Dear Friend

It’s the beginning of Spring and for us at Focus it is the last month of our financial year. September will be an incredibly busy month as we host a number of conferences.

“Bringing Home the Prodigals” is aimed at the church community. The parable of the Prodigal Son has been called the greatest short story in the world, and although it's over 2,000 years old, it speaks to us today with the promise of new beginnings, the triumph of love and forgiveness, the joy of reconciliation, and the call to the church to be ready when our prodigals return.

"I believe with all my heart that God is doing something special in our land. It needs humility, faith, and perhaps repentance but the result will affect millions of people. God is ready to bring home the prodigals." (Rob Parsons Executive Director of Care for the Family)

“The Heart of Success” is aimed at the business community and addresses issues facing business people in the fast changing and demanding world of business. Rob Parsons covers topics such as: Don't settle for being money rich - time poor; don't settle for success, strive for significance; put your family before your career and more.

Rob Parsons will be presenting these conferences in Johannesburg, Pretoria, Cape Town and Durban, for more information on the dates and times please click here or call Marge on 031 716 3300

We are also excited to announce that we have published another book as Focus on the Family Africa called "Parenting with Assurance". Drawing from well-tested resources and personal parenting experience, this book provides the reader with practical techniques and guidelines on how to offer good parenting that is based on biblical values and principles of life. A combination of research methodology based on child development together with spiritual values drawn from Godly principles make this book a “Must” for all parents and would-be parents.

As usual you will find below a Question and Answer excerpt by Dr Dobson.

Please click here To find out what exciting radio programmes will be broadcast during the month of September. To find out which stations in your area broadcast our programmes, please click here.

Sincerely

Danie van den Heever
Executive Chairman

QUESTION: You have said that the natural progression of a marriage is to become more distant rather than more intimate. Why is that true?

DR. DOBSON: The natural tendency of everything in the universe is to move from order to disorder. If you buy a new car, it will steadily deteriorate from the day you drive it home. Your body is slowly aging and dying. Your house has to be repainted and repaired every few summers. A business that is not managed carefully will unravel and collapse. A brick that is placed on a vacant lot and left there long enough will eventually turn to dust. Indeed, even the sun and all the stars are slowly burning themselves out. We are, in a manner of speaking, in a dying universe where everything that is not specifically being protected and upgraded is in a downward spiral.

The principle which governs this drift from order to disorder might be called 'the law of disintegration.' (Engineers and scientists sometimes call it the law of 'entropy.') The only way to postpone or temporarily combat its influence is to invest creative energy and intelligent design into that which is to be preserved.

Not so surprisingly, human relationships also conform to the principle of disintegration. The natural tendency is for husbands and wives to drift away from each other unless they work at staying together. To provide another analogy, it is as though they were sitting in separate rowboats on a choppy lake. If they don't paddle vigorously to stay in the same neighborhood, one will drift to the north of the lake and the other to the south. That is exactly what happens when marital partners get too busy or distracted to maintain their love. If they don't take the time for romantic activities and experiences that draw them together, something precious begins to slip away. It doesn't have to be that way, of course, but the currents of life will separate them unless efforts are made to remain together.

I wish every newly married couple knew about the law of disintegration and would actively protect their relationship from it.

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