i am not a big fan of tradition whose only purpose in life is "we did it this way last time" last nite, the beautiful Val and i celebrated Christmas eve with a few of our neighbors from Potter street where we have lived the last 19 months and are 5 days away from leaving... it was a fitting end to have a house full of good food, laughter and excited wife squeals and dances [...]
So yesterday i wrote a post sharing a deeper glimpse into the future life, work and ministry of the andersons over here - we will be joining a non-profit called Relational Tithe with a working platform called Common Change which, in a very big nutshell, gathers resources from a group of people and then uses them to meet advocated needs from people within the group. It is a very exciting project and both Valerie and [...]
i think Freddy Mercury said it best when he sang, "Can anybody find meeeeeeeee, some bunny to love." at first glance this may not seem to fully encompass the theme of 'Surprise' but what if i told you that your name was the beautiful Val [tbV] and it was around 2 in the morning and you had gone to sleep after a bit of a rough evening and been woken up to this friendly bunny [...]
for the last 19 months, myself and my beautiful wife Valerie have been living and working with the Simple Way Christian non-profit organisation in Philadelphia, Americaland and yesterday was our last official office day... we fly out back towards South Africa on the 30th of December... can't wait! but what next? well we hope to spend around a month and a half at home and then [providing we find the financial support we will need [...]
as depicted so well in my previous post by Stephan Pastis of Pearls Before Swine cartoon fame, R.E.M. had something when they came up with their hit song that 73% of people know the two words "Leonard Bernstein" [but is it pronounced Steen or Styn? another mystery] to - It's the end of the world as we know it. with Australia and Americaland being on different days for a huge portion of any 24 hour [...]
this is a short psalm with a big focus on praising God: 'Clap your hands, all you nations; shout to God with cries of joy. For the Lord Most High is awesome, the great King over all the earth.' [verse 1-2] which is a great thing to be reminded of. especially when times are tough and we feel more at home reading how God is with us even when we are walking through the valley [...]
nope, i just couldn't do it. narrowed my selection down to two and was trying to pick the photo that best represents 'Delicate' to me, but really could not choose between these two, so decided i had to share them both. what strikes me about the selection is the two completely different interpretations of the challenge that are presented: the first one is a picture of our Christmas tree star: "not a star?" i hear [...]
ah, Psalm 46 - if you come for a visit to the Simple Way, chances are good you will be faced by it in some form or other, and particularly verse 10 [a great one to set to memory] which says: He says, “Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.” So give yourself a minute now if you have time... [...]
brett is sad. he has just read another facebook status of someone who has clearly had a dispute with a friend of theirs. instead of going directly to that person, face to face, one on one and with much hope, love and positive anticipation seeking restoration of the friendship, and a righting of the wrong, that person has decided to air their frustration and anger publically for everyone to see. another cringeworthy facebook status. brett [...]
a little while ago i put a general request out on facebook to see what fun and creative things people were doing or have done for Christmas in terms of using the season as a way to reach out to those who are less fortunate than us or considered by the world as 'the least of these' and this bunch of great opportunities emerged... [i don't normally allow smiley faces on my blog, but we [...]