The Eight O’Clock
News August 2016
8 am Service, Christ Church, Kenilworth
I am a Child of God The Gift-Wrap & The Jewel I looked in the mirror and what did I see, but a little old lady peering back at me With bags and sags and wrinkles and wispy white hair, and I asked my reflection, 'How did you get there?' ‘You once were straight and vigorous and now you're stooped and weak, when I tried so hard to keep you from becoming an antique’. My reflection’s eyes twinkled as she solemnly replied, “You're looking at the gift wrap and not the jewel inside. A living gem and precious, of unimagined worth Unique and true, the real you, the only you on Earth. The years that spoil your gift wrap with other things more cruel, should purify and strengthen, and polish up that jewel. So focus your attention on the inside, not the out On being kinder, wiser, more content and more devout Then, when your gift wrap’s stripped away your jewel will be set free, to radiate God's glory throughout eternity.” - Wanda B Goines, (92), 2015 Huffington Post
You unravel me, with a melody You surround me with a song Of deliverance, from my enemies Till all my fears are gone [Chorus] I'm no longer a slave to fear I am a child of God I'm no longer a slave to fear I am a child of God From my mothers womb You have chosen me Love has called my name I've been born again, into Your family Your blood flows through my veins I am surrounded By the arms of the Father I am surrounded By songs of deliverance We've been liberated From our bondage We're the sons and the daughters Let us sing our freedom You split the sea So I could walk right through it My fears were drowned in perfect love You rescued me and I will stand and sing I am a child of God I am a Child of God - Jonathan David & Melissa Helser, 2015
Worth Pondering... ‘The responsible life is one that responds.
In the theological sense it means that God is the question to which our lives are an answer.’ August 2016 Eight O’Clock News
- Rabbi Jonathan Sacks (Quoted in CMJ Newsletter)
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Jutland Centenary A few months ago the British
Government organised a National Commemoration Service in St Magnus Cathedral, Kirkwall, Orkney, for the Centenary of the Battle of Jutland which occurred on 31 May 1916. Descendants of those involved in the Battle or the war at sea were invited to attend. Following his time as a cadet on the Training Ship, Worcester and as an RNR midshipman, my father was posted at the age of 17 to HMS Royal Sovereign stationed with the Grand Fleet in Scapa Flow—the time of the Battle. As she was still on her working-up trials, having only been commissioned a few weeks previously, the Royal Sovereign missed the battle. (After the War, he was transferred to the RN and went on to serve in WW II, retiring in 1946.) We considered that our attending the service would be a fitting way to honour my father as well as those involved in the war at sea. Needless to say, getting ourselves there implied considerable expense, as accommodation, transport and suitable dress had to be arranged. However, we had already planned to visit our son, Andrew and his family in Aberdeen this year and so we were able to see them en route. Princess Anne, the German President, Mr Joachim Gauck, Mr David Cameron and several other dignitaries including the Chaplain of the RN Fleet, were also there, so we were in good company, although at the Town Hall reception after the service, we hoi palloi were accommodated in an upstairs hall, while the great and the good met downstairs! The service was very moving and memorable and that and the surrounding events were well covered by the BBC so our friends and relatives were able to watch the proceedings. Appropriately, much in the service was in both German and English and, as always, it was humbling to hear the Germans speak such fluent English. There was a moving solo to a guitar accompaniment by a young man, Cameron Windwick, called Lonely Scapa Flow as well as a number called In Remembrance played by Piper Andy Cant with the Cathedral organist accompanying. (For links, contact John.) A highlight after the service was a short discussion we had with the British Culture Secretary, John Whittingdale, a very pleasant man who seemed genuinely interested in our background and the fact that we had come all the way from South Africa. It was good to be able to thank someone from the British Government directly for their hospitality. Being on Orkney gave me the opportunity to see Scapa Flow, having heard so much about it from my father. It was also an opportunity to fulfil a long-time ambition to visit Skara Brae and some of the other historic structures with which the Orkneys abound. All in all, a wonderfully encouraging start to our time in Scotland and the UK midlands.
