuel line. The bus driver 'knew' how to fix it, but is repair work was a bit scarey (he threw out one of the fuel filters!) We made it home an hour and a half late.

But ingoring the buses, or maybe because of them, it was a pretty memorable time.

Pray for me as I do it all again this coming weekend with the juniors . . . .

Scott

For a top thought on something serious, check out Monday the 18th on my brothers blog.

http://www.tubemantravels.blogspot.com/

Just go and spend the cash

Two nights ago I found a recipe for home made humus.

I love humus and it was a easy recipe so I thought I would give it a shot.

It looked like the real deal but . . . it tasted like dog food.
No really, if you don't respect the chick pea it becomes evil.

Bad humus

Scott

Legend!

On Sunday, my brother from another mother, ran his first full marathon (42km!)

This is a picture of him finishing whith his 'coach' (and soon to be father in law) the enegmatic Trevor. Coming in in just over 4 hours is a awesome feat (see the clock) and brother, you have spured me on to bigger and better things . . .


Scott

Hell in 6 hours

I had to get my car new second hand registered. Pretty simple right?

Yup.

I left home positive and up beat. I was in control, or so I thought. 6 hours and 14 min later I arrived back home again - mission comlete. But it took me 6 hours and 14 min to finally hold my weary sword arm high and let out the loud 'yarp' of victory.

Here are a few flashbacks to my 'adventure'

• Discovering that the traffic department don't accept passports as legit ID. Airports do, banks do, police do, but not the high and mighty traffic dept.

• Needing to pick up a form to take somehwere else, only to discover that need to fill out a preemptive form so that they can give me the actual form I really need. And to do this preemptive form, I need 2 passport photo's. Which I didn't have.

• Trying to withdraw R150 from the ATM only to hit the wrong button and withdraw R1000

• Driving out to some crazy place a long way from home and missing the turn off on the freeway and then get stuck in construction traffic as I'm heading off in the wrong direction.

That was my day. It was hard. It was painful. But now I have my new car in my name. But it wasn't easy. Damm, it wasn't easy.

Scott

The 'A' word

Last night was bible study and we gave Eph 5 a shot. Paul doesn't give you much room to move in the first 21 verses so there was not too much room to hide.

But we did end with a discussion by way of application with a word or two about accountability. Here are some of our thoughts, we were just flying a kite, but see what you think.

I think that in our Christian circles the word 'accountability' has gone the way of 'rebuke'. It has been overused and abused and no one really knows what it means anymore or even if they like what they think it might mean.

In our inevitable way, we have taken something very relationally driven and jammed it into a structure. In doing so we might have broken it. We realised that it is very hard to manufacture 'accountability' if it doesn't grow naturally out of friendship. You would hope that your group of friends is a soft place to land, and that in that kind of place, people can keep you walking the path with the kind of checks and balances that friends have.

So we decided not to pair up with accountability partners, but instead, work a little harder on the firednships in our Bible study and get them to 'do the work' that we have become so used to farming out to 'proffessional accoutnability friends'.

What sort of characteristics will these friendships have to make this work?

Well, we thought that we need to be gentle, but not soft with each other.
Compassionate, but not careless.

We also thought that rather than being a 'Mr Fix it' for each other, we should be more like guide dogs. Walking the road hand in hand. (Yes, know dog's don't have hands.)

Those are some of our thoughts from last night.

Got any more to add?

Scott

Ninja's

Hey, you can't blame a guy for trying.


I'd cough up and give him points for creativety



Scott

The call

What's the most amazing kind of emergency phone call you could get?

How about:

"Scott, we have a girl done where at the office who has just gone into labour and needs a lift to the hospital!"

Well, this morning, that's what I got when I answered the phone.
I buzzed Hayley to come over with me and we met a girl who lives in the block of flats opposite us who was, sure enough, just going into labour. The father was long gone and she was new in town with next to no friends. So she came to church.

In the end I took Ben, and Hayley took our new friend to the hospital. What struck me was that she was remarkably calm and even withdrawn. Sadly, when Hayley was chatting to her in the car it came out that she may of felt guilty or embarressed. Or maybe but just a very private person. Either way, she didn't even want Hayley to go in with her, not even to carry her bags.

But nevertheless, in a few days time we will pop over to flat 207 and meet the little one. I'll let you know how it goes!

Scott

If you haven't found something strange during the day, it hasn't been much of a day
John Archibald Wheeler

Precision

Meet Chris and Di. I don't have a picture of them so you'll have to use your imagination.

They work in a fancy building in the city with an uninterrupted view of Table Mt. Di is a power dresser, but Chris is happy to get around in a fairly ordinary suit. They are both very nice and very smart.

Chris and Di are tax consultants. My Dad and I went to see them last week to work out how we could loose the least amount of money between Sydney and Cape Town. It was a productive meeting (for R1250 per hr you would want it to be) and they even threw in a free pot of nicely brewed coffee (free, if you ignore the R1250 per hr)

But what impressed me with Chris and Di was their precision. As soon as we started taking shop, they were in the zone. They took notes, made flow diagrams and quized us on even the little points. They were ultra careful with the words they used, never wasting them, but picking just the right ones from their tax vocab, to ensure they conveyed exactly what they meant.

