Bonfire

If you are a regular here or if you know me then you may be familiar with my affinity with fire. Some of my fondest childhood memories involve bonfires that we would have in the 'wilderness' behind the fence of our back garden with the challenge of making a fire big enough that you could start another fire the following morning with just the hot ashes - I remember once having a fire on our patio, I could not have been older than 10, the fire got so hot that the concrete slabs expanded and then began to crack up, the pressure got so great that the concrete actually exploded - spitting pieces of red hot concrete in any direction.

The dual nature of fire. It has the power to utterly destroy, take life and cause tragedy ~ yet if treated with respect; brings warmth, produces electricity, cooks your food, heats your water, brings community together and is an awesome sight to behold. One of the lectures this week, entitled 'the fear of God' described God in this manner and it is a metaphor I can get behind, I love fire and I love God - simple enough.

Sitting around a camp fire last week with guitars playing and people singing (unfortunately 'kum by aah'  was not in the repertoire but not to worry there is plenty of time for that with many more fires to come)  brought to mind the togetherness that fire compounds in people and this is one of the main reasons that I like fire so much -I have long held that the best conversations are had round an open fire.

 In fact we were singing 'Bambelela' here which, somewhat ironically, I learned in England before going to South Africa despite it being a traditional South African song.

Oh and another thing on fire - it's not bad for photos  ...

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Rain

Rain has been, quite litterally, an every day occurance for me while living in England, a consistant mid to high 20's is a welcome change but what is so much better in South Africa than England is the Rain. (No I haven't gone insane - don't worry)

Let me explain - rain in England is pretty consistant, it wouldn't be unusual to have an entire week of rain which is cold and drizzly - this is the worst kind of rain. In South Africa on the other hand it is rare, comes with alot of lightning, is VERY heavy, warm and only lasts a day or 2 or even some times just 10 minutes. This rain is pretty rare in England meaning I usually take the opportunity to walk in it when the occasion arises so of course when the heavens opened here I was ready in swimming shorts and t-shirt within 5 minutes.

I actually went for the walk with a South African who has quickly become a good friend. Needless to say within 2 minutes we could not get any wetter. It was around this time that we ended up at the pool as I needed to drain it to stop the levels getting too high when it rains (I have been put in charge of pool maintainence) So as I stood by the pool side with the pump not working due to a power cut (probably a result of all the lightning) I took one look at my friend and dived right on in. To my wanderment the pool water was significantly warmer than the air temperature so he joined me and we swam for about 5 minutes with lighning bolts striking near by all the while - then we went back and dried out selves off - The End.

Unfortunatley cameras and rain don't mix so well so there are no pictures of the above adventure - they are of the first lot of rain we had here which only lasted 5 minutes tops though as you can see was still enough to drench anyone caught in it - oh and it seems the base is not exactly build to withstand rain

 ... yeaaa. That took quite a little while to sort out - Still, made a good picture so I wasn't too worried about it.

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Friends#1

A closer look at some of the amazing people that I am sharing the next 6 months with, I have only been here 2 weeks and I am already know as the 'camera guy' which I am quite happy about, people are getting used to the fact that it is not in my interest to take bad photos of them and as a result tend to freak out less when a large lens is pointed their way.

It is amazing how quickly it is possible to get to know quite a few people - and of course make friends - when you spend a lot of time with them, sharing a room and every meal time with other people takes me back to my boarding school days which are very fond memories.

I have heard more life stories since being here than in any other 3 week period of my life and it is amazing to hear how vastly different our backgrounds are and how phenomenally consistent God is to all of us.

We are currently doing 6 weeks of training called 'inside out' the idea being that we deal with that which we have kept inside, and bring it out into the open in order that transformation might take place. As you might imagine it is pretty intense. It is so amazing to watch people going through this process and seeing their whole demeanour change as deep healing takes place - it is one of the most profound miracles I have witnessed and those of you who know me will understand the weight of that statement.

So what have I actually done over the past week?

• Heard the most insane (wicked awesome) conga playing ever
• Taken 2(!) trips to the local mall the first of which was intensely boring as I had no money
• Purchased a mosquito net! (suck on that mosquitoes - oh wait you can't cause there is a net in the way!)
• Made 2 very close friends - I know quick work ehy? (p.s this was a massive answer to prayer thank you to people who prayed)
• Had a candle lit meal?! (More photos may feature)
• Lead a bible study on 1 John 1
• Attempted to no avail to call home a couple of times (If you are reading this PICK UP THE PHONE!) 
• Took around 100 photos
• Laughed - ALOT
• Took a walk (and a swim) in the rain (yes there was rain and yes there will be a blog post on it cause it was amazing and unfortunately no I don't have a picture of me walking in the rain because it doesn't mix with cameras too well)
• Fried enough bacon to feed 70 people - bacon is so good.
• Had a bonfire!
• Witnessed more lightning that I have done in England in 20 years of living there.
• Saw the sick healed (?!?!)
• Loved Life
• Glorified God

And now some photos where I actually feature - quite rare.

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Welcome

What's up bloggosphere? So following on from where the last post left off I was picked up from Joburg airport straight away and was driven straight to the South Africa OM base which is just outside Pretoria.

