maybe you’ve already heard about this new loyalty oath (or is it a pledge?) that the government wants instated in schools, and it seems likely to become another hot topic (at least in certain circles) in the near future.

President Mbeki first announced it in his “State of the Nation” address on Friday the 8th of February, after which minister Pandor elaborated on the 12th of February 2008, stating that this loyalty oath is “intended to internalize those values we as South Africans have thought to be important”. The main idea seems to be that all children should repeat this pledge in unity at the start of their school day. It goes like this:

“We the youth of South Africa, recognising the injustices of our past, honour those who suffered and sacrificed for justice and freedom.”

“We will respect and protect the dignity of each person, and stand up for justice.”

“We sincerely declare that we shall uphold the rights and values of our Constitution and promise to act in accordance with the duties and responsibilities that flow from these rights.”

What is making it such a hot topic amongst politicians is that, once again, the government have failed to include others in the discussion and planning of this initiative. For most parties involved this whole project came as a big surprise and it is being sited as ideological and not inclusive of the minorities (whether political or racial) in our country. This can be debated seeing as minister Pandor also eluded that the Department will be opening up this topic to input from the community.

This raises the second negative point though. There hasn’t been any communication as to what this feedback structure would look like. This would be obviously worrying to the citizens that doesn’t approve because as we all know, President Mbeki’s team frequently been attacked for making choices without any outside influence.

Either way the stage is set and there are some valid statements for and against this move:

• ·         Die eed is niks anders as ‘n poging van die ANC om kwesbare skoolkinders met sy mislukte politieke ideologie en gebrekkige geskiedenisbeskouing tot ‘n permanente skuldkompleks te probeer indoktrineer nie. – Pieter Mulder
• ·         “The text … contains much about the injustices of the past but little about what’s important now, this is a troubled and fragmented society and we could do with some unifying values and rituals. But this pledge doesn’t quite make the grade.” – Business Day
• ·         “We are of the opinion that the pledge will go a long way to imbue the youth with a sense of pride, patriotism, nation building and a caring society,” – ANC Youth League

Concerning the discussion about the topic the DA offers the following:

• There are no details about the pledge at all on the Department of Education’s web site, or on its events calendar. None of the provincial education department web sites we looked at referred to it either.
• There is no reference to the pledge on the general government web site, other than a mention of the fact that this topic would be dealt with during the briefing on Tuesday.
• Nowhere has the Minister referred to any particular individual or department who has been made responsible for receiving and processing these submissions.
• The Minister has announced no plans to go out and canvass the opinions of those who may find it difficult to make submissions, nor has she given any indication that she intends to make a particular effort to canvass the opinion of the institutions that will be most directly affected – our schools.

 As for me personally, I like the idea, but, like I always say, although I certainly trust in our government’s motives, I sometimes doubt their methods. If they truly wish this to be a unifying experience let them create the proper channels for communication and include ALL our citizens in what could be a great opportunity for nation building. This would mean that they’ll neet to create a platform where the everyday South African which does not have access to our country’s IT or communication infrastructure, can be involved in the process. We should also seek wisdom about the wording of such an oath, ensuring that it brings life for all.

You can get some more background or views at the following sites:

http://www.news24.com/News24/South_Africa/News/0,,2-7-1442_2269309,00.html

http://www.sabcnews.com/south_africa/education/0,2172,164058,00.html

http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=332519&area=/breaking_news/breaking_news__national/

http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=332263&area=/breaking_news/breaking_news__national/

http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=332183&area=/breaking_news/breaking_news__national/ 

http://www.thoughtleader.co.za/talkback/2008/02/13/would-you-encourage-your-child-to-recite-the-proposed-pupils-pledge/ 

http://www.da.org.za/DA/Site/Eng/News/Article.asp?ID=8646

http://www.vryheidsfront.co.za/a/index.asp 

http://www.vryheidsfront.co.za/a/media.asp?id=2646

http://www.vryheidsfront.co.za/a/media.asp?id=2642

http://www.vryheidsfront.co.za/a/media.asp?id=2649 

Stay blessed

most of you probably know the work we do, training Youth Coaches to work in schools, colleges and children’s homes, empowering the youth with hope, vision for the future and answers to the unique challenges they face daily. I want to use some feedback from one of my guys to start things off…

