Sunday Four!

1.       Right now I’ve barricaded myself into my flat – that is as much as is possible when the balcony door and several windows can’t actually be closed fully or locked – because we have some chancy neighbours wandering around Capri. I arrived home to find this guy casually swing himself over the gate of the neighbours across the road: 

      My landlord’s dogs were going mad inside our garden. So, while I was waiting for the baboons to move on before opening the gate, I got to thinking...if it came to a showdown, who would win – baboon or boxer?

2.       Yesterday was a sort of first for me. I and 44 other people (that’s right, 44!), mostly from the States, went to watch the rugby at Newlands. It was the final game for the Stormers in the Super Rugby before the play offs stage. I’ve never been to see a game with that many people, but once the action started I hardly even noticed. We won...of course ;) Now if we can just reach the final, it will be a home game. I wonder how many people I can go with to watch that match!

3.       I’m very excited to go to MBC here in Cape Town tonight! That’s Meadowridge Baptist Church, not Mutley, obviously. It feels weird to be calling another church MBC, but also slightly appropriate because so far it’s the closest church to Mutley that I’ve found. And after the rainiest week and day here it will feel especially like home!

4.       On a serious note, after doing a lot of reading and thinking, I’ve finally woken up to the seriousness of sexual abuse and how it impacts victims’ lives in so many ways (socially, emotionally, physically and spiritually – this penny dropped after several of sermons preached on sex and marriage the last few months). This is now horrifying for me when I see and hear of so many children who are affected by this. Someone told me that in our area, sexual assaults happen every 43 seconds. And the worst part is that it has just become a part of life for people in the communities – in fact this week we caught a group of 4-6 year olds ‘sexing in the bush’ (luckily, this time it was just an innocent game of playing ‘mommy and daddy’). Hopefully, Living Hope as an organisation can start to make a stand against this abuse and help to bring God’s healing and restoration to all who need it.