March 2014 Eight O’Clock News

found a special settled place and it was with joy that I had my nieces choose special pieces that had belonged to my mom. I now knew that although things carried memories of her, she was rather to be remembered in the words of Stephen Covey: ‘When it comes to developing character strength, inner security and unique personal and interpersonal talents as a child, no institution can or

ever will compare with, or effectively substitute for, the home’s potential for positive influence’. Finally, at 22h30 I made the final trip in the car to my new home, extremely dirty, fatigued but happy. The cats complained but the dogs were calm and trusting. It made me think of my relationship with God. I’m cat-like when I resist His plans for me and think that I can do things in my own strength, forgetting that I am safe because He is always with me. Fortunately, mostly more dog-like, I hold dear the words of Corrie Ten Boom: ‘The centre of His will is my only safety’. My dogs were wonderful in the way in which they settled in the new home, as long as I was near, they were content. The dachsie just had to get used to having an upstairs and that ‘mom’ was still near even if she was upstairs, so no squeaking needed! Meister Eckhart said: ‘God is at home, it’s we who have gone out for a walk’. I therefore feel so blessed by God’s provision and tender loving care that I can joyfully corrupt Emily Dickinson’s grammar and change the ‘t’ in thou to a capital: ‘Where Thou art, that is home’.

‘Is your place a small place? Tend it with care; He set you there. Is your place a large place?

Guard it with care! He set you there. Whate’er your place, it is not yours alone, but His

who set you there’. (John Oxenham).

- Cheryl Anderson

Home, Sweet Home Many of you remark on my travel articles

but I can assure you that I am equally happy spending time at home. At the beginning of January, I moved house after having been 20 years in the same home, only the second place since I turned six. It was an exhausting task of packing up, sorting, de-cluttering and decision-making. However, at the start of the process that began out of an unpleasant security incident, I asked God for His guidance and blessing on the plans that I wished to bring to fruition. While packing up I came across a heart-shaped fretwork-framed photograph of my paternal grandparents that my father had made. My father, who went home to Jesus before I was old enough to know him, appeared to have valued his home so much that he made this frame for his parents’ photographs and ‘Home Sweet Home’ was carved into the frame. Rather kitsch some might say, but in keeping with what I have been told about him, a man of great sensitivity who knew what was important in life. As I packed up, memories flooded back of my childhood home and I knew that it was best to focus on what was ahead, the excitement of my new home awaiting me. Sam Ewing wrote: ‘When you finally go back to your old home, you find that it wasn’t the old home that you missed but your childhood’. So, as with my previous two homes, it will be my childhood and early adulthood. ‘Never make your home in a place. Make a home for yourself inside your own head. You’ll find what you need to furnish it—memory, friends you can trust, love of learning, and other such things. That way it will go with you wherever you journey’. Tad Williams could have written this for me! So in packing up, I also found that I was able to let go of things that I moved with 20 years ago from my childhood home. The memories had solidified and

March 2014 8 am Service, Christ Church, Richmond Road, Kenilworth Telephone 021-797-6332

News The Eight O’Clock

March 2014 Eight O’Clock News

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Since we retired at the beginning of 2013 we

