Buzz Aldrin

Buzz Aldrin (born Edwin Eugene Aldrin, Jr., January 20, 1930) is an American mechanical engineer, retired United States Air Force pilot and astronaut who was the Lunar Module pilot on Apollo 11, the first manned lunar landing in history. On July 20, 1969, he was the second human being to set foot on the Moon, following mission commander Neil Armstrong.

I met Buzz Aldrin when I had to accompany Marli Kelly on the piano at an open air meeting in Johannesburg. He was the guest speaker. His wife and daughter travelled with him. I happened to sit next to Buzz on stage.
I saw his special built up shoes.

‘Why those?’ I enquired.

‘All of us who went to the moon came back different. We are not made to live on the moon. The arches of my feet sunk. I have to wear special built up shoes all the time,’ he explained.

In his testimony he said that he went to the moon an agnostic and returned a Christian!

‘When you see how beautiful God made the earth, you just cannot help but believe there must be a creator!’

It was a great privilege to meet the famous astronaut. To my amazement he was chosen as the cartoon character Buzz Lightyear. Buzz has tremendous insight into so many things and on his websites one can gather incredible knowledge. But the personal knowledge I gleaned from him is probably the most important: Jesus Christ died to save our sins and God raised Him from the dead so that we can live forever!

Science is proving the Bible correct, day by day! Scientists are turning to Christ more and more.The Truth shall prevail.

Well, luckily all of us do not have to take a trip to the moon to find out if the Gospel of Jesus Christ is true or not. The blessed Holy Spirit will convict us of sin, righteousness and judgement. He will make Jesus real to us and convince us of the truth of His sacrifice for our sins. He will provide us with the gift of faith to believe the Gospel message.

For with the heart we believe that God raised Jesus from the dead and this makes us right with God, and with the mouth we confess that Jesus is Lord unto salvation. (Romans 10:8-10)

Death in Venice

Death in Venice
The beautifully made Visconti film starring Dirk Bogarde left an indelible impression on my young mind when I first saw it. Based on the Thomas Mann novel (‘Der Todd in Venedig’ 1912) and supported by the other-worldly music score of Gustav Mahler’ Adagietto, 4th movement of Mahler’s 5th symphony, haunting my memory all these years.
It is unforgettable for three reasons: 1. everyone wants to go to Venice sooner or later in their lives. 2. Death is a certainty everyone has to face. 3. The irony of dying in such an exquisite place which we all know but hate to admit is busy ‘dying’ by sinking deeper and deeper into the water.
Gustav von Aschenbach is a writer who has received nobility bestowed upon him because of his artistic achievements. But he has developed writer’s block and has no inspiration left. He decides to go on holiday. He spots an old man who has his hair dyed red and his face painted who tries to be jolly with a few young people hanging around him. Aschenbach is disgusted.
He arrives in Venice and books into a hotel in where he notices an aristocratic Polish family at a table in the dining hall. The youth, Tadzio, in a sailor suit, is a perfect picture of health and youth, like a Greek god. Somehow the image of youth inspires, uplifts and eventually obsesses him.
As he wanders through the streets of Venice he sees municipal workers putting up notices about an outbreak of cholera and warning people to avoid eating shell fish. But he is caught in his obsession of his muse and decides to face the danger by staying on in Venice.
When Aschenbach realises how his appearance has changed he goes to the barbershop where he is advised to have his hair coloured and his face painted to look better. He allows it and looks worse – just like the old man he noticed on the boat.
Although he never speaks to the youth he does follow him around to the disturbance of the Tadzio’s family.
One day the Polish prepares to leave. Aschenbach walks out to the beach to sit on a deck chair. Tadzio and another young boy have an argument and Tadzio gets beaten, easily.
When Aschenbach wants to get up to comfort the youth, he falls of the chair and dies of Cholera. His body is discovered a few minutes later.
Aschenbach means ash brook, ashes strewn in a river…Venice is a city built on rivers and canals. What an ironic place to die…

It is a simple story. There is beauty and heart break, joy and sadness, bitterness and sweet, glorious and gory all mixed in one recipe that produces a masterpiece.
There are a lot of allusions to Greek mythology and Freudian philosophy and you can read all sorts of other influences and references into it, but the simple beauty and the stark reality of an artist spending his last few days in a place of beauty, finding the beauty of youth to admire again and then submitting to the encroaching disease, almost by will. It is like he said; this is where I hope to end it all. What a beautiful place to die, Venice. In the Greek sense of literature it is a kind of tragedy: a hero chooses the path that leads to his demise even though the audience knows he could decide to avoid it.

