The Perfect Gift

Goo Goo Dolls - Better Days

What gift are you expecting?

Quoting the song "Better Days" by the Goo Dolls I'll start off by saying: "And you ask me what I want this year, And I try to make this kind and clear, Just a chance that maybe we'll find better days, Cuz I don't need boxes wrapped in strings And desire and love and empty things, Just a chance that maybe we'll find better days" So take these words And sing out loud Cuz everyone is forgiven now, Cuz tonight's the night the world begins again."

Simply because of "the one poor who saved this world," we can look forward to better life, life that surpasses all the material things sitting under our christmas tree's.

For even the Son of Man did not come to serve but to serve, and to be a ransom for many." After reading Mark 10:45 we'll find better days because of a Saviour that was born to die.

Merry Chrsitmas to all and to all a Good Night!

-Lloyd

Some Comic Relief

Seinfeld-The Magic Lugi

Exams have been hectic to say the least. No one said Science was for the faint hearted. One exam to go on Friday. Almost there.

-Lloyd

Take Me Home, Country Road

Look at my room before the start of the seemester...


Look at my room now...


Mom, look away!!!

My final week of exams. Man, this seemester exam's has been brutal! Just had a chem tutorial and it appears that my prof had'nt covered all bases. Here's to a night filled with lots of coffee and studying. Friday the day of my final exam, seems a long long long time away.

-Lloyd

A South African's Survival Guide101 to Conquer the Canadian Winter

Checklist:

1 pair of shoes (you do not want your feet get frozen)
1 pair of the thickest socks I can find in my cupboard
1 pair jeans
1 t-shirt
1 long sleeve t-shirt
1 thick Jersey
1 Springbok's Supporter Scarf
1 Snow Jacket
1 Springbok Supporter Beanie
1 pair of gloves

If you do not posses any of these items, the golden rule, What ever clothes you have, make sure you are dressed in layers of clothing!!!

Forecast for the next three days in an African's perspective, not good!
Today -24, Tommorow -26, Don't know what Wednesday will turn out to be but Thursday, it starts snowing again.

Days like these will make me miss the African Sun!

P.S If you do not need to buy food, stay indoors at all times! Set the Central Heating System to 20 degrees Celsius.

-Lloyd

The Tale of Snow White and the South African Eskimos

Winter has arrived. The snow has landed, it is scorching at -6 Celsius. I have to confess, it has been a while since I have last updated my blog. So let me fill you in.

The first semeester of classes is almost complete (ends this week). My exams take place between the 7th and 15th of December.

Now, today was quite an adventure. Today was the first day in our family's happy history in Canada that we did not go to church because of the snow.

We were headed on our way to church, and the van got stuck! A kind couple helped us out and I thought all was good.

Unfortunantly, it was'nt to be. We decided to go back home and low and behold the van got stuck in the driveway. Last time, I checked
the van is still stuck in the driveway, covered in snow.

I guess, as a family, we need to take lessons from good old grizzle bear. When the winter hits, it is time to go into hibernation.You Stay Put in the Cave Until Spring! There is just no better place than home.

-Lloyd

Walking on the Water

Though on the outset the previous two weeks seemed impossible, I have to say 2 things from the last post:
1) Putting my faith in Jesus was the best decision I could have made. His yoke is good His burden is light. Let me tell ya. Resting, relying on Him is what got me through the past two weeks. If I decided not to trust Him I would have got no where. All my deadlines were met and the midterms and labs went well.

2) I'll be out for the next two weeks (long weekend & tons of studying for the finals in December).

Have fun,
-Lloyd

Sink,Swim or Walk?

We've all heard the saying when the going gets tough.... you'll either sink or swim! Right now I'm about to drown.

I have a Chemistry Exam this Friday. Next Tuesday I have a Biology Exam. The next day I have a 1000 word plus essay on Abortion for English. To put me icing on the cake, I have a Calculus Exam next week Friday. Not, to mention all the lab work that is during the course of next week.

Yet there is hope for me. My life belongs to Jesus. He tells me, drop your anxiety and stress on Me, because I care for you (1 Peter 5:7). My world may begin to spiral out of control but I have nothing to fear. Jesus loves me.