have enjoyed worshipping at the 8 am Sunday service at Christ Church. In many ways coming to Christ Church is a coming home but much has happened since we were last here in 1978. In 1978 Mike was a Parish Worker on the staff at Christ Church. Ernie Ashcroft was the Minister in Charge and David Prior the Parish Rector. We lived upstairs in St Anne’s, then a rather ramshackle building. Claire Nye (Hunter) lived with us while doing a gap year at Christ Church. Christine Dare and Woodstock (her dog) lived downstairs. At the end of 1978 Mike was ordained as a deacon by Archbishop Bill Burnett and we moved to Emmanuel Church. We had both studied at All Nations Christian College in the UK. The last 34 years have been spent serving in three different parishes in Cape Town—Emmanuel Wynberg, All Saints Plumstead and St Andrew’s Newlands. Each of the three parishes has contributed in very different ways to a very enriching experience of the goodness and faithfulness of God. We have been blessed with three children who love the Lord and three grandchildren who are a delight. Retirement became a reality at the beginning of 2013. Lynne was the principal of St Luke’s Educare (behind St Luke’s Diep River) for 22 years. Through the generosity of parents we were able to buy a home in St Catherine’s Road, Plumstead. It is a special joy to have a home which is ‘our own’ and Lynne has worked hard to get the garden established. Mike is the labourer. Retirement is a release from carrying the load of responsibility. It is a treat to be able to worship together in the congregation without worrying about how things are going. Lynne is volunteering at the Shine Centre, helping children to read. During 2013 Jeremy Jobling invited Mike to look after the 10 am Wednesday service at Christ Church. This has been a gift as he enjoys the discipline of preparation and ministry. This year we have been looking at the New Testament teaching on prayer. The service includes Holy Communion and is followed by an enjoyable tea in the Bruce Evans Room. Mike also preaches at St Peter’s Mowbray once a month. Tennis is an important part of our lives. We usually play three times a week so it keeps us fit. We also enjoy the camaraderie and banter of friends at the tennis club. Our son Andrew and his wife Nancy recently returned to Cape Town after working in London for four years. Lynne is especially appreciating having one grandchild in Cape Town. Levi is nine months old and thriving. The other two grandchildren are twins (a boy and a girl) and they turn six at the end of February. Sadly for us they live in Maidstone in Kent. We hope to visit them again in August. Thank you for the welcome you have given us at Christ Church. We have enjoyed meeting some old friends and also

Lynne and Mike Keggie seeing how things have moved on and how God has blessed this community. The staff at Christ Church has been very welcoming and we do want to give all the support we can to Rob and Sue Taylor as they settle in to leadership here.

If it fits...

Defining God When a mathematics lecturer was asked to define God he replied, “God is a circle whose centre is everywhere and circumference nowhere”. - Voltaire, sent in by Sheila Clow

This Joke has been Vetted by Edith Sher !

A priest says to his friend, the rabbi, that he has a

perfect way of eating for free in restaurants: ‘I go in at well past 9 o’clock in the evening, eat several courses slowly, linger over coffee, port and a cigar. Come 2 o’clock, as they are clearing everything away, I just keep sitting there until eventually a waiter comes up and asks me to pay. Then I say: I’ve already paid your colleague who has left.’ Because I am a man of the cloth, they take my word for it, and I leave.’” The rabbi is impressed, and says: Let’s try it together this evening.” So the priest books them into a restaurant and come 2 o’clock they are both still quietly sitting there after a very full meal. Sure enough, a waiter comes over and asks them to pay. The priest just says: I’ve already paid your colleague who has left.” And the rabbi adds: And we are still waiting for the change!”

- Origin unknown, sent in by ...

March 2014 Eight O’Clock News

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Maureen Rycroft 23/4/23—2/2/14

Lorna Thompson (middle) and I (far right) first

met Maureen (left) at a Seniors’ Tea Party and were asking the usual questions, Are you an 8 or 10 O’Clocker? Maureen said that she was heartbroken because she could no longer attend at 8 am. Lorna and I agreed to fetch her every Sunday at 7.30 am. Maureen was overjoyed and could not stop kissing our hands! So, every Sunday, come rain or shine there was this little figure in a huge garage waiting for us. Thus began a routine that gave us great joy—not difficult in Maureen’s company—she was so full of love for everybody and everything. Apart from her family, her great joy was Tuesday evenings when Barbara (Bowden) took her to the Healing Service. She loved everything to do with CCK. When I moaned about Amazing Grace being sung to a different tune, she said she didn’t mind—it was all so lovely. When later we sang the Doxology to a different tune, I didn’t dare moan! After three mini-strokes, Maureen got too frail to come to church and was put in Sherwood Home. On my visits to her I

noticed that, while frail, she was getting stronger and I asked her if she would like to attend church again. Her little face lit up like a Christmas tree so I fetched her every Sunday. The nurses were wonderful and put her wheelchair

into the car. At the church the carguards were very helpful and helped her out of the car, into the wheelchair and wheeled her right up to the church door. At the end of the service they were there to see her safely back into the car. This worked very well until one Sunday I noticed how she had deteriorated but she was adamant in wanting to attend church. She slept throughout the service, waking only to receive communion. She died the following Sunday. Maureen was a most wonderfully happy person and I feel privileged to have known her even for such a short time.

