The swirl and texture of bleeding life
Shades the unaffected stability
Perspective holes a home in its middle
I am homeward bound to somewhere silence
-Curtis love
Homeward Bound
October 22, 2009 at 2:54 pm (Poetry)
Tags: Homeward bound
Information is beautiful
September 29, 2009 at 11:12 am (Linka)
Tags: information is beautiful
Check out this great graphic, its really profound. Pay particular notice to African Debt in relation to bribes taken by russian officials. The rest of the site is pretty sweet too.
http://www.danpink.com/archives/2009/09/carl-sagan-meets-everett-dirksen
Quote of the Day
September 29, 2009 at 11:02 am (quote of the week)
Tags: quote of the week, Richard Rohr
“All the truly great persons I have ever met are characterised by what I call radical humility…They are deeply convinced that they are drawing from another source; they are an instrument. Their genius is not their own; it is borrowed. So they end up doing great things and expansive things precisely because they do not take first or final responsibility for their gift. … Their life is not their own, yet at some level they know that it has been given to them as a sacred trust. Someone has taken them seriously.”
-Fr Richard Rohr
Art Therapy and Bingo @ Rivoningo
September 11, 2009 at 9:27 am (Rivoningo)
Tags: Art Therapy, Bingo, Rivoningo
My last post was about some of the work that I am doing @ Rivoningo. In particular the pastoral care part. This post is about some of the developments that have happened since then and some exciting future things. While I am convinced that Spiritual care is vital in the journey of someone battling sickness, there is more to the story of a persons well being.
At Rivoningo patients receive medical care, psychosocial and spiritual care but there is little or no recreation activities due to budget and staff constraints. There is one T.V in the hospice but doesn’t have very clear reception and day time T.V only has so much appeal, right? Lets be honest a medical facility for terminally ill people can be a pretty depressing place and it is amazing what the presence of a few people playing games and music can do to lift the spirits of the patients. This can go a long way in releasing the heavy presence of depression and even take focus off the persistent pain the many of them experience.
It is for this reason we have started kicking of an ‘activities’ afternoon. A good friend of mine Sally has joined me now to help facilitate these afternoons. It has been great to work together with her and she is very motivated and creative so I think it’s going to be great. We have run two ‘Bingo @ Rivoningo’ sessions for the patients which were really fun. We also want to introduce some therapeutic art projects through our very gifted friend Sarah, which will start in two weeks time. The rest of the year will be a combination of games,art and music and anything in between.
I feel ready to increase my time @ the hospice. I feel like I have built up my capacity to process and be present in the hospice environment so I am excited. If you have some unused art supplies that you want to contribute drop me a mail and that will be great.
Peace
Rivoningo: Tragedy and Hope
August 30, 2009 at 6:21 pm (Blogs)
Tags: HIV, Rivoningo, TLF
This was update I sent to some of my friends and family.
Rivoningo a place of Tragedy and Hope
It has been about 4 and a half months since I started working at Rivoningo Care Centre. It is a care centre for the terminally ill and those recovering from HIV. Riviningo was set up by a truly remarkable organisation called the Tshwane Leadership Foundation (www.tlf.org.za) which is involved in inner city transformation and believes truly that Jesus has come to ‘preach good news to the poor, proclaim freedom to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to release the oppressed and to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour’ (Luke 4:18-19). TLF recognises a truth that we sometimes try to avoid. There is a dark side to the bright lights and colourful advertising boards of the city. Many people live in Her shadow, forgotten in the hustle and bustle of city life survival and in a very real way are vulnerable to violence and even death on a daily basis.
Jesus’ spoke saying that God’s Dream has broken into the world through him and his work, that the Kingdom, which is the places where life is the way it should be is ‘at hand’ or ‘here’ or ‘among us’. The truth is that many times I have wondered to myself and to God, where is this kingdom you speak of? Where is your kingdom for the many people who ‘live in the shadow’, who by all ‘realistic’ accounts find themselves in hopeless situations? Part of the answer which God is bringing into focus in my mind and heart lies with people like the ones I have grown to admire and love at Rivoningo. People who against all hope, in hope believe (Rom 4:18) that the kingdom is here and with it comes God’s healing, redeeming and transforming presence.