He will help me when I drop my anxiety on Him.It doesn't matter if I'm about to drown. Putting my faith and trust in Jesus is the option. Instead of crashing onto the ocean floor, I will be walking hand in hand with Jesus, just like Peter .

-Lloyd

"God's Work-God's Way"

It is hard to do things God's way because I want to do things my way! How often do I find, time after time that by doing things my way brings dissapointment. Not only that... things could have been better had I chosen God's way. Instead being the stubborn child I am at times, he has to "rock my world a little" so that I'm on my knees, putting him in the center of my life serving his purpose and not my own.

This week was no different. By now after, all the lessons God has taught I still did things my way. If I was obediant, the past two weeks of university world have been great. Instead, doing things my way has brought me despair. Yet he still persists with me and that His Will will be done. Listening to a sermon of Dr. Jeremiah "God's Work-God's Way" rebuked me in many ways but it was truly a blessing. One of the questions he posed: "Do you raise Jesus up in the center of your life?" If you have time, listen to his sermon over the internet http://www.oneplace.com/ministries/Turning_Point/archives.asp?bcd=10/6/2006 (really awesome)!

-Lloyd

The Great Divorce

It has been a while since my Last post. During that time, the University shot me and I had time to recover because of a long weekend (that took forever to arrive)! The occasion was Thanksgiving. Spending dinner with a church family was truly a blessing. Amongst the trauma of university, the beauty of thankgiving dinner, I finally found some time to Read the "Great Divorce" by C.S. Lewis.

The book is awesome and if you have time to spare, this is a must read. Lewis's magnitude as a writer shines through.Most importantly his comprehension of Christianity and of what's to come shines through even brighter. Its like I witnessed that light everyone tells you about, that one light, that shines at the end of the tunnel. (I guess if you are living in Cape Town you'll never see the light as their is always some problem with the generators at the Nuclear Power Plant in Koeberg). Only kidding!

Here's a taste of what you can expect, this excerpt comes from a character in the book teaching Lewis about time with respect to eternity:

"For every attempt to see eternity through the lens of Time destroys your knowledge of Freedom. Witness the doctrine of Predestination which shows (truly enough) that eternal reality is not waiting for a future to be real, but at the price of removing Freedom which is the deeper truth of the two?"

The character later annecdotes, "Ye cannot know eternal reality by a definition. Time itself, and all acts and events that fill Time, are the definition, and it must be lived. The Lord sayed we were gods. How long could ye bear to look (without Time's lens) on the greatness of your own soul and the eternal reality of her choice?"

-Lloyd

A Week that will be Shortly Forgotten...

What a rough week in terms of university . Two Midterms and one 500 word essay on The Status of Feminism. Not to mention the 3 labs that were due. All the the long days on top of that pile and to think I'm only getting started. Barely a month in university. Its a jungle out here!
If you had a similar week, click the headbutt game and release your frustration or stress for that matter!
http://www.break.com/games/zidane_head_butt_game.html .
-Lloyd

Beauty in Suffering 2

SWITCHFOOT - Learning to Breathe


This continues my blog on the Beauty of Suffering. The band's name is Switchfoot(My 2nd favourite rock band. If you now me, you probably worked out that Tree 63 is my No1. Local is lekker (for those Candadians readng this entry "lekker" is an Afrikaans word for "nice/good"!Getting sidetrack, anyway moving on...) Switchfoot is a Christian band that hit mainstream in a big way 3 years ago. The beautiful letdown (album produced in 2003) sold more than 2.1 million copies world wide. If your scared to evangelize to your friends, buy them the album and they will find Jesus. They have never been a band about selling records but rather proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ in their music. Enjoy the live performance and the song. The words for the song are here below:

Hello, good morning, how ya do?
What makes your rising sun so new?
I could use a fresh beginning too
All of my regrets are nothing new

So this is the way
that I say that I need You
This is the way
This is the way

That I'm learning to breathe
I'm learning to crawl
I'm finding that You and
You alone can break my fall
I'm living again, awake and alive
I'm dying to breathe in these abundant skies

Hello, good morning, how ya been?
Yesterday left my head kicked in
I never thought I could fall like that
Never knew that I could hurt this bad

