2020, what a year!

 For a second I thought I was on set in a movie. There was a certain  sommberness to the feeling. Where am I? What's going on?  I saw people walking past me in masks and I couldn't help but look at the strange attire they had on their faces. A few seconds later I would snap back to reality  and realise; we have a coronavirus pandemic. In South  Africa, we had hard lockdown  for twenty one days at the beginning of the pandemic. It was needed. The times were frightening.  There was a sense of a feeling that the world had come to an end. At least the weirdness of the  situation.  

It is seven months down the line and the shadow of the pandemic  is still upon us and the somber feeling is there but not as intense anymore.   Its enough to say that 2020 has been one strange year. I'm not sure there are words to adequately  describe this year. 

We were hit with the worst  pandemic I  over a hundred years.  Some countries have been hit the hardest.  With the USA as of today surpassing  ten million  infections. Ten million. India is not that far behind.  So, we are still reeling in this year but we have hope. 

We hope in God who can save us. Who can rescue us when we call unto Him. He hears us when we ask for His helping hand. Even though this year has been one for the books, it still remains a year to celebrate.  A lot of people have had celebrations this year. 

We will not forget those who died. Those who will forever be remembered by their families and friends. Those who have left this earth due to this massive pandemic  that  has plagued  the whole earth. 

Yes, 2020 is one for the books!

ladders

step up, get yourself up to the top of the world. take every step methodically. make every effort  to push yourself to be on top. enjoy every moment. smell every achievement with each step. celebrate your ability to move up on the ladder. there are people who are watching, hoping they were the ones going up that ladder. others are cheering you on while others are secretly hoping you would come crashing down. step up, go on, you deserve that break. do it while world watches.

when you get up there be careful. watch your step. you lose your grip at the first step the fall is mildly painful. you lose your grip midway the pain is somewhat bearable. you lose your grip at the top of the ladder you come crashing down. the fall shatters. everything flashes. the fall is unforeseen. the pain is everlasting. the memory, imprinted.

so is with the ladders of life. we achieve little no one takes notice. we are somewhat halfway there, the world around us takes notice. they see this beautiful gift that is beginning to unwrap right in front of their eyes. some cheer on, others wonder how long the show is going to go. others wait for the skeletons to come out of the closet. such as is the life we life. bottled up. judged upon. 

safety in the storm

the one thing that is sure to  happen in our lives is that we will face some severe storms. it's not a  matter of if, its a matter of when.  when we face a storm, the one thing we can do is just brace ourselves.  no way to stop it, no ways to run for safety; the only way we can be sure to endure is to go to that proverbial fetal position and brace for it.  sometimes it takes longer than it should. and sometimes, while we are still expecting more then suddenly it's over. two reactions to that, one person will look around and check if more is coming. another when they see the coast is clear they immediately jump out and celebrate.

we, who have a comforter in the midst of the storm go through it differently. we have God who wipes every tear from our eyes. He sees to it that no matter how terrible the storm of life is, He's there beside us. He has not authoured the storm, He has simply allowed it to happen. i've noticed that we suffer differently. we weep differently. we cry differently because ours is a sure and steadfast anchor that keeps us from being swept away and capsized. in life's horrible moments we don't cry out of hopelessness but we do with the knowledge and thought that it will pass away.

we are, safe in the storm.

the leader heals

We all have this idea that a leader never goes through hardships. We know it happens, we just never think of it a great possibility for a leader.  In fact, the shock and awe is when a person deemed to be great leader falls.  People and think within themselves if anything could have been done to stop the process. We wonder if they had anyone to talk to about their internal struggles. Could they have avoided the fall in some kind of way? So may questions arise as to how this could have been avoided.

The description above sounds a like a fall from grace type of hardship. The same goes for when a leader feels emotionally spent. They have spent all they have emotionally, physically and mentally for the betterment of others. This is a great thing. To invest in others. But it does not help the leader if they don't take care of themselves while they help others. Leaders need support structures just like everyone else.  They are vulnerable just like everyone else. They hurt, just like everyone else. The thing is, people don't think they go through these emotions. But the fact is they do. It then becomes of paramount importance that a leader creates support structures for themselves.

I read a book earlier that was titled, "leading with a limp." It was basically highlighting the fact that leaders are prone to everything else that all people go through, and how a leader can navigate through those stormy waters of life and make it while being leader. 

The fact is leaders tend to be judged  more harshly for hardships they face. Especially a fall from grace. Or a leadership mishap. Or a wrong call on an important strategic  decision. Leaders tend to go through the most.  So it's very important for a leader to realise that time to heal or even heal while they are working is important. 

This is not a complete thought process, will come back for it. 

the leader leads!!!

fact is, there are good leaders and there are bad leaders. they both have one thing in common; they have followers. two of the things that become evident with any leader; power corrupts / a corrupted leader will show his/her true colours once in leadership position

the responsibility always lies with what one does with the power they now hold. a leader with good character will know how to negotiate with the people they lead as they come up with ways to create a a great environment. this reveals good self confidence, a vision for a great legacy and being able to trust other people.

 a leader with bad character will want to always exert their leadership. they couldn't care less of what other people think. it's not about others, but about self. this is evidence of lack of self confidence. lack of good judgement and lack of vision. 

i write what i like

its just one of those moments in life when one just screams; "Whats going on in the world?!?!" there is just too much chaos, lack of leadership, lack of statesmanship and lack of direction.

it seems and feels like people are grasping at straws to make sense of the very things that happen right in front of their eyes. It's tough, and we need leadership. leadership is lacking. I should say good leadership. We have leaders every where but are they making good strides in pulling the world together? at the moment the answer would be no.

if the top to bottom cannot do anything to change, the ground up can be the strategy we need.

