Thoughts and Other Things

I've always been fascinated by Khaya (without reason except maybe that he was short and making it in life, someone to look "up" to being one who's labeled as short and stuff), but after reading his memoir (To Quote Myself), I have more than enough reason. I can't shut up about the book, much to the pain of those around me; I even preached about it to my youth group on Friday. I'm not going to review the book, nor am I going to tell you everything about it (you have to read it yourself). I just want to focus on one or two things that stood out to me. I laughed so hard I nearly choked reading his retelling of Bible stories. (He's extremely funny and it makes reading his work a breeze). Khaya (I don't use his last name cause I feel like I know him like that, he retweeted and favourited my tweets so lets not argue) describes himself as "a Christian, albeit a naughty one." Aside from his funny take on the Bible, I loved that he valued his Chri...

I was studying a picture of a beautiful pregnant woman the other day (I have a secret obsession with baby bumps, well it's not a secret anymore). She sat with her legs crossed, dressed in a black robe that only covered her arms and chest, revealing her perfectly round belly and her smooth brown legs, her young flawless face was looking down at what contained her unborn child, her hands on it as though to protect her and to reassure her that she was in safe hands. My mind wandered off as I stared at this perfect picture...I thought just how much we are God's image in the very way we live our lives. Out of His great love for us, God gave up his only Son so that we might have life. Life was birthed from love. The love of a man and a woman has the ability to do the very same, to bring new life into the world. Isn't that amazing?! Well we've taken away it's precious meaning by viewing it on strictly physical or biological terms, focusing on all the gross exchanges of b...

Well yesterday was quite the adventure. Sam and I were traveling to Vaaloewer for a kids ministry task. Vaaloewer is this confused little town, it can't seem to decide which province it falls under...the boards "welcome to North West" and "welcome to Gauteng" are directly adjacent to each other. While on the highway right before entering Vanderbiljpark, Bruno decided he was just tired and would take a break, no warning, nothing. Our first reaction: 'this is not happening' ( so we had a big laugh). When we tried to start him up, he was like: 'uhm, no.' So we decided we'd step out the car and open up the bonnet like every other normal person does when their car breaks down...but we realized we didn't know what to look at or to look for once opened, so we just spread our hands out and prayed for everything we could see. We closed it up, laid a few more hands on him, and stepped inside. Trying to start him up once again, it was like he was sa...

I got a novel written by one of my favourite authors as a Christmas gift, and I only started reading it two days ago (hides), and I can’t put it down. Redeeming Love by Francine Rivers. I had heard so much about this book, and I have read a number of her books (each amazingly fascinating) but none of it could have prepared me for this. I can’t even describe it, you just have to read in order to fathom its awesomeness. In this novel, Francine uniquely retells the story of the prophet Hosea and his prostitute wife Gomer. What I find so hard to grasp in this retelling of the story is the manner in which Michael Hosea loves his prostitute wife, it baffles me. He literally defines unconditional love. Michael Hosea brought her back to life after she indirectly tried to kill herself by marrying her on her deathbed and taking care of her until she got back on her feet. She refused to let him love her, refused to change and threatened to leave, which she eventually did. She slept with his ...

I had a lovely opportunity to minister to high school students at their assembly the other morning. I shared with them something I’ve been sharing with most of the pupils I get an opportunity to speak to. Identity. The Oxford dictionary defines identity as ‘who or what somebody or something is.’ I like the ‘who’ rather than the ‘what’ because in my head the ‘what’ a person is is a by product of ‘who’ they are. "God said to Moses, 'I am who I am..."Exodus 3:14 The one thing we commonly use to identify one another is our names. But our names aren’t unique to us (which identity should be); there are so many other Gugu Ndlovu’s out there, just type in your name on the FB search engine and see. When we don’t know someone’s name, we identify them by their physical appearance...that really tall girl, that very dark fat guy, that white lady with the long nose, you know that Indian man with the bald head. And at times we will identify each other with our actions, past o...

We did not see the setting sun,   we did not see dusk approaching We were too busy admiring the beauty of your petals,   too distracted by the way the Son shown on you, We were in awe of the way He’d still your aching body with the rays of His light, how his beam fought away your enemies that were hiding in His temple. We watched Him restore your stem which had began withering,   we observed how His presence grew new green leaves were some had fallen. Those rays of light gave us hope, hope of a tomorrow together with you. But we did not know the secret you kept in that fast-beating heart, You did not share with us the things He whispered to you when it was just the two of you, You did not tell us He was preparing to pluck you out from the garden, You didn’t want us to know that your knight-in-shining-armour was readying to take you up on his horse and gallop into your happily ever after. No wonder you went away with a smile, no wonder the...

A high school friend of mine was getting married last month and so I went over to see her before the big day. We had a lovely conversation with her while she was getting her hair and make-up done for one of the many ceremonies she had to participate in. The lady who was doing her hair jumped in our conversation at some point. She was a married mother in her mid thirties, giving us young ones some wise advice about things she’s learnt so far. Then she spoke about being a mom and a wife, something she said struck me. She spoke about the guilt and pressure that the modern woman lives under. She was working when she got married and she stayed working when she had children. She soon found that things were complicated with kids, they needed more time and attention than a husband, and it was really a pain to her heart to be missing milestones because she wasn’t around when they happened. She said out of this guilt of not being able to really be there for her kids, she would lavish them w...