# Lost and Found

I was baptised on a Thursday night and two days later I was with my new-found brothers at my very first men’s working-bee. Fred Martin was there. He reminded me of John Wayne and was a painter by trade. He, of course, knew a willing worker when he saw one and he set me to work painting the new wall behind the pulpit of the Otumoetai church of Christ. Not too many Saturdays later, our preacher, Ian Mostert, called for…

Four years ago, I became very unwell and in need of an operation to fix internal bleeding. There were days when I was so weak, I wondered how close to the end I had gotten. But during the worst of my moments, I can honestly say, that the thing that mattered to me most was that my children get to heaven. When you are feeling your humanity, it is amazing what matters and what doesn’t. There will come a day…

I have met evil people in the church. They are the last to believe it of themselves. Such is the hardness of their hearts that destroying the lives of others is considered by them as acts of righteousness. I have met righteous people in the church. They are the last to believe it of themselves. Such is the goodness of their hearts that blessing the lives of others is considered by them as acts of right-ness. Giving thanks to their…

Back in 1970, when milk was four cents a pint, finding a two-dollar note was finding a veritable fortune for a nine-year-old boy. It was laying in the grass opposite the ‘Horseshoe Inn,’ the local pub in our village of Matata. I imagine that the note slipped out of a patron’s pocket the previous night as he pulled his car keys out of his pocket. I snatched up the new-found treasure and took it to my mother for inspection. ‘Thou…

If you Google “Ship of Fools Morningside church of Christ” you will find a 2014 review of a worship service of the Morningside congregation. It is worth a read. The man who visited us and wrote the review was accurate in his assessment (for then), I think. He slipped in as we were starting worship, and he was supposed to slip out without giving away his identity—a very hard thing to achieve at Morningside. What if a ‘non-Christian” decided he…

I was lost and away from God, and I knew it. My problem was in the finding. Soul-dead religion wasn’t hard to see. But neither were genuinely sincere people keen to share their testimonies with me. I took in every sight and sound and have believed to this day that God’s hand of providence was in it all. Being spiritually lost is not to be wished upon anyone. It is indeed a land of darkness and doubt. When searching for…

A party appeared out of nowhere. What could have sparked such a rapturous scene? The noise of feasting could not be missed. Such was the speed of events that the heir of the estate seemed to be the last to know. When collaring one of the servants he heard from him the last thing on earth he ever wanted to hear: “Your brother’s back!”How could this have happened? Surely, he was well-shot of the boy. Now he is back and…