Reading List

Shiloh gave me the idea for a reading list blog with his blog the other week (africathroughachildseyes.blogspot.com). I started thinking about it, and the more I thought about it, the more thoughts I had. It is the books I'm reading now; the most important to me the last year.

The first book I read since arriving here that really changed the way I think is When Heaven Invades Earth by Bill Johnson. Mark and Andrea lent it to me, and I am very grateful! It put into words some thoughts I've had, then there were things new to me. I was never comfortable with the thought of “it's all going to burn up anyways” that I've heard from some Christians. To me it just seems like God is more in the redemption business, and the book follows the thinking that God's plan is for man to be His co-worker in bringing God's Kingdom to earth. He could have wiped out Satan with a word, but He choose to defeat him through mankind. I think in the end times the Church will be glorious, people will be drawn to the goodness of God.

For my birthday, Corné got me two more Bill Johnson books.

Hosting the Presence: Unveiling Heaven's Agenda is about our purpose to live in God's presence. The more we seek him, the more he is with us, and the more he accomplishes His purposes through us. We are transformed in His presence, and that impacts the world around us. Adam and Eve were to rule the earth as God's ambassadors from the overflow of being with Him. Something else that has become clear is spiritual warfare. A candle doesn't struggle against the darkness. Johnson admits it, and so do I , that sometimes I got over focused on the fight, rather than drawing closer to God. All actions come from one of two emotions, fear or love, and we need to examine why/how we feel we must fight. Anyways, there are all kinds of nuggets in this book!

The second book Corné gave me was Face to Face with God. Along the same lines as Hosting the Presence, with more insights. Four cornerstones of thought: God is good, nothing is impossible, we fight from the victory of Christ, and I am significant. This last thought is something I have really grown in since coming to SA. There is also a chapter about other people's encounters with God, the only one still living is Heidi Baker. What is amazing is that many are widely know, but their experience in the physical presence of God seems to have been minimized and tucked away. I believe with Johnson that we are entering a time when the more we are in God's presence, the more we will show the face of God and draw people to Him.

In a totally different line, I felt God leading me back to forex trading. I was doing that for a year and half before we moved, and was just too busy (and didn't have enough internet access) to start again. Also felt that it just wasn't time. Two weeks ago I felt like it was time to get back in, and I reread one of the best trading books I've found, Bird Watching in Lion Country. What I think he admits, which helps him gain an edge, is that the markets are random in the short term. Trying to get in at the perfect price, and then expecting the trade to go your way immediately is really unreasonable. He trades with the general trend, but lets trades go negative for quite a while. He can, because he doesn't put much into each position, so there isn't pain at each point against you. It is true, I've gotten out of many trades for a loss, only to see it come back my way sometimes several hours later, or maybe even a day or two. I was trading with too much leverage, and it was too painful. Now, I am trading much smaller positions, and think my trading career is taking a big step forward.

Lastly, I've been reading Antifragile, by Nassim Taleb (author) of The Black Swan. I think he understands the modern world better than any other thinker out there. He understands randomness, probability, Black Swans, better than anyone else. One of his thoughts is that we are now living in Extremistan-failures of systems have exponentially worse effects now; 1% of the books published make up 99% of sales (one example). Humans are terrible at predicting, and at linking causal relationships. All kinds of insights that are amazing: Switzerland, one of the most successful countries, has a very low level of university educated people, and it's government is a locally run based one-most Swiss can't tell you who their president is, but can tell you local officials, opposite of the US. This links to his main premise-the more centrally planned, federal type of system, the more fragile it is. Organic, small organizations/business/government make more mistakes, but the mistakes are small, and the learning experience from it actually makes it stronger. Trail and error should be encouraged in all areas, not perfection. Having options make one more antifragile, in all areas of life. Another tidbit: “We notice what varies and changes more than what plays a large role but doesn't change. We rely more on water than on cell phones but because water does not change and cell phones do, we are prone to thinking that cell phones play a larger role than they do.” He goes on to point out that life hasn't really changed from his evening plans-we use shoes invented thousands of years ago to walk to a restaurant, use silverware, a Mesopotamian technology, drink wine, like others for the last 6 thousands years, from glasses innovated by the Phoenicians, eat cheese-a young technology, prepared in a kitchen with pots and pans not too different from what has been used for a couple thousand years. There is much more to this book, but I'll end with this quote: “If you don't take risks, there is nothing you can do that makes you grand, nothing.”

Last book, which I don't know how I got, so it must be a God thing!  I noticed over a year ago, must have bookmarked it on my Kindle, but never bought or downloaded it until two weeks ago, when downloading Antifragility, this book downloaded too!  It is Five Wealth Secrets 96% of Us Don't Know.  Best and easiest to read book on personal finances I've ever read, and it's changed the way I think about some things, and gives me a plan for things I hadn't quite clearly  expressed.  It came at the right time!