- John & Jan’Darcy Evans [Photograph: John wearing his father’s medals]
August 2016 Eight O’Clock News
Orkney Connections My Grandfather was John Leask Firth, who came to South Africa
from the Orkney Islands in 1905 to work as a bookkeeper in the country store of a fellow Orcadian, Dr Thomas Leask. Tom Leask had come to this country in 1875 at the age of 22. Seven years later he went home to Orkney to fetch a wife. The Garriock family lived on the adjacent farm in the parish of Stennes. Tom courted one of the four sisters, Catherine, who agreed to leave home at the age of 19 and sail off to darkest Africa! (One of her sisters went as a misssionary to China.) Tom and Catherine Leask settled in Wolmarannsstad. It was not too long before handsome John Firth fell in love with one of Tom Leask’s daughters, Katie, and thus the Firth family was established in the then Western Transvaal. Tracing the family tree as far back as the 1700s we were dismayed to see how often there was intermarriage and my brothers and I are grateful that we turned out so normal, or maybe it explains a few things… ? I grew up thinking I was of Scottish lineage and it was only when we went in search of our roots that I realised that Orcadians are definitely not Scots! Their accent, customs and folklore is firmly linked to their Nordic neighbours and they are not happy to be ruled by the ‘mainland’, as they refer to Scotland. My Grandfather used to tell us that the family had been kicked out of Norway for stealing sheep and our blue eyes and blonde hair certainly suggest Nordic inheritance!
Top photograph: The Leask family homestead where we visited an elderly relative who remembered the family well. 2nd photograph: The tombstone giving details of my greatgrandmother’s family. 3rd photograph: The parish church at Stennes where they worshipped. - Jean Van Zyl Smit
Time to Laugh... 1) Someone stole all my credit cards, but I won't be reporting it. The thief spends less than my wife did. 2) We always hold hands. If I let go, she shops. 3 )She was at the beauty shop for two hours. That was only for the estimate. She got a mudpack and looked great for two days. Then the mud fell off.
More Orkney Connections Sally and I share a great-great-grandfather, Benjamin Moodie, who left the Orkneys in 1817 and made his home in Grootvadersbosch, near Swellendam.
- Anthea Webb
Melsetter House
My father's family, the Moodies, originally came from Orkney to South Africa in 1817. Melsetter House, the home that the Moodies owned for hundreds of years is still there, although not owned by them any more. It is on the island of Hoy, the second biggest of the Orkney islands. - Sally Palmer
The Italian Chapel During the second World War a number of Italian prisoners of war were brought to the Orkney Islands to work on the Churchill
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Barriers. Far from home, these Catholic prisoners requested permission to turn a couple of old Nissen huts into a Roman Catholic chapel on the island of Lamb Holm. The inside walls were covered in plasterboard. One of the prisoners was an artist, who had carried with him, throughout the war, a picture of the Madonna and Child. He painted a large replica of this picture on the wall behind the altar. When the other prisoners saw what he had achieved, they started to offer their services as well. Some had been bricklayers, and built a brick façade in front of the entrance to hide the hemispherical Nissen hut, others painted the inside to look like brickwork and stonework, others were metal workers and fashioned a beautiful wrought iron sanctuary screen, (a minor miracle that they were able to lay their hands on so much metal in wartime) and one was a sculptor, who fashioned a beautiful head of Christ, which sits in a niche above the entrance. When the chapel was almost finished a special service was held, incorporating (with gramophone records in the vestry) the bells and choir of St Peter’s, Rome. At the end of the war the Lord Lieutenant of Orkney made a promise to the departing prisoners of war that the Orkadians would cherish their chapel. By 1961 it was felt that the chapel was getting a bit shabby and faded, and the people of Orkney tried to trace the artists who had worked on the chapel. For a long time they were unsuccessful, but, eventually through the BBC they were able to contact three of the original artists, and pay for them to return to Orkney to restore the chapel to its former glory. I have visited the chapel, and it is indeed beautiful, not just because it is beautifully done, but also because it is a symbol of what man can achieve when his soul reaches higher than the things of this earth, and because when men work together, no matter what their differences, they can make the angels sing! - Sally Palmer
Another Orkney Connection Liz Michael’s Great-Uncle, the Rev William Cramb Charteris [and
beloved uncle of and ‘second father’ to the late Jim Michael] served as minister to the congregation at Westray Baptist Church from 1905-1909. He later served in the Baptist Church in Ayr before becoming an army chaplain during the First World War for which he received an OBE and MC. [John Atkinson commented that the Rev Charteris’ work as an army chaplain is well documented and that he led many young men to Christ.]
