National Holiday

According to Afrikaaner tradition, 16th December was called Day of the Vow. On this day in 1838, 470 Voortrekkers (Pioneers), mostly women and children, prayed asking God to give them victory over thousands of Zulus who were about to attack them, at the Battle of Blood River. They promised to remember it as a day of thanksgiving for ever. God did indeed answer their prayer as only three Voortrekkers were injured, but over 3000 Zulus were killed.

The African National Congress (ANC) commemorates the 16th December as the day it started to arm their soldiers to overthrow Apartheid. Over this weekend the ANC has been holding its National Congress and is electing a new president, who is highly likely to become the new President of South Africa in 2009. Live coverage of the National Congress in on two of the four TV channels and films about the struggles to overcome Aparteid fill another channel.

In 1994, the New Government of South Africa renamed 16th December a Day of Reconciliation; a day to focus on overcoming the conflicts of the past and building a new nation.

So this is a long weekend in South Africa with many people beginning their holidays. It is quite common for people here to take four to six weeks holiday at one time, with many industries closing down completely, rather like the 'industrial fortnight' which still happens in parts of the UK and the French August holidays, when large parts of the country shuts down for the whole month.

Building update

It's almost 3.3opm on Friday afternoon, on the day that the building trade breaks up for their Christmas holidays, here in Cape Town. However, the workmen disappeared before lunch!


So, what about that perimeter fence they were building? Well the wall directly in front of our apartment looks exactly the same as it did at this time last week. However, on the other side of the building there has been a little progress:

With the building trade closed until into January, this is how it will remain for the next few weeks and there's nothing that can be done to change it.

On a more positive note, this is how the first floor looks today, with the building clean and furniture in place.

I asked Andy why the tables have holes down the centre - for computer cables, of course!

All that remains now is for a few plants dotted around and pictures on the walls, to make it look less sterile, and that all important ingredient - staff! There are in fact lots of staff working in the basement and on the second floor, where the studios are located.

This is Michael, who has been working away, for days, in the server room, making those vital studio connections - what a star!

Israel final posting - I hope!

This should be the final posting about our trip to Israel in October. I hope it hasn't been to 'bitty' to follow and that the photos have given you at least a taster of the range of sites we visited and things we did, during the 10-day trip.

Our final day took us to Meggido, a huge archeological site dating back 6000 years, of 20 superimposed cities. It was one of the walled cities that Joshua took, on entering the Promised Land and later King Ahab had stables here.

I felt that this stone feeding trough completely shattered my concept of the manger that Jesus could have been laid in:

This stepped water shaft (with Andy climbing up it) and tunnel , also dated from King Ahab, the water being supplied by a hidden spring which helped the city withstand future invasion:

But our main reason for visiting Meggido was to see the place where the final battle of Armageddon will take place, as told in Revelation.

Bob Edmiston, Chairman of Christan Vision, led this teaching and spoke about the 'end times' a fascinating topic.

The Jezreel Valley is vast, crossed by arterial highways from the north, south and east. It is bordered by Mount Gilboa, Mount Tabor and Mount Carmel. Tabor is the highest mountain in Israel, traditionally the site for the transfiguration of Jesus, told in both Matthew and Mark. Carmel is the mountain where God consumed Ezekiel's sacrifice in a dramatic way, winning a decisive battle against the prophets of Baal. And Gilboa is the place where David lamented the death of both Saul and Jonathan.

This photo doesn't really begin to convey its size and significant location:

From Meggido we travelled to the ancient sea port of Acre also called Akko in the Bible. It was a major location for the Crusaders of the 12-13th centuries to set up a knight's city. Few would deny the extensive damage that the Crusader's did to the Christian Church in their zealous quest to retake the Holy Land, but now, hundreds of years later, we recognise their contribution in defending certain sites for later generations to visit.

In Akko, we saw enormous well-preserved vaulted Knight's Halls...

...and some of us followed one-way tunnels which reemerged at this colourful market, outside of the crusader city. Finding our way back to the rest of the group was a little tricky.

The last city we visited was Caesarea, yet another huge archeological site from the time of King Herod the Great. This copy of one of the finds, made us smile...

...and the sea reclaiming Herod's palace was a stark reminder of the transitory nature of the great Roman Empire...

This Roman theatre has been restored for use as a concert venue...

...and a Japanese group demonstrated the amazing accoustics:

I thought it interesting that we had started our tour in Jaffa, where Peter received a vision to take the Gospel to the Gentiles, and ended it in Caesarea, where he came to visit Cornelius, who became the first Gentile (non-Jew) Christian.

