PUT DOWN YOUR CELLPHONE AND PICK UP A BIBLE AND READ IT

Pope Francis on St Peter's Square, Vatican City

Last Sunday Pope Francis urged the people to put down their cellphones and to pick their Bibles to read. Indeed!

We are approaching Good Friday or what we call Easter Weekend. It is the time when people kill one another on the South African roads in the name of having a good long weekend away from home. STOP! 

Read about the murder on Christ Jesus in the Gospel of John chapter 19 and more particularly verses 33 - 37. Fortunately it didn't stop there at the crime scene. Jesus Christ is alive. It is for you and me.

God bless you while you are reading your Bible. If you don't have a Bible, please get one.

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SYNCHRONICITY? AN ACT OF GOD? HE ESCAPED FROM DEATH

Norman Ndlovu - he escaped death on 14 October 2015

He escaped death! Another not. 

Early this Sunday morning  5 March 2017, Norman and I were driving along the highway and went past the Grayston Bridge when he told me his story of 14 October 2015 - the day that bridge collapsed.

The collapsed brigde on Grayston Drive Sandton on 14 October 2015

He was in a taxi on his way from Midrand to Johannesburg and had just passed the bridge when his cell phone rang. It was his friend in another vehicle who was way behind Norman. 

This friend of his just approached the bridge when he saw it collapsing and was extremely worried about Norman. The taxi driver immediately turned around and they went back to the scene.

Norman saw the taxi driver that was crushed to death still inside the wreck.

A day or so after the disaster, I attended a petrol station in that vicinity. I spoke to the petrol attendants who appeared to be in a state of shock. Yes - they were terribly shaken up. That taxi driver was a happy go lucky person who had just filled his taxi up. He then drove down Grayston Drive and was killed instantly. 

The one escaped. The other drove straight towards his death. 

Invoked or not, God is present. 

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ROME & THE VATICAN - THE ETERNAL CITY

Seagull dipping and soaring in the wind above the Cupola of St Peter's Basilica, Vatican City

I took this image of the seagull soaring and dipping in the wind - he was so curious to look at us humans behind the strong iron bars at the top of the Cupola, St Peter's Basilica, Vatican City. He dipped away and then quickly coming back sometimes at arm's length almost touching the iron bars. He did that for about 10 minutes. 

I invite you to enjoy my views of the Basilica.

God bless you. 

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A RANDOM GOOD DEED

RED SHOES AND PERFUME - photographer: Nicolene Coertse

Last night (1 March 2017) my wife and I enjoyed a hamburger at a prize winning joint. It was extremely noisy, as usual, with a high turnover of hungry hammy eaters! Young kids were dancing at their own pace and sounds in their heads while the music playing blasting a different tune. People hacking away at the fries covered with tomato sauce or if you want ketchup. Young people standing around staring at their cell phones.

Old people, not senior citizens, battling away with one finger on their cell phones. Waitrons rushing around to see to every single need of their hungry hammy eaters. Cars flitting about, radios blaring.

The odd garbage collector slaving away under his load of cardboard boxes.

We were part and parcel of this motley crowd hacking away at our specially prepared hammy. And then we paid and left.

At the parking meter the lady in front of us battled to get the thing working. Then I heard a voice inside the meter machine chatting to the lady outside the box. Magic! Must have been a very tiny guy inside that machine and is he clever! He told the lady exactly what to do. She executed his instructions, got her ticket stamped and left. Wow! It worked. Follow his instructions and it will work.

Then it was our turn. And we battled. The guy in the machine told us to go to another machine.

There was a young lady standing behind us; she then tried. And she got instructions from the same guy: "Go to another machine."

And so we left - my wife and I and walking next to us was this unknown lady. She was very smartly dressed in a fine white blouse and stylish black pants. And oh my word she had the most beautiful red high heeled shoes on!

While we were executing our instructions to go to another machine she then said: "Can I help you? Give me your ticket and money, wait for me and I will get the stamp to let you out." 

We gave it to her and stood there on the driveway waiting for her.

She got it for us!

She got into a car and drove off!

An angel?

I don't think so; she certainly did an angel's work! I forgot to tell you about her perfume; after all, she might have been an angel with that perfume! Do you think an angel wears bright red shoes?

You did a good deed to two elderlies. May God bless you, young lady!

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MAKE PHOTOS, DON'T TAKE PHOTOS

Freeway, Johannesburg

Rag doll, Johannesburg 

How can you make photographs? I think it is very easy, provided you pause for a moment or maybe two moments and just think. You should actually think even before you leave your home. Think a bit about photography. Making photographs start long before you even lift your camera. Making a photograph starts in your head and not in your camera - the  camera is just a tool to express what you were thinking about. Think before you take any image. And when the decisive moment arrives, you will seize it and half the battle is won. 

I took the two images above. The RAG DOLL I took with my iPad in a parking garage at the Johannesburg Charlotte Maxeke Hospital. I saw it because I am thinking about photography and I am aware that images are lurking around every corner - look and you will spot it. After I took it, I cropped it to get rid of extraneous matter and worked in Photoshop a little bit. If you don't have any software manipulation program it is not a disaster. Cropping can be done in your computer - don't say to me that you are computer illiterate or that you are stupid. Do something about it.

When you are taking images of children do them the favor and pay them some respect and bend your knees before them. Do them another favor and stand a distance away from them because if you are too close, the beautiful faces will be distorted and then they look stupid. 

Please read the following article by Eric Kim about this very topic. Never stop making photographs.

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THE JOYS OF CHRISTMAS SHOPPING

This is a bit of social commentary on the warped sense of Christmas joy! It seems  as if people think that the more you give and the more expensive your Christmas gifts are, the more spiritual you are!

In the meantime it is Christ Jesus that we should honor.

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ZUMA GIGGLES AGAIN. IRRATIONAL! FOOLHARDY!

THE GIGGLING PRESIDENT!

It seems as if this man, the honourable President, has lost all contact with reality. Watching SONA and the seriousness with which the opposition leaders treated the matter, looking at the grave and sullen faces of the judges inclusive of the Chief Justice, this character was the only one laughing. 

Do you remember President Kenneth Kaunda from Zambia and how that guy laughed? 

I am really disappointed in the judges not leaving Parliament - to my mind they then lent credibility to the unrepentant and dishonorable president. But giving it another thought these learned men/women, I am now only referring to the judges, could have created a constitutional crisis if they walked out., and I think they probably tried to avoid that. 

You will now recall that the DA already instructed their legal team to draft papers for the Western High Court. Looking at history this matter will eventually proceed to the Constitutional Court which will create another problem: How will the Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng be able to participate in that matter? He was an eye witness to the proceedings on Thursday 9 February 2017. He had a ringside seat so to speak.

ZUMA THE CONTORTIONIST

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