I think that the best way to describe what I have experienced at Riviningo is to say that it is a place where in the midst of tragedy and despair, hope persists, and in the midst of sickness, healing persists. Where in the midst of sadness, laughter persists and in the midst of death, life persists. There is much to grieve and mourn here but this is definitely a place where Hope has the last word! The staff is a remarkable group of committed people who do not merely ‘do their job’ but do it with tenderness and compassion, love and understanding. Many of the patients have shared with me that this has been a place where they feel they belong and are loved and treated with dignity, sometimes for the first time since disclosure of their sickness! These care-givers not only care for the body but also the heart and the soul in the way that they treat the patients continually reminding them that they are precious to God. The patients are remarkable too; teaching the staff and me much about what it means to be a human and to live in faith. They have such courage, such hope and such joy that I am constantly challenged by them. Many of the staff and patients I now consider friends, people I hope to continue to share life with.
So what is my role within Rivoningo? I am currently involved in Spiritual Care and Counseling every Wednesday. We share a devotional which is always really interesting and humorous. The text is often read by someone in English, then followed by someone in Tswana, and then by someone in Afrikaans. This is a perfect example of one of the reasons I love South Africa so much! I have been challenged to read the Bible more closely and ask deeper questions about what is the ‘Good News’ for people who find themselves here in Rivoningo. I then visit the patients who are bed ridden and we interact and if they want to we pray together. Sometimes I counsel in Afrikaans and sometimes we just sit in silence because the language barrier is too great. As I reflect on my role here I think that primarily I am involved in the ministry of presence. I am simply present in the midst of great suffering; listening and loving seeking to somehow embody the love and compassion of God to people who so often feel unloved and forgotten. Recently we kicked off a bingo day which we hope to continue into the future and also had a great party 2 weeks ago complete with dancing and laughter (see pics). If you pray I ask for your prayers for my friends and for me and if you don’t I ask for your thoughts for my friends and for me throughout the rest of the year. I am convinced more than ever that God reaches into the darkest parts of our hearts and our world with love and healing and hope.
It has been about 4 and a half months since I started working at Rivoningo Care Centre. It is a care centre for the terminally ill and those recovering with HIV. Riviningo was set up by a truly remarkable organisation called the Tshwane Leadership Foundation (www.tlf.org.za) which is involved in inner city transformation and believes truly that Jesus has come to ‘preach good news to the poor, proclaim freedom to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to release the oppressed and to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour’ (Luke 4:18-19). TLF recognises a truth that we sometimes try to avoid. There is a dark side to the bright lights and colourful advertising boards of the city. Many people live in Her shadow, forgotten in the hustle and bustle of city life survival and in a very real way are vulnerable to violence and even death on a daily basis.
Jesus’ spoke saying that God’s Dream has broken into the world through him and his work, that the Kingdom, which is the places where life is the way it should be is ‘at hand’ or ‘here’ or ‘among us’. The truth is that many times I have wondered to myself and to God, where is this kingdom you speak of? Where is your kingdom for the many people who ‘live in the shadow’, who by all ‘realistic’ accounts find themselves in hopeless situations? Part of the answer which God is bringing into focus in my mind and heart lies with people like the ones I have grown to admire and love at Rivoningo. People who against all hope, in hope believe (Rom 4:18) that the kingdom is here and with it comes God’s healing, redeeming and transforming presence.
