In the southern hemisphere, our summer vacation happens around the Christmas holiday. Schools finish up at the end of November and the new school year doesn't start up again until late January. That's the perfect time to get out of town for a refreshing break and little change of scenery. This year for me that meant Cape Town.
Coming from Namibia, the first things you notice about CT is that it's big (Windhoek is 400,000 people; CT is 4.5 million) and that it's green. Coming from the desert, green is a big deal! CT has a little bit of everything, mountains and beaches, major urban centers and small town main streets, vineyards and beach pubs, huge shopping malls and little vendor markets. There's a little something for everyone. So I and a few friends found a housesitting gig and had a fun-filled holiday vacation.
At about 5am the day after Christmas, four of us crammed into my little VW Polo with no air conditioning and hit the road for the next 15 and a half hours. The drive through southern Namibia offers some gorgeous sweeping views across the desert and then eventually you find the green farmlands of South Africa. And finally, after daylight is long gone you peak over the hill and see the massive lights of Cape Town spread out in the distance below. Everyone was flabbergasted that we would attempt the journey all in one day, but I say better to just get it over with and be there.
Driving south across the Tropic of Capricorn
Oasis in the Desert; crossing the Orange River into South Africa
Our first activity was hiking the famous Table Mountain. We hiked the longer, more scenic Kasteelspoort trail up the back side of the mountain, enjoyed the views from the top, then descended the more direct Platteklip Gorge trail, which is basically a rock staircase of switchbacks all the way down the gorge.
View of Camps Bay and Lion's Head on our way up the Kasteelspoort trail
View over Cape Town from Table Mountain (with Lion's Head on the left and Devil's Peak on the right)
Hiking down through Platteklip Gorge
We spent a day on the lovely white sand of Camps Bay beach with the picturesque peaks of the Twelve Apostles in the background. The Antarctic currents make the Atlantic Ocean water quite brisk, so we mostly just enjoyed walking along the beach or taking a nap while others buried themselves in the sand. We then found our way to Maiden's Cove for a scenic sunset picnic dinner.
Camps Bay beach and the Twelve Apostles from Maiden's Cove
We got to see the penguins at Boulder Beach...
Penguin colony at Boulder Beach
He's ready for his closeup.
And catch some New Year's Eve fireworks at the V&A Waterfront...
Lots of stages and performers at the NYE party at the Waterfront
New Year's fireworks over the harbor
Another excellent hike we did is the Crystal Pools hike, which is detailed in another post here.
Then on our last night together we hiked up Lion's Head to catch another sunset. This trail snails around the rocky spire of a mountain often with a rock wall to your right and a steep cliff on your left. But the panoramic views from the top are well worth the hike. Once the sun sets you can watch the lights of the city start to come out as you descend. Thankfully we brought our flashlights because we didn't make it down until well after the last glow of twilight had faded from the horizon.
Looking out over the endless sea from the top of Lion's Head
The lights of the city coming out and the 'table cloth' covering Table Mountain
Sometimes vacations seem busier than real life. You are only there a short time so you want to pack in as many fun activities as possible. The key is finding those activities which for you are restful. Then vacation can be both fun and refreshing!
Websites about visiting Cape Town always give you the same suggestions for top tourist sites like Table Mountain, Robbin Island, and Cape Point. But to find the diamonds in the rough you have to head off the beaten path.
The Crystal Pools hike in the Steenbras Nature Reserve is an excellent day hike to escape the holiday crowds. You must pre-book your hike as they only allow 50 people per day into the reserve. And grab a hiking buddy because you need a group of 2-10 people. You can get the permit application by emailing steenbras.naturereserve@capetown.gov.za. They will reply with a tentative booking. You can then pre-pay your R69pp entrance fee electronically or by making a bank deposit. After sending proof of payment, they will then email you the official permit.
The Steenbras Nature Reserve can be reached by taking the R44 out of Gordon's Bay. Parking for the Crystal Pools trailhead is on the right hand side of the road just after you cross the bridge over the Steenbras River. Reserve employees will be at the trailhead to check your permit.
The trail is well marked most of the way, but very rocky so good hiking shoes are recommended. They say it is for medium to experienced hikers, but the hike to the lower pools is not difficult and we saw many children doing it.
The hike begins by going up and over the hill, then down into the river gorge. The trail follows the river for a short ways before taking a short cut up over another hill then back down into the gorge. Along this stretch you will find the first of the pools, Reed Pool, a long narrow pool named after the many reeds growing alongside. Feel free to take a dip here, but it's quite small in comparison to what lies ahead. I recommend pressing on to the real treasure.