I liked Chris and Di, and it croswsed my mind that they would make good preachers. Maybe you are not burnt by this, but lately I have heard preachers say stuff like,
" . . . so God's wisdom is Jesus, it's the gospel, it's our salvation!"



Well, which one is it?

A good clear message is like a snipers bullet, not random machine gun fire.

I'm not asking for uptight theological nitpicking, but a clear train of thought where the words are chosen becuase they have a punch, a specific meaning, and not just because they sound Christian.
Putting together a sermon like this is a lot harder, but far more satisfying and effective.
What do you reckon?

Scott

[I write this blog as someone who needs big work on this too. Just so you know]

Men's Day

Last week in South Africa we celebrated Women's Day.

Now, don't get me wrong, I love women. In fact my best friend is a women ;)
Having a day to remember their part of the struggle is great.

But contrary to popular belief, everyday is not men's day. And even if we did have a day for us, most of us are so confused about what this would mean that I don't actually think we would know how to celebrate it anyway.

So, into the void speaks the wisdom of Fight Club.

"I see in fight club the strongest and smartest men who have ever lived --

an entire generation pumping gas and waiting tables; or they're slaves

with white collars. Advertisements have them chasing cars and clothes,

working jobs they hate so they can buy shit they don't need. We are

the middle children of history, with no purpose or place. We have no

great war, or great depression. The great war is a spiritual war. The

great depression is our lives. We were raised by television to believe

that we'd be millionaires and movie gods and rock stars -- but we won't.

And we're learning that fact. And we're very, very pissed-off."

Scott

I prayed to accept Jesus as Lord

There was a great gospel event a few weeks ago at the revival centre at Linfield. They even pulled Nathan Tasker to sing up a storm.

At the end of the evening, many people responded.

Apparently though, so did I.

Just so you get the flavour of the 'in joke' by my loyal yokefellows back in Aust., this isn't the first time in the last 10 years I have 'prayed the prayer' . . .

The best gag's are the ones that last for decades . . .

I've got Bible Study tonight on Eph Ch 1v15-23
Thought I might try and straighten my thoughts out here . . .

It’s a prayer that is packed full of big ideas.

Essentially, Paul is asking something for his Ephesians buddies. He wants them to ‘know God better’. Not that they might find extra secrets, but rather that they can plumb the depths of what they already have (1:1-14). We might say he wants them to ‘get’ something. Not ‘get’ as in receive, but ‘get’ as in he wants the penny to drop (v17).

(It’s worth keeping in mind that the Christians in Ephesus lived with the statue and temple of Diana towering over their city, one of the 7 wonders of the ancient world. Paul has some serious convincing to do if he is to give them assurance that they haven’t backed the wrong horse! Which is why he repeats in v17 and 18 ‘so that you may know’. He wants them to see that their Christian assurance comes from their knowledge of God. Good lesson for us too!)

He wants them to know with their whole person (the eyes of their heart) their hope (v18) and God’s power (v19) In fact, he spends the rest of the passage fleshing out this idea of what it will mean for them to ‘get’ God’s power.

We know this power of course. We have seen it in action. It was the power that we saw when God raised Jesus from the dead (v20) and the same power that God used to give Jesus all authority to rule over everything for all time (v21).

Now the thing that should bake our noodle is that this power is for us! (v19) Because in v22-23 we read that God gave Jesus this power with a purpose – that he might rule over everything for the church! We probably would have expected to read that this great power was for the glory of Christ, but no! His power is manifest in the church so that it will be a neon sign flashing like crazy, drawing the world to God and his people (Ch 3:10)

I'm pretty excited by all this, but still wanting the pieces to fall into place.

What does it mean to be possessed by the power of God?
Is it meant to elevate our view of church? In what way?
Will it affect the way we do church? How?
How will this ‘knowledge of God’ change the way to think about yourself?

Scott

Are you happy?

I'm speaking at Westerford CU today, kind of a spur of the moment invite. They are looking at the fruit of the Spirit and asked me to talk about the difference between happiness and joy.

Huh?

Considering I'm giving the talk in 3 hours, it's way to late for my blog brothers and sisters to help, but let me tell you what I've got so far.

Happiness is FEELING good about life
Joy is KNOWING your life IS good.

Don't get me wrong, happiness is good, really good. But it is unpredictable (is what makes you happy now the same thing that made you happy when you were 15?), really circumstantial (and so to a big extend out of your control) and usually only lasts a short time.

And that's why people spend their whole life try to chase happiness, because it DOESN'T satisfy. It's like trying to nail jelly to a wall. I reckon in the evolution of stuff, when happiness grows up, it wants to become joy.

Joy is knowing who you are and where your going. It's knowing your forgiven, accepted and heaven bound. These facts of life might bring you hardship, but you will still have a peace, calmness, contentment, satisfaction that happiness alone can't deliver.

Happiness is just joy with amnesia, trying to drown out the uncertainty with sound and fury.

Where do you fall.? Happy, or joyful? Or both? (or neither?)

Scott