Pretoria Marathon

The alarm clicked at 3:30 and creep thru the darkened house to get into my running togs. A few minutes later I drive to Emmarentia to meet Big G, my running buddy and we drive in the dark to the Capital City, Pretoria. Such a great early morning atmosphere and we fill in our race details by fire light! By the 6am start the sun is up and the gun goes off. Thousands head out and up the hilly first section. It's a good day and I feel strong. At the 10km mark I pull off from G who is of course doing the 42.2km not the half like me. The run is beautiful and I finish strong taking 2 minutes off my personal best. The amazing thing was catching a 60 year old lady up the hill, seeing an 85 year old lady doing the 10km, and not being able to catch a 65 year old man in the last km of the 21.1! They are the heroes, as well as the large bodies doing the fun run 5km. So blessed to be able to run and I love it!!!

Starbucks and church

Yes it would be nice to have a Starbucks at church, but I am reading "Pour your heart into it" by Howard Schultz the CEO of Starbucks. Great book with many learning points but here are a few which I translate into my line of work. 11 points actually.
1. Have a passion for your product
2. Have a passion for people
3. Have a passion for your job each day
4. Have a passion for quality
5. Train your people well
6. Build with the right people so you build a team
7. Have faith to take risks
8. Overcome challenges
9. Be authentic
10. Don't hype, just be the real thing
11. Romance the product, the customer and your Church Experience
" We're not in the coffee business serving people. We're in the people business
serving Coffee"
Be challenged, I am...

Animals and Discipleship

Every Wednesday I head for the Zoo just because I love the stillness and peace and can spend a few hours in prayer and in the Word. Amazing what God shows you even thru the animals. I started off at the Rhinos who are so built for strength and purpose and don't stop for anything, like Christians. Then to the Hippos who munch all the time like we should the Word of God. They chew on it. That got me thinking about our HP Jozi Faith Journey and which animal would represent each of the 5 steps. Settled on Encounter- Crocodile- as they wait and soak
Connect- Monkeys- always cackling together
Grow- Hippos- always getting fatter
Reach- Birds- they reach out to other animals
Influence- Lions- kings of the jungle and so outstanding

Multiplying discipleship

See people if you disciple one person then that person becomes a passionate disciple of Jesus and then disciples their family, friends, people that they connect with... wonder how many people are impacted by each individual??? So never think that investing in one person is a wate of your time- it isn't. I gave a dad from the school a lift to Rosebank today and we swopped cell numbers. If I can disciple him how many people will be impacted??? Just made me think.

Evangelism and discipleship

Lisa preaching on discipleship said evangelism and discipleship are like Siamese twins- you separate them and both die. Love that. So today we drove 40 km to preach the gospel at a school. The kids listened intently and many prayed to receive Christ as Lord and saviour. Then this afternoon I was so thrilled to see 4 boys in grade 7 waiting for me at Steers. Why? to spend time being discipled. we spoke about the Lord, read the Word and prayed. Two of them were from our church, the other two buddies from school. Trust that God will give those kids at the school disciplers. If the soil of their hearts are right then the Word will take root and produce the fruit of repentance and faith.

Zoo reflections

What a great Christmas gift I received from my wife- a year free access to the Joburg Zoo! So my Wednesday morning includes a few hours sitting in the beautiful surroundings with my Bible, journal and God! Yes He is my best friend and I can hang out there with Him. He speaks thru His Word and in a small still voice as we take time to just sit. The creativity flows, He brings His peace, He leads us to pray for others. Sometimes He speaks thru what one can observe, like the excitement of the Chimps, the motherliness of the ducks and the smile of the monkeys. Jesus did great things, preached the gospel, taught the people, healed the sick and cast demons out of people. We can do the same but the key was He spent time alone with the Father, so if we want to be like Him, we must do the same. Find your spot... I know where mine is!