It is not the kind of movie you want to see again and again, but once you have seen it you see it again – inside. It is unavoidable. All of us want to see Venice. All of us will die. And all of us know Venice too is dying…

Seeking Approval

Seeking approval is something that drives most of our personal achievements.
When Hilton was three years old he got his first short armed wet suit, a yellow one, and his first body board. We treasure a picture where he is in the surf on his board. At the age of five I helped him to catch waves on an old surf board. In no time he was able to stand. We used to play together in the surf for hours. We even played dodgem cars with the boards! We would both take the same wave and then bash against each other. I felt like a little boy again.
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Nola and I also spent many hours on the beach watching him surf. When he took an exciting wave and made it all the way he would turn to us and throw his hands up in the air to receive our applause or approval. We would give thumbs up and clap our hands to show him we enjoyed it as much as he did. Hilton could swim before he could walk! He loves the cold Atlantic ocean.
But the day came that Hilton no longer looked back for our approval. He just concentrated on surfing. It felt strange, kind of lonely on the beach, still anticipating his longing for approval, but staying empty handed as it were. I no longer participated in the joy of catching a good wave. He had friends in the water who celebrated a 360 or a sharp cut back or bottom turn or arial above the crest of the wave.
Eventually he surfed so long that we no longer waited for him. We would drop him off at the chosen surf spot and go home. Then we would fetch him later either at the beach or at a friends place. And then he started flying to competitions and going with the provincial team to compete.
There is a lesson in here somewhere.
We all look for approval in every area of life. But there should come a time when we no longer look for approval. We have an inner confidence that we are doing it right and we can only improve what we are doing now.
Now all that matters is how the judges at surfing competitions approve of his surfing. Our approval is no longer required. He has transcended Mommy and Daddy's approval. And yet we try to be there for him at all times, encouraging and helping him to think with the right humility and inner confidence about his chosen career. (He is a Junior Pro now!)
Paul wrote to Timothy: study to show yourself approved unto God being a workman who rightly divides the word of truth, not having to be ashamed.
When God approves of what we do we don't look back anymore - only forward and keep improving what we are doing. We no longer live for approval, we live to do what we know we can do and what we are called to do.
We no longer seek the approval of men, but we have found a higher honor: the approval of God. When we have God's favor on our lives it changes everything!

Dim-Sum Please!

