A message from the President - 15 Nov 2004

My dear friends

Last Thursday afternoon I was visited by four dear sisters, Kathrin Schlenker, Karin Engelbrecht, Grace Geldenhuys and Sylvia Engelbrecht.

Before I scare you away from coming by let me quickly explain that it's not my policy to publicise a list of my daily guests. Something we discussed with the sisters got me thinking.

With Kathrin being there we couldn't part without referring  to her latest project - the Coffee Shop. Of course I've only seen photos of the recently-opened Coffee Shop but as we'd say in isiZulu those who've been there "abawuvali umlomo" (they can't stop talking about it).

One of the outsanding issues about the Coffee Shop is the design of the suitable sign to be put on the main road to direct prospective customers. This is the part that captured my imagination.

My thoughts took me back to the numerous journeys we undertook to the Cape; a distance of about 1 600 kilometres. It's only natural that after some time one gets hungry. When that happened to me there was one particular information sign that caught my attention - the one that showed a fork, knife and spoon. I didn't need Pavlov to interpret that language for me!

As I pondered on this I felt deeply challenged. You and I are surrounded by a hungry world. As heirs in God's kingdom we have access to all the spiritual food to sustain us, our families, the neighbours and those passing by.

It's unfortunate that at least on the outside the world wants to give the impression that it has the menu to satisfy the hunger of all humanity. The entertainment industry strives to occupy every second of people's lives. The tragedy is that at the end of the day people are as malnourished as ever.

For those who aren't sure about the depravity of the sources of worldly pleasures let them watch the empty lives of icons in entertainment capitals like Hollywood and Bollywood. Behind what publicly seems like success stories lie disastrous personal lives.

Somebody will say that they've seen Christians who are in the same boat; at church they hide behind a facade of imitated joy and satisfaction in Christ but those who interact with them on a daily basis know better. The truth is that the world is hungry for truth; something real and genuine.

If we want to be Christ's 'coffee shops, restaurants, guest houses or hotels' it will cost nothing less than perfect submission to Him. On our own we are bankrupt even before we start.

A mantra we often hear these days is, "You must believe in yourself; you've got all it takes to make a success of this life." That to me sounds like the story I heard on Radio Khwezi recently.

A man from rural KwaZulu-Natal went to work in a big city. One of the things that fascinated him was how easy it was for city dwellers to get water; just opening a tap and voila, the water gushed out!

Amongst his luggage the next time he went home was a tap connected to a pipe. On a given day he invited his neighbours to bring the containers they use when they fetch water from the river. In front of the whole company he proudly pulled out his newly-found utensils, stuck the pipe into the ground and opened the tap. Do I need to tell you the rest of the story?

We are called upon to be the light of the world but without being connected to the ultimate eternal Light we'll only add to the plenty darkness around us.

Even without saying a word, if the overflowing life Christ came to give is within us whether people care to admit it or not they will be drawn towards us. Those honest enough will confess that we've got something that they don't have.

Yes friends, those in tune with the Master will have an invitation on their faces,

"'Come and dine' the Master calleth

'Come and dine...'"

'Jesus replied, "They do not need to go away. You give them something to eat."' (Mat 14:16)