As a 14 year old when you are told to “Choose your subjects” for school that would change the rest of your life and possibly your future occupations and studying, you don’t take it too seriously… well at least I don’t think I did.

I did the following and hear is why

English – It was compulsory

Afrikaans – Was that or Zulu… compulsory

Maths – Apparently I needed it in or to go to a University (I barely passed it)

Science- I thought about maybe sound engineering…. I just passed it… literally by 2%

Geography – It was easy so I heard… Which ended up being true, it was my highest mark

Home economics… I was a 14 year old boy, who thought being in a class full of pretty girls and that you didn’t do much writing, but a lot of cooking and eating was a great idea! Because lets be honest, at that age life changing choices are mainly made from three perspectives.

Being Cool and following the latest trends

Girls

Food

Looking at some of people who are a lot older that hormonal 14 year old boys, it seems like they still making life changing choices from those criteria…. i suppose some people don’t grow up…

More than ten years later, I am sitting in Switzerland with YWAM…managing a kitchen!! Its a season that I have committed too till the end of the year. It basically consists of Menu Planning, Shopping, And cooking… who thought memorizing the recipe for a basic roux would have come in handy many many years down the line. Or being able to know what to look out for as far as taste, meal planning etc. I needed those 5 years at school of Home Economics. Yes walking around in an apron at the age of 16 is never ever cool, but wearing an apron next to a pretty girl at the age 16 and cooking with her…well there is always a plus side to the situation. Never mind the fact that doing home ec, means that you are automatically putting your self in the “friend zone” with all the girls in the class… 

But years later, rocking out an apron in a cool kitchen, cooking up a storm and enjoying feeding people… well every other part of that sounds fun, except lets be honest, there is no way to make a apron look cool. 

Its been an exhausting start to Switzerland. Its tough, busy, different culture, and very very very expensive. But on the flip side, amazing to be in a place I know God has called me. And I am loving it. Besides learning what a day off is…and why its important to take it. 

My weeks are always filled, from kitchen stuff to playing a lot of music for various events we have coming up. This weekend I am playing in a Cathedral for a Nations to Nations event that is hoping to see 1000 French speaking missionaries launched into the Nations around the world… So there is a lot that I am involved in, and often at times wondering if I am ever going to get time to make myself a good cup of coffee. But dont fear, I have yet to have instant coffee, there is always enough time to do at least a simple Aero Press cup of coffee.

Thank you for all your support and prayers for me during this time. Sorry its taken me a while to get this news update up. 

Hopefully the next one wont be so far away

So I am back in the Land of Chocolate, Cheese and amazing scenery.

Here are some of my thoughts from the first week…

August 1st… The Birthday of the Nation…

What a cool celebration! Fireworks exploding over Geneva’ and seeing the view from a high point was pretty cool. It was a good way to welcome myself to Switzerland. Almost like God said, Steve my timing was perfect…now look at those fireworks and celebrate… They were super impressive!! Also its a nice anniversary to remember for my time here, the day before Switzerland celebrates there Birthday is the day I arrive…

Gold medal celebrations…

So picture this, A few South Africans in a house in a quiet little village who are all terribly loud on a normal day and then throw a guy called Chad beating some brilliant American called Phelps and you have a celebration that reached decibel levels of almost ear popping…well I am sure it didnt but we all gonna claim it did. Some individuals thought that a massive fight or a fire was in the house and we were all in a state of panic…

Driving and getting lost…

Driving in a new place is often stressful. The signs are slightly different, traffic lights in different places and roads slightly narrower. Doing this in a country where they drive on the right hand side which is not in fact the right side, but the wrong side for us from South Africa… its properly stressfull. Oh well I survived, just need more practice

Cheese and Chocolate

Yes there is a lot of it here… Ill write a blog about it soon.

More stories to come

But thanks for all your prayers and support, its been a good time so far…

Sunday and Monday we drove from my home town of PMB in the province of KZN down to Cape Town. Its a 17 hour drive, we did it over two days, and I was feeling even more stoked to say “Finally! We have arrived!” than I was after that 20 hour plane trip.

