Another Record Breaking Diamond from Botswana!

The Pink Star diamond sold for $71.2 million US Dollars - and set an all time record as the most expensive jewel ever sold.

Sotheby's auction in Hong Kong sold the 59.6carat gem to a Hong Kong based jewelry retailer Chow Tai Fook after a five minute bidding war.

It was mined by DeBeers in Botswana in 1999 as a 132.5 carat rough diamond and had the highest quality of colour and clarity grades.

The night the Kalahari sand was shaken!

photcredit - timeslive.co.za

It was 7.40pm as we relaxed on the couch in the sitting room. 

At first we thought it sounded like a troup of heavily pregnant Baboons or monkeys rumbling across the roof - but it kept going and got worse!

We realised it was an earthquake.  

We later learnt that this was Botswana's strongest earthquake ever and the region's strongest since the 2006 7.0 one in Mozambique.

The rafters, doors and windows started shaking and the pots, pans, and plates started to rattle and lights started to flicker.  Then I heard a bottle fall off a shelf somewhere.

That was the signal to make a quick exit and go outside and stand in the middle of the gravel driveway where we could still feel the vibrations for what seemed a long time.  Apparently one local resident timed it at 1 minute 8 seconds!

It's epicentre was about 240km north of us (here in Gabane on the outskirts of the Gaborone, the Capital), in a remote area of low population. As of 10.30pm so far no casualties have been reported.  But for sure some mud huts will now have cracks in them.

We've been warned to expect aftershocks!

PS - Thursday 6th April
....from local Tuesday GABZFM News:

Thirty six students at Mothamo Junior Secondary School in Moiyabana were injured in a stampede sparked by an earthquake that struck west of the village last night. 

According to District Officer for Serowe, Onalenna Daniel, the majority of the students were attended by the school's resident nurse while two with serious injuries were referred to Sekgoma Memorial Hospital in Serowe.

Daniel said all the students are back in class after receiving counselling. 

The District Officer further said 10 houses were damaged by the earthquake but so far they have been no reports of casualties. 

He said an assessment is ongoing which will determine whether the victims will need any assistance.

Meanwhile, Kgosi Gosotwamang Keatshotse of Moiyabana says they are yet to receive reports of how the earthquake affected outlying areas, especially cattle posts which are closer to the earthquake's epicentre. 

[Chief] Kgosi Keatshotse told Gabz FM News that the village authorities are worried that the earthquake hit in an area where drilling for natural gas was ongoing.

He said at the time the earthquake hit, a loud explosion was heard in the village, followed by wild vibrations.

April Fools Day and the Christian

photo credit -cropped: creative commons

Today is known in some parts of the world as April Fools Day.

It is the day when it is culturally acceptable to play practical 'jokes' on people, to trick people and if they fall for the trick they are a fool, and we laugh at them, and everyone is supposed to take it in good fun.

But as the group of young men my husband mentors studies what it means to be a biblical christian rather than a 'cultural christian'  via reading the book "Man in the Mirror" by Patrick Morley together, and I read yesterday on Challies.com about worldliness, I am challenged about this 'cultural practice' of the West.

If we are going to be biblical rather than cultural, what does the bible say about what April Fools Day accepts as culturally ok?

Proverbs 26:17-18  says: 

Like a madman who throws flaming darts and deadly arrows, 

so is the man who deceives his neighbor and says, "I was only joking!" 

Proverbs 10:23  says: 

Doing wrong is like a joke to a fool, but wisdom is pleasure to a man of understanding.

or as the Holman Christian Standard translation puts it: 

As shameful conduct is pleasure for a fool, so wisdom is for a man of understanding. 

Scripture shows us that God has quite a different view on the matter.

God says in Proverbs 26 that 'I was only joking' is deception, or as the New Living Translation puts it, "Lies"!

Such 'joking' is not 'just a bit of fun' in God's eyes, it is cruel and brings death.  

Part of what it brings death to is trust in the relationship.  

It reminds me a bit of a childhood story of the 'boy who cried wolf'.  He did lots of 'I was only joking' after pretending that he was in danger of a wolf and called all the village to come and help him….and then when he really did have a real wolf and called people to help, no-one came, because they had got tired of running to him to be told 'I was only joking'. They thought he was just doing it again.  His word could not be trusted and in the end his foolishness was self-destructive.

This is a trust issue - maybe I'll write more about trust in another blog. But Christians should be people of their word.  Their words should be filled with truth, and their word should be trustworthy.  If the fruit of the Spirit includes faithfulness, when we are truly allowing the Spirit to fill our lives, we should be characterised more and more by faithfulness - in other words trustworthiness.

Often April Fools jokes are full of laughing at others and 'fun' at another's expense, in the process deliberately shaming and embarassing others by making ourselves look clever and others look stupid and gullible and thus foolish.

This should not be part of the character of the christian.  We instead should be known by those whose words and actions bless others and build others up, encourage others and bring growth to others.

God seems to tell us that rather than the ones who are tricked being the 'fools' who are shamed and embarrassed, that the one who does the tricking/joking is the fool and to be considered shameful.

There are plenty of ways to have fun without shaming others and playing with lies and deception, even if it is 'culturally' acceptable.

As Christians we are called to be counter-cultural when the culture of God's family is different.