Denver to Logos
'For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.'
2 Timothy 1:7

This is my first attempt at a sermon on The Pulpit and not wanting to recycle old sermons, I decided to tell you about something that happened while I was a seaman in the South African Navy.

It was 1976, and I had just been released from Naval Detention Quarters. I did not mind the training, but it was the way in which it was done. Most of those who trained, broke down one's spirit in an attempt to turn one into a killing machine. A machine which obeyed orders without question. Now if that is your chosen career, I guess that is something you will have to come to terms with but I was not there of my own free-will but had been sent there 'in order to learn some discipline' as my old man has put it. Old man of course meaning my earthly father,..my Dad.

I had gone into DQ's or Detention Quarters a very unhappy camper and emerged a changed young man. I had become a Christian.

After a weekend retreat in the mountains above Llundudno, a small village on the coast between Hout Bay and Camps Bay in the Western Province of South Africa, where I had been refreshed by the Holy Spirit, I returned to my barracks on the hillside above False Bay Harbour.

One morning I heard the faint sound of a guitar being played. On closer inspection I encountered a fellow seaman playing a six string box guitar and singing a song by John Denver.

We got to chatting and I asked him the names of some other songs he played. As he spoke I detected a sadness in his voice, a nervousness if you will, and so I probed a little bit.

"Do you read the Bible?"

His face was open and honest and his response was direct, "Yes, I like to read a Psalm every morning" Of course this entire conversation was in Afrikaans, so I am doing my best to translate it back to the cold English dialect.
I decided to push a little deeper.

"Have you been baptised with the Holy Spirit?"

Again a straight answer.

"No, or 'Nee"

So I decided to invite him to come with me to one of the meetings I had been attending since my return from Llundudno. He smiled nervously and agreed. I was later to learn that he had been a member of the Dutch Reformed Church from childhood and was infact a member of the Christian Religion.

I don't remember the details of what happened that night, only that he was deeply touched and filled with the Holy Spirit and that since that time onward he burst with a new confidence and boldness, an exaggerated love dynamic and in general was a changed person.

At some point he resigned from the permanent force and joined 'Logos International'. This ministry was basically a Christian Library in a ship, which sailed from one remote country to the next bringing the message of the Gospel.

I have tried to find Nicky Kruger, maybe I will find him on facebook, maybe he has gone home to be with the Lord, but his story is a part of mine and one that I thought might be a blessing and encouragement to you.

Tenderly,
HH.