Let’s Laugh 1) The Doctor gave a man six months to live. The man couldn't pay his bill, so the doctor gave him another six months. 2) Patient: ‘I have a ringing in my ears.’ Doctor: ‘Don't answer.’ August 2016 Eight O’Clock News
3) The remarkable thing about my mother is that for 30 years she served us nothing but leftovers. The original meal has never been found. - Calvin Trillin
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Yet More Orkney Connections My grandparents, Jean (nee Gibson) and Gavin Mowat left
Orkney (Kirkwall) in 1909, married in Buffalo, New York and after raising support there and in Edinburgh, Scotland (where my mother was born in 1910), they left for Africa in 1911 to serve as missionaries (Brethren) in Angola/Northern Rhodesia on the banks of the Zambezi river. This involved a 6-week trip first by train to Livingstone, then up the Zambesi into Angola on a barge, camping on the banks each night. They established a mission that is still active. Mary and I visited the Orkneys to trace the family roots. An English cousin, who has researched these to the extent of recording every gravestone in local churchyards in Kirkwall, accompanied us. We didn't visit graves, but instead met the living. We visited dozens of relations (mostly 2nd and 3rd cousins) over four days, and learned that almost everyone seemed to be related to us (or so it seemed). One 2nd cousin remarked that between her husband and her they had 81 first cousins! Most of them are still on the islands. So we felt rather distant. My oldest 2nd cousin (or was it 3rd?) was 104 years old and living alone in a farm house. Another was a farmer on an island with only nine residents. Definitely not overpopulated! We were blessed with fair weather in mid-summer. Not exactly warm but certainly very pleasant. We visited the home church of my grandfather (Baptist) and grandmother (Brethren). Our first visit was to the Lord Lieutenant (represents the Queen in Orkney). His father was a loyal supporter of my grandparents both in prayer and financially. It was moving to hear from him (he is an accountant, as was his father) how after his father’s death, when he was winding up his father’s estate, he came across detailed records of financial support over decades. It was remarkable to consider the circumstances of this ‘fellowship in the gospel’ in an era when they were unlikely ever to meet each other again, or certainly not regularly, and letters were few and took several months to arrive. Yet both remained faithful to their commitment!
Do you ever take a moment to pray but feel like you stumble out of the gate? Do you have trouble finding the words when it comes time to bow your head? Remember, the One who hears your prayers is your Daddy. You don’t need to wow him with eloquence. Jesus downplayed the importance of words in prayers. We tend to do the opposite. The more words the better. The better words the better. We focus on the appropriate prayer language, the latest prayer trend, the holiest prayer terminology. Against this emphasis on syllables and rituals, Jesus says, Don’t ramble like heathens who... talk a lot—Matthew 6:7. Vocabulary and geography might impress people but not God. There is no panel of angelic judges with numbered cards. Wow, Lucado, that prayer was a ten. God will certainly hear you ! Oh, Lucado, you scored a two this morning. Go home and practice. August 2016 Eight O’Clock News
[By the way, I presume that you know that Jean van Zyl-Smit’s grandparents were also from Orkney (the Firths). We visited the very small village where they lived.]
