A day off today before a three hour drive to the
town of Brit tomorrow and some meetings there.
It was quite strange waking up alone in someone else’s house as Terence,
Vicky and their two kids Lucien and Caitlin had all got up early and left the
house before about 7:30 to get to work or school. Vicky had shown me where all the breakfast
things were so I enjoyed a leisurely start to the day which was beautiful and
sunny, again, but quite windy. You could
clearly hear things rattling and trees moving outside and the odd strange creak
or door opening and shutting as the air pressure in the house fluctuated.
I spent the morning finishing ‘Jesus and the
undoing of Adam’ and I would heartily recommend it to anyone who wanted to know
more about the incredible work of the trinity to achieve the eternal purpose of
uniting man and God in loving relationship.
The majority of the western church has been so wrong-headed about this
topic! The common ideas that Jesus was turning away or absorbing the punishment
of God that was intended for us and that God turned his face away from Jesus at
the cross and did forsake him are exposed as the product of a thorough
misunderstanding about the nature of the trinity and God’s plan for
humanity. It’s beautifully written,
scholarly, Biblical and easily understandable.
Godfrey wasn’t feeling too well today. He wasn’t sure if it was something he’d eaten
or bug he’d picked up, but he felt quite sick.
In the afternoon after a hamburger lunch provided
by Johan and Tarryn Godrey and I went off with Terence and Vicky’s two kids to to
visit a lion breeder nearby with Johan’s mum Annalise. They raise lions there to sell to animal
parks and other places. They have a huge
property with massive fenced in areas, bigger than a zoo’s, for the adult lions
and some smaller enclosures for the new born cubs and the older ones. We were able to pick up and hold some four
week old lion cubs that were already the dimensions of a large family cat but
much bulkier and heavier. They seemed
quite content to be held and snuggled up to get comfy and opened their mouths
to chew on your fingers toothlessly.
Their mother was outside the enclosure the whole time behind a steel
door watching and she seemed content that we meant her cubs no harm but the
owner did advise us to keep well away from her even though she was behind a
door. We then went to see some other
types of wild cat the names of which escape me and then went into an enclosure
with a much larger young lion that was a few months old and was the size of a
medium sized dog. He was very strong and
quite mischievous. He constantly tried to bite my hand and claw at me, but
definitely in a playful rather than aggressive way. He didn’t put up with the handling for long
and soon got bored and jumped down. His
mother had come over to the fence of her enclosure to watch what we were doing
to her baby and clearly was less than happy and vocalised her feelings quite
plainly. While I was filming her on my
phone she moved and snapped suddenly, yards away behind a strong wire fence,
and it was scary enough for me to nearly drop my phone. Looking at the size of her paws, claws, teeth
and jaws it’s easy to believe just how quickly she could catch and kill you
should you be stupid enough to not have a fence between you!
Godfrey was really feeling quite poorly by this
point so we headed back to the house so he could lie down and rest. The folks from the church were very kind and
extremely concerned and offered multiple medicines that may help and were happy
to head out to get anything else he might need.
I spent the rest of the afternoon reading,
chatting and napping then we all went to Annalise’s house for a meal prepared
by her two daughters-in-law and Vicky.
It was delicious, a beautiful salad, a lentil vegan curry and a chicken
dish with rice amongst other things. By
then Godfrey was, fortunately, feeling a lot better but he didn’t eat anything
other than a small amount of watermelon so hopefully whatever it was will be
out of his system completely by tomorrow after a good night’s sleep.
We returned to our hosts and I spent a happy
couple of hours chatting with Terence and Vicky about life, kids, parenthood
and any other topic that bubbled up.
While we certainly don’t agree on everything that isn’t a requirement to
like, respect and love someone. They are
a quality couple in every way that matters and it’s been a privilege and a
delight to stay with them and be a part of their family for a few days.
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