Hiking through the gorge
Reed Pool
After Reed Pool you will continue along the river. Cross a small footbridge then turn to the right and there you will find Deep Pool, another small but picturesque pool that could be a nice shady place for a break. But again, I recommend you don't waste your time swimming here, but press on.
Deep Pool in the gorge
Deep Pool
A little ways further up the trail you will see Elena's Pool off to your right. This is the lowest of the big pools and the easiest to access. Take the small unmarked path down to the right to reach the pool. Beware of large rocks just below the surface in the middle of the pool.
Elena's Pool
Waterfall at Elena's Pool
Continue back on the trail onwards and upwards to Family Pool. You will again need to descend on an unmarked path to reach the base of the pool. There are nice rocks here to lay out on in the sun. This pool is better photographed in the morning light as the afternoon sun will cast a dark shadow over the falls.
Swimming at Family Pool
After Family pool the trail gets steep and gravelly. It is still marked and maintained, but more difficult. You will continue a little further up along the mountainside until you see a steep unmarked path down to the right toward Crystal Pool.
Crystal Pool from above
Crystal Pool
After Crystal Pool the trail turns sharply upward. It is much more steep and not for the faint of heart. That's why most people stay at the lower pools. But for the brave and experienced, the Upper Pool is a nice reward. The trail will wind its way steeply through the trees and brush up the mountain side. At some points you will also need to use your hands. At one point the trail will open up and you will see a "staircase" (which also looks like a landslide) that turns steeply up the mountain. This will take you up to a viewpoint at the top. The trail is quite steep, but there are some maintained steps you can follow. At the top the trail seems to disappear and you can just find your way to a nice viewpoint. (Or you can skip the view and proceed straight to the Upper Pool.)
Steep trail up to the viewpoint
The three large pools from above
View from the top
Back down at the split off, continue straight ahead along the unmarked trail. Eventually this trail will also disappear and you need to climb your way upriver through the boulders until you find the Upper Pool. This is the end of the gorge and from here you can look up 100 feet or so and see a lovely waterfall cascading down the gorge wall. My recommendation is to make your way quickly to this pool and hit the others on the way down. If you're lucky, all the other hikers will have stopped at the pools below and you may have this pool entirely to yourself.
Upper Pool
Falls above Upper Pool
There are a few more pools higher up, but you basically have to rock climb to get there and the rocks are quite slippery if you have wet feet. This is also a popular location for repelling (absailing) tours. I hope you enjoy the hike and the swim like we did!
For many, January 1st brings thoughts of resolutions and making life adjustments. We reflect on the past year and see all the areas where our life hasn't met our expectations or desires, then we set about in our own strength to make ourselves more like we want to be. Some of those things may be related to our spiritual lives, like wanting to pray more, memorize Scripture, or reading through the Bible in a year.
Oftentimes my Bible reading can feel a bit routine, maybe because I've read that passage many times before or I don't know how it applies to my life. Or sometimes I approach my Bible reading with many other things on my mind. So one idea that has been helpful for me is reading a devotional along with my Bible. That reading helps get my mind focused on spiritual things and helps me know how it might apply to my life.
If reading a devotional could be something that's helpful for you I would recommend trying D.A. Carson's For The Love of God. His plan offers up to 4 Bible chapters to read each day, and a short one-page devotional related to one of those chapters. You can find both volumes free online at the following links:
Many people have a hard time understanding the Old Testament prophets. They are often written in cryptic word pictures and metaphors. It’s hard to figure out if they're talking about past events, current events, or future events. But, perhaps most of all, we don’t know where or how they fit into the context of the Old Testament.
One of my fellow lecturers says that the ‘key’ to ‘unlocking’ the books of OT prophecy is the historical context, and that can often be found in the very first verse. In other words, in order to understand and interpret a particular book of prophecy we need to understand how that book fits into OT history. Thus I’ve put together the following chart to help us understand just that.
Now exact dating of OT events is notoriously difficult for various reasons. Thus the dates on the chart are just one attempt to compile the best estimates from the archeological and biblical studies of various commentators. But what we’re going for is a general sense of the context of a book, so this chart can help us succeed in that.
[Click on image for larger version]
The timeline begins on the left with the United Kingdom under King Solomon. After Solomon’s death, the tribes of Judah and Benjamin stuck with his descendants while the northern ten tribes followed Jeroboam. The yellow line follows the northern kingdom, which was called ‘Israel’. The green line follows the southern kingdom of ‘Judah’. (Occasionally two kings overlapped in a type of co-regency or power struggle.) The orange lines are the OT History books in which the above events are described.
