5 to midnight and counting

Martin is tense.  Very tense.

His PhD thesis must be ready for final approval by his supervisor, also known as a promoter, by 15 November 2017.  Then it must be printed and bound and handed in by 30 November 2017.

 Martin started writing in earnest in January and has kept up a demanding writing schedule since then.  He is in the tidy-up-and-finish-off phase now with a chapter a week on the table.  I get requests for calculation of % done (25 pages of 58, this instant)!

Every now and then a whole paragraph must be relegated to footnotes.  Occasionally a small section needs to be written or rewritten now that everything is in place.   Mostly it is finding the reference behind the [cit] which was left as a marker in the previous draft! 
The book situation in the house is pretty dire!

Whilst navigating these dark tunnels, Martin’s trusty PhD computer went into a coma and was diagnosed dead-on-arrival at the computer shop.  This event nearly sent Martin over the brink into some unknown place of trauma in spite of full (multiple) backups!  However, Charis came to the rescue with her laptop, which is similar enough to feel familiar!

The background tension is the potential hostility of theological faculty to the subject of evangelism.  This will result in increased panic when we get near the viva, but we won’t go there now!

Ultimately, can God use this to touch (the Methodist part of) his church (in South Africa)? 

The Proactive Pastor

This is Pastor Felix of "Those who Trust in the Lord Church" in Montana (Western Cape, South Africa).

In June they are having a mission event hosting a speaker from Nigeria.  Big stuff.  Big expectations.

But Pastor Felix knows that most big events just make everyone already in the church feel excited for a few days and proud that they have done something important.  Then, it is business as usual.

Enter "Discipling Nations" (see post from 19 January).

Pastor Felix is also on the board of Discipling Nations (now you can see how forward-looking he is).  So he called Martin in to have a conflab, becasue Martin is the chair while Willem is on sabbatical.

The upshot?


A Storyboard Street Art course will run 22-23 July to enable the members of  "Those who Trust in the Lord Church" to get out onto the streets with the good news in a form people are able to receive.  Told in a way that allows people to move off with a story in their hearts which can speak to them until they are ready to find out more.

Reorientating ... which way now?

So ... with most of his formal college teaching off the agenda, what will Martin do instead?

For a number of years now he has been working with a group of people helping to found "Discipling Nations", the brain-child of a good friend, Willem Conradie.

They offer a suite of franchised courses (plus some offerings of their own) for people to study in their churches.  Their key vision is to offer quality missions and missiology courses at a grassroots level.  They want training to be available to people who can't afford college, or who don't have enough formal education to qualify for entrance.

As they work with groups in churches they hope to train not only people to go, but people who will send.  They hope to inspire people to reach across barriers where they are as well as to get involved in other places where they are needed.

In 2014 Martin piloted a Discipling Nations "home-grown" course which he developed to fill a need that they identified.  He has also slowly been collecting the lectures that various members of the team give, and creating the visual packages which will make them more effective and enable others to teach them.  This work has been stalled for a year.

Part of the vision for this year is that he will have time to make this happen in 2016.

You can check Disciplining Nations out here: http://www.disciplingnations.org.za

being and insider is easier

It is so hard to do something so simple.
As we become tired or stressed or busy, the thing that gets neglected first is serving the outsider!

Nobody has noticed that I haven't written an outsiders blog for six months.  Nobody has complained that I haven't been systematically walking prayer into the Claremont Urban Hub.  The businesses around this centre don't rely on my prayers.  The workers don't know whether I pray for just behaviour on the part of their employers.  Lonely people don't care whether I am there to notice them or not.  Nobody wants to know whether I have had the peaceful energy to write a poem about the city.  None of the people who can't do church even know that I care about them and wish I could find a way to touch their spirits.

So, it's hard to re-energise.  It's hard to let the call of God take my life by storm when there is nothing else.

Today I have sat in the urban space again.  Sit with me by praying for God to bring about his work in me. Please.

installation as interactive performance art

As you know if you have read our "pages" (see the tabs above this post), we use art of most sorts in most aspects of what we do!  If you know us, you will have experienced the irregularity that this causes!  One of the places we are committed to using art is on the street in our "outsiders" ministry. 

Usually this is sub-fusc; Martin sits somewhere drawing, Lesley writes a vignette in the coffee shop.  Sometimes all that 'happens' is that we connect more deeply with the city and its people because we have been listening differently.  Occasionally the art leads to conversation with a passer-by, although we never know what God does with that.

Every now and then, we plan a creative event, bigger and more directed at communicating with the people in the urban hub.  We are planning one for 29 October and there's lots to do before then.

The Pavement and trees!

This is to be and installation in the visual-art-sense, but with a performance twist.
The basis is a 'live' display on chains hung from a rope strung between trees on a pavement. 
This will be a small display to keep down costs and make it easy for few people to manage.  It will not be big enough to be visible for people in passing cars.  We rely on a steady stream of pedestrians, and have tried to choose our 'venue' accordingly!
Chains will carry the words (the letters hung vertically): LOVE, JOY, PEACE, PATIENCE, KINDNESS, GENTLENESS, FAITHFULNESS, GOODNESS and SELF-CONTROL. 

A poster will declare: 

FREE TO LIVE. 

There will be chains which start off empty, and are gradually filled with interesting things - feathers, corks, beads, bells, and so on - people who come past will be invited to add something.

note: in this concoction chains are not used for metaphorical significance, but because they hang well, are easy to hang things from and look professional

You might have noticed that this all tries to reflect Galatians 5.

