"Sempiternal"


Isn't it Amazing?

How quickly the sands of time shift?
Yet a single grain can extend a sand dune -
Into endless meandering.

How our days, hours, minitues, seconds
run through the hourglass, with glee and
sometimes painfully slow.

Endless; timeless; forever?
Eternity do we really comprehend its
cyclic, spiral, entangled web of time.
Maybe "The Net" is another minuet reflection
of the infinity of eternity:
A way for humanity to access the magnitude
of the eternal...
Is not HIS world, universe and all created:
A way for humanity to grasp God -
our Creator's grand plan...

A way in which God delivers HIS message
of deeply profound love -
Through the perfect and imperfect.
The rabid; scornful; debase and
horrific...
Is it not once we have experienced these
that we see and understand real beauty?


Does not the sun rise and set set
proclaim HIS glory?

Does not science and knowledge
reveal God's truth?

Are we so blinded by our own (sic)
brilliance?

How can we not see the wonder of the
"Golden Ration" and "Euclidean Fractals"
in terms of ETERNITY?

Whatelse will we find that God already knows
but chooses to reveal to us in a drip feed?

"SEEK and ye shall find..."

HE has created us to be
"Sempiternal"

"Beyond Eternity."

The Hammer Drops

It will, and always does.

he labouriously lifts it up again -

Poised to strike;

Does he ever learn?

Toil, turmoil - suspended in time:

Fracturing the wood -

Driving the nail in deep through

HIS flesh - splitting bone -

Squelching through to the core.

Yet, there he is again -

Hammering in the sin of deception  and evil,

Steel shreds of our illgotten past.

Do we ever learn?

2000 years - he lifts the hammer,

Carves into the air a sharp blow,

As the figure of Christ arches up in LOVE -

The repulsive nail that humanity drives deep into

The sole of HIS feet -remains...

Splaying out the plattelets -

Thick, red, tender molecules of love.

Poured out for us.

he raises the hammer high behind his head -

Welding the sins of the world

On the abject hammerhead;

Matserfully crushing the pain- wraught

bridge of HIS feet.

Destroying sin; creating a new

Dialectic Scheme of Salvation.

A new glorious bridge between

GOD and man.

Deep within the thorned crowned head -

Rich life-giving eternal blood,

filled with grace and love

flows down and out, to a world fraught with sin.

It is finished,

It is done -

and always will be:

Sempiternal!

2010 and where is SPRING?!

It's so beautiful in Korea during the Spring,
but this year where has all the sunshine gone?
It is bitterly cold and we wait with baited breath...
Cherry blossoms frame the campus and hanji spiral skywards.
Fingers frozen to the marker in my hand as I scrawl the word:
IB DONE.

We stifle a tear and close the pages of Ayckbourne's
A WOMAN IN MIND: December Bee.
How ironic, a December Bee -
A symbol these nostelgic seniors now deeply understand-
DECEMBER BEE,  WILL WE?

As Nora, Linda, Eliza and Susan cloud the seniors thoughts...
We reflect on a two year journey - ending in self discovery,
Or a discovery of who we are in Christ.
IB EXAMS loom and prayers waft upwards-

One Question remains:
                              REMEMBER ME?
Or should it be REMEBER US:

THE SEMPITERNAL CLASS OF 2010.

Culture:


So here is the BIG question... WHO AM I? What defines me? Does my culture define me or do I define my culture? Am I a result of my faith or is my faith as a result of me?

It's totally complex while paradoxically simplistic! I am a person who is partially devoid of culture and yet completely transformed by a new growing culture.


I am a dying breed - a South African...

Yet when I came to Asia, many Asians expressed great surprise at me being an AFRICAN. "How come you are African?" they say. "Why are you not black?" - I even get asked this in my own country "How African are you?" (How black are you?)