The white colored prophets are non-writing prophets. Their messages were primarily directed to the kings. The message of the red prophets were directed primarily against other nations (Jonah and Nahum against Nineveh; Obadiah against Edom). The yellow prophets (Amos and Hosea) were directed primarily to Israel. The green prophets wrote primarily for Judah, the Jewish exiles, or the post-exilic community.
I hope this chart will be helpful for you to place the OT prophetic books in their historical context and thus understand and interpret them better.
Pretty much everything here winds to a halt in December, our summer holiday. That means all the year end celebrations happen in November. So with the last week of D-group coinciding with Thanksgiving weekend, it just made sense for us to end the year with a big American style feast. So everybody signed up to bring a dish and scoured the internet for the best American recipes. I handled the staples, the turkeys, stuffing and gravy.
As the anticipation grew and word got out, in typical African style, anybody who hears about it is invited. But isn't that what holidays are all about? Everybody should have 'family' to celebrate with where they don't need to be 'invited'.
Some pre-meal gameage
Tasty looking birds
Riko carving the birds
(now he wants an electric knife!)
Everybody chipped in to make a good lookin spread!
Been craving that drumstick since last year
We take time to share something we're thankful for.
Apparently somebody made a good joke.
The crazy Thanksgiving crew
They say all the best parties end in the kitchen
Apparently I have now created a new tradition...since clearly 2 years in a row makes something a tradition! Now everybody's already talking about Thanksgiving next year. 😁
Each year at NETS we take a week out of our lecture schedule to send our students out on mission trips in various places around the country. Our purpose is two-fold: to reach out to our own population with the gospel of Jesus, and to help our students gain valuable practical ministry experience. This year we sent out four teams to Keetmanshoop, Rundu, Queen Sofia, and my team went to Swakopmund.
In Swakop we partnered with various local churches as well as just sharing the gospel with whoever we met on the street. Some of our students led Family Life workshops at two different churches, encouraging family members to treat each other with love. We met with various local pastors to both encourage them and share with them about NETS, but also to ask questions and learn from their years of experience. And on Sunday morning we participated in an ecumenical worship service including multiple churches from around the community.
"Missing the Mark" game at Youth Night
On Friday night our students organized a Youth Outreach Night and encouraged youth from various local churches to invite their friends. The evening was organized around the "wordless book" colors with a different activity focusing on each color: gold reminding us of heaven and a perfect relationship with God; black indicating sin; red pointing us to the blood of Christ; white teaching us of forgiveness and cleansing from sin; and green encouraging us to grow in our relationship with God. By the end of the night the youth had heard the whole message of the gospel!
Each day we also split up into teams of 3 to walk around the town or the beach and share the good news with whoever we came across. We would play games with children then share with them using a "wordless bracelet." Sometimes we just prayed with people. Often they were polite but disinterested, but some were open to talk. Outside the library, I was chatting with 4 young ladies who had been studying for their grade 12 exams. Their understanding of Christianity was very religious, but had little to do with their everyday lives. At one point I was encouraging them to wait for a relationship with a good Christian guy, but they told me good guys don't exist and they would rather have someone to sleep with them even if he was bad, than to feel lonely. They would rather have someone to support them and a baby even if he cheated and didn't love them, than to wait for a guy they couldn't imagine existing. I was struck by their hopelessness. They would rather cling to the temporary tangible pleasures of sin, even with lasting consequences(!), because they couldn't imagine any other option.
As I stood on a street corner a uniformed police officer came walking down the sidewalk. I chuckled to myself wondering what the police would think of what we were doing. Apparently it showed on my face because he playfully asked me, "What are you smiling about? Do you have some good news?" Again, I chuckled to myself in wonder that he would phrase it that way, and responded with an even bigger smile, "I have the best news!"
And that's exactly what those four girls couldn't understand. That gospel says that all the pain and damage of this sinful world...it doesn't have to be this way! That really is the best news of all, but some people just aren't interested. It's like C.S. Lewis said, that we would rather go on making mud pies in the slums because we can't imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea.
Overall it was a great trip, not only for practical ministry experience for our students, but also as a stark reminder to me of exactly why I am here, because there are young people all across Namibia who are living and dying without hearing the true gospel.
After multiple short-term trips to Namibia, God has called me to return long-term to teach the Bible to the next generation of Namibian pastors and youth workers. Through this blog you can share in my journey and be a part of what God is doing in Namibia. Read more...
Namibia is a country of about 3 million people located along the Atlantic Ocean of south western Africa. It is ranked 5th in the world in HIV/AIDS prevalency, an epidemic that has decimated the working-age population and created a generation of orphans. While 89% of the population claim Christianity, rampant vices like immorality, abuse, and alcoholism reveal that it is religion in title only. The true gospel which frees from the bondage to sin is the only solution. Read more...