- Jackie Mellor (Maureen, Lorna and Jackie were

also known as The Golden Girls of CCK)

Grace from God My son Murray and his wife, Lee, and three year old

Connor live on a fairly remote nature reserve on the southern edge of the Nauklauft-Namib conservation area about 100 kms from Sossusvlei, about half an hour’s drive from other humans and about 2½ hours drive from Marienthal—the nearest centre with good medical facilities. Although the roads are mostly fairly good, they are all dirt roads and quite tricky when wet. My husband and I visited them in June 2013. What magnificent scenery! God’s awesome creation! Soon after the visit, they announced that they were expecting a second child. They travelled to Swakopmund fairly regularly for scans and check-ups because that’s where they arranged for the baby to be born. There were also a couple of interim visits to a doctor in Marienthal as the pregnancy advanced. Eventually it was decided to have an elective C-section two weeks or so before the due date to avoid the chance of something unexpected happening since medical help was so far away. When I asked about contingency plans, Lee told me a medical helicopter could collect her within 45 minutes. Small comfort for this grandma! So while Lee was pregnant I prayed that, given the geography, whatever befell and were the circumstances of the child’s birth, the birth, the child and the mother would be safe. I didn’t feel I could dictate to God how the birth should happen but I felt I could ask for it to be safe and in God’s capable hands. As a Christian, I believe Grace, as in Gods’ grace, speaks of generosity, goodness and loving kindness. My husband

grew up with the understanding of it being the power of God. So I guess what I was praying for was for God’s grace in all those senses of the word, to surround this birth. The C-section was scheduled for 20/2/14 and they were to be in Swakopmund by 16/2 at the latest. Late on the afternoon of 13/2 Lee’s waters broke and she was advised to get to Marienthal as quickly as possible. By 19h00 the baby was safely delivered by C section—the umbilical cord wrapped around the baby’s neck. She would certainly not have made a home delivery! They have named her Grace Christine—a name Lee just liked the sound of. Even though Lee and Murray intend no religious meaning to the name, I know the birth was exactly that—by God’s grace—and I have certainly reminded them of the fact. Lee never knew that Murray’s paternal grandmother was called Grace Tindall or that his paternal grandfather’s birthday was on 13/2! It all seems just so right—so very much in God’s capable gracious hands!

- Wilma Tindall

March 2014 Eight O’Clock News

HAPPY SPECIAL BIRTHDAYS

To

Estelle King (15/3) Yvonne Gsell (20/3)

We saw His glory, glory that is His as the only Son of the Father, full of grace and truth. (John 1:14)

4

On the Road to the Cross A series of Lenten

Meditations

In preparation for Easter,

six Lenten Meditations will be held in the church from 1-2 pm on Tuesdays in Lent: 11, 18 and 25 March and 1, 8 and 15 April. Six people (Sally Argent, Judy Everingham, Wendy Gunn, Judy Sewell, Colleen Sturrock and Denise Wood) will lead participants along the road to the Cross. All welcome. Bring bible, journal and pen.

An Invitation to Sacred Music The first 2014 Philharmonia Choir concert:

Crucifixion (John Stainer and Gloria - Antonio Vivaldi)

At Bishops Chapel, Campground Road, Rondebosch on Saturday 8 March at 8 pm.

Tickets R100 (includes programme) available from Lorna at tickets@philchoir.co.za

or telephone 021 715 6710.

Conductor: Richard Haigh Organist: Grant Brasler

Soloists: Elsabe Richter (soprano) Vasti Knoesen (alto)

Levy Sekgapane (tenor) George Stevens (bass)

Book Alert !! The four books reviewed in the

last This Life Magazine are now available in the Resource Centre. Time to pay us a visit?

