» West Coast Erosion
25/10/25 20:19 from Urban Ministry Live And Unplugged
This photo shows erosion on Cape Town's West Coast, near Milnerton. Gemini AI says: "A combination of factors is causing accelerated erosion that threatens infrastructure and natural habitats, as seen in areas like Sandy Bay and Milnerton."
» Goading
24/10/25 13:21 from Urban Ministry Live And Unplugged
Something that anyone and everyone is likely to have come across is goading . I suppose that goading may be effective where it is believed -- in which case it may be gaslighting -- otherwise it seems to be a somewhat dud strategy. ...
» Reunion Reflection
24/10/25 12:15 from An African's Reflections.
The other day it was our matric group’s turn to host our school reunion. With Frank Opperman’s one-man show (written by Dana Snyman) still fresh in my mind, I decided to show up after all, and it was genuinely good to see familiar faces ...
» Love on its knees
23/10/25 13:51 from Living In Grace
I was reading an old book called Prayers for Busy People , written by Rita Snowden, in 1978. She mentions in the opening pages, a quote from Dr Harry Fosdick, who speaks about Intercessory prayer as 'love on its knees.' Don't you l...
» Memory Like an Elephant
23/10/25 08:27 from Urban Ministry Live And Unplugged
Back in 2012 -- thirteen years ago -- when I graduated from Fuller Theological Seminary, I promised (now) wife E that I would celebrate my graduation with her with a High Tea at our luxurious Mount Nelson Hotel. Somehow that never came t...
» Comparison of Drafts
22/10/25 09:49 from Urban Ministry Live And Unplugged
How to check that AI is not pulling the wool over my eyes with its judgement of the final draft of my next book? I put two drafts -- earlier and later -- through the same AI analysis: • A November 2024 draft: "A fascinating intellectual ...
» The Lord is our strength and shield
22/10/25 08:50 from Living In Grace
Thank you for encouragement and willingness to read my ramblings - I do appreciate you and it is your interaction that keeps me writing. Every now and then one reads a passage of Scripture that hits the mark, and you don't need an...
» How Not to Sell Photographs
22/10/25 06:46 from Urban Ministry Live And Unplugged
Some years ago, thinking that I was not bad at photography, I made 26 of my photos available to Public Domain Pictures -- imagining that I might make some money from them. In the interim, there have been nearly 150,000 downloads of my ph...
» Pastor Dropout in the USA
21/10/25 22:22 from Urban Ministry Live And Unplugged
For one of my Master's theses, I studied pastor dropout in the USA. Here are some statistics: • Around 40% of pastors are at a high risk for burnout, a figure that has increased nearly 400% since 2015. • In recent years, over 40% of past...
» Rising Panic
21/10/25 09:04 from Urban Ministry Live And Unplugged
Here are two graphs from Google's Ngram Viewer, which graphs the use of words -- here in British English -- the word "suicide" on the left, and the word "panic" on the right. The graphs look much the same for American English. The recent...
» Dealing with Disappointment
21/10/25 09:00 from Living In Grace
Dealing with Disappointment! How do we deal with one of life's guarantees? Having to experience disappointment is the one thing that we will all go through in life. It is not easy, but we will all need to embrace it at some point i...
» A prayer for Mental Wellbeing
20/10/25 12:01 from Living In Grace
A friend of mine wrote a brilliant article about Mental Health Awareness. If you would like to read Chris's full article, please check it out on this platform. Here is a prayer that he also wrote. " Dear Heavenly Father, We come to you w...
» AI Opinion
20/10/25 08:27 from Urban Ministry Live And Unplugged
I blogged yesterday that I had completed my latest philosophy book. Today, I asked AI (DeepSeek) to analyse my "small book of philosophical fiction" in its entirety. It considers: "This is not just a 'small book of philosophical fiction'...
» Book Complete
19/10/25 06:51 from Urban Ministry Live And Unplugged
I have completed my next book (working title: The Lost Philosopher ). On schedule, before the end of October. It is hybrid philosophical fiction-non-fiction. It comes in at Grade 6. Strength of style is very strong (for philosophy) at 68...
» The Name Julius
18/10/25 21:04 from Urban Ministry Live And Unplugged
People's self-awareness may seem rather low. Here's what appears to be a classic example. We have a politician here named Julius, who wishes to rename all things imperialist. Yet his very own name is derived from the original "Julius", t...
» Problems with the HU Principle
18/10/25 19:37 from Urban Ministry Live And Unplugged
The problems with the homogeneous unit principle (see previous), which separates "people groups" in the Church, are various. • The early Church emphasised unity across cultural and social barriers. • The principle leads to social a...
» Homogeneous Unit Principle
17/10/25 21:28 from Urban Ministry Live And Unplugged
I was looking up Fuller Theological Seminary graduation colours, as I want to wear them at a graduation. Fuller listed various graduations. Black. Asian. Latino. Korean. Wife E asked, "I wonder whether they heard that we shall all be one...
» Teaching and AI
17/10/25 10:01 from Urban Ministry Live And Unplugged
For two terms, I have taught religions and cults. For this, I have relied heavily on Artificial Intelligence (AI), which one might understand as a super-intelligence, accessed through one's computer. Does AI make a difference to te...
» Table Bay
16/10/25 20:21 from Urban Ministry Live And Unplugged
I took this photo of Table Bay on a stormy day -- Table Mountain on the far left of the photo. The Dutch navigator Joris van Spilbergen named it Table Bay in 1601, for the flat-topped Table Mountain that overlooks it. You may click ...
» Playing Pool
15/10/25 19:59 from Urban Ministry Live And Unplugged
This one's just a pretty picture. I took this photo of a seminary student playing pool. He joked that, since his game was being documented, he would have to win. OBSERVATION: I like this photo for its cartoon-like feel.
» Power Vacuum
15/10/25 13:00 from Urban Ministry Live And Unplugged
I learnt something interesting today. Suppose that one approaches an organisation for help. They have the power to help, and perhaps they ought to help, but they say no, go away -- or perhaps they are silent. This is what has just ...
» Practice what you preach
15/10/25 13:00 from Living In Grace
There are countless examples of people who have preached a good life but have not actually followed through with their words. Putting faith into practice, is a sure way of showing others the authenticity of being a follower of Christ.&nb...
» Church Spire
14/10/25 15:20 from Urban Ministry Live And Unplugged
I have placed many photos of Riviersonderend NGK (Dutch Reformed Church) on this blog. Here is one that I somehow skipped. The Church is built in the neo-Gothic style. The foundation stone was laid in 1937. OBSERVATION: This Church would...
» The challenge to change ourselves
14/10/25 13:55 from Living In Grace
" When we are no longer able to change a situation - we are challenged to change ourselves." - Viktor E. Frankl These words leave us with a big challenge. Frankl was writing this reflection after he had lived through the horrors of the c...
» ‘Highly Valuable Small Book’
13/10/25 13:08 from Urban Ministry Live And Unplugged
My book (click here) The Good: A Comprehensive Philosophy of Christianity is an as yet under-appreciated work. I ran the book through DeepSeek AI last week. It describes it as follows: "My analysis, based on the provided manu...