Photograph Above: My mother with her parents in 1923, during furlough to the USA. She was the oldest of seven; the others were all born in Africa. She was a beautiful person in looks and character. Their special gift, used in ministry, was music. Lower: Eric, his cousin Ian and the Lord Lieutenant and his wife in Kirkwall. - Eric Bateman
Prayers aren’t graded according to style. Just as a happy child cannot mishug, the sincere heart cannot mispray. Heaven knows, life has enough burdens without the burden of praying correctly. If prayer depends on how I pray, I’m sunk. But if the power of prayer depends on the One who hears the prayer, and if the One who hears the prayer is my Daddy, then I have hope. Prayer really is that simple. Resist the urge to complicate it. Don’t take pride in wellcrafted prayers. Don’t apologize for incoherent prayers. No games. No cover-ups. Just be honest— honest to God. Climb into His lap. Tell Him everything that is on your heart. Or tell Him nothing at all. Sometimes Daddy is all we can muster. Stress. Fear. Guilt. Grief. Demands on all sides. All we can summon is a plaintive, Oh, Father. If so, that’s enough. - Max Lucado
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Finding New Beginnings John Palm's journey from Gangsterism, Drugs and Prison: Janet H. Mills
This extraordinary book documents the life of John Palm who learns about Jesus while serving time in Pollsmoor for habitual robbery. But once he is initiated into Christianity he never looks back. Janet Mills has evidently worked tirelessly to put together an accurate biography, interviewing John and his entire family extensively, to try to understand and appreciate his disadvantaged beginnings and his miraculous redemption to a highly honourable life. What stands out starkly is the sad truth that a broken home, alcoholism, drug addiction and broken marriage in the immediate family lay down the foundations for the downfall of the next generation. John Palm and others like him stand no chance of breaking out of this web of negativity. But John changed and his successful daughter, Kaylynn, is living proof that this web can be broken. The gangs of the Cape Flats and the waste of young lives on the Cape Flats due to the gangs is explained with truth and clarity. It seems there is just no way out. And amid shocking conditions in prison this negative element prevails. Yet there are noble men and women who give of their time and resources to go into the prisons to preach and teach a different lifestyle. Seeing a photograph in the book of two familiar Christ Church members at John's daughter, Kaylynn's 21st birthday party, brings home to me how easy it is to get involved. Pollsmoor is on our doorstep and in this case the two women in the photograph prayed for John while he was in prison and when he made his transition to normal life out of prison. It is also with delight that I read that John met his future wife while working at the Pick'n Pay just down the road from where I live. And Janet Mills, the author of the book is also familiar to us. The story is not without its trials and the support of the exprisoners once they leave prison and are cast into a tough world is crucial. They find themselves back in a world of drugs and gangs and unemployment and must resist their former way of life. Unfortunately, too often these people revert to old habits and it seems there are just not enough kind people to help them through this transition. This book is a glimpse into a world up to now unknown to me. I am so glad I read it and I thank Janet for writing it. It is on sale at the Resource Centre for R120.
-Theresa Keay
A Pun or Two… * A rubber-band pistol was confiscated from a geometry class because it was a weapon of math disruption. * I thought I saw an eye doctor on an Alaskan island but it turned out to be an optical Aleutian. * A dog gave birth to puppies near the road and was cited for littering. * Atheism is a non-prophet organisation.