- Theresa Keays

Claire May Born in the Eastern Cape, raised in

Natal, and eleven years in London, didn’t fully prepare me for the beauty of the Cape. I have lived in many different houses, and tried my hand at many different jobs but all the while having God guide my steps; even in the times when my faith wasn’t very strong—probably especially then! After a few wayward years, the Lord led me straight into a thriving little church in South West London, where I recommitted my life to Him, and realised the meaning of fellowship and spiritual family. I discovered my passion for people and serving Him. Sometimes God’s guidance has taken me on a slow road and without a view and other times it’s been a fast and exciting journey—most notably the time He led me to a farm in Brazil for six months to visit a missionary friend who needed an extra pair of hands and listening ears, before even she knew she would need it. I am not sure which journey of guidance is more difficult—the slow one that requires a lot of patience and trust, or the exciting / slightly scary rollercoaster journey, a bit like the Israelites in the desert and Jonah and the whale. I have met many people over my years of moving and ministry and I am so amazed at God’s intricate creation of making us all so different. Different people with different journeys and struggles, but all with the same purpose—to love the Lord our God with all our heart, with all our mind and with all our strength; and to love our neighbour as ourselves. I am so enjoying being a part of this amazing Christ Church family and getting to know everyone better. Thank you for being so welcoming.

- Claire is CCK’s Courses and Events Coordinator

Jean Westwood and her Special Birthday Gift !

I love reading about the people who sit in the pews around me. Once I’ve read about them I see them with different eyes, as if something has opened up. - Jeanette Harris

March 2014 Eight O’Clock News

5 The CCK Away-Day

Birthday Girl, Liz Engel

March 2014 Eight O’Clock News

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Who Said…? * If this is not so, who can prove me false and reduce my words to nothing? * If this be error, and upon me prov’d, I never writ, nor no man ever loved?

- Sent in by Liz Wanliss

Jeanette Harris I was born in a castle in Scotland, not

because my parents were aristocrats, but because Airthrey Castle was turned into a maternity home during the second world war. My South African mother and Scots father met when he was in the Royal Navy stationed in Durban. I was four months old when they returned to Durban and I had a very happy childhood in Malvern. There was lots of space to play and ride my bike, lots of friends (all those post-war babies!), and an abundance of bananas, lychees, paw-paws and mangoes. In 1958 I became a Christian when my class teacher started a Scripture Union group. A few years later a friend took me to her youth group. Initially my mom was reluctant to let me go because she felt the friend’s parents weren’t always particular about where she went, but eventually she gave in, with a set of instructions. That evening was the beginning of a whole new phase of my life. It was a Christian Brethren group, run by Ray and Iris Aitchison, who went on to play a very significant role in my life. From the first I felt so at home there and soon became part of the fellowship. I met warm, hospitable people, many of whom became life-long friends, and I grew as a Christian. And my mom was reassured! When I was 15 my dad died after a three-year struggle with cancer and the people in that Brethren group were an amazing support to our family at that time. Four years later my mom died suddenly in her sleep. By then I was 19 and in my second year of nursing at Addington Hospital. I had to make all sorts of decisions regarding my fifteen year old brother and our home. It was a very difficult time but again the Brethren fellowship supported me in so many ways. My brother went to live with the Aitchison family who had by this time moved to Stanger where Ray was principal of the local school (and, interestingly enough, it was the school my mom had attended). I had happy years at Addington, making many friends through my involvement in the local Hospital Christian Fellowship. While there I met my first Christ Church (CCK) contact, Jessica Blades (now McCarter) who was training as a Sister Tutor. That was followed by six months at Murchison, a Brethren Mission Hospital near Port Shepstone. It was quite something adjusting to patients who only spoke Zulu. I went there full of the confidence of the newly-qualified and left having gained far more than I ever gave. Added to that was another group of wonderful friends. Then followed midwifery training at Grey’s Hospital. I loved living in ’Maritzburg. Just before I went there Ray Aitchison moved to a new post in education and he and Iris bought a house within walking distance of the hospital. What a lovely surprise from God that was for me! A home from home. The following year I realised a dream—to return to Scotland and meet all the Scots relations for the first time. I worked in the Victoria Infirmary, spent time with family and new friends, and did lots of travelling. While there I realised God was calling me to return to Murchison Mission and eventually did so, thinking that was where I would spend the rest of my life. God certainly does have some surprises in store for us! Two years after my return to Murchison, Jim, whom I’d met a few years previously, returned from Bible College in Australia to work as an evangelist a few kilometres down the road. We got married in the mission chapel in March 1974. Just before our wedding Jim took a series of meetings at the Baptist Church in Graaff Reinet.