 It was a good journey though I was very thirsty having been on an air conditioned plane for  11 1/2 hours (it drys the air out ALOT) followed by a 40 minute journey in a very hot car when I am dressed for English sub 0 temperatures so I had a good chat with one of the base leaders who also happens to be a fellow photographer!? She shoots Nikon but everything will be fine keep your hats on. We pulled into the base which was more spacious that I was expecting (not that I had many expectations I had never really thought what it would look like.)

 It was a lot like arriving at school once again - a whole bunch of new faces and names except almost none of them have English as their first language - such an insane environment! I can't imagine what it would be like to be in this already fairly intimidating environment with a language barrier on top of that. Anyway I introduced myself and went about getting to know people. Fortunately for me I was not the last to arrive - The South Africans had not yet arrived (they comprise 50% of the team) so the group scaled as I got to know people which was a nice manageable pace. I think I could now tell you most of the names of the 50 people on the team though I sometimes struggle remembering the ones that I cannot pronounce! I am amazed that I have managed to learn names so quickly and am very glad - life here would be difficult without being able to call people by name. Day 1 we were all informed that curfew was at 10pm when lights had to be out ( not something I was bothered about having not slept much on the flight) and that we would be meeting at 6 am so a 5:30 start would be necessary - less chuffed about that one. 6 Am the following morning I was surprisingly able to remain conscious but all the same I was very thankful for the abundance of normal tea and an instant hot water machine!

 It is nice to have a few home comforts. Talking of which the strangest thing happened when talking to one of my Swiss team mates having the same conversation as with everyone else - what's your name? where do you come from? Upon hearing that I was from Bristol she suddenly comes out with 'Gurt lush!' which was more shocking that all of the difference in culture landscape climate and pace of life I had experienced so far. She has just 4 weeks ago finished working for Carmel Church Bristol for 3 months. It is a small world after all ehy?

However I wouldn't want you all to think that I am not experiencing the 'true Africa' I have been eaten alive by mosquitoes, experienced mould in the showers, had to kick lizards out my shoes in the morning and woken up to the most amazing sun rise I have ever seen.

O.K Far too many words not enough pictures ...

As usual - best til last

Flight

I am currently typing out this blog post in note pad at exactly 37000 feet acording to my in flight information screen. I figure there are few other opportunities that I will get to do this and the in flight films are not that great so why not (I just watched Green Latern - suffice to say that I am very glad that I paid nothing towards that film whatsoever).

I could of course be sleeping but I am far too excited to be doing that. In the limited number of flights that I have been on in my life this has got to be one of the smoothest - I was in the airport in ample time, I spent almost all of my time in the departure lounge on the phone (making the most of the remaining free minutes on my contract which will cancle itslef in 5 days time) to friends and relatives saying final goodbyes before the 6 month marathon. Following this I entered my nearly empty boarding lounge which I thought was unsurprising given that I was still pretty early but then we started boarding with business class being called through almost as soon as I entered the lounge. within 5 minutes the familes with young children had been called then the section infront of mine ( I have no idea how that section was called seperatley fron business class given that my seat is in the very front of economy?) and then my section of the plane it was at this point that I had the suspiscion that my flight might be quite sparsley populated. Boom! upon finding my seat and double checking that there really are no power points in economy?! ~ yes I am having to type this on the very limited battery time of my laptop, sped on all the more by the fast beats of the 'Church music' album that I mentioned last post and yes you still should buy it if you have not already.

 So powerless (pun very much intended) to do anything about the situation I took my seat. Still texting friends and family at this point I sat looking out the window into the artificially lit night as the occasional snow flake drifted past my port-hole window ( which incidently according to seatguru.com did not exist) 20 minutes past and departure time was drawing all the nearer and the fuselage was not looking any more populated that last time I had looked. At this point I decided to make a journal entry. Yes I keep a very speradic journal of all incredibly important life events and quite a lot of completley meaningless events and a few events whose imporance ranges between the two. So I thought you all might like to see how apauling my handwriting is when I am writing on my lap and am rather excited so here is a picture ..

Don't worry, I have typed it out here so you can see just how bad the handwriting is ...

 '30.01.12 On the plane @ Heathrow airport and it's snowing outside the window . I know that only 11 1/2 hours away is 30oC South Africa and what I hope to be the most life changing 6 months of my life. The flight is looking pretty empty and there are no small children aboard so all is set for an easy + Safe flight through the night. Even managed to take a few sneaky snaps through the window - didn't manage to get any snow flakes in though - would have been a nice contrast shot between Snow ~ London ~ Night

 and Sun ~ Johannesburg ~ Morning. I have just looked across + realised that there is not even one person on the same bulkhead row as me. never been on a flight so empty before. Dream!

and If you are wandering what the random drawing at the bottom is I decided that rather than taking a photo of the random fuselage friends I would be sharing a flight with for the next 11 1/2 hours it would be easier to draw a small birds eye view map of just how empty the plane was with me indicated in the top right and first class above me.

So if you are reading this then yes the flight went smoothly enough for me to have landed in Joburg and have found a way to an internet connection and copied and pasted this text onto the blog. I am now going to stop typing and take the pictures off my camera and edit them for super speedy uploading with the reamining battery life I have left on my laptop which is 77% that is some dang fast typing Ben - well done. P.S. Have just finished editing the first lot of photos (I am expecting there will be a few more when we land I have 44% battery - Speedy editing .Peace.

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