Newsletter Vol.2, #31—August 20, 2006

Matthew 9 ¹⁰And as Jesus reclined at table in the house, behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and were reclining with Jesus and his disciples. ¹¹And when the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, "Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?"

Joel Williams in South Africa

Home: 011-27-35-474-2656

joelwms@biblemirror.com

Special Flagstaff Report, July 2006

We pitched the tent at Xopozo, a community just outside the actual town of Flagstaff.  It is located in the mountains and must be accessed by a gravel and dirt road that would probably break a small car.  The only vehicles you can find there are bakkies (pickups) and horses.

Water is a major problem for that area.  There is water around, but it is difficult to get.  We were able to get water from 3 different places while we were there.  The first place had a pipe that water flowed from continuously since someone had removed a stopper that should have been there and we could fill our buckets and jugs easily, but it was very slow.  The second place we got water was a large fiberglass cistern from which you could get water with a hose directly into the containers and it did not take long to get the water there.  The last time, the cistern was empty and we got water from a small pond (near the water flowing in) across the street.  Mzwandile’s wife, Amanda, dipped it out one bowl at a time.  That took us several hours.

Poverty is a major problem in this area.  Many families do not have anyone who has a job.  In the family of Amanda’s cousins, they have 8 children and neither of the parents has a job.  Mzwandile and Amanda take care of the youngest daughter and the chief in the area takes care of the oldest daughter (who was just converted). The children and young people there are out of control.  Many of the young men and boys smoke dagga (marijuana) and fornication is rampant.  We saw a pregnant 14 year old girl there. Brother Sikhakhane made the comment that the children are having children so they don’t know how to teach them to behave and their children are even worse.

When we came to Flagstaff this time, there was only one Christian who was Amanda’s cousin.  When we left this time, there were five more, making a church of six members.  There are five young ladies and one young man in the church there.  They have already suffered some persecution.  After the young ladies were baptized, two on the eleventh and two on the twelfth, they had some stones thrown at them when they left the tent.  On the final night, one of the girls was hit in the head by a young man outside the tent.  In spite of it, they seem to be committed to following Christ.

When (Phindile) wanted to be baptized, she was wearing skin bracelets that are supposed to ward off evil spirits and are somehow connected to the ancestors.  Amanda talked to her about it all the way to the water and when we arrived, she had Mzwandile cut them off her wrists and throw them away.  That was a very real showing of repentance from the worship of other gods.

Amanda’s friend from Richard’s Bay, Phindile, is in her early twenties.  When one of the young women who was going to come help Amanda with the cooking, etc. backed out on the day before we were to leave, she came to the rescue.  Mzwandile called her on Sunday night to ask her to come with us and she met us on Monday morning after borrowing money from her neighbors to get a taxi to an exit on our way.  How many young women do you know that would drop everything for two weeks that fast in order to go do hard work?

(Excerpts from Joel Williams’ Report)

What Happens When a Race Driver

Takes a Drink – and a Road Test

Family Weekly, May 2, 1971 ~ By Don Garlits

I slipped behind the wheel of the dual-control Dodge, buckled my seat belt and grinned reassuringly at the observer riding beside me. If the Florida Jaycees wanted to prove something about drinking drivers, they were going about it the wrong way. After all, the five of us are professionals—we average 50,000 miles on the road – each year. A few drinks wouldn't throw us off.

Or so I thought.

This was my fourth run in three hours, and I knew each obstacle like the back of my hand. During this time I had drunk 12 ounces of 86-proof whiskey, but I wasn't legally drunk. My blood-alcohol level registered .05. Florida doesn't consider you intoxicated unless that level is at least .1. And Florida is tough; almost half our states set the level at .15. So I felt confident.

The first test was simply backing between two rows of pylons. I knocked down seven of them, but for some reason it didn't even bother me.

Next came four two-by-four's set on edge with just a tire's width between each pair—a snap for anyone accustomed to keeping a 200 mph dragster on the straight and narrow. I aimed carefully and gunned the car through. Well ... not exactly through. I bounced raggedly over them.

Shrugging it off, I snaked quickly through the serpentine course, creaming several markers, and roared on to the next test. I was supposed to run over two rows of wooden disks, but somehow I couldn't find them. I blamed this on the fact that the disks were similar in color to the dirt surface. Actually, they were clearly visible to sober onlookers several hundred feet away.

I managed the fifth test all right, but the next one really shook me — a pop-up figure representing a pedestrian, or maybe a child running after a ball. Even though I was ready for it, the figure didn't register in time and I came to a screeching halt 10 feet past it. Don "Big Daddy" Garlits had just "killed" a pedestrian. I was shocked. Such a thing seemed impossible!

But the nightmare wasn't over yet. Next came two double sets of pylons. There was plenty of room between them, and I thought I had made it— until I looked back and saw the course littered with pylons. This thing had become unreal.

I slopped through a hard left turn and headed for a traffic light that automatically turned red at my approach. Once more I goofed and slid to a stop right in the middle of the "intersection."

One final test All I had to do was to stop with my front wheels on a line.

Any drag racer can do this precisely— it's the way each race is started. But I overshot by an unbelievable two feet.

I returned to the pits badly shaken. My score for this run, based on a possible hundred points, was 53. My first run, driven while sober, scored 99. While that was a critical drop, the figures didn't tell the whole story. What about that "pedestrian" I ran over? If that had been a real person, my score would have been zero.

According to the insurance companies, one out of 50 drivers on the road is drunk. Not just drinking, you understand, but drunk. Only one state (Utah, which sets the line at a blood-alcohol level of .08) would have considered me "drunk" when I made that last run.

But drunk or not, I was obviously in no condition to drive. If I had been on the road I might have killed somebody. Maybe me. Maybe even you.

Presently available data on the drinking driver is, for the most part, based on averages. Our test threw doubt on some of these statistics. The point is, we are all individuals, and we cannot depend on averages. The only average factor that showed up is that we were incapable of good judgment while under the influence.

No harm was done in this case. But out there on the highway, where the obstacles move, and bend and crush when you hit them, it's a different story. To guide a car safely through today's traffic requires skill, mental alertness and reflexes honed to a razor's edge. How does alcohol affect this? Well, last year 35,000 Americans were killed in crashes where drinking was involved. And the senseless slaughter continues because people persist in driving after they've had a few drinks. It's a deadly gamble.

I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about it lately. I've come to the conclusion that you shouldn't drive even if you have had only one drink. That's a pretty strong statement, but I think it's the only answer.

About the author: Don "Big Daddy" Garlits, 39, was recently named to the first All American Driving Team by the American Auto Racing Writers and Broadcasters Association. Dominating drag racing since 1955, he has reached a top speed of 240 mph. in the quarter mile races and holds the elapsed-time record of 6.55 seconds.