How can i be a good ally to the people around me who are struggling with race issues? This is a question i have asked a lot. One of the things white people who join this conversation tend to do is expect people of colour to educate them on how not to be racist. So they have carried the burden of negative race vibes and now they must still do all the work of educating [...]
Where is the church? i am one of the first ones to call out the church when we are not doing well [fighting to hit our children, yo]. But i am definitely also one of the first to cheer us on when we get it right [which we actually do a lot in this country all over the place if you stop to look and listen]. The time i remember being proudest of the [...]
Last night as tbV and i left after a calm and productive evening at UCT as part of the Peace and Justice Witnesses team, stunned by an incredible evening of students talking to students and trying to figure all this stuff out, we noticed a stream of water. Upon closer inspection, we found that someone had turned on one of the taps by the fire hoses in one of the lecture halls, completely flooding the [...]
i have a tablet bible application called You Version where i am busy slowly working through the book of Isaiah [three chapters a day when i get to it] and today was Isaiah 58 which i absolutely love and i find this a helpful checklist for people who say they follow Jesus... This is just part of it: 6 “Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and [...]
i remember it like it was just last night. But mostly because it WAS just last night. This is the status i wrote minutes after it happened: Holy craps. After months of #NotOnOurWatch preaching I had my first real experience of it - old motorcycle guy in a car park going off at a car guard and I marched in and let him have it. So much adrenalin. Body shaking. I had the advantage of [...]
i attended a race panel last night called Real Talk where we got to hear stories from a black, coloured and white person [tbV]. It was a really great time and hopefully more churches and organisations will start hosting these moments of just getting to hear each other and catch glimpses into journeys that have been quite different from ours. One of the stories that Mbulelo shared was about the time he was on a plane [...]
Last week i invited a number of people who love children and know a decent amount them [despite not being parents themselves] to share some thoughts/advice/suggestions and encouragement to parents of young children. You can catch both parts of that over here. A number of parentals wrote some thoughts on the "I'm going to ask you for thoughts" post and so i grabbed those. You don't have to agree with all of them but just [...]
i am busy working through a 'Seven Hebrew Words Every Believer Should Know' Bible plan on my tablet via YouVersion and this one by Dave Adamson really struck me: "Too often we pray when we need or want something from God - which is understandable considering the English word 'pray' means to 'ask or beg'. But the Hebrew word for prayer - tefillah - means to 'self evaluate'. So to the Jews of the Bible, prayer was [...]
Do i as a person without children have anything of worth to offer as advice to those who do? This blog post or mini series comes out of an article i wrote for 1Africa this morning, titled, 'Other People's Children: An offer of help' with the bottom line being that i do believe we might have something to offer. Which led to me posting this as my status on Facebook: For ANYONE WHO DOESN'T HAVE ANY CHILDREN, [...]
[1] Is there something i can learn today from someone else? [2] When i stand in front of the mirror and reflect on the person i am in this moment, is there something obvious that needs to change? [3] Who are the people in my life i can ask about those things that might be more subtle in who i am right now that could perhaps use some attention and work to help make me [...]
