Sunday 30th July 2017 - Weekend off - Kaapschehoop

Sunday 30th July

Up early again this morning with breakfast at 7.15 and then we were off to church at 8.30 ( the second Service of the day). We attended the Parish Church of White River where the deacon reminded us that following Christ is not about creating a cosy comfortable space around us, but rather about following a "Palestinian revolutionary" that continually challenges our comfort zone! She challenged us not to say our prayers off pat, because of familiarity, but rather to understand the depth and implication of what we were saying. Bronwyn used the example of the Lord's Prayer and in particular the bidding of "Your kingdom come" do we realise what we are actually asking for when we say this line? Bronwyn used the illustrations from the words of Jesus from about what the kingdom of heaven will be like, Matthew 13: 32, Jesus describes the kingdom of God to be like a mustard seed, the least of all seeds and yet grows into a massive bush or tree, its roots fill the earth, it causes chaos. Then in verse 33 Jesus refers to the kingdom as like the yeast in bread, again anyone who has made bread, without the aid of a machine, will know that yeast can be quite unpredictable, will it rise or not? The kingdom of heaven is something that will challenge, will not be something cosy, are we sure that we understand what we are asking for every time we say the Lord's Prayer. Then finally in verse 47 Jesus tells us that the kingdom of God is like a dragnet that is cast into the sea, again not a simple task that we see in pictures, nets full of bristling white wholesome fish ready for the pan but rather a heap of many many different types of fish which have to be unpicked and sorted, many being discarded or thrown back! When we are truly building the kingdom God we should be prepared for children, drug addicts, alcoholics. Are we ready for the kingdom of God, could we cope with what we are asking!

After church we drove to Kaapschehoop. It is a old prospect mining town, which when the gold mining was abandoned turned into a village.  Some of the group walked around the local African market whilst Chris, Alice P, Alice S and DJ walked down to a waterfall. This involves some steep scrambling down through a forest, up a river bed to the waterfall. The water fall was 60meters high, with crystal clear water. 

 

After our first walk the group met up again together for lunch at Koek-n-Pan. This is a pancake house so we had savoury and sweet pancakes. After lunch we went for another walk to the fire lookout building, the walk was along a igneous outcrop leading to a very impressive view.

Blogged by Chris and DJ