Dimsum Please!
Just before I left on my 4th mission to Uganda, Yve, my daughter promised to get us some Dim-Sum for a family meal. She described it being dipped into Soya sauce and my mouth watered.
After a while in Ugande I ate enough Tilapia fish, Kasava, Matoke, Pocho, sweat potato and red beans. My taste buds were longing for something else. Kasava is a white root plant turned into a porridge. Matoke is plantain mash, is a banana like plant that has a wild taste. Posho is actually maize meal that is ground and cooked.
I needed to eat something I can recognize.
The first advertisement I noticed was a Chinese restaurant on one of the seven hills of Kampala, called Fang Fang. It conjured up images of ‘Tiger, Tiger shining in the night’.
But it was a simple outside restaurant – the night air in Kampala is so refreshing and cool, even after a long, hot day. There were colourful bulbs hanging on strings. A wedding reception was being held so there was lots of human traffic between the reception area and the bathrooms on the other side of the open grass square.
The light above my table was so dim, that I could hardly read the small print menu.
‘Bring me some light, please!’ I asked
After a long wait the waiter brought a lamp which hardly made any difference at all. So I closed the menu and decided to go with my memory.
‘I would like some Dim-Sum, please.’
The African waiter was confounded. He kept asking me to repeat my order.
Then he called a chinese waitress. Now, I thought, we are getting somewhere.
I repeated my order. She smiled politely and said they don’t have it.
‘What’s the matter with this restaurant?’ I demanded to know.
‘This is Chinese restaurant,’ she reminded me.
How inconsiderate of me.
‘We have dumplings: chicken, beef or pork.’ She explained.
I felt somewhat embarrassed and ordered the dumplings which were too large to eat with the elegant chopsticks. The Chinese tea washed the food away.
But I left not really satisfied that I got what I was looking for. On the other hand I was no longer sure if Di-Sum was a Chinese or a Japanese speciality.
How often do we have wrong expectations in life that lead to disappointment. How often do restaurant waiters not know what is on the menu?
When Yve was a little girl she ordered a Tucan milkshake that they couldn’t make. It upset her.
‘I want a tucan milkshake!’ She insisted. But what she meant was ‘pecan nut flavour.’ A tucan is a colourful tropical bird with a long beak!
When I returned from Uganda, Nola surprised me. When I fetched Hilton at Melkbos after a surf, she had warmed up the Dim-Sum that Yve bought in a proper Japanese bamboo container and the Soya Sauce was waiting next to it. Dim-Sum is small enough to gather with the chopsticks which is part of the playful enjoyment of eating eastern dishes.
I didn’t tell them about my Chinese Restaurant experience. They would laugh at me and I did not feel like being laughed at after just returning home. But a few days later we had a good laugh about it.
When you can laught about something, you are over it!

'Talkin' to the Angels'

Boxing is probably one of the most brutal sports ever invented, yet it remains fascinating to watch as two men dish out severe punishment to win a crown, a medal, a belt, and obviously some money!
There are some fights that stand out in one's memory, but the rest of them fade away. Ray Leonard once had several fights against a Mexican, Roberto Duran, that were rivetting rivalry from start to finish.
The Rocky Marciano tapes still tell a story and then of course there is Cassius Clay that turned to Mohammed Ali in the ring and mesmerized not only his opponents for a few decades but also entrigued millions of fans and boxing critics with his predictions and big-mouthed psychology: 'I am the greatest!'
He actually changed the style of boxing by leaning back on the ropes and allowing his opponent to give the best shot he had. Once he weathered the barrage of blows he would unleash his twisted short right jab which he maintained, 'would knock anyone of you out!'It would happen so fast that the normal camera speed would miss it!
'Dance like a butterfly; sting like a bee!' he would chant.
After winning the world title back against Frazier in the Thriller in Manila as the bout was advertised, he said it was the closest he came to death. They fought in 120 degree heat under a low tin roof. Frazier's eyes were so badly cut and damaged that he could not see anymore but kept on fighting.
At the age of 35 Ali fought Ernie Shavers and Sylvester Stallone was at the ringside. Although Ali prophesied: 'this will be no contest', Shavers hit him so hard that Ali went down. But he got up so fast, faster than most boxers would and carried on with the fight.
'He went on automatic pilot,' Stallone explains, 'he went beyond the borders of pain into another dimension. It is something divine. It's hard to explain.'
After the fight Ali told Stallone, 'I was talkin' to the Angels tonight!'
The next fighter beat him. It was Leon Sphynx. But Ali fought him again and regained his title as The Heavyweigth Champion of the World'. He regained his title for a record 3 times winning 36 fights in his career.
Amazing record.
But it is that line that Stallone quoted in 'Ali's Best 12 Rounds' that stayed with me for days: 'I was talkin' to the Angels tonight.'
There is something naive and childlike and yet something so profound in that statement that it lingers longer than any other statement Ali ever made.