The thing is, I was as comfortable as I would be in an economy section of a plane, plus every 2 hours I was able to get out and walk around a bit. Food was avialable, I kept hydrated, and if I wanted to watch a movie or listen to music I had my laptop next to me and I was able to do that. In fact,I was even able to stretch out on a back seat and sleep… In fact I think I was a lot more comfortable than I was in an areoplane.. except those times I got upgraded. But then if I sat in the front passenger seat I would have had more leg room any way… So what was the difference?

Concentration… I did some of the driving. And it takes concentration. You really dont want to kill any one! And it takes it out of you. Now by all means, I love driving, in fact I find it rather therapeutic, going on a country road, great scenery a long the way, just you and the open road… Not like driving on South African Highways when you have some people with that make as much sense as putting a poached egg on a chocolate moose, or as Sir Winston will say… driving around like “An envelope with no address on it” In other words your concentration levels have to rise up even more because these fellow drivers obviously dont have any… I mean in all honesty I am sure there are worse drivers in the world than these guys, but those people are probably bad drivers because they are around the age of 3 and their legs cant touch the pedals or hold the steering wheel, but if 3 year olds could reach the pedals I am half convinced they could drive better than some of the drivers on South African Roads! I have met bad drivers in India that even drive better…

So my conclusion… if you want to road trip through South Africa, take the scenic route!!! Or fly, it takes a shorter time…

Hope Palm Sunday was a special one

How ever I never ever have gotten over the admin of packing! You do get into a routine and you do pack certain bags in certain ways, the same things going in the same spot, same amount of clothes to take you through, same strategy so you know that your bag will be the right weight when you fly…but honestly… I never get excited about it, look forward to it, or even enjoy it…

Packing is a mission!!! 

But for those of you who are going somewhere and want to know what I have learnt over the years here it goes…

1. Find a way to pack your bag and stick with it!! I know I can go onto a domestic flight that allows 20 kg’s check in, pack my back pack in the same way, with enough clothes and essentials and that it will weigh between 17-18 kg’s

2. 1 week of clothes can last you 3 months! Just wash once a week…even by hand

3. Pack coffee making stuff, not every one will have a spot to make a good cup, and so you can whip out your own stuff and make it

4. Stuff socks into shoes…

5. Half the stuff you think you need…you wont! Unpack it… 

Back to the packing I go!! 

And to be honest I always would normally go for chips..because I dont get them often. If i had to cook potatoes I would prefer it roasted, or boiled…not dipped in oil…personal preference.

But now, Im all about the vegetable side dish order…and here is why

1. Its healthier…well kind of, they do put cream in the spineage…

2. You get more options! most restaurants are still with the idea of three veg! Instead of one plate of Chips

3. It makes your plate look all colourful and attractive…which means a lot since we eat with our eyes!! 

4. It takes up more space on your place…you dont feel like you been short changed

5. It fills you up… you don’t walk away feeling like you haven’t eaten anything

6. Its different…

So my thoughts…unless its a classic burger and chips…go Veg… with a good piece of meat, fish or chicken They compliment each other well…

And I thought, Where do I start? I wake up, society says “Achieve” or “Work Hard”, Make Money etc. Religion says… “Do this and that”, in order to survive, we hydrate and eat. But at the end of the day, we all no matter who we are in the world, how rich or poor we are, what country we are in…all of us, every single person in the world, every one… will all be born and we will all die. Simple! 

Where do we start? I think a teacher of the Law in the Bible was wondering the same thing..(Matthew 22:34-40)  What laws do we live by, where does it all begin, and how are we supposed to act in our daily lives. What is the greatest… Jesus simply replied

Love God

Love One Another…

The more and more I look at doing those two instructions from God the more I am not stressed about “What I do” but more looking at “Why I do” 

Its that question we ask out of either curiosity or social politeness or lack of conversation skills… “So what do you do?” And then go from there… we often fall into the following mindsets..