I think that the best way to describe what I have experienced at Riviningo is to say that it is a place where in the midst of tragedy and despair, hope persists, and in the midst of sickness, healing persists. Where in the midst of sadness, laughter persists and in the midst of death, life persists. There is much to grieve and mourn here but this is definitely a place where Hope has the last word! The staff is a remarkable group of committed people who do not merely ‘do their job’ but do it with tenderness and compassion, love and understanding. Many of the patients have shared with me that this has been a place where they feel they belong and are loved and treated with dignity, sometimes for the first time since disclosure of their sickness! These care-givers not only care for the body but also the heart and the soul in the way that they treat the patients continually reminding them that they are precious to God. The patients are remarkable too; teaching the staff and me much about what it means to be a human and to live in faith. They have such courage, such hope and such joy that I am constantly challenged by them. Many of the staff and patients I now consider friends, people I hope to continue to share life with.
So what is my role within Rivoningo? I am currently involved in Spiritual Care and Counseling every Wednesday. We share a devotional which is always really interesting and humorous. The text is often read by someone in English, then followed by someone in Tswana, and then by someone in Afrikaans. This is a perfect example of one of the reasons I love South Africa so much! I have been challenged to read the Bible more closely and ask deeper questions about what is the ‘Good News’ for people who find themselves here in Rivoningo. I then visit the patients who are bed ridden and we interact and if they want to we pray together. Sometimes I counsel in Afrikaans and sometimes we just sit in silence because the language barrier is too great. As I reflect on my role here I think that primarily I am involved in the ministry of presence. I am simply present in the midst of great suffering; listening and loving seeking to somehow embody the love and compassion of God to people who so often feel unloved and forgotten. Recently we kicked off a bingo day which we hope to continue into the future and also had a great party 2 weeks ago complete with dancing and laughter (see pics). If you pray I ask for your prayers for my friends and for me and if you don’t I ask for your thoughts for my friends and for me throughout the rest of the year. I am convinced more than ever that God reaches into the darkest parts of our hearts and our world with love and healing and hope.
The Week in Retrospect: From Anarchy to Zapiro
July 31, 2009 at 2:17 pm (Blogs)
Tags: Gilroys, week in retrospect, Zapiro
Where I Am At The Moment: @ Pangani waiting until the farewell of my good friends the Stewarts happens tonight.
On My To-Do List This Week: Well its Friday, so my ‘to do’ list includes seeing Becky, attending the PK lounge Gala event and going to Gilroy’s microbrewery on Sunday. Yes!
What is making me smile today: Last nights meal of pap, chicken and chakalaka followed by milk tart. It was a great day in history.
What is making me angry today: That you have to wait three months for your dental insurance to be activated. I need the dentist now…
What is making me sad today: That my good friends the stewarts will be leaving next wednesday. Luckily it is only for one year but they will be sorely missed!
Wondering About: My future, which course I should do? Who I should work for? what would be a responsible fulfilling of my perceived vocation.
Books I’m In The Midst Of:
The Divine Conspiracy (Dallas Willard): A contemporary classic challenging status quo chrisitian spirituality and outlining a really compelling view of the spiritual life.
The End of Memory (Miroslav Volf): Remembering rightly in a violent world
On The Current iTunes play list:
- Asa – Jailer
- 340ml
- Massive Attack
- A mix of house music
Next Trip:
JHB on Sunday for Gilroys
Zapiro cartoon:
Sms Etiquette: How polite are you?
July 21, 2009 at 4:25 pm (Blogs)
Tags: manners, Politeness, sms etiquette
In the past couple of weeks I have found myself (rather amusingly) growing indignant at the way in which people send what seem to me rather impolite sms’s. The problem is not that the sms’s are impolite but rather that the people who send them are not impolite people. In their day to day dealings they are pleasant, considerate and caring people yet (it seems to me) that the pleasantness or politeness doesn’t translate into their sms etiquette! Is to too much to ask for a greeting at the begining of the text (heya) , an equiry into ones well being (you well?), a little encouragement (hope the day is/was good) and any appropriate ending (peace…cheers…thanks)? Am i just been a friendliness glutton, wanting more from a simple text message than what it can give.