I was born and bred on thick blood red South African soil - the kind that sticks between your toes - when you; as a child; are illegally fishing in your neighbours' goldfish pond. The kind of soil that labels you as 'the suspect' when being interrogated by a prejudiced society or neighbour. My label tattooed to me eternally; in every country, culture or society is: WHITE. I am a white South African. Until 1994 white South Africans were allowed to show their culture but a change in government (freedom for all as long as you are not a white); has forced an entire generation of South Africans to give up their culture.

Culture less?

I do not have a culture anymore - well at least not a white South African one! And soon I can say I'm Australian (we're immigrating); people won't ask why I am not black anymore - WHEW! Relief! No questions about colour means that I can go back to being colourless - a non-event- no longer responsible for black oppression and the destruction of my beloved AFRICA. But to gain this gift of "freedom" from culture - I have to leave my Motherland; the colourful world of my African culture.

How does one pry the thick blood red clay of Africa from one's feet?

                              Harder still is the wrenching of Africa's vibrant tribal vines from my heart
                              but the hardest ... is the extraction of my prejudicial weeds that constrict my mind
                              and creep into my psyche - destroying the glimmer of hope for fair "ubuntu'' in Africa.

Transformation...

So I am growing a new culture: my ETERNAL culture.

God knew that the culture into which we are born or chose to accept / acknowledge is not eternal. Culture does not last forever; neither should it define who we are... I'd be nothing then - invisible - colourless. Not even crusty blood red soil would stick to me. So somewhere deep with in my heart... actually beyond that cliche'... deep within my soul, He planted a minuscule seed of faith. He labelled it "Eternity" or rather "SEMPITERNAL" - hiding it for me to discover. I did discover it - it pierced through the darkness of culture - transcended the blackness in my cultural heart and drew attention to my neglected soul. Thus began my journey to eternity, I accepted Christ into my life at the age of four and my geriatric "long walk to freedom" commenced. I became transformed by allowing God to renew my mind - becoming and discovering that my form is Christ-like; only if my arms are stretched out to the world around me. I AM HIS IMAGE. I have a new culture - a godly culture. I am changed by the GRACE of God ALONE.

Maybe this video clip link will explain WHO I AM.

                                                               EVERYDAY.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GR7726x4LD4

IN CHRIST

Mrs.Mc.
An AFRICAN GLOBE TROTTER.

 Christmas 2009

TCIS HAS BROKEN GROUND! Follow this link to see God's promise and glory!

http://webuildtogether.blogspot.com/

Our Family Pics!

Josh swimming in a school Gala.

Shanneth and friends, Rachel and Josiah.

Bethany 10 months.

An amazing story of Gods grace

We went for a second opinion at the severance hospital in Seoul.

The Myoma is gone. No need for a operation. Perhaps the Sun hospital messed up. All we know is if we did not pray and seek a second opinion Chantal would have had major surgery by now. God healed her miraculously, or at least saved her from unnecessary operation.

We are now in Australia on holiday. Christmas will be great with the family and will be a nice time of relaxing.

Praise the Lord for Chantals health which is really great.

The kids are excited about Christmas. Bought them various gifts and especially a wii. Perhaps the wii is more for me.

God bless and have a great Christmas.

More change
Today was another day on the Myoma rollercoaster.
Chantal does have a growth about 7 to 10 cm large. The Dr are recommending surgery but there is no rush and we can wait for second opinion. The Dr at 10am and then on the KTX and off to Severance hospital for a second opinion at 2:30. Further testing and waiting until Wednesday or Saturday for the second opinion.The Dr at Severence needs time for her radiologist to do a review of the MRI and sonars.

So we might need to wait a week but we are at peace with that and feel really content.

Chantal is off with her girl friends to Seoul tomorrow and Shanneth has a party. The boys and I are going to hang out. I will do some work.

Things change fast.

The last 24 hours have been rather intense. Chantal went to the Dr for a minor issue and thought she would pop in and get an antibiotic. One thing lead to another and it was discovered she has a 7cm growth in her pelvic region. That was yesterday. Today she had an MRI. Until this morning we thought it would be a CT scan but with concerns over nasuea and alergic reactions a change to MRI was made. Much less invasive although the claustraphobea of the tube is not for the faint hearted. Tommorow we are going to get the results and go for a second opinion in Seoul, at the Severance hospital. By Friday night we will have a clear idea of what to do.