While he was there there was a major flood (way beyond showers of blessing!), the river surrounding the town burst its banks and the bridge collapsed. Jim was stranded and not sure if he would get back in time for the wedding. There were some tense days but he eventually did. The church invited Jim to be their pastor and in October that year we moved to Graaff Reinet. Iain

was born the following year. We were new in the pastoral ministry and new at parenthood. Quite a combination! We used to go to minsters’ fraternals in Port Elizabeth where we met the Rev John and Shirley Large, whose daughters we later met at CCK—Hazel Large and Colleen Sturrock. We always seem to do things the other way around. After three years in Graaff Reinet (where this Brethren girl had to learn to be a minister’s wife and my Afrikaans was greatly improved), Jim went to do further studies in the Baptist College in Johannesburg. Living near Hillbrow was quite a shock after being in a town where there wasn’t even a traffic light! That was the start of a life of perpetual study for Jim. He’d left school before matriculating, and when we got married I was more educated than he was. Since then he’s done a UNISA degree, a Masters at UWC, and a PhD at UCT. I have been left far behind in the educational stakes! Our next move was to Kingwilliamstown. Jim lectured at a college where black Baptist ministers were trained. Heavy apartheid days. The local Baptist churches were very segregated so we lived between two worlds. Jim travelled 30 kms to the college in the independent state of Ciskei each day. I did some English tutoring at the college, but was mainly at home with our small children while Jim spent his day in a ‘foreign country’. By this time David had arrived, delivered at the local hospital by Joan Godding (mother of Dot Wilkinson), who became a great friend. And now Dot and I worship in the same church. Joan would have been amazed! Jo’burg beckoned again, and in 1982 Jim was inducted at Emmanuel Baptist Church in Florida. I learned so much about leadership during those years and was involved in women’s ministry. I laugh now when I recall how I was persuaded to participate in a debate where I had to argue for ordination of women, whether that was my view or not. The research was fascinating and the debate heated. I never dreamt that one day I would be part of a denomination where women would preach and be ordained priests. Cape Town was still ahead of us. We were totally unaware of just how radically our lives would be changed in the next few years...

- Jeanette Harris [Part 2 will follow in April]

Jeanette and Jim celebrate 40 years of marriage on 16 March. Jeanette has also offered to be a sub-editor on the News!!

March 2014 Eight O’Clock News

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Our Very Own CCK Hero

Alison Kempton-Jones sent out an email late

last year asking us to pray for Susan McPetrie. She had fallen on the mountain and had badly broken her leg. The email said John had carried her off the mountain. I know John as a big strong man with a very loving heart for his family, but the thought of him carrying his tall wife off the mountain moved me so much that I wept. There was no indication of where this had happened and if they were alone or with others. I kept going outside and looking up at the mountain and wondering… How many men would have had the strength to

carry their beloved wife who had to be in severe pain and shock for (I have heard since) about 800 metres with many stops along the way? What I hadn’t known was that he carried her on his back. John sometimes used to talk to me about his elderly father when I was in the CCK centre. Recently, I was told, he had his family to tea—wife in wheelchair, father in wheelchair, father-in-law in wheelchair (or was it his mother-in-law?), and I could picture John with his usual cheerfulness and grace managing a tea party which must have been a delight for those present! [You are the most amazing man and we are so blessed to have you at CCK.]

- Di Hoffa

The Earth is the Lord’s and Everything in it (Psalm 24:1 )

I have recently been to the Kgalagadi Transfrontier

Park. God’s creation was evident in all its glory and the question of why such beauty kept repeating itself to me.

Why the deep ochre of the rolling dunes contrasted with the soft pale green of the waving grass?

Why the luminosity of the yellow Devil’s thorns’ flowers carpeting the bush floor as far as the eye

could see? Why the striking patterns of grey, black and white

of the proud gemsbok? Why the awesome beauty of a gathering storm, the thunder clouds boiling up into huge towers on the

horizon; the sky darkening to a deep purple; the lightning flashing orange and pink and gold;

the smell and sound of the rain advancing across the pans as we all rushed to close car windows

and doors and tent flaps? Why the breathtaking and improbable red of the

crimson-breasted

shrike and the iridescent blue of the lilac-breasted

roller in flight? Why the black and white polka-dotted chameleon? Why the glowing amber eyes of the huge male lion

blinking unconcernedly at his audience? Why the exotic perfume of a flowering bulb in the

middle of the thorny bushveld? Why the soft and alluring “prrrt” of the Skops owl

in the peace of the night? Why such extravagant beauty?

