Cape Town

So from the 15th to today I was on vacation. From the very first week we gothere everyone told us that we had to go to Cape Town, so after 7 and a half months of people telling us this, we've finally broken down and taken the 15 or so hour drive to Cape Town.

We tried to leave at 10 am in the morning, but the Shop took too long for our Car to be repaired, so we weren't sure when we were going to leave. At three o'clock, the car was ready and we drove to bloemfontein, where we stayed the night with Pastor Irvin, who is really Cool. He basically ran our convention (which you can read about in anna's blog).

The next morning we drove the remaining 12 hours to Cape Town, we got to Pastor Hilton's house with Just enough time to grab a bite to eat before going to Youth. At youth they had a World Cup Tournament on Bible Trivia focusing on the book of Matthew. They had us join the teams. I was assigned to one of the teams that lost the week before. we ended up winning that night.

The next day some of the youth took us around town, took us to the ocean, out for ice cream, and out for supper for fish and Chips.

The next day we went to church at the NZMI Church that Pastor Hilton started in cape town. we listened to Mother Rhoda preach, which was really cool.

we then spent the next two days driving around cape town, hanging out. it was really cool, we saw the penquins, the spot where the two oceans meet, as well as an awesome sun set.

we drove to Jeffery's Bay, spent a night in a Back Packers (basically a motel, or B&B)

We then drove to Mthata where we stayed at the sawatsky family's house. unfortunately our plans crashed with plan they forgot they made, so we stayed at their house while they were at a meeting with the Sudermans (colleagues of ours here in PMB). We watched an entire season of Friends, made popcorn and went for a picnic of a course of 2 days

Then we drove the rest of the way home today, overall it was great.

and yes it is only 2 1/2 months left in my time here.

Sisyphus and prayer

In Greek mythology there is a story of Sisyphus. Sisyphus dies, and goes to Hades where he has to push a boulder up a hill before he can go to the land of bliss, but just as the Sisyphus reaches the top of the hill, the boulder slips and rolls back to the bottom, so he has to do it over and over again.
This story came to mind yesterday as I was carting bricks around church property for the third time, and it would be easy to feel like we are being treated like sisyphus. We are constantly being asked to do the same job multiple times either because they need something moved, or we weren't told about a step part way through the job. so the job get's done over and over and over again.
But as I thought about the repetitiveness of the tasks that we are given, I realised that it wasn't pointless doing the same job over and over again. Doing the same job over and over again creates repetition the same way monks recite scriptures in latin over and over again. IT allows allows my mind to wander and for me to contemplate and work out with God my theology, my insterests, my beliefs, my feelings, my calling and my very existence.
Currently God's working out my calling. Yesterday during brick moving, God reminded me of a promise that I had forgotten from years ago that he had made me. He reminded me that my education will be in pastoral ministry because it's going to prepare me for what he has planned for me, but that full time pastoral ministry as I see it, preaching in a church every sunday, isn't what he's calling me to. I had forgotten this, but he reminded me. I still don't know what the call is for me, so I guess I'll have to dig some holes or something.
I'm still not sure what he's going to with my life, I guess I'll just dig some more holes