Caesarea was also the place where Paul was imprisoned and appealed to Rome to hear his case, making his final journey from Caesarea to Rome.

We had a much to contemplate while we watched our final sunset.

This is the Place - Tim Boxall

Tim is the Financial Director for Christian Vision, in the UK. After our trip to Israel he sent this stunning photo of sunrise over the Sea of Galilee, together with the following thoughts and poem.

Enjoy!

Tim writes:

Often in Israel I heard the words “This is the place…..” or “This could be the place……”!!

It started me thinking and this was the result:


THIS IS THE PLACE

This is the place where heaven came to earth
This is the place where redemption began
This is the place flowing with milk, honey and fresh promise
This is the place
This is the place

This is the place where humility graced the oppressed and enslaved
This is the place where freedom took root
This is the place where forefathers found hope
This is the place
This is the place

This is the place where truth smashed the lies
This is the place where the new plan unfolded
This is the place where friends laughed together
This is the place
This is the place

This is the place where miracles broke out
This is the place where the church drew first breath
This is the place where the Spirit freely came
This is the place
This is the place

Is this the place where He met with you?
Is this the place where His words became true?
Did you hear him say “walk with me my friend”?
Is this the place?
Is this the place?

Wherever your place is, He’s there with you
His promise to fulfill
His freedom to bring
Share it well, it’s not yours to keep
Friend, wherever you go
THAT is the place!

Christmas in South Africa

A friend in Brazil asked me about Christmas in South Africa.

In many ways it is similar to UK, but in other ways it is similar to Brazil. In both Brazil and South Africa Christmas occurs in summer, whereas in UK, it happens in winter. The climate largely dictates how people celebrate the festival, which is also the summer holidays. Both countries are much larger than UK and some families travel great distances, involving plane journeys, to see one another at Christmastime. Families in UK also travel to be together, but the distances involved are generally much shorter.

Some of the traditions of Christmas are also similar for Brazil and South Africa. Both countries make far more of Christmas Eve than we do in UK, where Christmas Day has always been the main event, although these days more and more churches are holding Christmas Eve services too.

I asked our friends Hannes and Hendriette about some of their traditions. They are Afrikaans, so I guess this will be reflected in what they told me and will be different from say, black or coloured South Africans, and even other white South Africans from English descent.

In South Africa many families gather together at the largest house, including grandparents, second cousins etc. They have what they call a ‘Christmas bed’ which is everyone who doesn’t have a proper bed, sleeping on the floor of the main room, next to each other, there is no need for lots of blankets and it is very warm.

On Christmas Eve everyone gathers round the tree (although the Christmas tree is a recent addition) where all the presents are collected together. Grandfather, or the oldest person, reads out who each present is for and who from. Then the youngest child, takes the gift to the recipient, who opens it and thanks the giver. It is a very long affair, where everyone sees everyone else’s present.

Many people go to church on the evening of Christmas Eve, including those who don’t go during the rest of the year. The churches have candlelight and the people sing carols like in UK. At Midnight all the church bells in the town ring, announcing Christmas Day. After church, people go home for a feast. This will be a cold finger buffet, called skilpadjies (skul-pikies), which means ‘little tortoise’, so called because of the size and shape, of the savoury and sweet dishes. They have lots of different koekies (tiny cookies, which are similar to our Vienna biscuits with different fillings).

On Christmas Day some people will go to church again and all the church bells will ring again, before starting the main event – which is the big braai – the BBQ with lots of meat! There’s no Turkey, or traditional Christmas dinner as we know it, just lots of salads prepared beforehand (often pickled salads which keep for days, and the meat (steak, chicken, pork, lamb, SA sausage) often marinated and vacuum packed weeks before, ready to go on the braai).

The sweets are usually cold desserts (jellies, creams, with fruit, trifle etc). They don’t have Christmas pudding, but some people have Christmas cake. They have mince pies, but also other pastry pies with jam, coconut or custard.

The emphasis with the food is preparation beforehand or dishes that are quick and easy to prepare. Most activities take place outside, rather than inside. They play games on the beach or in the garden (touch rugby, soccer, cricket and so on), play 'pass the parcel' and other party games.

The post-Christmas celebrations, with the daily braai, carry on for days, as they are now in holiday mood. Many people will spend Christmas at a holiday resort with their extended families, at the beach etc. This continues until after New Year. Many businesses are closed until well into January.

