R2U2… or ‘d’ or something…

so friday nite there was a U2 concert or something, apparently.. you wouldn’t know by being on facebook at all – hardly a person mentioned whether they were going or not going or hating everyone that was going and kept reminding them about it or throwing their Steve Hofmeyer (very pricey tickets) into the Jukskei river (my favourite one) in protest…

and it’s weird cos ever since i knew U2 were coming to South Africa i was super amped to go – they are one of my top four bands (3 now that Tree63 are no more altho have Snow Patrol knocking on that door cos really enjoying them right now) but then when the tickets were released tbV and myself had just bought plane tickets to KZN so we would drive up to Botswana with our good friends Dreadlock Mike and Nancy the Twin and we couldn’t really afford both (not knowing what 2011 held for us incomewise etc)…

so i should have been more bummed or jealous or over the endless stream of statuses counting down etc etc but to be honest i wasn’t – i had actually agreed to speak at a camp for Rondebosch/Rustenburg high school CU groups this past weekend and it was only after meeting with the leaders of the camp and the other speaker (who said he couldn’t do the evenings so i was down for fri and sat nite speaks) that i discovered that the Fri nite was the U2 concert… hm…

and the whole way leading up to the concert i was somewhat convinced in my head that someone would offer us free U2 tickets (happened all around me) for the nite so my head went to ‘”flip, how do i explain to the camp people that i can’t speak on friday nite?” when the tickets come… and then i realised that there was actually no way out of it… and then quite soon after that i realised that actually i didn’t want the tickets to come…

now this is not anything against anyone who went to the U2 concert cos i am flippin stoked for everyone that went and it sounds like it was an incredible show and i am sure i would have loved it – there are some people, like my buddy Craig who is the biggest U2 fan i know, who i am toyoda’ly overjoyed that he was there and still need to hear from him how it was, and my brother and sister in law who got tickets a day before the concert as well, just flippin happy for them… but it was just the realisation for me (as not the biggest live concert guy ever) that for me, i was very amped that my friday was going to be spent with those school peoples at rocklands campsite in simonstown.

i didn’t get offered tickets so i never had to turn them down or anything like that but i had not doubt afterwards that i was in the right place. i don’t think God or those young people particularly needed me there (God could definitely have used a bunch of other people) but i definitely believe He did use me being there and we saw four girls make a commitment to follow Jesus for the first time ever and that really sealed it for me.

i was really encouraged by my good friend bruce collins’ (who was at the U2 concert in Joburg) story of how he was able to have some profound worship moments (during ‘Magnificent’ for example, one of U2’s most blatant lyric’d songs) during the concert and also the story he shared of the girl who got pulled up on stage and so for me it really doesn’t come down to going to the concert was less spiritual than not going to the concert or anything like that – for those who went and had an amazing time whether just a rad time with a favourite band or a great time with a non favourite band (Joel) or a spiritual experience, that is toyoda’ly cool… and for me it was the same not being there.

good weekend all round it seems. hopefully it was for you… as well…

botswanan reflections: a couple to follow

so blah blah blah botswana trip…

we went up with our friends dreadlock mike (dreads) and nancy the twin (twin) and two of their friend couples and i could possibly blog a lot about living with all three for the week…

but the one i want to briefly write about is a couple who were mike and nancy’s groomsman and bridesmaid respectively… a physio for the sharks and a high level manager type product control person for a cement company (and quite possibly not the way around you would expect them to be but both are doing brilliantly at their jobs)

brent and zeldy. married for three years. but together for eleven as they dated for 8 before that. but what a couple. i commented to val the one night that brent is just such a model of a servant in a marriage as i constantly would see him getting drinks or food or a chair or whatever it was for his wife, and not that it was a one sided thing at all (i think i just happened to more notice when he did it cos sadly it doesn’t seem to be like such a normal thing with guys, at least to the extent that i noticed it that week) cos zeldy definitely appears to be an amazing servanthood wife as well, but it was just such an incredible thing to witness

in galatians paul writes that ‘the only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love’ and i think that describes what we saw of their relationship – both what we saw and what we heard about how they invest in other peoples relationships and make an effort spoke strongly of an active faith and reflection of God’s love to each other…

i really want to just honour them as a couple – we asked them if they fight and they said not really – they have disagreements and moments when one or both gets a little hard headed about stuff but “we worked out that stuff long ago”

in an age when strong marriages appear on the wane, it is exciting and worth honouring and uplifting and drawing attention to when we see those that are strong and worth learning from and so brent and zeldy, thank you for showing us what can and is being lived out.