Timing, Nice Gift for Thsepo

We seem to be in the season of learning God's timing. We really experienced it when we first arrived-things/events would just fall into place. Then came a schedule or regular working and the timing issue would fall into the background except for the occasional event, like how quickly we got this house to live in. It's been a bit hard lately, as we haven't put any cob on the house for almost two months now. It was making progress so nicely over the winter, and now has stopped, except for the window frame making (which is necessary, but doesn't have the same feeling of accomplishment). We've wondered if we've done something wrong, or what?

Last week Tuesday our support money came into our account. It's not enough to start us building again, but covered most of the necessities. We felt a little flush (for our terms), so we told the children we'd got to pizza night at Rosa on Wednesday. When we arrived, Laurence (owner) stopped us and we had this long conversation before even sitting down. We'd heard about a couple getting married in Rosendal in February, and Rosa hosting the reception. He's from Europe, she's originally South African but living in Australia now, and instead of receiving gifts, the couple wanted the guest to contribute to a community project. Thsepo was mentioned, but we didn't know much else. This was a couple months ago. Well, Laurence told us the bride-to-be was in town with her parents, he had taken them by the church that morning (no one was there) to give them more of an idea about Tshepo, and might even come in that night. If they did, he would introduce us!

We had our delicious pizza, like always (we like the Meerkat or the Popeye), and nearly done when Laurence came over and introduced us to Laura, the bride-to-be! She was very excited to meet us. We were able to explain the vision, and she was able to put a face to the people she'd heard about. When we came home, I burned a DVD of a slideshow we have made of Thsepo and took it back to the them. We chatted some more, and it was all very encouraging. We didn't put much expectations when we first heard of the possibility, we've been learning there are lots of people that love what you are doing and say they will help one way or another, but then they never do. This time however, it looks like things will come together!

Two days later, we had less than $50 in our accounts again, and the thought of going to Rosa for dinner would have to take a back seat again. What we realized in hindsight, was that had we got our support money earlier, there would have been a good chance we would have missed meeting Laura. God knows what He's doing, and that has to be our comfort when things like the house just seem to be on hold for the moment.

Cinnabuns in Rosendal!

A lady here in town has some connection to Cinnabuns. In the past, we've received a couple zip-lock bags of frozen cinnamonrolls, just enough for each child to get a two-bite piece. Today, however, she brought a large amount, everyone got close to half a cinnabun! I was just thinking about the whole thing, and it's complex. . . the nearest Cinnabun shop is at least 3 hours away. I think these come from Jo'burg, so that's 4 hours. Most of these children don't travel much. Two of the ladies that help have never been further than Senekal or Ficksburg, both just a half hour away. The largest body of water they've seen is only 100 meters across. Never seen the ocean. Or a town with more than 5 stop lights. Anyways, these buns are something special. It's a pleasure just to watch them savor every bite. The thing is, I was also savoring every bite! It is nice to get a surprise like this. What I also realized is how temporal our problems are. Two days ago, we couldn't afford a Coke. Today, I was eating half a Cinnabun!

I had been working at de la Harpe and pulled a few carrots from our garden. They were in the back when we dropped off a couple people. A young girl, 1^st grade or so, asked to have one. I gave her and her friend each one, and was just thinking to myself that my own children won't eat the carrots we've grown, and here these children ask for them! Makes me a little crazy.

Corné planted acorns last Fall. Now we have a mini oak forrest. Quite chuffed with all the seedlings! I know they will take a long time to become a big, beautiful tree, but it will mark the time we moved here, and continue on down the generations!

Finished with Frames; a little Tshepo news

Today, Corné and I finished the last rough window frame! It took a little longer than I thought, but we did work at a slow pace. Last week I had some kind of virus, turns out other people in town had it too. Was feverish and chilly in the evening, and then the fever would break around 1 or 2 in the morning. Then I would be wide awake for an hour or two! Anyways, with my sleep interrupted, I was a bit tired and not feeling great till early afternoon. We usually got at least one frame done a day, so we still made progress. It was just the two of us, as we didn't have money to give to the guys. It's a little frustrating, because even though it's not that much, it puts food on their table. Without it, I don't know what they do.

All the windows for our house will
slide inside these frames when the house is done.

I did get to spend a bit more time at Tshepo last week, which was nice. We had a guest from Jo'burg. Penny was a speech therapist and developed a system of teaching sounds through drawings of face that showed the position of the lips and whether it was a vibrated sound or not. Apparently, it really helps young children learn a second language. So she came and did some training/demonstrations, and she was quite impressed with the children of Tshepo. I was a bit skeptical when I heard about it, but when I learned more about it, I changed my mind. Sotho has just 5 vowel sound, and English has around 11. What happens is that when someone not familiar with all the sounds of English comes to a sound they don't know, often they substitute a sound they do know. This program is suppose to eliminate that.

I've been reading The Essential Guide to Healing by Johnson and Clark, and am ready to see some things happen! Penny has Cerebral Palsy, as well as being in 2 car accidents in the last year that put her in a scooter. I really felt to pray for her, and was hoping we would see a miracle. When the opportunity came, Pastor John and I prayed for her there at Tshepo. She felt warmth (the Holy Spirit), and when John shared that he saw a river flowing from her, she said she also felt like she was in a rainbow river. So no major healing, but God was doing something. Just have to keep trying!!