The photos I have used to split up the text above were all taken at Tyger Valley Shopping Centre, our local shopping mall. I didn't walk the entire length of the mall, but I expect the same themes are repeated. The decorated mall is quite tasteful and certainly bright and colourful. I noticed an emphasis on Christmas trees, particularly in shop windows, which is curious especially as Hendriette said that 'trees are a recent addition'.

This was the post office...

...the chemist....

...the sewing machine shop... (you may not be able to make out the optical lighting strip looking like a thread, running through the display of sewing machines - very clever)

...the jewellers...

...and this was the window of the outdoor activities store...

In their other window this sand sculpture of a Santa wearing 'Crocs' caught my eye...


Now, that does remind me of Rio, where right along Copacanbana Beach sand artists appeal to photographing tourists to support their craft.

I doubt there would ever be a Christmas display in the UK like this!

Fence update

Last Friday I wrote about the perimeter fence to the studios being built in Cape Town.

I said that the workmen had finished about 3.30pm, being a Friday afternoon. But then, around 5pm a lorry arrived and unloaded piles of bricks, so maybe the workmen had run out of bricks, and I had misjudged them!

Nothing more happened until Monday morning, but on Tuesday it looked like this...

and today at 3.30pm, with no workmen in sight and three days later, the wall looked like this...

Hmm - not much different!

However, on the other side of the property, by the car park, there has been much activity. A digger excavated for the footings, and today concrete was poured ready for bricklaying to commence on Monday morning...

In addition, the existing wall, in front of the building is being altered and extended. Here the workmen are making a channel to house cabling for the new electric gate...

On a related topic, Andy had mentioned that the gardener would be coming at some point this week to tidy up our small yard and cut back a very spikey and severely overgrown cactus.

On Thursday as I returned from my early morning run, I saw him working near the new fence, clearing away some overgrown bushes. However, he was working on the wrong side of the wall, cutting back the bushes where the plover birds had been nesting. When I saw him I wondered if he had misunderstood what he had been asked to do. He said had been told to clear by the wall and to see me about gaining access to our yard. I pointed out that the area he had just cleared was not actually part of the land belonging to CVC, but not wanting to disappoint him I said that I thought the Council would be very appreciative of his work (I didn't mention the nesting birds!).

I then opened the gate and he worked in our small yard, which was very overgrown. This is a photo of next door's yard - our's looked very similar to it before it had been cleared...

Now our yard looks like this... much better.

As you can see, although still small, our yard is twice the size of next door's and it was twice as overgrown with weeds. The lower branches of the large cactus had grown right across the first patio window and covered the steps. I had never been able to get outside through those doors and people sleeping in that bedroom had commented about the strong broad leaves banging against the window, when it was windy. I had done some weeding a while ago, but didn't have any gardening tools to dig out long roots or cut back the cactus. However, I did have some strong gloves (which I had bought for use on the Habitat project), and I lent them to the gardener.

So now the yard looks lovely and tidy and anyone sleeping in that room should have a better night's sleep.

Incidentally, I'm not using American English, I am calling it a 'yard' not a garden, because to me, a yard is an area of paving - it could also be called a patio, but I would use that word for an area of paving which looked out over a garden. A garden is somewhere with plants and grass, and as you can now see the only plant in our 'yard' is the cactus. It's not very pretty to look out on, but much better now. It is also very hot for sitting in, after midday, when it is in full sun, until after 4pm, when the wall casts a shaddow, making it cooler. I sometimes sit out there in the late afternoon to read and write in my notebook, but I can generally only stand it for about an hour, now that summer has at long last arrived.

Galilee - Part 2

Throughout our trip to Israel we visited several kibbutsim, often having lunch there. My stereotypical view of a kibbutz was quickly shattered as we saw that not only are these very modern communities but they have diversified into some unusual industries.

For example, one we visited near the Golan Heights, is at the centre of the Israeli film industry. Here, they dub foreign films into the Hebrew language and insert subtitles onto films. We watched a documentary film about the Yom Kippur war in 1973, told from the point of view of one tank commander. It included a lot of original footing from that battle and how the small tank troop miraculously overcame the much larger Syrian tank troops. It was a present day demonstration of how God has preserved the State of Israel and protected them through their recent wars.

Another Kibbutz, called Ein Gev, is situated on the shore of the lake. Tourism is the main industry here, with a large shop and tours on a small train around the site. Evidence of the 1948 War of Independence is spread throughout, kept as tourist attractions.