* A backward poet writes inverse. - Origin unknown
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Good Morning, LORD
Even though many of us have already spent time with You
today, we want to come as people who stand together and lift our prayers to You. Father, You are Lord over everything and You must be quite saddened and angry over the state of the word. We feel helpless to do anything that will bring about huge change, but we know that YOU can do this, YOU can work in the hearts of people, YOU can restore peace to the world. It would take me a couple of hours if I was to list all the places where we need Your Spirit to bring about change, so we are all going to bring these places to You, and ask You to do what is necessary to restore peace and love and a sense of togetherness and fairness rather than hatred and despair. Let us pray for each other. For those who are sick, those who are mourning the loss of a loved one, those who are crying out to the Lord for Him to help them in some way. Let us pray for Cape Town. For the gang violence that has once again taken hold of so many areas, for strikes of various kinds and for the many problems each of us is aware of. Let us pray for South Africa. For good leadership, for safety in the leadup to the elections, for fair elections and everything else that is on Your heart for South Africa. Let us pray for other countries in Africa. Let us pray for an end to famine, for the end to human trafficking. Let the Holy Spirit guide our prayers. Let us pray for the rest of the world. Lord I don’t know how or what to pray for our world that seems to be in chaos. Please hear our prayers. Father, now that we have brought all these people, places and situations to You, we believe that You have heard the cry of our hearts. We want to thank You for all the Blessings You have bestowed on us. For our very lives, for friends, for family, the people we see every day. Father, You are awesome. You are loving, kind, You are gentle with us, even when we mess up over and over again. When we fail to love You the way we want to and the way we should, You still love us just the same, as if each one of us was Your only child. Let’s praise God now. Speak your praises out loud so that we can all join and worship our Lord together. Thank You, Lord that You have heard our prayers, those spoken as well as those that we could not even bring ourselves to lift to you. Please give us patience now while we wait to see the solutions that we KNOW You are going to bring about. Thank You that we can place our utmost trust in You, our Heavenly Father, Our Lord and our King. Amen - Jean Knaggs, 17 July 2016
Definitions Not in a Dictionary ADULT : A person who has stopped growing at both ends And is now growing in the middle. BEAUTY PARLOUR : A place where women curl up and dye. CHICKENS : The only animals you eat before they are born and after they are dead. DUST : Mud with the juice squeezed out. YAWN : An honest opinion openly expressed.
August 2016 Eight O’Clock News
- Origin unknown, sent in by Alison Kemptom Jones
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Centenary of Delville Wood I spent Sunday, 10 July 2016 at Thiepval and at Longueval on the
Somme. The 10th was a glorious summer’s day, a day to celebrate life. Instead I was in the company of approximately 300-400 people (mainly South Africans) who gathered at Thiepval Memorial to the Missing of the Somme to commemorate South Africans who had died on the Somme in the First World War (WWI), principally at Delville Wood. Additionally we were also commemorating the death of the South Africans who died as a result of the sinking of SS Mendi in 1917. My attendance at this service and subsequent visit to Delville Wood on the same day arose out of my connection with Wynberg Boys’ High School. My sons, Luke and Peter, both attended Wynberg and I served on its Governing Body for a number of years. I was also involved in the book committee overseeing the publication of a book about Wynberg Boys’ High School which celebrates its 175th anniversary this year. Neil Veitch, a fellow member of CCK, is the author of the book, Brothers In An Endless Chain. Part of my involvement was checking details of Wynberg Boys who lost their lives in various wars including WWI. We established that seven Wynberg Old Boys died at Delville Wood. As a result of this Keith Richardson, Headmaster of Wynberg for many years until retiring at the end of 2015, suggested that Wynberg Boys High attend the Delville Wood commemoration service and lay wreaths in memory of the boys who died in that battle. A third person was invited to join us, John Mills, a Wynberg Old Boy who has lived in Luxembourg for the past 25 years. Keith was unfortunately unable to attend as a result of ill health and so I attended the service together with John Mills and John’s 14-year old son, Benjamin. Prior to attending the service, John, Benjamin and I spent a day in Ieper in Flanders visiting various sites there including the Menin Gate, Tyn Cot Cemetery and various battlegrounds. The service commemorating Delville Wood and the sinking of