The Bandjoun nomad

Christmas for us is usually quite busy and I must say a bit tense because of that. I think it's got to do with the fact that Lerato and I have very possessive mothers who don't take no for an answer. I think the saving grace is the fact that both families don't stay too far from each other and they often don't mind spending time as one group. Luckily this was one of those times. The added bonus was that we were outdoors and for some reason my traditionally bound parents decided to play along and bring camping chairs (my jaws dropped when I saw them). It's been decades since they've been going camping so mom had to go buy some just for this occasion. But the just amazing thing is what transpired next. We're pretty lucky that both families get along pretty nicely. Both mom and dad have their people to talk and even my sister has likeminded cousins she can hangout with. As I was battling the scorching heat trying to get the braaie going for roughly 15 people...

"For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through the endurance taught in the Scriptures and the encouragement they provide we might have hope." (Romans 15:4 NIV ) Are you down in the dumps? Do you need a mood elevator? Put down the piece of chocolate cake. Don't have a pity party. Pick up your Bible instead. You need a Word break! God gave us the Bible to encourage us. One way you can think of the Bible is as a mood elevator. The Bible says in Romans 15:4, "For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through the endurance taught in the Scriptures and the encouragement they provide we might have hope" (NIV). Everything in Scripture is written for our encouragement. That's a big statement — but it's true! Even the tough parts of God's Word are there to ultimately encourage our lives in the right direction. That's why we need to spend time alone with God every single d...

The FIFA World Cup Brazil 2014 is due to start in just a few hours. It's amazing that four years have passed and how time tells a story. I still remember the euphoria we were part of when the whole country become soccer crazy. I was engaged then and hoping to get married to my best friend. I remember travelling to 5 provinces ( Gauteng , Limpopo , North-West , Mpumalanga and Free State ) just to catch a glimpse of footballing legends. Here's some pictures of an unforgettable time... Related articles Excited! Fifa World Cup is here Bringing FIFA To Brazil Equal To Roughly 61% Of Education Budget

"You are coming to Christ , the living stone who was rejected by humans but was chosen as precious by God ."  ( 1 Peter 2:4 GW) How much do you think you're worth? I'm not talking about your net worth; I'm talking about your self-worth. Don't ever confuse your valuables with your value as a person. You can be rich or poor, but it has nothing to do with your value as a person. There are two things that determine value in life: Value is what someone is willing to pay for something. Value depends on who has owned something in the past.

So after an enthralling UEFA Champions League Final, it's on to Brazil for the ultimate showpiece. I must say that my wife and I had plans to go to Brazil albeit financial constraints that kept us at bay. In any case, I decided to add a widget to the blog showing off and passion for the event and the game itself. Let me know what you think of it. Enjoy!

Decided to have a braaie with the family and what a good idea it was! But what made the time more special is the fact that there was no electricity in the whole area so it forced us to do something we normally don't do often... TALK. It was great to find out that Dad had always had a passion for fishing and even fished in the sea! Wow! I was really astonished. He even told me that he had fished during his short time in Durban . I was dumbfounded and embarrassed at the same time. I didn't know what to say. I felt like there was so many things I didn't know about him. But he's had such a eventful life, that only writing a book, will do him justice. Dad insisted on doing the braaie. He always does anyway. But was even cooler was the fact that Rita (my sister), Dad and I got to spend some time just talking and laughing together. It's just amazing how much time can change a person and clear his view on what's important. Some more please!

When the Lord said that the Sabbath was a day of rest , there's a lot of wisdom in that. In today's society, we are compelled to be busy because otherwise we feel that we're not fulfilling our God-given talents.

This post is inspired by an engaging conversation I had with a couple of friends at church around a topic that most people (including myself) don't fully understand.

Love Connection (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) It's been such a hard week emotionally! For the past month, the married in the church have been going through the "I choose Us" course with the aim of dealing with the root of why we end up drifting away from our spouses and loosing our Love Connection .

