The front doorbell went. I got up slowly from my desk. Our front door has glass, and I could see who was waiting at the gate. I noticed it was a stranger and quickly moved to the right so the person couldn’t see me. Most probably, it was somebody begging again. I waited a while […]
Read moreWe’re sitting in the bakkie close to a tower to upload Sunday’s sermon to the cloud. The signal is poor. We’ve been driving around from one tower to the other all day and it’s been frustrating. You get frustrated with yourself, with the internet. Frustrated with anything that may cross your path unexpectedly. A man […]
Read morePeter (not his real name) was walking in the streets of New York, asking customers at street cafes for a piece of pizza. He hadn’t eaten in a long time and was very hungry. He tried with several people, but everybody chased him away. Then he went to a beggar sitting tiredly next to a […]
Read moreThis is the second part of Tert’s story. Herman is writing it down: In the first part of the story, the beggar told of how someone had prayed for him and how he had been cured of alcoholism. “So, how on earth did you find me?” Tert asked him. “Well, you see, I had a […]
Read moreTert told the story of the day he had breakfast with a former homeless person, and Herman wrote it down: “You see”, said the former homeless person, “I was an alcoholic for 18 years. Eight of those years I was living on the streets. I lost my job, my fiancé kicked me out; I basically […]
Read moreIt’s Father’s Day and again I’m awake early. I scroll through my Facebook feed and stop at a wonderful post by a friend in praise of her dad. I quote a few of the 20 things she highlighted: My Dad who starts every meal (three times a day) holding hands and saying grace! My Dad […]
Read moreI saw a cartoon of Moses and his friend fishing in the river. Moses’ line is quite deep in the water, but the stream had dammed up where his friend had thrown in his line, and it was now on a strip of dry land. Moses’ friend looked at him and said: “That’s not funny, […]
Read moreA group of us went to eat at a restaurant in our town. Right from the start I could see something was wrong with one of my friends. As he sat down the words started pouring out. One contract that he had been working on for years was only partly awarded to him. This contract […]
Read moreYou often need a partner to help you finish a task. When I was restoring my 4×4 trailer, I could do most of the work on my own. But sometimes I needed an extra pair of hands. When I had to tighten a bolt and nut in the middle of the body, I could go […]
Read moreWhen animals get hurt, they hide. Maybe because they don’t know what to do about the hurt. Sometimes people are like that too. Especially the strong ones. You’re not allowed to say you’re sick. You have to be the strong one. There’s no time now for sitting down and we simply go on. But that’s […]
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