the SS Mendi was planned for 10 July at Delville Wood. This was changed in the weeks leading up to the event as apparently either President Zuma and/or President Hollande were unavailable and hence the major commemoration was moved to the 12th. As most of the participants had already made their plans to attend on the 10th, alternative arrangements were put in place to continue with a service at Thiepval organised with the co-operation of the British Legion. This proved to be a blessing in disguise as the service on 10 July focused solely on the loss of young lives rather than being a showcase for politicians. The service was very moving. Thiepval Memorial to the Missing of the Somme is an enormous and unusual edifice designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens (most well known as the architect of seminal government buildings in New Delhi) and opened in 1932. It contains the names of 72 246 British and Commonwealth soldiers who died on the Somme and who have no known grave. It is erected where some of fiercest fighting took place and where many thousands of young men lost their lives. On one of its huge panels are the names of the South Africans without graves who died on the Somme and at Delville Wood. A small number of South Africans are buried at Delville Wood itself but the majority of the soldiers who died at Delville Wood have no grave. The Thiepval Memorial commemoration was very poignant and it was a privilege to be there. The Chaplain of Michaelhouse August 2016 Eight O’Clock News
conducted the service which included several short talks, playing of The Last Post and the laying of wreaths. I laid wreaths on behalf of
Barry and the Rector of Michaelhouse after laying wreaths
Barry (middle) and several others laying wreaths
both Wynberg Boys’ High School as well as my alma mater, CBC Kimberley. Other schools that had representatives at the ceremony who laid wreaths were Michaelhouse, Bishops, Pretoria Boys’ High School and Maritzburg College. Both Pretoria Boys’ High and Maritzburg College were represented by groups of boys currently attending those schools who each laid a cross alongside the many From CBC, wreaths. Most moving was the reciting in Kimberley , in Afrikaans of John McCrae’s poem, In Flanders Fields. The incongruity of Delville Wood hearing this well known poem in Afrikaans read aloud in France evoked a sense of homesickness and longing—for these boys from Kimberley, Cape Town and Durban buried in these foreign fields. Thereafter John and Benjamin Mills and I travelled a short distance to Delville Wood where we walked through the very beautiful and quiet wood. The South African losses at Delville Wood were appallingly high as a result of the sustained shelling and the fact that digging trenches was difficult as a result of the thick roots and undergrowth of the trees. Only one tree from the original wood survived the battle and it is clearly marked in the wood. Walking through any one of the hundreds of cemeteries that dot this part of Northern Europe or attending a service such as this one is a stark reminder of how tenuous is our hold on life—and consequently how precious it is. As the father of two young men it reinforced these feelings even more strongly. - Barry Jessop
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Memories of Kgalagadi (or an ‘Ev Els Effervescent Experience with Hare-raising tours’)
The tour to the Kgalagadi with Wille and Margie was beyond my
expectations. I can’t say exactly what the highlight was for me as much of the time I was going down memory lane, when we as a family visited the park in the late 1960/1970s. So, in the bus on the game drives I simply just looked out the window and stared and soaked it all up. One forgets sometimes just what a beautiful country we live in. I just loved the red sand dunes, the colour of the grasses, the shapes of the kameeldoring trees—and of course, all the birds and animals. A special moment was seeing a most amazingly beautiful leopard drinking peacefully at a waterhole. You could hear a pin drop in the bus as we all held our breath (not usually the case). And then the night sky—brilliantly lit by the stars especially the Southern cross. Another sight to see was the full moon rising above the dunes—oh my, I could go on and on. Of course too, was the most wonderful company of friends and sharing a room with Beth Mackrill—never a a dull moment. Willie and Margie, I can’t thank you enough. I had a most nostalgic and enjoyable time— and in fact the tour wasn’t ‘hare-raising’ at all. -
paragraph about our experience, I sought a kick-off point. So I looked up ‘effervescence’ to see if this aptly portrayed Ev’s trip (which we were fortunate enough to be part of) to the Kgalagadi. Was it really like Eno’s bubbling away digestive pain? Or fizzing away in the butter and syrupy sugar mixture
Rose Clack
I must say a big
‘thank you’ to you for inviting me to join that trip. I found it absolutely fantastic, The fellowship was a wonderful part of it all. I enjoyed D's company (Dee vd Merwe) very much. It was all great fun and we were very blessed in many ways.