botswanan reflections: dreadlocked humour

so we just came back from a trip to botswana with our good friends dreadlock mike (i call him that because his name is mike and he has, well, you know…) and nancy the twin (name is nancy and…) and friends and both of these incidents happened on either side of the botswanan trip, but they are related and quite funny so i thort i’d share…

the beautiful val and i fly up to the kwazulu of natal to connect with d mike and nancy tt and the plan is to drive to joburg, sleep over and then drive up to botswana together, meeting their friends on the way…

so as we are leaving kzn we stop at a pharmacy so tbv can buy some adrenalin to protect her from the deathly effects of being stung by bees and her and d mike are in the pharmacy while nancy and i head off to the atms to draw money (why do they call it drawing money cos clearly no drawing takes place?) and when we join up again, tbv has a story

the one old bat (no, really) behind the counter is looking at d mike and turns to val, who is waiting to pay, and says something about ‘wo, look at that hair of mankiness’ and so val responds, ‘that’s my friend’ and so the lady (in possibly a top ten of the all-time finest back-pedals) reresponds with, “oh i’m sure he must be a nice guy, but imagine making love to that hair” – this is like a 60yr plus lady – VERY funny…

then botswana happens and on the last nite as we feast on the most amazing (and cheap, from a place called all days on the way up to the bots) fillet, dreadlock mike manages to snap off and swallow one of his teeth (one of the two false teeth he has either side of his two main top row teeth) and so with dreadlocks and now missing tooth, when he does the mike redneck shoulder-raising laugh it is truly a sight to behold

we arrive back in durban on the fri nite and sat morning we head to the spca for a good breakfast (yes, yes, that sentence could be a blog in itself but this particular spca in kloof is like spca city so there is a restaurant and craft market and kareoke lady and a bunch of other stuff happening and they have a cheap slow tea garden vibe so we stopped for breakfast before the flight out)

d mike goes to the counter to order and the lady behind the counter looks at him and says, “how many girlfriends do you have?” [much funnier story when d mike tells it in accent] and he responds by showing her his wedding ring and says, “no, no, i’m married so there is just the one lady in my life” and she looks at him again and says, “no, i am pretty sure i saw you on Cheaters” and so d mike returns to our table with a very emphatic, “i need to get that tooth fixed!”

on a sad note, my hair was not quite long enuff for the dreadlocking of it by mike, so waiting will have to occur…

botswanan reflection: the animals

so the beautiful val and i just got back from a rad and timely botswana trip with good friends dreadlock mike and nancy the twin and also some friends of theirs (brent, zeldy, norm and kate) and have some incredible memories of a stunning, stunning place

we were really spoilt with the animal sightings – elephant (including the smallest baby elephants i have ever seen), giraffe, wildebeest (including the lesser known pussybeest and the lonely Nigel-no-friends who was always wondering around by himself while the rest of the herd was sneaking away over the hill somewhere), warthog, eland, kudu, impala, steenbok, ostrich, hyena, jackal (and very cute baby jackal who resemble paris hilton’s handbag dog), spring hare (which is a very boring name for the nocturnal cross between a rabbit and a kangaroo and one of the highlights of our frequent nite drives), zebra and tortoise, not to mention lion and cubs (which we got to see from uber uber close as they rested under a thick bush after a recent kill)

one of the highlights for me was seeing a jackal run past our vehicle with the complete head and neck of an impala hanging out of its mouth – nature in full 3D action…

armed with Gerrie the ranger (who can identify an animal at night purely by seeing the colour of the eyes shining back from the spotlight sweep across the bushes) we got to do early morning, mid-afternoon, sundowner and late nite drives and every day would see a new animal or new animal experience which we had not seen before (vultures – and friends – circling a dead hyena, elephants taking a mud bath, a jackal family with some very young pups, an empty tortoise shell) and just really soak up the beauty – and very green – that is botswana, or the part of it in the south-east that we were in anyways…

blessed are the retards…

for they will be seen as human!