Because our God is the God of a creation more wondrous and lovely than we can ever imagine or comprehend and it is pleasing to Him.

- Di Duncan [By the time you read this, Margie & Willie Hare,

David & Yve Leslie, Beth Mackrill, Di Hoffa, Carol Parker and

Ev Els will be in the Kgalagadi. Thank

you, Di, for your timing !]

March 2014 Eight O’Clock News

Editorial Team Tel. e-mail**

Ev Els 021 696 0336 emichael@iafrica.com

Cheryl Anderson 021 715 4233 canderson@beckman.com

8

I have two ginger cats—Timothy and Thomas (right).

Thomas is large, phlegmatic, and undertakes no action before he ponders long and hard on how to get what he wants without moving. He has a pathetic meow, spoken rarely which is a blessing as it does not match his image. Timothy is much smaller, fast, very cuddly and has numerous meows, my favourite being the one he rolls it into a merrrrrrrrrrrowwwr. They were rescued together from a man at a traffic light by a friend of ours who kindly donated them to our household ten years ago. They are a joy to me. Hold that thought… At the end of January I was in my monthly sharing group with three women who are way ahead of me in listening to God. I was bemoaning the fact that I find it so difficult to establish a time of reflection and listening to the Lord in the morning (by far the best time for me), the battle of the blanket either holding me down or the thought of something needing to be done catapulting me out of bed. They were all very caring in sharing with me what God had put on their hearts. While the last person was speaking, I found myself having a conversation with God in my head and heard Him suggest very gently, ‘why don’t you just try it?’ So I did. I asked my housemate to knock on my door when she came downstairs in the morning as I wanted to spend time with God. Not once has she knocked but better still, she has brought me a cup of coffee—and Timothy, who has taken to waiting outside the door till the coffee appears. (I put my door on a very short hook to keep out the cats at night, especially Thomas who has perfected the art of ‘how to head-butt a human at 4 am’). A friend (quite unrelated to the above) mentioned Brennan Manning’s The Relentless Tenderness of Jesus in an email and I found it in the Resource Centre—and what a gift from

God! The book grabbed my interest and I read it, pray over it and enjoy God’s Presence in it. Enter Timothy…

Timothy insists on sitting on my lap and gently nuzzling my hand until I stroke him (ad infinitum). When he’s decided he’s had enough strokes to be reassured that his human loves him unreservedly, he settles down, closes his eyes and simply enjoys my company. (I often think of John Atkinson during this time as ‘on the one hand’ I hold my coffee and ‘on the other hand’ I stroke the cat—and I need another

hand to hold the book.) I realized early on that Timothy was being used by God as an object lesson for me—when I couldn’t hold the book, I just enjoyed stroking him and focusing on God’s Presence with me and His unrelenting love for me which far exceeds anything I feel for Timmy. Then as I read, the Holy Spirit uses that focus to speak through the text. In the Foreword of Brennan’s book he is asked by Larry Crabb, How are you different after getting away for a [retreat] with just you and the Lord? Brennan answered, I don’t know what it does for me. I’ve never thought much about that. I just figure God likes it when I turn up. So I have turned up every morning (barring Sundays when I have to get up in the middle of the night to get to church at 8 am—how did I manage those early mornings in nursing?) and God has always been there to welcome Timmy and me. I have been blessed beyond any expectation—and when Timmy sits on my lap when I watch TV or play Sudoku, God reminds me that He’s always around. God loves you (and me) just as much as He loves His Son, Jesus Christ. Exaggeration? Read John 17:23, 26.

- Ev Els [If you would like to share something you are reading,

please send it in—we would love to hear from you]

Reading with Intention

In your relationship with one another, Have the same attitude of of mind Christ Jesus had. Who, being in very nature God, did not

consider equality with God something to be used to His own advantage; rather, He made Himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant,

being made in human likeness, and being found in appearance as a human being, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to death—even

death on a cross! - Philippians 2:5-8

- Origin unknown, sent in by

Margaret & Peter Barrett