Dion's random ramblings

Friday, April 18, 2008

So, I was thinking.... 5 hours from PMB to Greytown for the 'Mighty man of God Conference'

The flight from Cape Town to PMB was incredible. I jokingly said to the guys on the flight that I had never imagined that I would ever have a chance to fly on a private jet! After all, let us never forget that I was schooled in Boksburg. One of them reminded me that in the Bible there is some evidence that good things can come from the East!

It took about 1hour 50 minutes to get to PMB airport. It was a comfortable flight. Most of our time was spent catching up on the many smaller things we have needed to discuss and plan for, yet have not had a chance to do. On this flight we did not need to switch off our cell phones and computers, so I could send and receive emails (when we were flying over an area that had signal).

We picked up our little hired bus at Avis and hit to road to Greytown (77 km's from PMB). We drove for about 30 minutes when suddenly we saw a stream of lights on the little farm road - there must have been close to a thousand cars on the road! It looked a lot like the N1 south just before Rygel Ave in Pretoria at 7.30am! All in all it took us 5 hours to make our way onto Angus Buchan's farm!

What an amazing sight! We had heard that there were over 50 000 people who had arrived for the conference - I can well believe it! There are tents everywhere, small ones, big ones, people who came in fancy cars, others in clapped out pickup trucks, some who brought camper vans, others who are sleeping in very small tents. We have been blessed to have had some space reserved in a large tent (the kind that is often erected for a company function or Church fete). There are about 50 or so guys sleeping in this tent that could seat about 500 people.

The main arena where the ministry sessions are taking place is about a 10 minute walk from us (not too much fun on crutches!) It has seeting for 30 000 people and it is full to capacity with people standing all around the outside! Amazingly one walks through the corn fields (mielies for the South Africans) to get there! I could hear the praise and worship teams singing praise to God as we arrived.

It is quite amazing to think that so many men would gather to receive inspiration and blessing from the scriptures. Of course a conference such as this can be quite carefuly directed towards the needs and struggles of men. I personally look forward to hearing what is said, and seeing how the lives of many men are changed over the course of the weekend.

Truthfully however, I think that most of the life change will simply come through conversations around the fire, people having a chat in their tent, or waiting in line to have a shower. As I look around me there are old men and young men, black guys and white guys. The one thing we all have in common is that we love our Lord. It is fantastic to see Bibles on the sleeping bags, people reading their daily devotional guides and praying before they go to sleep.

Tomorrow is anogther day!

There is only one MTN tower in this region (and I guess at least one third to half of the guys are on MTN). So, calls out are sporadic, SMS messages take ages to be sent, and getting a data connection is quite a rarity! But I shall persevere and see if I can send out some pictures.

Please do pray for all the guys who have come here seeking renewal. For those who are in tough places and need to find some care, companionship and help. Pray for those who speak, for those who pray, and for those who will lead us in worship.

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