After many months of waiting, the end is in sight. We put in an order for a fibre line from the pavement to our dining room (since the dining room is the center of the house) … and today they started the installation. They arrived at 1pm and left at 6.30pm. They’ll return tomorrow to complete closing up and connecting the fibre. The area is live, but without a connection there is no supply. They provide the first 30 meters of the installation free and you pay R50 per meter thereafter. The first thing the technician did was measure the best path from the outside manhole to the point in the dining room, and it came to exactly 30 meters (praise the Lord!). They needed to lift the paving bricks on the pavement, a section of grass and some more paving bricks, then run the fibre up a wall, through the roof and down through the ceiling into the dining room.
In chatting to the technician, I learnt a few interesting things, such as: the fibre is glass, and if you bend it more than 90 degrees it breaks; there are four minute colour-coded fibre optical cables in the cable casing (one fibre cable is the thickness of cotton to sew a dress with); each house (two per manhole) can have two supplies (for when there is a granny flat on the property); they always start with blue (our supply is blue); and the instrument they use to splice the fibre together costs R250,000. These contractors have three teams in our area, a few in Bloemfontein and one in Ermelo.
All the fibre comes from a central point on the Johannesburg side of Midrand … which originates in the UK and is transported via undersea cabling to various countries. Fiber Internet connectivity offers significant reliability advantages over copper Internet connectivity, due to the fact that fiber is much stronger than copper. Fiber-optic Internet is not susceptible to inclement weather conditions, which can damage or stall data transmission via copper cabling. Neither water nor electricity negatively influences the fibre optic cabling.
For Jenny and myself, using the Internet for Skyping or Zooming our children and grandchildren in the USA is important. We use the Internet for WhatsApp Messaging, WhatsApp Calling, FaceTime, emails, newspapers, etc. Others might do all these things and add gaming, movies, etc. In other words, the Internet is virtually a necessity in our world of business, study, fellowship and, in general, communication. Data supply has surpassed landline and cellphone calls. Nowadays, banking is mostly done through data and the same is true with insurance, revenue services and the municipality. You can even place your grocery order online, pay for it online and have it delivered. Repairs to your computer’s software can be done through TeamViewer (or something similar). It’s quite phenomenal that all communication (voice, visual, technical, business) could be handled via the Internet. I believe the USA are considering doing the presidential voting through the Internet. Today, because of COVID-19, many people are working from home because of the Internet. Did we ever imagine some ten years back how the Internet would change the shape of our world (business, study, church and life) by 2020? Naturally, everything Internet can be used for good but at the same time everything Internet can be used for evil as well. Since the first century AD, we have come a long, long way as a world … and more especially over the last ten to twenty years.
Yet there is another means of communication, that is far more important, that has not changed at all since Genesis:
Ge 4:25 Adam lay with his wife again, and she gave birth to a son and named him Seth, saying, “God has granted me another child in place of Abel, since Cain killed him.” 26 Seth also had a son, and he named him Enosh. At that time men began to call on the name of the LORD.
That’s right … it’s prayer … man calling upon the Lord. Then, from the first page to the last page of the Bible, we have God speaking. Yes, at times man lost the Word, but the Word, God speaking, was always there! We are so blessed that we live in 2020! We have the Bible available in many languages (God speaking) and we can pray to Him in any language (because He hears and understand all languages). The minutest fibre optic cables transmits huge amounts of data at amazing speeds all at the same time … and on any system, many connections may do the same. But listen to this … out of a population of 7.7 billion people on earth, Christianity totals more than 2.3 billion. If every Christian prayed at the same time, our God would hear each prayer and be able to answer each prayer … all at the same time! As God speaks to us through His Word, He has much to say about spiritual communication (prayer). Yet in the face of all the encouragement and instruction to pray, the majority of God’s people are weak when it comes to prayer! This I believe is the main reason the Church is as weak as she is! And to this let me add … this is the reason the governments of the world are so weak and corrupt. After Jesus’ Ascension, the disciples returned to Jerusalem … and see what they did:
Ac 1:12 Then they returned to Jerusalem from the hill called the Mount of Olives, a Sabbath day’s walk from the city. 13 When they arrived, they went upstairs to the room where they were staying. Those present were Peter, John, James and Andrew; Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew; James son of Alphaeus and Simon the Zealot, and Judas son of James. 14 They all joined together constantly in prayer, along with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers.
This led straight into Pentecost … the Spirit coming in great power to establish (birth) the Church with more 3000 being added. The result of prayer! Or what about 1 Timothy:
1Ti 2:1 I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone— 2 for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. 3 This is good, and pleases God our Savior, 4 who wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.
Praying for the authorities leads to peace with man and holiness before God! There are so many passages on prayer for self; family and believers. God wants praying people! Imagine what God could do through you as a prayer warrior!
Dear God, thank you for the gift and blessing of prayer. Help me to use it wisely, daily and productively. Amen.