Join us if you'd like some fun.  Pray if you remember.

What is it?

When the Israelites saw the food God had sent in the desert they said "What is it?" and that become its name "manna"; we even use the word in English!

A lot of the things we do are like that.  Difficult to describe, impossible to name!  I want to tell you about one of these today; it happened to me twice in the last few days.  But I can't think what to call it. 

I will give some images from what many of my friends irritatingly call "real jobs" - I don't think you guys mean to be cruel, and I know my 'job' is really a vocation, I know I don't get a salary for it, I know no one really wants what I do, I know there is no title for it, I know there is no measurable product ... but

Perhaps I should try the answer "Who wants a real job when you have an authentic, genuine and true whole-life calling to an all-encompassing task of eternal multi-dimensional significance."  Maybe not, it doesn't fit the bill for a catchy reposte to "real job".  Never mind.  I know you are actually (really!) on my side.

Life Coach.  Pastoral Counsellor.  Personal Trainer.  Spiritual Director, Mentor or Companion.  Journey Guide.  Career Guidence.  Alas, what I do is none of these, and all of them.

Martin does a lot of this too; I used to think that this was his gift only, but God seems to think otherwise.  I am never quite sure why it happens, but somehow people come into our lives needing loving listening.  Sometimes they specifically seek me out and I still find this a bit surprising, but it is one of the things that God just does.  Martin spends a lot of time with random strangers talking to him, I'm more often with strangers-who've-become-friends.


So what happens then? 
I listen:  not just to sounds, but to something deeper; not just to the person who I am with, but to Jesus who is with us too.
I ask:  sometimes questions to help me understand better, sometimes questions to help the person who is with me explore more deeply or widely, sometimes it turns out to be a God-question.  Notice how often Jesus asks questions!  He was frustratingly uninclinded to give answers.
I think:  one of my weak-strong-nesses is continuous involuntary fast analysis and synthesis, so I find myself seeing things, unravelling and weaving; sometimes what I see turns out to be God showing something.
I speak:  not advice, I try never to tell people what to do or think; but sometimes I end up picking out good things to show them, or reminding them of past conversations; sometimes what I say turns out to be words or wisdom from God.
I pray:  during the conversation as part of the conversation-with-Jesus that is going on simultaneously, usually with the person before we part or join others; and over the days and weeks following or between conversations.
It is really about loving the people in my life.  I see all of them/you as part of his grace to me.  When he/they/you let me into your space that is grace too.  I have had to learn to hold precious people and moments lightly - some stay in our lives for a long time, some move on when a particular time of need has passed, some are with me for a single conversation.  But God is the one who is actually their life companion, just letting me share his joy.

I don't know what to call it. 

In lots of ways it is nothing that everyone else isn't doing all the time.  I know I am not naturally gifted for it.  I'm not formally qualified for it, though I have had lots of training, done lots of reading and read lots of books.
But God is doing it in me (with me, for me) and I am grateful for this grace.

before the 'day' starts

I was here very early this morning.  I saw 'my' coffee shop still curled up asleep.  I watched it stretch and yawn, wash and dress, and start the day.

I saw the supermarket trolleys emerge from the storeroom in a long mobile train ... amazing how they can take a corner, and astonishing how much noise a hundred trolleys makes on a tiled floor! 

I was here to pray.  

Meanwhile my sister wake up 1000km away to this.  God's peace made visible. 

But his peace is everywhere - even behind the counter where the guys are frantically washing mugs, wiping surfaces, steaming milk, "esspressing" coffee, warming muffins, taking orders and generally working like crazy!!

How amazing.

blog experiment

With the kind of work we do, there are no definitive pathways and no trails blazed.  In a way that is the point ... we are trying to serve those who are strangers to the gospel, or strangers to the church.  That means we need to

• have millions of ideas (no problem there)
• work out what God wants us to try (listening to God is tricky and we need other people)
• be willing to keep going without measurable results
• be willing to fail
• work out when to stop trying something

One of the trials this year is blogs ... not, I hasten to add, trial as in burden but as in exploring or assessing. Now. That means that I am trying to construct each blog well, professionally.  I am trying to write about appropriate things, in an accessible style, with interesting bits and bobs and good pictures.  Oh well ... we have to rely on God for everything anyway, so why not attempt the impossible occasionally, or frequently for that matter!

BUT more challenging still, we have to get LOTS of people to click on the blog - because if people don't see it at least once, they won't even know whether it is interesting to them or not. 

• The aim of this blog is that people who are interested in what we are up to (either because they like us, or because they like what we do, or even both) will become followers and visit often.  We hope that this will help you guys to be more part of our life and service.
• The outsiders-urbanspirituallife blog, has been created for people we don't even know. or at least only know a little, or don't know yet.  We hope that it will enable them to pursue the quest at the heart of being human, that it will help some people to discover Jesus.

So here I am tracking how many people have visited a blog.  (Don't worry about my list of other things I plan to do on the whiteboard under my notebook!)  Of course, I can't tell whether people found the blog interesting or helpful ... so I shall have to keep doing this for a long time before I can decide whether I am supposed to keep going, or whether it is another failure in the matrix of brilliant ideas!

SO ... Outsiders has a facebook persona which people can join to see whernever there is a new post.  I put the outsiders blog on my facebook wall too, and I keep hoping that other people might pass it on.  (BTW the day I had the most 'hits' was when I put up a picture of a mime with a 'prostitute' in it!!)

AND if you know anyone who knows us and doesn't know about this blog, please pass on the link!