He came to me last year and mused about the way the kids in his school don’t play sports at break any more. I won’t digress to offer his whole story of how they used to play rugby, cricket and “Open the gates” every chance they could get. Instead I’ll get to his worrying observation: Most of the kids in his school sit and socialize in groups whilst listening to music on their Ipods, cellphones and other MP3 players.

This got my tail wagging a little bit and I decided to start watching this already well established phenomenon. And whilst the benefits and drawbacks to listening to music ALL DAY can be a lengthy debate on it’s own I rather want to note the following: There as also a considerably large amount of kids who sit listening to tunes on their own (even though some are in groups), headphones in their ears and volume cranked up.

What I’m wondering is what effect this isolation has on these kids’ ability to function in a community? We all know how much time kids spend on their pc’s, Xbox, PS3, the internet, in their rooms alone with the music on. Our consumeristic society in it’s current state is set up to cater to the needs and cravings of the individual. It offers both the platforms (gaming systems, MP3 players, Pc’s, Internet etc.) around which these tendencies revolve as well as then filling them with a myriad of weird and wonderful choices of games, programs and music etc.

I fear that it is subtly leading our children away from understanding life in terms of a community.

Individualism seems to be creeping in every where and though this is a bigger philosophy than we have time for in this post I want to restrict myself to the following:

Where does the tendency to remove the individual from the community manifest in our current society?

Some examples from my own life: Me and my wife run together and a couple of times I’ve had to resist the urge of whipping out my Ipod and listening to my latest podcast whilst on the road. About once every fortnight I’ll get stuck into a computer game which completely cuts me of from the rest of humanity. I’ll sit and surf the net for extended periods of time. When do these habits become a problem?

When we are called to consistently live in fellowship with God, our families and His Church how do we determine when it’s okay for something to lead us out of fellowship and into isolation? Is it even okay? Or is fellowship, at least with God, a given in our walk with Him?

So I’m wondering about two things:

1. What are the manifestation of isolationist part of individualism in our current culture? How is it creeping into Church life?

2. How do we evaluate and change our behavior, and how do we biblically qualify this? Or how does the Gospel interact with this issue?

I’m really in the beginning of exploring this topic, I probably haven’t made up my mind about anything so feel free to offer whatever you have, I’ll appreciate any stimulation in this area.

Be blessed!

I’ve started to work on my music again. I love three things when it comes to music: a clear acoustic guitar, a beautifully melodic piano and last but not least the satisfaction and energy that comes from great electronic music. It’s a big dream of mine to be able to produce/compose. I can play guitar on what you would call an intermediate level. I have no idea how to play piano, although, I don’t have a problem spending my time plink-plinking until something starts to sound good. And last but not least, I can build some basic beats with the software I have on my pc.

I’ve actually produced a couple of songs some years ago. About three years ago I was really getting along fine, I had some half decent software and a pc I modified to get some more performance out of it, I was doing alright. And then a funny thing happened.

I got saved.

Yup, God reached down in all His grace, picked me up, dusted me off and put me back on my feet. (I don’t feel the need of discussing where or why I was lying, or why the dust was such a funny color!)

The first thing I did after that was associate everything from my past life with the darkness that previously enshrouded me. The second thing I did was to get rid of all the things I identified in the first thing. So out went everything illegal, fantastical, mystical, weird, strange and yes, sadly, electronic. I remember how I felt that day. Deleting and destroying all my hard collected illegal music, uninstalling my illegal mixing and production software, erasing all my illegally produced projects. It was a sad day but I’d never forget the satisfaction I felt for taking control and getting rid of all these things I thought would get between me and God.