Buzz Lightyear

Buzz Lightyear is named after Buzz Aldrin, a member of the first astronaut team to set foot on the moon. I met him when I was a young man. He came to Johannesburg to speak at a few conferences and open air meetings. Mali Kelly asked me to accompany her on the piano as she sang at one of his open air meetings. I happened to sit next to him and his wife. They had their daughter with them. I saw his special built up shoes and asked him about it. 'men were not made to walk on the moon,' he told me. All three astronauts were affected physically in some way or another. The trip into space affected his instep on both feet and the sunken instep has to be supported by special built up shoes. He told me what the trip did to his faith. He said the beauty of the blue planet earth convinced him that there has to be a creator. Only the fool in his heart says there is no God. (Psalm 14:1) Buzz Lightyear in the Toy Story cartoon always says, 'to infinity and beyond!' to acclaim the possibility of reaching the impossible. It is inspiring. Meeting Buzz Aldrin was inspiring. I will never forget that day. But inspired me the most was not his trip to the moon, but his strong, simple faith in an Invisible God, whom he worshipped and served. Science and Technology had to bow before the Creator in the end. I feel so sorry for the great intellects in the world who deny the existence of deity. They harm not only themselves but also millions who follow in their wake. To believe that there is a God takes faith. Faith is the substance of the things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. By faith we believe the worlds were created. By faith we receive a good report. We are called to walk by faith and not by sight. Seeing is not believing. We believe first so that the eyes of our understanding may be enlightened. We cannot all go to the moon before we believe there is a God. We can simply believe it right there where we are. Nature proves it! But most of all the Gospel of Jesus Christ is the key to believing in God: for God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. (John 3:16) May my chance meeting of Buzz Aldrin inspire others to believe in the existence of a Living God. Those who come to Him must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him, for without faith it is impossible to please God. (Hebrews 11:6)

Flamingo's at the beach

Flamingo's are normally found in marshes or large lakes. Flamingo Vlei is named after the flocks of birds that frequent our fresh water lake near Tableview, Cape Town. But the other day, my wife, Nola, went for a walk on Sunset Beach, where our home is, and saw flamingo's on the beach! She rushed home to fetch the camera to capture this unusual sight.
Like ballerinas they moved effortlessly in the shallow water, above their own rosy reflections, and seemed undisturbed by the clicking camera, till she came to close and then they scooped up and flew away into the baby blue sky. What a sight. We have it on our desktop as a picture now.
Can you imagine the beauty? It is serene, pastel coloured and unique.
Were they fishing? Or were they catching snails or mussels? But there they were, in all their glory, parading on the beach - just of us!
These moments of awe are the spice of life. These unexpected moments of beauty created just for those who are fortunate enough to be at the right place at the right time.
I have a little picture which I treasure. I used to keep in on my desk for several years during extreme hardship in the ministry as a missionary.
It is a picture of Hilton and a little girl when both were about 3 years old. We took them to the Oceanarium at the Waterfront. At the entrance we stopped at a huge cylindrical glass container that stretched all the way up to the ceiling. The glass container was filled with colourful fish swimming in clear water.
The container had a ledge all around it and because the kids were small we picked them up and allowed them to stand on the ledge. Both of them threw their little heads backwards, and stretched their necks to look at all the exquisite fish. They stood like that for a long time. We snapped a photo for keepsake.
Life is full of awe. As a child one discovers the awe that life presents.
I kept that picture on my desk to remind me never to loose the awe of life. Life's troubles and complications can tie one's mind up with the intricacies of life, and it is easy to loose the 'awe' of life.
But the soul of man needs to experience awesome moments from time to time to revive the weary soul. Without it life is a grind and it grinds one to the bone.
That is one of the many reasons why we live at Sunset Beach: every day we see the most awesome sunset! Sometimes we simply stop what we are doing and go to the beach below to watch the setting sun, dipping into the watery horizon and shooting its last rays up into the sky behind the drifting clouds with a promise that it will be there again tomorrow, and the day after, and the next day...
Nola is fond of such moments. We often enjoy them together. We taught our children to enjoy them. God gave it to us for free. It costs you nothing.
May this computerized cell-phone mad generation never loose the awe of life, the beauty of nature, the simple joys that God has given to all mankind, to enjoy and to relish in the absolute genius of creation.
What a joy it is to be alive!
What a peace it brings to see the flamingo's on the beach.
What a moment. What a treasure.
It makes one rich. May the image remain indelibly imprinted on our memories.
May there be many more such awesome moments of beauty.
Let us remind each other how awesom life is - in spite of what we have to endure.
The glory always outweighs the suffering.
Never loose the awe of life. Remain childlike in enjoying this life. We only have one.