i’m not sure why i was thinking about this today but i was driving back from dropping off our recycling (oh wait, it just hit me, never mind) and this thort came in to my head – i wish that i knew how to relate to handicapped people better

when i was a little kid my folks used to take me to this place called the Avril Elizabeth home once a week where they would sing some songs and maybe do a talk for a whole bunch of kids with various handicaps (or whatever the politically correct word for handicaps is these days but, you know) from physical to mental and i would love to say that those visits paved the way for me to grow up as an adjusted young man, able to connect with, understand and love those people, but it didn’t

it freaked me out. a lot. and thinking back i think it was purely because the whole thing was not explained to me. i think my parents were incredible for going week after week and really just trying to share God’s love with a bunch of people that for the most part the world has rejected, ignored or forgotten (or at the very least, snuck quietly into the corner) but i think it would have made a complete difference if they had sat me down at home and explained the whole thing – i think the assumption was that exposure would be enuff (and i think for a lot of people it is) but for some reason it just didn’t click with me and so i saw them as freaks, as weird, as… let’s be honest here… retards…

and i REALLY wish it had been different… but now i stand (well sit) behind my keyboard (yup, definitely sitting, otherwise my neck would be messed from all that downward stretching) and i am sorry it didn’t work out differently – because i still struggle to feel comfortable around those who are physically/mentally different to me in such an extreme way and i want to be able to shed all those child-enforced-and-learnt responses and just be amazing with them

the one thing i do remember is the nurses, who were amazing with the kids – and the majority of them i recall – if not all of them – were black nurses and this was mid 1980’s – and just remember seeing such love and acceptance and complete utter treatment of them as humans… and not lesser humans, and certainly not retards – maybe apartheid could have been ‘pulled’ a whole lot earlier if a bunch of stupid white leadery people had had the chance to sit and observe those nurses for an hour a week…

my friend nancy the twin (and her sister mary the twin) who recently got married to dreadlock mike (Zanzibar, it is!) has a brother called Simon who is different in some way and he was in top form at the wedding and an absolute pleasure to watch – he was sitted right next to the podium where the speeches happened and any time someone got going on a speech he would start clapping and it made me think of the Oscars, when someone is talking too long and the music starts to play – come on Simon, it’s your cue, send them awaaaayyyy…

and i think i’m getting better, cos i didn’t run and hide every time Simon was near, which was a lot cos i think he digs me and was following me and staring me down a lot, and i really enjoy him, altho still feel awkward and weird and like i don’t get it a lot of the time…

but he is not a retard! he is the brother of two good friends of mine. and that makes him my friend.

if he’ll have me…

dreadlock matt (well, not yet)

so this past weekend and a bit myself and tbV were hanging at the house of dreadlock mike who got married to nancy the twin on saturday in an incredible ceremony and all and we had the most amazing time chilling at his folks house with richard and anita and little matt who is not so little

in fact, matt is one of the biggest little guys i have ever met – kind of like a non-famous boy version of dakota fanning – just been raised so incredibly well and such an amazing young dude – and it was an absolute blast hanging with him and having fun – i think he is 8 years old and he plays a mean piano – i taught him a duet while we stayed there (teaching him the second part just last nite) and on the way to his dad driving us to the airport we get a phone call and matt and his mom (who he taught since us leaving the house that morning) played us the duet over the phone which was on speaker – a priceless moment indeed

in fact sat nite when the wedding reception was winding down i grabbed matt outside who had refused to come and be cool and dance with me earlier and carried him inside and did one man two man tango with him across the dance floor and then swung him round in the air and we got much applause and crowd appreciation from those still around – lesser mortals would have been well embarrassed i think but matt just vibed