Thing is, a couple of years later, I started re evaluating my position on this. I mean yes, I had, and also wanted, to get rid of everything illegal but did God really expect me to give up this passion I had for music? Even the electronic kind?

And if He did, I’m having a hard time understanding why He doesn’t help me get rid of this fancy for all things ambient, techy and trancy!

When I look at it now, I think it was a seasonal thing. The time I took of from all those old-life things did me great. It gave me time and focus to get my feet back on the Rock. And sometimes when you get saved that’s just what you need. Time off. Time with Him and time with yourself.

Anyhow, I bought some new software and I’m back in the game. Things have changed in the last three years. The software looks different, the music is different and most of all I’m different.

So it’s back to the drawing board, or is it the mixing desk? I don’t know but watch this space, maybe in a couple of months I’ll give you guys a glimpse of my first new song…

May you live in God’s rest!

The thing I’m just waiting for is for the first person to criticize this man in my face. You know the normal skits about choosing a coach on based on merit and not skin color? I’m just wondering wheter it will stand up to him? If you check his CV against Meyer he wins hands down in the international arena. His reluctance to commit to the whole 2007 Springbok squad could open the field for some healthy competition, and his (seeming) openess to input could give him everything he needs to make the shortcomings that he could have.

But let’s be serious, in the end the proof is in the pudding. We can speculate and discuss all we want but the fat lady doesn’t sing until the next World Cup final. I’m really praying that the South Africa that he’s fighting for will fight back for him. That they will give him the trust and faith he needs to pull this through. And that for once maybe they’ll keep all their negativity for themselves and give the rest of us who actually wants this country to succeed, and is willing to support it through their successes and mistakes, a much needed break from all their whining.

No, I’m happy with Pieter De Villiers. Just as happy as I was with Jake White and just as happy as I’ll be with our next coach.

She was working as a Youth Coach (this is what we do) in Fluorana Akademie. A small private school in the northern side of Pretoria. I went to visit the school yesterday just to see how the kids are doing. Every thing seems fine, sad but okay. There are definitely one or two who are taking it worse than the others, but for the most they seem fine. One of the teachers at the school is also a professional counselor and she’s doing a great job debriefing them. I’ve arranged for some of them to come and camp with us next weekend where I’ll spend some one on one time with them.

We had been working together since January this year and got to know each other pretty well. She was the strong, quiet type. She also had an amazing sense of humor. From the 25 odd Coaches in my team I would say that she was probably the most sorted out. Sorted out in terms of purpose, character, discipline and vision. She also had a great sensitivity for the Lord’s voice and always acted in obedience.

Anyways, it was the first time I ever lost someone close to me. Hit me pretty hard and I spent a lot of time crying on  Thursday night. Not really angry or rebellious or anything, just sad. I knew she experienced a lot of the Kingdom in her time here, and still would in the time now come. I was just sad, we had lost an awesome person and a good friend.

Still something beautiful emerged that evening. I was sitting around a corner where I thought no one would see me. In the midst of my sorrows the kids came to comfort me. It was an awesome experience to have a sixteen year old young man look me straight in the eyes and comfort me with the love and strength I needed.  At one stage one of the girls came and sat with me. Not saying much, just giving perspective. Reminding of the awesome time and place Marina has moved to. I also laughed a little. One or two of them got completely freaked out and sort of froze, checked me out, turned on the heel and made a move in the opposite direction. Clearly confused about what to do and how to handle it.

And in this God came through from a most unexpected place, through kids I was there to serve.

I went to join them again. The same girl wanted me to play a song, she was in the mood to sing. So me and one of the boys each grabbed a guitar, picked our way through the intro and got lost in the notes, rhythms and lyrics of one of the classics.

And as the sweet words of “Knocking on Heaven’s Door’s” chorus started to echo in my ears, I still remember feeling the peace and irony of this very odd situation.

