A slower recovery than first thought

Well, my day started off with a surprise call from the office manager at UNISA reminding me that I had to give two lectures this morning (which I had in my diary for Friday). I rushed off and found my students waiting for me. I had to do the lecture seated and felt faint. The office manager, Hannelie, saw that I wasn't doing well and rushed me off to her doc. He prodded, pocked, injected and said that he suspected a burst appendix. So, off we went to hospital for further tests. They couldn't find any conclusive evidence of this diagnosis, but did find a badly inflamed and infected colon. Now I'm on stronger meds. If I don't feel better by tomorrow morning, I have to go to hospital again to do further appendix tests. Knowing the seriousness of appendices, I suppose they could have said: "If you're still alive tomorrow morning and still shtting yourself, then come back and we'll run some more tests.". Must say that tonight I feel like a small plate of mash and fishfingers.

A slow recovery

I have had an extremely busy two weeks. Both my colleagues are on leave and I have never experienced the church being this busy. For example, on Sunday alone I conducted 3 services and had 5 counseling appointments. Then my body decided to take a break and so for the last two days I've been living in the toilet. I have never slept and you know what like this in my entire life. I went to the doc yesterday who wanted to put me on a drip, but I promised to drink litres of Rehidrat if he spared me the needle. Today I am feeling a bit more human again, hence my ability to blog. Poor little Nathan is still stuggling. Nats took him to the doc just now and hopefully he'll recover soon.

During this time I have been the recipient of much care from my lovely wife and precious little Matthew. A family member, who is going through a rough patch came to visit yesterday. I didn't speak much, but admired my 4 (almost 5) year old's ability to theologize and counsel. Here is a short excerpt of the discussion:

X: I am really feeling very sad.

Matt: Here is a piece of paper. I wrote your name and there is a heart to tell you that I love you.

X: Ag Matt, you make my heart feel so much better.

Matt: But I'm not Jesus. Jesus is in your heart forever. He makes your heart feel better when you are sad.

X: I just wish the pain would go away.

Matt: Jesus doesn't fix your heart just like that (snaps his fingers). But he does make it better eventually.

X: I suppose it is going to take some time.

All I could think was "WOW". I am glad that we're doing something right.

A promotion

I noticed that both Neill Oosthuizen and I are referred to as Rev. Prof. in the article mentioned in my previous post. Although I hope for this to materialize soon, I must set the record straight and say that I am still just a doctor.

My 15 minutes of fame!!!!

My picture in the Joy magazine.

Prof. Van der Kooi

Last night we had another wonderful meeting at the Theological Society. Prof. Van der Kooi from the Vrij Universiteit van Amsterdam spoke about the nature of Systematic Theology in today's world.

It is his view that Systematic Theology has become a subject of reductionist thinking. The dogmatics of Calvin, Luther, Anselm and others always found its roots in practical Christian living of ordinary Christians. Academic theology only started separating itself from pragmatism in the 19th century. He concluded by stating that the place where an individual thinks that they can do theology outside the church is, for him, "the" Protestant Fallacy. Quite a nice term.

The lecture was presented in Dutch. It was fantastic to hear it again. I took a while to get into it, but after the second glass of wine, he was making a lot of sense. Only joking. My grandfather is Dutch and I haven't heard "Hoog Hollands" for quite some time.

Time for an upgrade

It's almost time to upgrade my mobile phone and I can't quite decide what to go for.

There are a two options. The first is the new iPhone. The second, the new Nokia E71.

The Nokia seems to have an edge over the iPhone (excuse the pun). Any suggestions anyone?

Sorry, I broke the law.

Today I took Bertie, my Vespa, for its roadworthy test. No problems there. I even managed to register my motorbike on my name.

I did this with my conscience bugging me the whole day, because I drove on the open road without a license. I made it to the testing ground safely and enjoyed the trip home.

I'm happy to say that I'll be going for my Learner's license exam on the 3rd of September.

Come-on Dion, your turn.