Ken

Not Much Happening

Not much happening but I want to keep the posts rolling.

I am working hard to get a exam schedule sorted for the High School.
Chantal has a student teacher which is going well.
Josh has a sore back from falling while walking the dog.
Josh won a Thinkers award at school -pretty cool.
Ethan is doing very good work at school and has a great attitude, also learning the trumpet which is cool too.
Shanneth is her cute, too big for her boots self.

It is time to update the blog. It has been a while and life is moving on fast.

The new school year has started and all out lives have taken on an adjustment.

I seem to never have enough time for my life. Work consumes me and I still seem to struggle to make it all work.

Chantal is grading like crazy but still struggling to keep up. She has a great student teacher which might help.

Shanneth is a big girl in kindergarten. Way too big for her boots but so cute.

Ethan has had a rough ride. Grade five has been a major step up and he is working like crazy and doing great but the work load is huge.

Josh has absolutely blossomed in Middle School. He has done well in class and participated in every intra mural there is. Today he went up to Seoul and ran Cross Country at SAHS. This means they go on base and get exposed to mini America.

Chantal went to Shanghai on a technology conference. I am not sure why. She learnt all this cool stuff and finds no use for it and does not bother to tell me. Leaves me in my ignorance and dark ages. Oh well, perhaps she will teach me moodle one day.

I went to Kota Kinabalo, Malaysia. The EARCOS conference was awesome and the venue was spectacular. I loved snorkeling even though I only managed to get out for 2 hours.

Lets hope we do a better job of updating.
Ken

Bethany Rose









Dr.Choo - our vet.








BETHANY: OUR NEWEST MCALLISTER FAMILY MEMBER!

Name: Bethany Rose McAllister (Italian:Beautiful; Hebrew: God's Promise)
She is God's Beautiful Promise!
Age: 75 days (born: 9 January 2008)
Breed: Alaskan Malamute / Artic Wolf
Eye colour: Smokey Grey

She is so sweet, caring and friendly. She loves to chew; bite her own foot and cries when she bites too hard! She is a social butterfly but does not want to sleep on her own!

She is frightened of our old cat Terry - who has threatens to clout her every now and then...
Here are some interesting pictures.

Dear Friends

Thank you for all your prayers, concern and love. My father died on the 21 December 2007. It was extremely traumatic as he was really well on the 14 December, on the 15 December he felt fluey and had a nose bleed in the middle of the night. Due to the severity of the blood loss, he was hospitalized. I chatted to him on the phone and was told that he had pneumonia. Praise God for the prompting of the Holy Spirit; I booked the earliest flight possible…19 December.
His condition deteriorated rather quickly and I felt extremely trapped – afraid that I would not be able to see him before it was too late. Ken and the children decided to stay as I was sure he would recover once I got there and flights to South Africa are ridiculously expensive. I arrived at his bedside on the 20 December at 2:00pm. It was wonderful to see him, even though he was connected to pipes and comatosed – I was able to hug and kiss him. I then started reading Matthew 25 to him - one of his favourite chapters. I then read Psalm 30 to him and he opened his eyes and said “Where is that?” I was delighted and the nurses were shocked because they had been nursing a corps until now! I then started to sing his favourite praise and worship songs: Guide me O Thy Great Jehovah; Blessed Assurance; Amazing Grace; How Great Thou Art; Jesus Love Me; Noel and many more. He started to hum along perfectly and for the next 45 minutes, my mother; sister and I experienced the most amazing worship session ever! Truly Extreme worship, every time we finished singing a song, my dad would start humming another and we had the privileged to sing along! We managed to take a short video clip (if you are interested) of Dad humming but did not want to focus on recording too much because really this was and is about God. We had two more “worship sessions” with Dad and this time the nurses joined in – surreal to see God working even in the hardest situations. Dad was growing weaker and we kept on telling him to hold on … for the children and his sons to come… Eventually on Thursday 20 th at 11:00 pm Dad opened his eyes… looked at me and said “I’m so tired.” I just knew I was being selfish, wanting him to fight; to live, when God has such a wonderful mansion prepared…. so I said ”It’s okay, Dad – rest – go home to Jesus…”
My sister, nephew and I, each had an opportunity to say goodbye and tell him that we loved him and are so grateful to have had a Dad and G/father like him. My mother spoke to him too and then he said ”Charney look after Bess.” I said I would – he slipped off quietly in his sleep three hours later on the 21 December.
Well his legacy did not stop there – we held a service for him on the 27 December at their home “Edenroc”, Durban. His last wish was not to have a funeral but to have a celebration of what God had done in his life. Everyone was to wear bright colours, no black – his best friend and pastor, (whom he lay preached for every other Sunday) was to preach a SALVATION message… giving hope and sharing GOD’S LOVE, at the celebration. It truly was a celebration - 25 people responded to the salvation message and accepted Christ into their lives! What a tremendous victory for the kingdom and I know that my dad would be thrilled! Heaven and Earth rejoiced.

