Moving walls and building bridges

Thursday started slowly for me, but ended with a bang. I went to the homeless shelter at Muizenberg, mostly so I could make sure things were set for my songwriting seminar that evening across the street at the radio station. I like to “case the joint” when I can before a presentation.

Kathy, a Living Hope staff member, was gracious to allow me to use her computer to type up my notes to hand out, then Susie (another staff member, personal asst. to Avril Thomas) took me over to CCFM to get copies made and check out the room. I helped out where I could with the construction guys in their task of moving a couple of wall sections to relocate the shop area where clients’ craft items are sold. It seems we are seldom able to do things here with the same efficiency that we could do, because of the culture, communication difficulties, availability of resources, etc. But often the process gives us the opportunity to interact with people we would normally bypass, and that interaction is the stuff of heart-to-heart relationship—which is the real reason we’re here.

The Children’s Club team was back at Masiphumelele Baptist Church for a meeting with the teens. Mostly boys showed up, which made the group a little harder to direct, but that was OK. Our “special guest” Aaron gave a very good lesson on the Prodigal Son, and directed some comments to the boys that might not have occurred to him otherwise. Our time there was shorter than we had originally expected, so the flexibility factor kicked in once again.

After an abbreviated dinner I was off to the radio station for the seminar. Dave Horton, one of our “part-time” (but fully integrated) team members went along for support. A group of about 30 attended the meeting, fewer than the expected 70-80. The station has been hosting this monthly “Music Makers Forum” for about a year. After a time of worship in song led by one of the forum committee named Darryl (a South African of Indian descent, who said he’s been teased with the “this is my OTHER brother Darryl” line from the TV show), I made my presentation. I had been given over an hour, but I don’t think I used all my time. I included a couple of songs of my own and used a song on CD by my friend Audrey Hatcher as illustrations of certain points (after making it clear I’m no “expert” but I was passing along the wisdom of others). I used Eph. 2:10 and some of the Psalms, as well as Gen. 1:27 to make the point that we are all created to create, and it is up to us to use our gifts as best we can for God’s glory and for our own enjoyment. Avril (wife of Pastor John Thomas) then led a short discussion with the group and gave what I half-jokingly refer to as an “altar call” to ask for commitments to put the lesson into practice…and many attendees stood to show their desire to make that commitment and to ask for prayer in following through. The response was very encouraging.

Today (Friday) is a day off and we’ll be heading up Table Mtn. in the “James Bond” cable car, and this evening we’ll have dinner with the pastor and his wife.

Tomorrow we go back to work and tomorrow evening I’ll be doing a couple of songs at a missions conference dinner at King of Kings Baptist Centre.

Thanks for the encouraging comments on this blog site!