I'm learning to breathe
I'm learning to crawl
I'm finding that You and
You alone can break my fall
I'm living again, awake and alive
I'm dying to breathe in these abundant skies

So this is the way
that I say that I need You
This is the way
That I say I love You
This is the way
That I say I'm Yours
This is the way
This is the way

-Lloyd

Beauty in Suffering

What a week it has been. In short, it has been rough. I don't even want to think of the challenges next week going to bring. I've had to deal with my short comings as an individual, questions of my suffering. On top of that, university has been loaded to say the least (Anyone know anything about "Feminism" English Essay I have to write)! Thats beside the point. How I'm coping?Just fine on my knees and his words rejoicing that my faith develops perserverance and in perservance it may lead to maturity (James 1:2-4). I bought a Lifehouse Album No Name Face (Last week in fact, only recently have I appreciated the albums beauty). The song was entitled Breathing. Little did I realise the beauty in suffering when we aknowledge our dependency on God.

I'm finding my way back to sanity again
though I don't really know what I'm gonna do when I get there
and take a breath and hold on tight
spin around one more time
and gracefully fall back to the arms of grace


cause I am hanging on every word you say and
even if you don't want to speak tonight that's alright, alright with me
cause I want nothing more than sit outside Heaven's door and listen to you breathing
is where I wanna be yeah

I'm looking past the shadows in my mind into the truth and
I'm trying to identify the voices in my head God which one's you
let me feel one more time what it feels like to feel alive and break
these calluses off of me one more time

cause I am hanging on every word you say and
even if you don't want to speak tonight that's alright, alright with me
cause I want nothing more than sit outside Heaven's door and listen to you breathing
is where I wanna be yeah

I don't want a thing from you
bet you're tired of me waiting for the straps to fall off of your table to the ground
cause I just want to be here now

cause I am hanging on every word you say and
even if you don't want to speak tonight that's alright, alright with me
cause I want nothing more than sit outside Heaven's door and listen to you breathing
is where I wanna be yeah

-Lloyd

"Home is Where the Heart Lies"

For my English course I stumbled on a short story, that definitely turned a new page in my blog. The story is written by well known Canadian author, Margaret Laurence entitled-Where the World Began. She discusses why she loves her home town in lieu of living in other beautiful places of the world. Some Canadians dismiss her home town as "dull, bleak, uninteresting and flat." ( Nows the time you wake up!).

She concludes, "I'm not a very patriotic, in the usual meaning of the word. I cannot say My country right or wrong in any political, social or literary context. But one things is inalterable, for better or worse, for life. This is where my world began. A world which includes the ancestors-both my own and other people's ancestors who became mine. A world which formed me ad continues to do so...A world which gave me my lifework to do, because it was here that I learned the sight of my own eyes."

Before I get to my point, I have a confession. Yes, I had heart touching moment. Yes, I stood by the quote (for most of the day in fact), saying to myself life in Canada is great. My home will always be South Africa.

At first glance I could annotate these three words: Proudly South African. That sentiment, for all its worth holds no value.A song entitled Homesick- by Mercy Me sums up my post for the week:

You're in a better place, I've heard a thousand times
And at least a thousand times I've rejoiced for you
But the reason why I'm broken, the reason why I cry
Is how long must I wait to be with you

I close my eyes and I see your face
If home's where my heart is then I'm out of place
Lord, won't you give me strength to make it through somehow
I've never been more homesick than now

Help me Lord cause I don't understand your ways
The reason why I wonder if I'll ever know
But, even if you showed me, the hurt would be the same
Cause I'm still here so far away from home

I close my eyes and I see your face
If home's where my heart is then I'm out of place
Lord, won't you give me strength to make it through somehow
I've never been more homesick than now

In Christ, there are no goodbye
And in Christ, there is no end
So I'll hold onto Jesus with all that I have
To see you again
To see you again

Our true home is heaven. Under one banner with my Brothers and Sisters in Christ I want to Praise my King. His death has formed my world. His blood was the ransom for many. The sight of Calvary's Cross demands my heart. I guess, "I've never been more homesick than now..."
-Lloyd