Quite a lot of archeological digging and preservation has taken place on the site, also. This is an example of an ancient olive press.

Dairy and ostrich farming are their other main incomes. Although the ostrich is not a kosher meat for Jews, this kibbutz raises and trades in ostrich meat to secular Jews and foreign tourists. Our guide demonstrated the size and strength of ostrich eggs, by standing on them. One egg can make an omelet large enough to feed 14 people!

Ein Gev also has a large fish restaurant where we ate St Peter's fish. The story is recorded in Matthew chapter seven, where Jesus told Peter to open the mouth of the first fish he caught and use the coin found in it to pay the temple taxes.

On the tables were interesting place mats: some were quizzes, others were lists of the most common Hebrew words, with the translations in several languages. The Hebrew language uses a unique script, very different from this Roman script. There are 27 letters in their alphabet and no vowels, but modern Hebrew does include some dots and dashes, similar to those used in shorthand to denote the vowels. They also start writing from the right hand side of the page, like other Eastern languages. Many of the information sheets and shop signs had the English on the left and the Hebrew on the right, balancing the text beautifully.

I was fascinated by the language and although I cannot understand any of it, I collected some examples of everyday use of Hebrew, like promotional leafets at the supermarket. The currency of Israel is the Shekel, which replaced the Pound in 1980. There are currently around ten Shekels to one British Pound, which made it very easy for currency conversion.



Having spent a day both around and on the Sea of Galilee, the following day we travelled to the Upper Galilee area to the region of Cesarea Philippi and right up to the Lebonese border. We stopped at a military garrison which had been used up to 1967 to explore the trenches and underground tunnels, at the end of which there were look out bunkers into Syria. This was not the place for those suffering from claustrophobia.

This sign post indicated the direction of some important cities and metal cutouts of soldiers on the bunkers added realism to its former use.

Now, the outpost is used to display artwork made from disused vehicles and military hardware.

We then travelled to Ceasarea Philippi, named by Herod's son Philip. The roman Emporer Augustus had given Herod the Great the city of Paneas. Herod had built a palace to Caesar there and dedicated it to the Roman god Pan.

It is also the source of the River Jordan, at the foot of Mount Hermon.

We collected bottles of Jordan water, for posterity!

However, the main reason we had come to Caesarea Philippi was that it is the site of a very important question that Jesus asked his disciples: "Who do men say that I am?". Peter's answer showed that he had received special revelation from the Holy Spirit: "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." Jesus then declared: "you are Peter, and upon this rock (Petrus) I will build my church."

These words from Matthew chapter 16 are recalled in a sand pattern.

The metal roller has the pattern of the words printed into it, so as it is rolled over the sand in the base, the text appears in several languages. This is the English version,.

As had happened in many of the key locations in Israel, one member of the group shared some teaching on this point before we split up to look round on our own. Here we found a low wall surrounding an old olive press. This photo only shows about half of our large international group.

The Galilee region is known as the 'bread basket of israel'. Fresh water from the lake is used to irrigate their crops. Israel pioneered the 'drop feed' method of irrigation. Nowhere did we see sprinklers spraying crops, distributing water to unnecessary places. Israel's method is to take the water directly to the roots of the plant, so that as little as possible evaporates or is wasted growing weeds. In this way they have truly transformed some of their former desert regions. The vision of Israel's first president, David Ben Gurion, was to make the Negev Desert bloom and he is buried there.

In many places we saw huge banana plantations, some envelopped by netting like on the Mount of Beatitudes, or with blue bags covering the developing bunches, presumably to protect them from disease or to delay the ripening process.

Before returning to the hotel we travelled to the northern most tip of Israel, at the border with Lebanon.

From this lookout post from the 70's you can see the border quite clearly. It is where the green area changes to brown, in this photo. A road on the Lebanese side runs just in front of a large plain dotted with military bunkers, and Lebanese villages in the distance.

From this vantage point we were able to see just how lush and green Israel is, compared to its neighbours.

On the quay side at Tiberias this water feature in the shape of the Sea of Galilee, shows where the River Jordan enters and exits. It has powerful jets of water spraying diagonally across the centre from both sides and showed the water level, in metres below sea level.

Lit up at night I thought it made a very powerful statement, literally and metaphorically!

This last photo is unique, in the sense that I know that no one else has one like it. It was taken late one evening at the hotel, when a drama group presented their version of the events that took place at Masada.

It was a rather odd play, presented in Hebrew, but Marie Louise and I, the only people from our group present, understood most of it and quite enjoyed it.