Flaps Blog

If u land here looking for an update on Jacques-Louis, please go to my facebook profile.? www.facebook.com register, and add me as a friend - Flaps van der Merwe.

Also don’t confuse our situation with Jacques-Louis, with my friend Derick’s situation with his son Jeandre.

I visited Little Jeandre in Paarl/Franschoek this week. What a Blessing! I can’t believe I was holding this child who was so helpless 3 week ago - and seeing the life in his eyes. And the peace. Absolutely awesome. I heard more about his condition - apparently three rare heart defects - of which the doctor had never encountered the three in combination. I will not try and explain more. Apart from the fact that he still has to have 2 bypass operation’s in the year to come. And he is alive!

Well here’s me with him. What a privilege to be on a pic with Jeandre! Ladies stand in the queue. This young man is gonna make your knees weak!

The first two weeks In June is officially my holiday for the year. Normally every December I would work until just before Christmas on our USA ministry and then we start again January 1st with the South African ministry!
This year God provided us with a wonderful house in Boggomsbaai - near Mossel Bay (for those who don’t know). I was a bit worried because I was told nothing happens in Boggomsbaai, that there would be no people on the beach etc etc. My general idea for holiday is busy busy people people fun fun party party.

Well we’ve been here 5 days. Here is the report:

• If I would want to party, here are at least 10 pensioners marching the streets, begging for an invite.
• Due to an abundance of time due to lots of nothingness…
  • I have run every day (actually jogged - some would call it a slow meander)
  • Stared at the ocean endlessly (I don’t actually have a nature pathway)
  • Had glorious time with God (I used that word purposefully - Ps24…)

• I also watched THE Wife escort 3 huuuuge spiders out the house… (she enjoys this - I don’t want to interfere with her nature pathway)
• I played golf on a hilarious coastal golf course - where you throw money into a hole in the wall in order to play. The greens are sand and you putt on the sand on a flattened path… never mind I’ll post a photo later.

In short, I am reminded that sometimes everything really needs to stand still in order to rest the soul. And resting the soul is necessary in this crazy world. I think God glories in times like these.

Glorious.

I love this country.

I recently attended a summit of 450 Christian leaders in South Africa.

I love the logo - and I love what it stand for.? A lot was said in these 2 days but more importantly all of us were simply humbling ourselves before God and asking ‘God what are you saying to us about this country?’

One thing I am thinking about is ‘the power of the few’ - Jehoshephat prayed to God, ?We are powerless?we don?t know what to do?but our eyes are upon Thee.? (2 Chronicles 20:12).?? POWERLESS is a word that I think summarises what many people feel about South Africa.? But if the few of us who believe in this country stick together, trust God for divine deliverance, and most importantly, choose to make a difference, even if we think ‘what difference will it make’… then I believe we will see God’s mighty hand in this country.? In fact I believe we’re seeing it already - just look at the ridiculous Might Men statistics.? Is that not revival?? How then can we see that and say we do not have hope?!

As for myself I believe I can contribute to change in South Africa, and I’m committing myself to the cause.

Together the 450 leaders drew up a declaration of intent.? Most of you will probably not read it but I’ll post it under this blog for those who are interested!? If the FEW commit to this declaration, we WILL SEE CHANGE.

Many Fun and Fantastic words start with the letter ‘f’. Like finger. Or fettaroni. Or FKC (Fried Kentucky Chicken). But the one word that makes most people in ministry sick - some have been said to ‘fomit’ - is the word ‘fundraising.’

And my friend Floyd Mc Clung is the one who inspired me to get positive about it and inspired our ministry to choose to love it!! I know it sounds crazy and I’m not even going to bother to try and explain exactly how we got there. But I can say that after a 3 day crash course on fundraising (How much is there to learn!?), I can truly say all our staff that attended the 3 day course, are pumped!

So look out!! I have faith - and I am ready to WORK in order to get my family on a 100% planned budget! Which includes savings, long term planning etc etc. It’s absolutely crazy to see how much the Bible actually says about money and about ministries built on support. And it’s also amazing how wrong we go with support raising due to lack of skill, lack of structure and plain lack of effort.

It’s 13 years now that THE wife and I are living on support! And God is looking after us! That said, we often just ‘get by’! And never raise enough funds for the extra important things. Then again this is all relative because compared to rest of the world we probably do better than ‘get by’. Most 13thFLOOR staff (who own cars) would be listed under the richest 20% of people in the world - as all car owners are.

Which brings me to an interesting philosophical point about the rich and the poor… There has always been rich people and poor people. Jesus often comments on the subject as if this distinction is default. He has a lot to say about how the rich should treat the poor. I think we view money so different to the way God views money.

What I do know is that I want to make wise decisions with the money I have. I want to be a wise steward. I want to spend wisely. And I want to have an open hand.

By God’s grace… Thank you Jesus for all you provide.

This week my phone got stolen. If u know me u will know that this is a tragedy. It might even have been a theme for a new Shakespearean play. But sadly Will had left us before this happened.

I lost over a thousand numbers.

I did back up on my pc last November - but something went wrong with the back up.

So this is the way it happened. I was playing a round of golf. Usually I have this deadly rule that I always take my phone out of my golf bag before I go to the 19th hole to have a beer. This time I didn’t have a beer because I was in a hurry and I just planted myself down and quickly added up my horrible score.

It took only 2 minutes.

For the thief to steal my phone.

So I ventured into the pro-shop with my long face only to be promised that all caddies will be searched etcetera.

On my third call to the pro-shop (with THE wife’s phone) the following day, I accidentally stumbled on to (actually I didn’t stumble - the guy just answered the phone) some big shot guy who explained to me that I should rather call Mr X who managed the golf course security company.

I called Mr X.

He comforted me.

And told me he would try to help but I should rather call his friend Mr Y, who ran some underground business and would guarantee to trace my phone through some tracking system.

I called Mr Y.

He comforted me.

And said for R950 I would have my phone by Thursday.

I said thank you.

On Tuesday Mr Z called me saying he worked for Mr Y. (I realised he must be some underground detective or something.) He explained that they could only trace the phone if it was on, and then it would cost more money to go in and fetch it, and no guarantees. I reminded myself that I was not Jack Bauer and decided to let my beloved Nokia 9300i go - as well as my 1000 numbers.

I thus have no way to remember anybody’s birthday anymore - So this blog is to say Happy birthday to you.

And if u know me and u think your number was one of the 1000 please sms your number (AND YOUR NAME) to my phone - 083 306 2810

And then pray for me for comfort.