Keeping Up!

The hardest thing ever  is to keep everyone in your circle happy. Its hard when you are being pulled from side to side. This one wants this and that one wants that. One ends up with nothing for themselves and nothing to give to themselves. Just wondering if ever that is possible, to keep everybody on one's life happy.

I am an inquisitive soul. Its the personality that I have. I like it much. I have a thirst for knowledge and to know is much better than walking in the dark. But knowledge not transmitted is futile knowledge. So empty yourself, empower those around you.

So, if you ever come across this blog post in the future. Hope you ask yourself the same question. Happy blogging!

Matters of Weight (Weighty Chews)

My friend, who has been a close friend of mine for a good couple of years recently accepted the Lord into her life. This was indeed a joyous moment for me, as I have been telling her about the relationship with Christ for years. We rejoiced together and as I always like to do, I gave her material to read so that she can grow in her faith. 

I observed that my friend is growing in her faith, which is always expected and should be appreciated. I rejoiced when I called her and she would go on for 30 mintues to share with me what she was learning. I was mostly glad as you can imagine that I spent a good 3 years convincing her about the joys of having a relationship with Christ. I thought to myself, finally she gets it. I was a proud friend. Glad to see all of this happening in front of my eyes. 

Tides started to turn as when I would share something with my friend about things that normally wouldn't be an issue she would start to question my faith. Don't get me wrong, I read and study my bible, I read theological works because I believe in being learned. I have sorrounded myself with women who pour into my life nuggets of life and I appreciate that always.  But now all of a sudden I can't talk to her about anything. I have to watch my words with her and I spend a bulk of the time listening to her talk. With hardly a word from me inbetween.

It then dawned on me. The stages in our Christian walk. She is at the excited stage. Nothing can go wrong. If you face an obstacle, you don't pray enough or you don't trust God enough. Or you are not letting the Holy Spirit flow in you. 

I laughed at this matter as I remembered my time at UWC, where I was exactly the same and I do want to go to the people I did this to to just apologise to them. 

So I'm going to tag a few people, as I  am learning that we offend people in our stages of our walk. If you do feel like some way or the other I offended you while growing up. My humble apologies and please do understand that I was child growing up and I am still learning. 

October Newsletter

OCTOBER 2011
VOLUME1, ISSUE 7
ON THE GROUND NEWS


DE NOVO AND OTHER NEWS!

In September there was a new intake of clients who are on the Rehabilitation Programme at De Novo. This meant that it was my second time doing the workshops.
We started with seven of the ladies already in mid-programme so they did only 3 lessons before they could leave for home.
The Managing Director of De Novo is requesting that Cross-Roads trains all their staff. This is because after 3 years of workshops at the centre, they have realised that the curriculum is very effective and successful.
De Novo is a Youth Centre for women and men. It specializes is drug rehabilitation. Cross-Roads (Campus Crusade for
Christ) has been conduction life skills and character build-ing workshops for the past 3 years.
In the Gauteng Province, CrossRoads held their first “Quest for Significance” Semi-nar. This seminar was attend-ed by 80 Headmasters and Businessmen. The following step for the Gauteng province is to have a “Teacher Train-ing.” This is going to be the first ever training in the Gaut-eng province, please pray for that to go well.
Since the “Teacher Training” that happened in Cape Town, two schools have requested CrossRoads that they want their whole schools to be

PRAYER POINTS AND PRAISE POINTS
Praise God for the growth of CrossRoads.
Praise God for the interest that people have on this ministry strategy.
Please pray for exponential growth for CrossRoads.
Please pray for more fulltime staff at the Western Cape of-
fice of Campus Crusade for Christ.
Please pray for my MPD, to reach 100% status

STAFF NUMBER
(SA) 11480
STAFF NUMBER
(US) 2868173
WEBSITE
HTTPS://GIVE.CCCI.ORG
A youth that has good character and love for one another is what we hope to have
POINTS
 Let God be true and every man a liar
 We don’t preach ourselves, but we preach Christ
 Obedience is better than sacrifice
 Owe nobody anything but love

Skeptik

It's hard to be in a situation that is not desirable. I am thinking about the possibilities of such situations.

Currently I am in a situation where I want to get out of but its not easy as it looks. I am developing ministry partners and I need to have them as soon as possible. The thing is its not going as fast as I would like it to be.

I am emotionally drained. I am physically tired. I need to get out of this situation.

I only can trust in God, its hard to trust in self at the moment.

forgiveness

just jotting down my views on a misunderstanding and then a path to reconciliation. what most people find hard to say is sorry. such a difficult but necessary word to say, not just that but mean it. recently witnessed a situation where clearly there was a clash of people dynamic, a misunderstanding was inevitable. the biggest was talking about it, where the other party went around telling people what was done to them. even though i did not agree with the communication style i had to understand we have different backgrounds and we handle different issues differently.

saying sorry and showing remorse are two different things. i don't know who came up with the term; "actions speak louder than words." this is very true. it is a sticky situation as work must go on but trust has been lost and respect has been lost as well. trying to make building blocks in a manner such as this is hard.

my hope is that a path to reconciliation is a swift and smooth one. time is against the ones who toil. there is work to be done and this is a serious statement. one's thoughts and feelings have to be placed aside as there is not enough time to accommodate such.

grace and peace