Golf Club KOG Seminar/Cathy Botha CF -- Victor Kubik

January 19, 2013

It's interesting in the Southern Hemisphere to watch the bathtub water swirl into the drain.  The motion of water is counterclockwise....opposite direction from the Northern Hemisphere.  I noticed that right away and thought you would like to know :).

We look forward to what the day will bring, both with the seminar and with how Cathy is doing. Vivien, his mother Barbara and I drive to the Golf Club in Cape Town.

Vivien, Graham and I set up the meeting hall which is a very pleasant meeting hall seating about 80 People started arriving half hour early and I chatted with them all. The first couple was white and had been long-time readers of the Good News magazine and loved the content.  They attend a major Christian denomination currently.  Others arrive.  Some are black, white and a few Indians. Quite a variety of people assemble.  One extended family is from the former Worldwide Church of God and wanted to hear the seminar.  Our plan is to have my presentation be one hour, then a short break for questions and then have a question and answer session with oral questions. 

A total of 33 people were in attendance with a few calling in saying that they regretted not being able to make it.  Vivien had sent out invitations with his contact information clearly noted.  It was a good attendance in my estimation. While I spoke I felt the audience very engaged.  I used no notes and spoke extemporaneously showing the main thrust of Jesus' mission on earth being the preaching of the Gospel of the Kingdom of God, a new order that people were waiting for that had been prophesied in the Old Testament by many prophets.  I turned to passages in Daniel, Isaiah, Revelation, Matthew and more places showing that the Kingdom of God was understood as a new government coming to the earth. Christ explained what is required of us to be a part of that from Mark 1:14-15.  It was a great audience to talk to.  

One reason, we felt that the attendance was a bit down was because the first seminar was billed as a KOG seminar, but this one was a Good News Seminar....which may have confused people some as to their relation to one another. 

We went into questions and answers after a one hour ten minutes presentation and a closing prayer. That lasted half an hour.  I welcomed people to get coffee and refreshments and sit back for q and a, but not a single person left.  There were many questions about prophecy, how do I know if God is calling me, heaven, state of the dead and much more.  I thoroughly appreciated the spirit of the audience that was very familiar for years with the Good News.  After q and a ended (which could have easily gone to an hour), the people then went for coffee, tea and muffins.  I spoke to many of the individuals coming answering more of their questions and offering our voluminous library of literature. We had sample copies of the all our booklets on a lit table.  I really enjoyed doing this and would like to do it again.

After everyone left in the mid afternoon, we picked everything up and headed to Barbara's home where we changed and then went to Cathy's mother's condo where I would meet Cathy for the first time.  It's a beautiful day...temperature a bit warm getting up to about 100 degrees. 

Cathy greeted us at the door.  She has a beautiful smile and her eyes continually smile.  It is so sad for me to realize that she is so chronically disabled.  She is feeling a bit better and we all sit in the living room talking.  Vivien’s devotion to her is obviously complete.  I understand that she has never complained about her status and people who interact with her become the encouraged ones.....myself included.  Vivien and I decided that instead of going out to eat we could go get some pizza's so that we could just all eat at the house.  We did that....but when we had gotten back, Cathy felt worse and had to lie down. 

Vivien then did a physio on her in which he patted her on the back and chest for over an hour to.  It sounded like a grueling treatment, but it continued for over an hour...maybe an hour and a half.  I understand that he does this most EVERY day, and sometimes more than once a day.  What devotion and care!  The treatment seemed to help her and she came back out into living room.  I wanted to pray for her and did so anointing her with oil (James 5:14).  It was probably one of the most heartfelt prayers I offered as I am so moved by this person of such faith and courage living in a body with such a disability.

I would like to see Cathy find some specialist outside of South Africa to consult with.  Can anyone help me?  I am going to check with the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation in the US and Canada.  But, if anyone can offer me any help with anything along this line, I would greatly appreciate it. 

We went back to Barbara Botha's home and got ready to fly back to Johannesburg for the SANATCO meeting starting Sunday at 11 am.