PRETORIA. – “Dis regtig ’n beweging van die Gees van die Here.” Só gesels ds. Dirkie van der Spuy van die NG gemeente Moreletapark oor die geweldige belangstelling wat die Mighty Men’s Conference van mnr. Angus Buchan gaande gemaak het. Van der Spuy sê daar word al lank gebid dat […]
Predikante positief oor Buchan Read More »
At 10pm on the evening of 20 January
2002, I woke up with a light headache. Not thinking much of it, I walked to the
bathroom and took two tablets. When I returned to bed, my husband Kevin
suggested we pray. Soon after praying I felt an electric wave, combined with a
pounding headache, flashing through my body – from the crown of my head all the
way down to my back. I was shivering from the shock and just waited for the
next wave to hit me. Kevin continued to pray and comfort me as I lay there
crying…
Eventually I went to sleep and got up
the next morning thinking nothing of the night before. Though I didn’t really
have a headache, every time I closed my eyes it felt like seasand behind them.
Two days after my late night experience, I went to the doctor. She diagnosed a
headache spasm and sent me for physio. When that failed to relieve the
headaches, she referred me to the hospital for tests. The specialists did a
lumber-puncture, found blood on the brain and booked me for an emergency
angiogram.
I survived a brain aneurysm Read More »
“I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.” Gal 2:20 The biggest Christian event in South Africa’s history
Angus Buchan – Dying to Live Read More »
What happens to your soul when you quit your comfort zone and sign up to serve on a hospital ship in
As the shipboard operating room undulates on swells from a distant Atlantic storm, Tertius Venter repairs his tiny patient’s palate, malformed at birth three years ago. Aboard the Anastasis, an aging hospital ship moored off the Gulf of Guinea, this South African plastic surgeon snips and repairs a reverse double-Z gash in the roof of little Rijab’s mouth. In the background, Venter’s well-travelled iPod plays John Michael Talbot singing St. Teresa of
“Christ has no body now but yours
No hands, no feet on earth but yours
Yours are the eyes through which He looks
Compassion on this world
Yours are the feet with which He walks to do good
Yours are the hands with which He blesses all the world.”
The song reflects an epiphany Tertius experienced years ago following a brutally honest inventory he took of his own comfort-filled life. A dedicated Christian, he loved his two children and his wife of 20 years, Trudi, a high school Afrikaans teacher. In
So why was his soul profoundly unsettled? Tertius, who spoke with me aboard the Anastasis shortly before its de-commissioning, recalled a talk by maxillofacial surgeon, Gary Parker, who had served two decades aboard the Anastasis. Parker explained Mercy Ships’ purpose to bring high-quality health care to the poorest of the poor.
Aboard the Anastasis Read More »
The Olmos prison in
In the mid 80’s Pastor Juan Zuccarelli felt called to prison ministry in
James 1:2 “Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds.”
To count our hurt, pain and struggle as nothing but pure joy, that’s tough! As my parents were Christians and my Dad a pastor of our church, they knew that verse very well. However, on the morning of the December 4th 1982 in Australia, the last two words on the minds of my parents were “Praise God!” Their first son had been born without limbs! There were no warnings or time to prepare themselves for it. The doctors were shocked and had no answers at all!
The whole church mourned over my birth and my parents were absolutely devastated. “If God is a God of love, then why would He let something like this happen? Especially to dedicated Christians?” My Dad thought I wouldn’t survive for very long, but tests proved that I was a healthy baby boy…just with a few limbs missing.
A life without limbs Read More »
Onse Vader wat doer êrens vêr bo in die bloulug is, diese warm dag wil ikke op myse kniege tot U kom bid: Lat U se koningskap tog by ons kom, en lat U se grootheid hier tissen ons staan gemaak kan worre, en lat U se wil gebeure doer
Die Boesman se Onse Vader Read More »
“In the beginning God created the Heavens and the Earth.” Gen 1:1
The heavens are proclaiming the glory of God, and the expanse declares the work of His hands. Night after night the stars remind us of just how small we are and how huge God is. Looking out into the far reaches of the universe, we find a seemingly infinite expanse of mystery and wonder, intricately fashioned by God of unfathomable size and power.
Just a glimpse at one of the billions of visible galaxies He has formed, resizes us. It shrinks us, and this world we call home, to seeming insignificance in an instant. But, as tiny as we may seem, the God who knows every star by name also knows you. And, in the most stunning rescue imaginable, God sent His Son to this spinning planet we call home. The Creator is reconnecting us to Himself with the life that never ends through Christ and His Sacrifice on the cross. We need only look at God’s universe to discover something of the amazing magnitude of His greatness and His grace.
I read somewhere that a person who has a positive restaurant experience is likely to tell three friends, but if he has a bad experience he’ll tell ten.
This year, Circuit City, a national electronics retailer, fired 3,400 of its highest-paid hourly workers so it could replace them with lower-paid employees. By doing so, it expects to reduce its costs by $110 million annually.
Since management had to know that letting go of its most experienced line-level employees – the ones who answer customer questions — would both damage morale and reduce the quality of customer service, it must have concluded that employee and customer satisfaction aren’t critical.
The importance of customer service Read More »
He won’t let anything stand in his path to reach lost souls for Christ. Faith. Many times it was all that Carlo Perez* took with him on his walks through the jungles of Colombia. Evil hides in the underbrush and around almost every corner in the path, but despite the