Love and peace to her family and all who knew her.

We had no idea of where the water would be, what the plant life would be like or where any of the established tracks lie.

So, the lesson is, do not rely on your cleverness and your GPS alone when planning a route. Get some locals who know the land and let them give you advice. We ended up having to change our whole route (lack of water), get cut, scratched and full of holes (seeing as this area contains every type of thorn bush/tree/shrub that God made) and occasionally tired and frustrated (from walking, beating and trudging our way through the thicket because we didn’t know where the paths were).

Other than that it was an awesome trip. After surveying the intended route from within the valley we found that we didn’t have enough water for all three days. This is what caused us to change route. We ended up walking south along the Mohlapitse river, coming in from the roads created for the forest plantations which span most of the Western part of the mountains. We spent most of Day 1 trying to find a suitable camp site. We ended up moving twice to better locations. Our campsite was really awesome though. A huge tree for covering, the river 20m away and wide open space made for a great site. We did about 11km.

On Day 2, we decided to go up Serala from the south. This was a complete disaster. We ended up fighting our way through immense thorny bush and thickets. After about two hours we found that we were completely cut off by some kloofs on one side and an impregnable wall of undergrowth on the other. This forced us to change our plans once again. Fighting our way back down (on our haunches to get under the bush) we regrouped on the riverbed. Determined to climb a mountain that day we cast our eyes up at our next target. Devils Knuckles. A knuckle shaped mountain with four rounded peaks situated a couple of km’ east of our current location. We started following the river in that direction.

Reaching the base we went to sit on a large rock in the middle of the river. Contemplating our plans we heard a couple of voices coming from our left. It wasn’t two minutes when three couples rounded a couple of trees (imagine our dismay when we found a perfect pathway three meters from where we were struggling against those blasted thorn bushes!). I quickly asked them if they knew where they were going (seeing as we didn’t). This started of an extremely informative conversation as the one guys grandfather was a historian of the area. It was here that we once again realized the necessity of consulting the locals.

The next part of the trip made it for me. After we climbed the slopes about 150m up we had to go up the cliffs. This was huge fun and we spent about 45min going up 60m of neutral and positive incline rock faces. After this we got stuck again and had to climb sideways into a kloof to go up the rest of the way. It took us about 3.5hrs up and down. The whole route that day was only about 9km long (I can run this easily in 50min) but it took us from 08:00 to 16:30. Like I said previously, it can get long in the mountains.

Day 3 we broke camp and headed back. This was quite a long haul after yesterdays exertion. It’s just under 8km and almost 1km up. Was great though, not a thorn in sight!

All in all, this area requires at least one more visit. Ha ha, we already planned most of it. There seems to be another route coming in from St. Georges Valley. Which easily covers Serala, the Wonderwoud, and what looked (from the top of Devils Knuckles) like a huge waterfall in the south. Really looking forward to it.

I offered the GPS coordinates on my previous post. They are up for grabs but I’m not going to post them. Just put in a request in your comment and I’ll get them to you.

Anyways, I’m off. Stay well!

Serala Peak is about 2050m up. Not that high when looking across our borders. South Africa has actually been short changed when it comes to high mountains. It seems Drakensberg (Natal/Lesotho) has some of the highest peaks but they still range around 4000m. Not much compared to many 6000+’s you find in South America and Asia. Any case, you need to run before you can walk, ne?

So we’re going to try to reach both the peaks of the two main mountain bodies in the wilderness area. One peaks at just above 1900m, this will be day one, day two we’ll cross over to the second peak at 2050m, day three we come down. Ha ha, at least this is the plan. I’m taking along my GPS. I used Mapsource to try and create a route (using the SA Topo and Rec v1.5) but we’ll have to wait and see. This is the first route I create from scratch without knowing or seeing the land itself. I sort of overlayed a Google Earth snapshot with the contour maps from Mapsource. Going up, day one, and coming down, day three, each have a specific point that I’m worried about. There’s a possibility that we’ll have to do some climbing. I reall hope it’s nothing serious. I’m lugging around a 15kg bag so it’s gonna be mighty tricky if it’s too steep. Maybe I should just take some extra rope with… Anyways, we’re averaging about 12km’s a day. Not too much on flat earth, get’s long in the mountains though.

