So, where have I been?

To those who have missed me since my last posts, thank you very much!! It's great to be appreciated.

We have had no internet for 4 months, basically South Africa is going through a power shortage because the new government (then again over 10 years into democracy, I suppose they're not so new) failed to plan for new power stations and we have had a development boom in recent years, and now we are in a situation where there is not enough power to go around. So the wise guys that be decided on "load shedding" a system of organized power failures for a few hours a day twice a week. The only problem with load shedding is that the power stations cannot handle this and so one of them blew up the other day leaving us one short...

We also have a "New South African" policy of black empowerment, and at the risk of being completely, politically, incorrect and blunt, this basically means that we replace all the whites in the jobs with black people. This system doesn't really consider the qualification standard of the person they are bringing in for the job in question, the point is to reverse the unfairness of the previous government and make up for the apartheid years of suffering. In most cases we have people trying to do a job they are very clearly NOT qualified to do. The point is to place the black man in the highest and most prestigious positions possible as quickly as possible, and due to the lack of education backing them up it usually means no choice but to keep the white man doing the actual work below the high powered guy. In other words it means that the black guy gets a high powered position while the white man below him continues to do the actual work, including his own work while the top notch receives the glory and fat paycheck. This company that supplies our power has been no different. I suppose all this being the result of the reaping of the previous governments bad decisions and the current governments lack of vision and need to comfort their continued pity party from the past. Neither being correct, and the desperate need for a Godly order.

So back to our power stations, basically the new guys have absolutely no idea how to build or fix our old failing ones, we hear that it's going to take 5 years to dust and sweep and get them going again, but the Chinese can build a brand new nuclear power station in a year. Call the Chinese ... but no....

So back to how all this effects our little world.... Our internet was basically a small business providing a wireless internet service but his access to the net was run through different points around town and if any of these points were load shedding, we had no internet, which was more often than not. So he went broke... Anyway, we now have a new and improved ADSL and its working great!!

Well now you know where I’ve been. So what has happened in these last 4 months? A lot. It’s been very busy and not much time to focus on worshiping the Father. This is a very sad state for me especially when He said to me that that’s what I need to do. So much for obedience… We have had some other good things happen though, our pastors at church have really been preaching up a storm and it’s been about getting the body getting into line, emphasis being on growing up and unity. Basically, it is time the church begins to resemble the "without spot or wrinkle bride" Jesus would like to return for. Prayer is the order of the day, and many people have left because they don’t like the heat. I feel a definite change in the atmosphere at church, people are becoming more aware of each other and friendlier. This is a great thing because the attitude around Johannesburg has been one of “Stuff you Jack! You're on your own and if you get in my way I’ll ride you over!!” and sadly this has been the same within the church too, not only specifically our church but church in general. Yet we are supposed to be the examples.

So Christian people who are changing this attitude is a good thing. We also held an "Apostolic and Prophetic Conference" recently and it confirmed that we are not alone in what God is revealing prophetically to us as a body, our nation and eventually world wide. I really have to say that things are changing for the better in a spiritual sense, and I'm expectant of how it will eventually manifest in the natural. Almost to the point where I am really inspired to go and join the band, because the focus has changed, but..... that decision is not up to me..... It’s firmly in God’s hands and I made a deal with Him that HE needs to tell me to join and then confirm it through someone else.

Our pastor recently spoke on our lives being like a triangle where the bottom tier is personal leadership, the middle is public leadership and finally you get purpose leadership. Jesus spent 30 years developing his personal leadership, 3 years in public leadership and 3 days in purpose leadership. It makes a lot of sense to me and I have wanted to argue the point because I just want to get involved in my purpose leadership now, but the more that I have looked at it, I have to humbly admit he’s right. God will never let me get to purpose leadership when my personal leadership is a mess and I can’t handle it. Character is developed in personal leadership. The results affect your public leadership and eventually you get promoted to a place where your purpose leadership can come into play. I just hope I’m ready and get more than 3 days at it.

So I would say that the main thing that has happened in this time is God has really been working on our personal leadership part and Denise and I have had our butts royally kicked through the experience. We have had to change, and I can really see the changes in us and our attitude, it’s really evident when I look at Denise these days. She has grown, and is really blossoming into a beautiful lady that I’m even more proud to be married to. I suppose she can see similar changes in me, but you don’t really notice it yourself. It is my belief that if we get ourselves lined up right, eliminate sin (anything that displeases the Father) God can really bless us, and we are praying big time for this process to happen, for God to sort us our and set our feet on the right path so we can really make a difference in this life where it counts. I don’t really like my job and see it as a waste of time. I want to do something that counts into eternity and I have wondered how this is going to come about. I have almost hated the word business (which is a big buzz word around our church, lots of focus on business people etc.) So, as you might already know we have totally changed our diet since I suffered a panic attack a few years back, we also desperately need a new way to make money. So we have been praying for direction which has become a major one these days, and it feels like God is saying we must start a business. It started with our chiropractor telling us that she really doesn’t have the time to hear about or study this health thing on her own, but we must make it happen for her. She and the rest of Jo'burg just don’t have time to eat healthy and fast food is the order of the day even though they all know it’s unhealthy. So she has practically begged us to please provide her with the "good food" and said she is willing to pay us big bucks to do this for her, she claimed that she is ready to be our first customer.

The idea seemed good, but we were still doubting, and wondering how or where to start with all of this. We really wanted more confirmation that this WAS indeed the way God is leading. Then a new guy at church (an expat from Zim, trying to make a new life for himself and his familyin SA) that we have prayed for once or twice told us that while he was praying for us he felt that we must start a business and just needed to tell us that and that he would continue to pray for us as we walk this road. So here we go, our attempt at getting out of the rat race that we all live in, and you know what they say about it...even if you win, you’re still a rat… Never a truer statement than right now, not just in our city but all over the world. We are both far more creatively driven, and don't buy into this consumer driven lifestyle. We desperately want out of it, I mean, how do you get creative in this mess. JHB is really a busy, I would say mini New York type lifestyle, minus the class of course. There just is no quality of life anymore. So this may be the start of a new life for us, we are hoping and praying for this business to succeed and grow to where we can employ some help and eventually have others running and managing it for us to a degree, therefore freeing us up to explore the creative path we both feel our hearts are called to. It's not that we are not passionate about eating well, and educating people in this area, it is just that it is seperate area of passion for us, and there are deeper things on our hearts than healthy food and cash flow. So that’s the plan, I will keep you posted on where it takes us.

The other night Denise and myself got together and we just worshiped God a bit. It has been a rough week and we both felt miles away from each other and our Father. It was great because God pitched up really quickly and in a big way. It was so refreshing and restoring to hang in Him. Especially since the last few months have been hectic and distractuin driven. We also went on a hike into the Drakensburg Mountains recently and slept in caves, it didn’t go quite as planned, but that’s another post. The long and the short of it is, that it took us a month of running around to source and buy equipment as cost effectively as possible, since this was a last minute decision. We priced every hiking shop we could find to get the best deals etc. It took up a lot of our time, and then we barely got down from the mountain only to hit the ground running again. We feel like we haven’t stopped for 3 months now feel depleted in arears, especially our time with God. So we are really looking for a break to get calm again and focus on what God is telling us to do. This feels like a very crucial and strategic time, and we don't want to miss Him for anything. This week has already gone slightly nuts so hopefully the weekend and next week will be better. I suppose it's all about prioritizing, working on it.

So that in a nut shell is our life for the past 4 months. It has certainly been interesting !!

Talk again soon