- Jenni McMaster
After two weeks of hospital food and then a strict wife obeying
the dietitian’s instructions to serve white rice and boiled chicken, white bread, no salt no sugar, it was great to join the tour where Margie, Ev and her helpers, prepared great breakfasts, lunch and with Willie's braais, great suppers. While driving through the Karoo, Willie explained the history and origins of the different breeds of sheep that survived on the dry grasses. In the park we saw herds of Springbok, Gemsbok and Wildebeest, and from the menu of the restaurants we enjoyed Mutton curry and Venison pie. It was a great gastronomical tour.
- Land Middelkoop
Instructed (requested?), as all participants were, to produce a August 2016 Eight O’Clock News
needed when making crunchies? Or Supraden effervescing in the bathroom glass, giving us energy to start each early morning while we were on archaeological digs? I read: ‘(fig.) showing great excitement; be in high spirits.’ Spot on! In adjectival form, what better way to describe our group of trippers enjoying every moment—happy singing, hilarious dinner times, excited calls to look at wildlife sightings, delight in the beauty and grace of the springbok herds, majestic gemsbok, purposeful trekking of the wildebeest, a lone leopard drinking at the waterhole, kori bustards, pale chanting goshawks, bateleurs, a beautiful owl ! Oh! So many wondrous creatures hath the Lord
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made. Hair-raising? Another thing altogether! Even the jolting over endless corrugations on some roads, freezing early mornings, getting stuck in a sand drift in the road—with no cellphone connection and miles from anywhere were faced with energy and enthusiasm. And why not? With the surety of being in the competent, experienced hands of the tour leaders (thank you, Willie and Margie) and of course the overarching arms of our Heavenly Father and Saviour, Who sent a group of bubbly young workers to haul us out of that one! (Thank you,Lord). Even the lions, within a leap of our vehicle, did not raise the hairs on my neck too much. The lone young male especially presented only beauty and grandeur—a veritable Aslan (on front page). A very special part of the experience was being part of a group who would joyfully and reverently sing together to the Lord, and start each morning with prayer acknowledging our dependence and thankfulness to God. - Kari Middelkoop
I was blessed, and am deeply grateful for the opportunity recently to join this tour. What a privilege! What an experience! Others will, I am sure, be writing about the exciting sightings we had of lion, cheetah, giraffe and leopard, the large herds of springbok, gemsbok and wildebeest we saw, the hartebeest and kudu, the beautiful birds, the little ground squirrels and mongooses busy around the camp. While I, too, found these thrilling, for me, the highlight was watching the amazing interaction of a herd of springbok under threat. While travelling south on a game drive, we came upon this fairly large herd east of the road. They were gathered tightly together, tense and still, and all looking north—their eyes focused on the dominant ram who, tense and alert, was also looking to the north. The tension was almost palpable. Presently, a lone ram came into sight, advancing steadily towards the herd, and Willie explained that he would be a challenger, bent on taking over the herd. He approached, while the herd remained, tense and motionless, watching. We were caught up in the scene, and tension was as high in the bus as on the veld! At a certain point, ‘our’ ram moved to cut off the challenger, and as they joined in the battle for supremacy, they moved eastwards, until they disappeared at last behind a ridge. At this point, suddenly, as one, the herd fled, southwards, out of sight. We followed, and eventually found them, still tightly bunched, nervous and restless. And that’s where we left them. We could only speculate as to the outcome of the encounter. -Elizabeth van Lingen
As you go... 15 For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” 16 The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God.
A stiff brush and a strong arm will quickly brush the fine, red
Kalahari dust from suitcase and shoe; and shampoo and a good nasal douche will quickly wash it from hair and nostrils; but nothing—nothing, will expunge the wonderful memories of a safari through the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park, a pristine part of God’s Creation where the birds fly and the beasts of the field roam wild and free. August 2016 Eight O’Clock News
- Romans 8:15-16 [English Standard Version] Editorial Team Tel. e-mail Ev Els
021 696 0336 emichael@iafrica.com
Cheryl Anderson
083 272 1530 canderson@beckman.com