Whatever the case is, there is one detail that I haven’t mentioned so far which could shed some much needed light on the dark, sordid world of poor sms etiquette. As many of you know I live mainly with American’s and many of the said messages in question have been received from ‘them’ 
This beg’s the question, ‘are American’s texto-rudae, or worse so cheap that they want to make sure the text is trimmed of all relational excess to ensure the demanding 144 character quota is met? My heart and experience of my friends tells me that neither of these things are true. What alternative explanations are there? A few things began to emerge on my fact finding mission.
- South Africa has an sms culture: According to my rigorous research, which included a few casual conversations and a concentrated time of refelction,we send texts far more frequently than American’s. I even encountered American’s who themselves or someone they knew had deactivated their ability to receive texts. Can you imagine a South African who is unable to receive texts? Woe to you, blasphemer! Part of American’s aversion to texts is because their service providers charge them to receive sms’s. My friends told me they were much more likely to make a phone call than to send a text.
- Text’s are a functional form of communication: It would seem that this is the assumption of some of the people who sent me those ‘trimmed’ messages. A text is simply functional: to get information, make a request or confirm an arrangement. If it achieves that end the text is ’successful’ and any other communication in the text is unnessecary. This is of course very different from my own usage of texts. For example about 70% of my communication with my girlfriend in JHB throughout the week is through text’s. Text’s in my world (South Africa in general?) go beyond a functional form of communication.
Within my two above-mentioned discoveries there are some hints as to why I would perceive an sms as being impolite while my friends would see it as completely normal.
I feel much better after taking the time to share these thoughts with you and let you into the complex world of sms etiquette.All thats left to ask is what do you think? Should an sms include things like a greating and an ending or is it only a functional form of communication? Is my indignation culturally conditioned or down right misguided? Is there something I haven’t seen?
Quote of the week
July 1, 2009 at 1:40 pm (Uncategorized)
Tags: Henri Nouwen, quote of the week
The roots of lonliness find their food in the suspicion that there is no one who cares and offers love without conditions, and no place where we can be vulnerable without been used
-Henri Nouwen
Amahoro: Grass Roots Transformation
June 25, 2009 at 10:48 am (Blogs)
Tags: African Reformation, Amahoro 2009, grassroots transformation
I said that I would give some reflection on my experience of the Amahoro African Reformation conference held in Magaliesburg two weeks ago. Check out their website here for the excellent opening presentation given by the founder of Amahoro, Claude and also a brief but insightful summary of the events of the week by my friend Kelley.
Here are a few thoughts (I will probably continue over a few posts) as to why I like been a part of the ‘Amahoro Conversation’:
It really is a grassroots network:
This is a network for ‘normal people’, people working on the ground, caring for the wellbeing of their local communities. People who have often just seen a need within their community and responded to that need in the Spirit of Jesus. They are just regular pastors, or members of the community who deire to participate in God’s transforming work in our world. This ‘grass-rootedness’ is even reflected in the speaker line-up of the conference with a good majority of the speakers been ‘regular folk’ reflecting on their experiences and the experiences of their communities and countries. This dynamic is complimented by presence of those people who are in a postition to spend more time and effort reflecting on the problems and dynamics facing our world and the church. Even though they are academics or authors they resist the temptation to fall into the category of being experts. Rather they seem to function more as a catalyst toward new inights and language to describe what is going on in our world. I am a firm believer in the idea that meaningful and sustained transformation will only occur through a groundswell of grassroots love and compassion. I think that amahoro honours and seeks to nurture this idea. It also further enhances the transformative power of this groundswell by connecting people commited to the same ends. It doing so it enables strengthing, resourcing, encouraging and nurturing the network towards deeper significance.
In other words I think that one of the reasons I enjoy participation with Amahoro in general and with the conference in particular is that because it is for people on the ground. People confronted with the mess, suffering and hope of their local communities…We need more networks and spaces like this for the health and wellbeing of our world.
Quote of the Week (Thanks Dallas):
June 24, 2009 at 3:21 pm (quote of the week)
Tags: Dallas, Martin Luther King Jr, quote of the week
“Almost always, the creative dedicated minority has made the world better.”
-Martin Luther King Jr
