my highway to zion

starting my day off with a good cry, thanks to this video. oh, how he loves us!!! glorious :) (thanks zana for sending this to me)

“The branch of the vine does not worry, and toil, and rush here to seek for sunshine, and there to find rain. No; it rests in union and communion with the vine; and at the right time, and in the right way, is the right fruit found on it. Let us so abide in the Lord Jesus.” -Hudson Taylor

I don’t know what it is with me and road trauma these days, but I keep having experience after experience with really bad drivers killing or nearly killing people around them. First it was the old man who died on the road shortly after getting hit by the red sports car. Then a few days later, after work, I passed a body on the road. Clearly a dead one. Apparently an accident occurred right next to the woman, who was standing on the side of the road. She got hit and died. She was 84. Then Monday night I had dinner at a delicious new fish and chips restaurant in Kalk Bay. While we were there, we noticed 3 ladies dancing around in a drunken stupor. As we drove home, we realized we were behind these same ladies driving themselves over the mountain. The car swerved left to right. They turned their blinker on to the left, then to the right, then off again. They slowed down to 20 kilometers, then sped up and drove off quickly. As we followed them over each hill, they would slowly swerve to th...

Every Tuesday night around 7, I see the sunset from the same venue. It’s a beautiful thing. It gets me every time. I get to look out of these HUGE windows in this 2nd story room overlooking Capricorn to my right, and the mountain range of Table Mountain straight in front of me. It is over these mountains that the sun sets each day—at least each Tuesday. I tell all the people I am with “come, look at the sky.” And I always follow it with “we live in the most beautiful place on earth.” We really do. This is beginning to sound like an advertisement for south African tourism. You would be amazed if you saw the sunsets here. the sky is so dramatic, going from bright hot pinks and oranges to yellows and reds. Then you turn your head for 5 seconds and when you look back, the colors are moving over the mountain on their way to bless more onlookers. So, today is Thursday and I happened to be near the same spot I see the sun set on Tuesdays. I noticed it was the same—the same colors and the sam...

the other day I priced tweezers. I don’t remember buying a pair before, and was astounded to see they can be as expensive as a night at the movies! $20.00 for a metal thing that removes small things in our skin? so I settled for the cheap pair. However, I went out on a limb and did something crazy—I bought the kind that are pointed at the ends like pencils. I rarely buy things that don’t seem practical to me, especially when I am broke. But the package convinced me that I needed these sort of tweezers because they claimed they could pull out even invisible hairs from your eyebrows. Wow. I wondered if they could pull other invisible things out of my life: like bad habits and character traits that annoy people around me but I’m completely unaware of. I figured tweezers weren’t going to solve all my problems, but for $4 I confidently left with my razor-sharp pair. I regretted my decision almost immediately. Rather than pulling hairs out, I found they were so pointed that they almost seeme...

Said one traveler to another: “I have come a great distance to listen to the words of the Teacher, but I find his words quite ordinary.” “Don’t listen to his words. Listen to his message.” “How does one do that?” “Take hold of a sentence that he says. Shake it well till all the words drop off. What is left will set your heart on fire.” -Anthony deMello

there is this guy named curry blake. he is considered by some to be an expert on healing, and on the life of this other guy named john g lake. i had not heard either of these names until a few weeks ago. i am involved in a church here that god is really pouring his spirit out on...we've had so many great things happening and really amazing speakers come from all over the world. so, this guy curry blake is coming to my new church in a few weeks time. here is a story from his life. it touched me, after my recent experience with the dead man on the road: When my youngest daughter was 7 years old, she fell from a second story window onto a concrete patio. When I reached her, she was dead. I picked her up and walked around the patio saying, "In the Name of Jesus, you will live and not die." This continued for over five minutes. I walked into our dining room and placed her on the floor, propping her up against a wall. She was still dead, with no heartbeat, and no breath. M...

A few years ago, someone told me to read a story called “the little prince” by the French author Antoine de saint-exupery. I cant remember the significance she thought it would have for my life, but something about my life or personality or journey made her think of the story. I wish I could remember what she said, because last night I saw the book on the shelf at a friend’s house and I asked to borrow it. Have you heard this story? It’s a wonderful tale about a small boy from a tiny planet no larger than a house. He had 3 volcanoes, 2 active and one extinct. He also owned a flower who he loved dearly but whose pride drove him away from her. He traveled to other planets and ended up in the north African desert for one year. he meets the narrator of the story, and a fox who taught him the secret of what is really important in life. One day he walks past a rose garden. He feels pain because his flower had told him she was the only rose in the universe. He is overcome with sadness and say...

The other day I was walking home from the train station. Where I am staying at the moment requires me to cross one of the main roads in cape town. It’s a long straight road where you can see cars coming for miles, at least at the point where I cross. So I’m not totally sure how the story I’m about to tell came about but it’s the first time I’ve ever had my hand on a man’s chest when he died. I took the long way home because I like to walk slow and long these days. If I had taken the short route, I would have seen the man get hit. Why does part of me wish I had seen that? Does that make me morbid or sadistic? It’s just one situation of quite a few these days where I see how little decisions change your life forever. If I had seen that, I would have been highly traumatized and I’m not looking for more trauma. So, maybe God was looking out for me, taking me on the long way home. Maybe I’ve started enjoying the slow, long walk so that I would miss this very moment…if for no other reason. Y...

2 corinthians 2:5-11 If anyone has caused grief, he has not so much grieved me as he has grieved all of you, to some extent—not to put it too severely. The punishment inflicted on him by the majority is sufficient for him. Now instead, you ought to forgive and comfort him, so that he will not be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow. I urge you, therefore, to reaffirm your love for him. The reason I wrote you was to see if you would stand the test and be obedient in everything. If you forgive anyone, I also forgive him. And what I have forgiven—if there was anything to forgive—I have forgiven in the sight of Christ for your sake, in order that Satan might not outwit us. For we are not unaware of his schemes. I think I need an iphone. Or as my dad calls it, a “smart phone”…is that an actual term being used for these phones in marketing circles, or does our parents generation call it that cause it’s “smart”? I’m not sure but I had no idea what he was talking about. the reason I need an iphone ...

i'm starting this new blog right smack dab in the middle of one of the most significant growth spurts of my life. some of the things i talk about might not make sense for those of you not in my brain (thank the lord that's actually none of you!), but for those in my immediate trans-continental circles these days, you'll be able to follow more that most. for those of you i rarely talk with these days, feel free to ask questions...but i'm not going to spend much time backtracking. i'm simply writing from where i'm at now. i'm really in such an incredible season of life. i am learning more about God than i ever knew was possible to learn. he is more real to me than ever before...and by that i seriously mean REAL. the other day i was sitting on the couch having a cry (as common as a cup of coffee for me, and i'm ok with that) and i suddenly felt 100% that i was in Jesus' lap. i wrapped my arms around his neck and sat there crying into his chest. i'm...