so cheers little guy, thankx for letting us move to your room (not sure how much choice was involved but you didn’t come and shave our heads while we were sleeping) when our room was causing killer hayfever vibes and for hanging and pianoing and car-racing and just being a complete vibe – you are going to grow up to be a huge (in heart, spirit and achievement) guy just like your big dreadlocked brother who i really dig…

of dreads and twins and barefootedness

well i could blog five hundred posts and i could blog five hundred more, just to be the man who blogged a thousand posts… something something dreadlock mike…

but i won’t, cos who would read them. in fact this is a me post so it doesn’t really matter but suffice it to say yesterday’s wedding between michael richard strauss and nancy leigh enslin at the secret garden resort in kzn was incredible.

really triply amped i got to fly up two days early and hang with dreadlock mike who is one of my favourite people in the world and we had some good fun times – from the doo-do doo-do doo-do do-do doooo of plants vz zombies that he greeted me with huge skepticism with but then got thoroughly addicted to (cue one 2am morning of play and me making sure he didn’t touch it pre-wedding nite so he’d write his speech and vows and sleep before the big day) to cucumber moments to coffee to chatting, we vibed completely and it was rad – and i continue to ask God to let us (me, tbV, nancy and dm) find an opportunity to be in the same region, ministering and living alongside each other at least for a season

then i got the double priviledge of doing the wedding ceremony (the preach and all other non-legal entities – their pastor hilton greig from harvest was brilliant slipping in and out with the legal stuff with complete flow and vibe) and master of ceremonyising the reception (cos the guy they asked couldn’t or didn’t want to and i was first sub or something – ha!) and on the one hand it was a complete vibe but it also meant i felt quite responsible for all things wedding most of the day

got to preach barefoot and relate it to moses and the burning bush and holy ground and how marriage is holy ground cos God views it as an important and incredible thing and how we (world and church) have tragically undermined it a lot of the time or viewed/treated it as a lot less than that…

second point was Joshua’s choose this day who you will serve but relating it to the new testament picture of marriage which is each person lifting up the other one and considering thier needs above yours – chief killer of marriage is selfishness while on the other hand if you can nurture selflessness you will have the foundations for a solid long-lasting marriage

third point was adam and eve in the garden – being naked in front of each other and feeling no shame – with the point being about vulnerability and intimacy – the closer you want to get to someone the more potential you have to give that person to hurt you – but that same potential allows them to love you solidly – to fully appreciate the beauty of the rose you have to risk the sharpness of the thorns – there are going to be tough and painful times in marriage but the intimacy and closeness achieved by allowing those to happen (and be resolved) is more than worth it

and then finished with a charge or challenge to the church that we are involved in their marriage – not in terms of overstepping boundaries or playing them against each other or anything like that – but in terms of prayer and accountability and friendship and finance and whatever else, we are standing up to the plate and putting our hands up and saying we will fight for this marriage alongside mike and nancy or a little bit off in the background but there if and when they need us – got everyone who said yes to the commitment to stand and we prayed for them

then the mc’ing of the reception went well – brief interludes for the tie joke and some private jokes aimed at mike and his family, largely involving cucumbers and theme tunes to plants vs zombies and just generally keeping things moving smoothly – and then totally taken down and taught a comedy lesson by his friend Phil in his Biff persona who was absolutely brilliant – and so amazing food, beautiful hot looking wife lady (always beautiful but when she straightens her hair and brings it – wow! stunning!), fun dancing vibes and a complete vibe which they couple completely enjoyed (and mike playing and singing the song he had written for nancy which was exquisite and heartfelt)

and as we were driven home by parents ‘o mike (a stunning stunning couple we have had so much fun staying with) with dj andrew in the back seat we were treated to an owl with a chicken (looked like a whole hen, was huge) swooping right across in front of the car in what seemed like slow motion – it was breathtaking…

here’s to the new Strausses and thankx so much for letting us be a part of your special day – love you guys immensely and look forward to being alongside each other sometime and doo-doo do-do doo-do…or as crazy dave would say “shraggle blurghy thruggharrgh shglarhy thslarrrrrrrrr”