Grace in the Old Testament

I've been labouring on the 1st five books of the Old Testament for my own quiet time for some time now. Though it feels like I've been wandering at times in the desert, I've been so amazed to find themes that define the New Testament such as grace, election, judgement etc in the pages of the Old. Deuteronomy also provides a really good summary of the the 1st five books as well as the law. Today was no exception. So I'm on my way to the promised land and I made to Chapter 7 of the book Deuteronomy. A couple of verses (6,7,8):

"For you are a people holy to the Lord your God has chosen you out of all the people on the face of the earth to be his people, his treasured possesion. The Lord did not set his affection on you and choose you because you were numerous than other peoples, for you were the fewest of all people. But it was because the Lord loved you and kept the oath he swore to your forefathers that he brought you out with a mighty hand and that he redeemed you from the land of slavery..."

Take a look at verse 7, "The Lord did not set his affection on you and choose you because you were numerous than other peoples, for you were the fewest of all people," we find that the book of Deutronomy makes it clear that God chose Israel out of pure grace. He did not select them for their impressiveness.

Reading further on in Chapter 9:5 " It is not because of your rightousness or your integrety that you are going in to take possesion of their land. " Here's another reminder Moses issues Israel. That its not because of goodness that they deserve the promised land and reminded later on that it is only because of God who will bring them there on oath he swore to their forefathers. I love verse 9:7 "Understand then, that it is not because of your righteousness that the Lord your God is giving you this good land to possess, for you are a stiff necked people."(Are we as Christians any different)?

Lastly, the Isrealites are not given the land because of their faithfulness. Read 9: 24, "You have been rebellious against the Lord ever since I have known you."

Tying everything up, God chose Israel because he loved them and had made promises to their forefathers. How much different is message of God's grace here in Deuteronomy different to any other New Testament book? Not much, if any. Yet again I've been bowled over with amazement between the links of the Old Testament and the New. After writting this post, it has encouraged me greatly to look deeper in the Old Testament. Why don't you find out about Grace during your quiet time in the New Testament and put the two together? Have fun!
-Lloyd

Just Moved Onto UBC-O Res

So this place will be my new home for the next six months. Looks great. Made a couple friends already. The only kicker is going to be those early morning lectures at 8:00 am. Lovely! I find it really hard to get up morning. So the week ahead should be interesting. Everything moving smooth at the moment. This is just the short honeymoon phase. Once classes begin, let me assure you it going to be different story! -Lloyd

Pictures From the Mission Trip of the Queen Charlotte Islands

"...Be Your Hands and Feet"

For the nine days or so I was away on a mission trip to the Queen Charlotte Islands of British Columbia. Our church group consisted of 13 people to run a Vacation Bible School for three days. It was truly a blessing to be part of this trip. God as always is faithful to his workers. The church where were based has only 12 registered adults. Started of with just nine kids and eventually it grew to be about sixteen or so. The number grew soley because of God. It just happened per chance that passing Adults who don't live but who work on island brought their kids and others from a neigbouring island after passing the church a couple of times... The ferry crossing takes about 30 minutes or so. I stare in amazement. Many months of planning could never anticipate the number of children attending or how they would get there. If there's one thing I learned, if we go out in faith, God will use our hands and feet to bring the lost back to him.

I leave you with words of Audio Adrenaline in their song-Hands and Feet

"I'm willing, I'm not afraid
You give me strength When I say
I want to be your hands
I want to be your feet
I'll go where you send me
I'll go where you send me
And I try, yeah I try
To touch the world like
You touched my life
And I'll find my way
To be your hands..."
-Lloyd

Welcome to my Blog

First of all I have to confess for not being prompt (to put it midly) in returning many of your emails. My sincerest apologies! It has been a great but busy year . Graduating in Canadian Public School, moving to UBC-O campus Sept 2nd. For those of you who don't know what UBC-O (University of British Columbia Okanagan). So I thought by keeping a blog in that way you know what's rocking my world! I won't try but make a conserted effort to respond to emails. I am aware of the fact that I still have responded to emails I had received in February-sorry!
Just came back from a mission trip two ago. Report back and photo's will follow soon.-Lloyd