“Welcoming the Routine”
June 19, 2006
Greetings from the chilly desert of Botswana
For those who have been asking for shorter
updates it looks like this month you’ll get your wish. Things for the most part have become routine
since I last left you. However, I by
know means imply this as a negative thing.
In fact whenever you can embrace a routine in life it can be a
comforting thing. Constant change tends
to wear you out over time. However,
there were a few highlights since my last update so I’ll fill you in on what’s
been going on.
I am now once again attending leadership
meetings at my church Open Baptist Church G-West. There hasn’t been any formal announcements
regarding this or any formal titles but I think I kind of like it that
way. Titles tend to come with presumptions
that I’d rather not have attributed to me.
For example if you tell someone you’re a CEO everybody instantly thinks
of a certain kind of person. I even find
having the title “IT Technician” comes with its own presumptions. Like for example, why does everybody
instantly think I know everything about every new technology that comes onto
the market? Somehow the term “IT” seems
to now relate to anything that plugs into a wall. The questions people ask me aren’t even
limited to computers anymore. Cell
phones, VCR’s, microwave ovens...I’ve been asked it all. Do people think IT technicians get some sort
of special “nerd alerts” via e-mail or something? Anyway, long story short, I’m back on the
church leadership team.
This leads to my next topic and first
prayer request. This past weekend (June
16-17) OBC G-West had a leaders retreat.
We discussed such topics as mission outreach opportunities, leadership
requirements, setting up an administrative base, a new church name and current
facility needs. The agenda was large and
we didn’t quite have time to do everything but I thought it was a very
productive meeting. It was good to hear
others in the congregation (especially the youth) speak on some of these
issues. It will now be up to me and the
rest of the leadership team to make sense of all that we accomplished. We will need your prayer for wisdom as God
continues to mold and shape this church.
One of the not so routine things I was able
to take part in this past month was something called the Toyota Botswana and is the premier off road racing
event in Southern Africa . It’s a 3 day event covering 1000km of
desert. It’s a tough race and every year
there are a number of people who never finish. The competitors race mostly in either
“Bakkies” (pickup trucks) or “Sand Masters” (dune buggies). I was only able to attend the final day of
racing and because it was on Sunday I was only able to watch from the finish
line. However, it turned out to be quite
a spectacle. It is extremely popular
with the local people and I think they love the fact that they can watch for
free. It’s amazing how close people will
get to the “road” these people are racing on.
I had one scary moment while watching the event that I’ll share with
you.
A Nissan Hardbody pickup truck came racing
towards the finish and just as it approached where I was standing the bonnet
(hood) of the vehicle flew up and hit the windscreen (windshield). It appeared it was going to fly off into the
crowd so me and the other spectators began to flee away from this apparent
doom. Somehow the hood was able to stay
on the vehicle and ended up simply falling on to the top of the engine. Needless to say it gave me and everyone
standing in the vicinity quite a fright.
Luckily we were all able to laugh about it afterwards. (I have a video of the incident I can show
you all later)
Getting back to the routine of life, I
thought I would share a brief update with you on some of the things I’m
routinely involved in each week. The
first activity I should update you on is the band I am currently involved with
called “Audience Of One”. For those who
may not remember I'm playing the drums for a multi-national worship band called
Audience of One. We have been practicing
every Monday and hope to do some worship events soon. We don’t have anything specific booked yet
but are hoping to host worship nights in the near future. We are also hoping to do another large
worship event where we will invite congregations from around Gaborone Botswana
together and see unity within the body of Christ here in Africa .
Another routine of life has been Tuesday
night practices with the Open Baptist Church G-West worship band. As you might have guessed already I am also
playing the drums for this worship team.
However, most of the time I play an African drum I purchased in South Africa
The other weekly routine has of course been
my work with Flying Mission. I purposely
try not to talk much about this simply because I know some of my supporters
aren’t interested in computers. However,
for those who are there is a recent development I’d like to share. The Flying Mission website has recently been
updated and I was hoping some of you would go take a look at it. The website is www.flyingmission.org. It gives
a lot of current information about Flying Mission in Botswana
and Zambia
Ok, I guess that’s it for now. I will of course list some prayer requests
before going so if your willing and able please pray for the following:
1)
Open Baptist Church G-West – The church is still in its infant phase of
development. Please pray for the
leadership team that God would grant us wisdom in making decisions on the
future course of the church.
2)
Audience Of One – Our team has struggled to meet at times because of
busy schedules. Please pray that our
team would remain committed and that we can continue to minister to God’s
people through worship.
3) IT
work at Flying Mission – The IT manager, Richard Wheatley, is planning to
travel to Zambia
Lastly I would like to congratulate my favourite
hockey team, the Edmonton Oilers, for not only becoming the Western Conference
champs but giving the Carolina Hurricanes a run for there money during the
finals. Good luck tonight boys! GO OILERS GO!
Peace and prayers,
PS>
I’m looking forward to seeing those taped games Gord!
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