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I have a clear childhood memory of my father complaining bitterly that there were a couple of Red-chested cuckoos that had their nests within earshot of his office at work. He didn't call them cuckoos though (he used their nickname - 'piet-my-vrou') and he said their calling early in the morning drove him nuts. Maybe you have some of these in your garden ...
I hadn't ever attended a Blue Christmas service before coming to Westville but it's become one of my favourite services of the year. It's a service that acknowledges that Christmas is not just joy and celebration but that it often is also a time of contradictions for so many people.
One our stewards shared a thought in our Exec meeting this week that got us all thinking: If you're carrying a cup of something and someone bumps you, you will spill whatever is in the cup - coffee, water, whatever. In the same way, if we are 'bumped' in life (pressured, provoked, challenged), whatever we are carrying within will spill out. Put differently, Jesus said that the condition of our heart is often revealed by our words ("out of the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks" Luke 6:45).
Good things happen when we are all together! Last Sunday was our annual combined service and we celebrated the second Sunday of Advent with a full church.
First, a huge thank you to Kerry and Ashley and the team of helpers and contributors that made last weekend's Christmas Market possible. It was such a happy day and we're delighted with the funds raised in support of our various mission projects (unofficial figures place the total at just over R20 000).
There has been a frenzy of activity here over the last few days: As I write this, last minute preparations are still on the go for Saturday morning's Christmas Market. Thank you so much to all who have pitched in and contributed in different ways - it's going to be a fantastic day and we hope to see you there!
This week, some of you may have been affected by the power outage in parts of Westville that lasted most of Wednesday and Thursday. We had no Eskom power at the church, but the solar panels generated enough electricity to make sure that we could carry on pretty much unaffected at the office. It wasn't long ago (when load-shedding was still a thing) that we would find ourselves pottering around helplessly for hours, tidying bookshelves, reading, preparing sermons with pen and paper ...
When comedy actors Adam Sandler or Rob Schneider feature in a movie, you can count on the fact that somewhere in the film, the other actor will make a brief cameo appearance and shout out from the middle of a crowd with a thick Spanish accent, "you can do it!" I don't know what the back-story is, but the phrase (with the accent) has entered popular culture (and can occasionally be heard in our home too!)
I feel a deep sadness this week over the outcome of the US election. Although, actually, it really should be none of my business. It's not my country and I didn't get to vote there. What is hard to accept though is that it seems so clearly to me to be the wrong decision. Surely everyone can see that?
There are some significant days in the church calendar this week. 1 November is All Saints Day - a day for remembering and honouring Christian saints and martyrs who have gone before us - a kind of extension to the list in Hebrews 11 if you will. Interesting, All Saints Day was known originally as All Hallows Day, making the night before All Hallows' Eve (or Halloween). The whole dressing up and trick-or-treating thing apparently came many years later :)