We brought my Mum with us to spend sometime in Korea and hopefully become more independent – she has been married to my dad for 49 years – this year would have been their 50th anniversary. She is rather confused and still in shock so your prayers are appreciated; especially as she adjusts to her changed life. I know God will protect her and comfort her as HE has us. God is so faithful and true.


Love in Christ
Chantal and Kenneth McAllister.

A Celebration of Buzz Bowden’s Life.

Buzz and Bess Bowden on theor 49th Wedding Anniversary. 2 October 2007.

Bess and Buzz 49 years earlier on their wedding day.

ARTHUR HARRY BOWDEN
1921 – 2007.
Buzz Bowden aka Arthur Harry Bowden was born on the 28 October 1921 in East London. Every thing he accomplished in his life was for God’s glory – he NEVER bragged about anything he achieved – he gave God all the Glory, for the things God did in his life, to God. He would only say that to serve God was such a privilege.
He was educated at Selbourne College in East London where he excelled in sport especially swimming. The motto of the school is the Latin Palma virtuti (virtue has its reward). Dad truly lived this motto and in his last days showed us all what this means….he has reaped the reward of eternal life through living this motto out to the fullest; “Reward is to the brave”.

Buzz had achieved a variety of accolades:
A National Technical Diploma
A National Technical Teacher’s Diploma
A National Technical Engineering Diploma
A Bachelor of Arts Degree
A Bachelor of Education (with Honours)
A Master of Education

Two unpublished (due to death of two daughters) Doctorate’s:
Education and of Philosophy
A member of the Human Science Research Council

An Amateur Ham Radio Licensed operator
A Private Pilot’s license
Member of the Royal Life Saving Society (Award of Merit)

Officer in the Royal Navy during the 2nd World War
Medals for fighting in the war:
These are for bravery and as dad sometimes said “staying alive”!
The GRJ Star of Merit (King George Rex Jr.)
The GRJ Star of Africa
The GRJ Star
The GRJ Atlantic Star
The GRJ Africa Star
The Imperial King George VI Medal of Honour
The Africa Service Medal
Medal of Service on the HMS

2 Gold Medals for Life Saving (Award of Merit)
Gold medal for swimming the English Channel
Bronze Medal for swimming in the Africa Games
Won the International Service Gala in Alexandria
Egypt (200 m freestyle 1min:22 sec) this really helped
when his ship sank off the coast of Tubruk!

He taught at the Johannesburg Technical College;
John Orr Technical High School;
Head of Blairgowrie High School;
Rustenburg Technical High School.

Lay Witness Missionary; Gideons; Started and actively involved in many churches in Jhb.

Managing Director of three companies:
Impala Clay
North Riding Electrical
A-Z Agencies.

Greatest Accolade: Child of God; Husband; Father; Grand father and Friend.

He died of Pneumonia at the age of 86 on the 21 December 2007.