We economically profile them

Socially profile them, (Cool job or not, snob or slob)

And sometimes have a bit of Jealousy or Envy or just Blasé about it

But when you ask “Why do you do…” you automatically find out the heart of the person. The motivation, the reasoning… You dont profile them into categories, you rather realise a bit who they are and the motivating “why” behind it all…

If we all woke up and decided the reason why we going out, sitting in rush hour traffic, heading into a 9-5  job, was not to make money in order to survive… but rather to wake up and the motivation is to take that time we have to just be able to Love God and Love others and the rest of it is keeping our hands busy… if we did that every day, I think Christianity will not be slated as much as it is…rather it will become relavant and more people will want to know Jesus…

“Love from the center of who you are; don’t fake it. Run for dear life from evil; hold on for dear life to good. Be good friends who love deeply; practice playing second fiddle. Don’t burn out; keep yourselves fueled and aflame. Be alert servants of the Master, cheerfully expectant. Don’t quit in hard times; pray all the harder. Help Christians in need; be inventive in hospitality. Bless your enemies; no cursing under your breath. Laugh with your friends when they’re happy; share tears when they’re down. Get along with each other; don’t be stuck-up. Make friends with nobodies; don’t be the great somebody.” (An excerpt from Pauls letter to the Romans (12:10-16), Translated by Eugene Peterson Copyright © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996,) 2000, 2001, 2002 by Eugene H. Peterson

“Let me give you a new command: Love one another. In the same way I loved you, you love one another. This is how everyone will recognize that you are my disciples—when they see the love you have for each other.” Jesus (John 13:34-35)

At the end of the day, I have been to a few funerals, read some Eulogies and some Biographies and yes a Persons greatness and fame is often judged on what they have done or achieved… but you read about the people who knew them, sit and have coffee with those who lost close ones, reflect back on those who you have lost that were close to you…and its not what they have done, but who they were…and why they did it…

So I suppose I look back at my question at the start… Where do I start? Simple Love God and Love Others… and how does that look? Im still trying to figure that out day by day…but the “Why” has probably become a bit different…Ill let you know how it all works out…

Because in reality.. It is so so difficult some days!!!!!

Second thing is that in South Africa we pay for internet bandwith, and when that runs out…u left typing away on your cell phone which takes a lot longer.

Finally some nights I get home late and by the time I sit down to blog, Im tired and over it and keen to sleep…

So tonight, like last night I am uninspired… But looking forward to thinking of topics I can blog about soon…

On the flip side how ever I did realise that I am really starting to enjoy watching some American sports…

Juniper Berries go well with cooking game birds…they also make Gin, but i knew that already

Etroit… French word of the day… Narrow

Designing is harder than i thought i would be

I researched another life coaching article….found out that i should not be in a data anylist position…

And its a mission to try to think of something to blog abt when you uninspired…

Some like to reflect back, and others not so much…

Some could tell you their whole family history, and what the were doing 10 years ago…others, will probably shrug their shoulders and say “i cant remember” and they content with that…

Now I must be honest…Time Line on Facebook which is the new profile lay out that we will all get by default, just as we got used to the old one, and of course they will automatically make changes to security options what people can see and cant see, and once again you have to spend amount of time figuring out how to make your page as public or not as public as you want…

But to go down and now have all my posts and notes on what I have posted over the years available…ya I dont know why! I must admit, I am fully aware of what I post becomes public, and I might have some one read this blog in many parts of the world… But we move on!!! Today i figured out, thanks to Timeline that i joined facebook in March a few years ago…

It amazes me how in a few years even our approach to life has changed, being so effected by social media! Phrases like “is it facebook official?”, “we facebook friends, not real friends” “Yea I was following that tweet” etc… 

Also the more public we become the more people are going to find out about who we are! Some people love this…others…not so much!! I was listening to the radio the other day, and they were discussing the question, “Should you allow your future employee to be your Facebook Friend”…really? Are there really people out there who will want their future employee to check out what they did that weekend, or where they have worked before, or find out their family info! Or that photo they were tagged in at 1am in the morning hanging out with mates with a drink in there hand. Being that was the only drink they had all night, but because of the tired look on their face they could look drunk? But does your boss know that?

Check your account and privacy settings every now and then, and make sure you are happy with what you post…and if you dont want people to see it…dont post it. Simple!!

Design wise! I like it! I have already seen some designers have a lot of fun with the cover photo! Its a really good concept and adds a great amount of individuality to the site!

So hear is to another season of people posting complaints about the new look, and a few months later not complaining any more because its become the norm…

Posted on March 2012….wonder if this post will pop up in a few years time?