So this is me clocking out. I should post a follow up by Tuesday/Wednesday where I’ll try to log some GPS co-ordinates should anybody want them.

Be blessed!

Another one of our ladies has decided to move on at the end of the year. I think it is a good move. She feels called to get another qualification and when I look at her and her personality and the things she excels at I know it’s a good move. Same story with one of my guys, feels led into education. Wants to become a teacher, and trust me, if there was ever a man that can lift the face of educators in South Africa he’s the guy.

Lastly, another lady has to move from one school to another. Not by choice though. The principle there has a decided vision for his school and he doesn’t see her fitting in. Although I respect his choice, and him, he is a great man, in my heart I question if he understands the huge loss they will actually have. This lady is one of the most passionate, mature, disciplined and above else involved employees we have. The amount of quality relationships she has with her kids is almost unbelievable. As long as she remains with us I’m happy.

All this really got me thinking. I remember when I had to start wrapping things up at my school. I was offered a different position in the company which meant I would have to leave my school. This creates mixed feelings. I knew where I was going and as such there was a definite sense of excitement. Some of our guys finishing up now are treading on new and uncertain ground. The others, like my colleague who was asked to move, doesn’t actually want to go. In her heart she had so much she still wanted to give and do. So, I can only imagine, there must be a different kind of sadness in her heart.

There is one shared thought and emotion between all of us though. And that is: What will become of my kids. This gets mixed with a permeating uncertainty of “did I do enough”. In short, our human part takes over and bunch of mixed emotions start to play with our minds and hearts.

And this is normal, so normal, because what else is it than love?

A love that developed over time for each and every kid we counseled, coached, held, supported, laughed with, cried with, camped with, faught with, joked with and walked with. A love that gets so big it sort of consumes our whole being. It becomes part of who and what we, are and the realization of that being imminently and suddenly lost, wakes us to all these fears and doubts that now play games with our peace and focus.

It’s normal though, we have to feel it, but at the end of the day it’s needs to be brought back into perspective.

And that is this: We can only do what we can in the time that we have. The rest is up to God. And let’s remember, it was God who, through His great mercy, gave you to each other for this time. Personally, I found great peace in just accepting that. And also accepting in the time I had I did what I could. As far as I am able to hear and understand the Lord, I seeked Him for direction and I tried to follow His instruction. Nothing more and nothing less. In this there is peace guys. Remember, God doesn’t expect more or less than that which He asks of you. He seeks obedience, and obedience is final. And let’s not pretend we are perfect and that we always hear Him or that we always do what He says. We don’t. We miss. We screw up. But we try, and if we are sincere in our trying, grace, mercy and growth follows.

And as for next month and next year. We are not irreplaceable. We play only a small role in what God is ALREADY doing in their lives. His plan will carry on. He will bring the next Coach, oom, tannie, teacher, friend, pastor (or whoever He has already decided to bring) and His loving work will carry on. Just as we do. Do not dwell in this year or last year or next year. Dwell on God and His awesome dream for humanity and His Kingdom. Dwell on this and find trust and peace flowing into your heart. Dwell on this and find your own true place as His vision fills you with hope and understanding.

As for the guys that are still in their school. Know that your D-Day is coming. Know that you only have a time with these kids and seek to understand what the Lord is doing in their lives. Seek to understand what your role is in your school and in their lives and then strive to fulfill that. Nothing more and nothing less. Let’s not see how much we can do, let’s rather make sure that what we are doing, is the right thing.

Be blessed and carry on the awesome work!