Well, this morning I realised that my work IT department has disabled the uploading or downloading of attachments to my Gmail address. So I decided to do a little digging into sending some files (albeit small) files to my Google Drive account.  To my surprise, Google Drive doesn't natively support email upload of files (strangely enough it supports email upload with Google Drive to Youtube provided you have activated that function).  By the way do you know you can also send email (and attachments) to Evernote , Picasa , Facebook and Twitter ? And so the power of the internet (as I discussed yesterday) is such that someone out there will spent his/her precious time making a useful program that will do exactly that. It's called Email It In . What it does is exactly in the words. Email your attachements to your Cloud storage account. Be it Google or Dropbox . Now that's what I call, " Bringing the E back to Email". Related articles How To Us...

Internets = srs.biz. Parody motivator. (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) Well, most of us know how it started . In actual fact, the information is quite widely (but yet argued upon) available. That's not really the purpose of this internet. The purpose of it is to reveal the underlying moral with the internet starting. The fact remains that internet makes our lives easier, online shopping , paying of bills, banking, telecommunications, meetings and even (for those who are fortunate enough) earn a good living. The internet is now serious business (unless you stumble upon those who don't believe in smartphones and even don't know what a WIFI means! SCARY!!!). No longer is it used to JUST 'surf' or 'check my mail' but absolutely everything. This is clearly typified by companies such Ebay , Amazon , Google , Facebook , Twitter to name a few. Indeed, Millions of people have banked on the 'stay power' of the internet to provide a future of their grand-ch...

I've been studying the bible on how God views wealth and how it often conflicts with our natural behavior. I mean it's quite clear that as people (and mostly Christians) have not attained (or fail to pursue) the spiritual maturity when it comes to the true meaning of wealth (which obviously includes social status , money and possessions). Something really touched me in the book of James 1: 9 Believers in humble circumstances ought to take pride in their high position. 10 But the rich should take pride in their humiliation—since they will pass away like a wild flower. 11 For the sun rises with scorching heat and withers the plant; its blossom falls and its beauty is destroyed. In the same way, the rich will fade away even while they go about their business. The amazing thing about this verse is that Rich people DON'T LIKE to be HUMILIATED . In fact, it can be said that the very money that you chase after is so that you're not humiliated or vulnerable. Nobody who ha...

It's been incredible to hear what's going on all around us with all the protest actions in the townships specifically those directed to foreign shop owners. In all fairness, there's truth in the fact that certain foreigners shops have a certain approach to business which involves using any means possible to get ahead with the false pretense of Capitalism  as they overall reason for success and yet even such a concept exist within the bounds of the laws of the land which is often misunderstood or grossly ignored. So I understand the frustrations of the locals which try and earn a living through a SME (small business) while pursuing to be within the legal constraints which in turn seems to be penalty than an advantage comparing to their mercenary-looking foreign owners. Having said that, Is it ok to generalise behaviour of a few individuals towards a whole sector of the population? And where do we draw the line? Is it only the certain groups of foreigners? Do we condone...

I've got such a stiff body. I had a climb a tree, try and get 10 meters off the ground where there was my small Blade mCP X heli waiting for me another 10 meters away from me. I spent a good Hour throwing my shoes at it, small logs at it until a lady brought some rope. The one end of the rope was tied to a stone. The plan was to hook the rope around a branch close to where the heli was stuck and shake it until it got detached. After a number of tries, eventually got the rope at a right position whereby I could shake the tree and the small devil of the my heli eventually glided to the ground. All the while, there was a good numbers of family (including my 86 years old grandma) and friends spurring me on to the goal way above me. My good friend Thabo had even perfected the skill of throwing my fallen shoe accurately in my hands! I must be honest, it really dawned on me how high I was once I was back down again. I had achieved something special today and It felt great. It although t...

So this is my first post of the year. I really hope I would be more diligent in posting than last year. What an amazing three weeks of holiday it's been. I must say that deciding to not go anywhere specific was a terrific decision that eventually got me to get into something I've always dreamed of: Radio control helicopters. I mean I've had some experience with them but never really invested into a proper platform that will propel me into the addicted hobby of flying model helicopter. So after shedding my fears of spending money on something that will eventually crash and I will loose interest, I bought myself the Blade MCP X V2 heli. What an amazing buy. I got it at the Aerial Concepts in Sandton (more like Buccleuch). I must say it was a bit nerve-wrecking knowing that I spent so much of something so small. The take-off weight of this machine is just over 40g. Amazing! So got the heli home and started doing what every cautious enthusiast of this huge sport do: ...