The journey begins!

The first snow has fallen on the Hottentots Holland mountains behind our home in Somerset West - it is wet in Cape Town. But, I'm off to much warmer weather! By 3pm SA time tomorrow I would have reached my semi final destination Sibu in Malaysia.

I am missing my family already. However, I am filled with anticipation for what lies ahead over the next two weeks! Scroll down a few posts or do a search for 'Malaysia' on this blog for full details of this trip.

I'd appreciate your prayers for me, my family and our team.

A blessed Easter!

Christ is risen!  He is risen indeed!

Here is a wonderful easter message from Pete Greig of the 24-7 Prayer and Justice movement

May the miracle of Christ's life transform yours.

Join us at the Unashamedly Ethical conferences in Malaysia

On Wednesday I'll be boarding a flight from Cape Town to Malaysia where Graham Power and I will first be heading via Kuala Lumpur to Sibu to speak at the Methodist Prayer gathering (with some engagements in Kuching along the way). I had the immeasurable privilage of speaking at the 2007 prayer gathering (it was during this time that I first fell in love with Malaysia and her wonderful people!)  

Malaysia has a very special place in my heart - I have been back a number of times since then, and will be there twice this year.

Then, on the 29th we head back to Kuala Lumpur to meet up with Steve Johnstone (the international coordinator for Unashamedly Ethical) to speak at an Unashamedlly Ethical conference (see the brochure and video below).  Please find the full details of the conference here.  I would love to see there if you're in the area!

On the 5th and 6th of May we go on Penang for another Unashamedly Ethical Conference. Please find full details of that conference here.

The Unashamedly Ethical movement challenges individuals and organisations to make a stand for values and ethics.  We are convinced that we will never be able to deal with systemic poverty until we address systemic corruption. Please consider joining us by committing yourself to values, ethics and clean living here - Unashamedly Ethical online.

I will also be doing some seminars and workshops with pastors and business people on the topics of 'ministry in the marketplace' and 'practical social transformation' (based in part on the book that Graham Power and I wrote together called 'Transform your work life')  If you live in Malaysia and would like to order a copy of the book please visit Canaanland here. If you live elsewhere in the world please get your copy here.

Prayer requests

Please could you support us in prayer.  Here are some prayer pointers.

• Please pray for our hosting committee in the Methodist Church in Malaysia who will host us for the first part of our visit (particularly Bishop Hwa Yung and his leadership team)
• Please pray for our hosting committee from the NECF - close friends who are doing incredible work in the Church and the marketplace.
• Please pray for Graham, Steve and I while we're away.  Also please pray for our families.
• Please pray that the Lord will use us and that He will create wonderful opportunities for us to bless, encourage and partner with our Malaysian friends in bringing about renewal and transformation in the Church and world of work.

Thanks so much!  I'll be posting updates as regularly as I can to my twitter feed and will post here as well as often as I can.

A little bit of heaven on earth - Schapenberg Mountainbike trail

Below are a few photos from the new Schapenberg MTB trails just outside of Somerset West (Sir Lowrys Pass).  Since it has opened my friend Greg and I have ridded the black route three times with minor variations.  The full black route is quite hectic with two very serious climbs!  The first climb is a killer!  But it does get one to some awesome single track through the forests above Sir Lowrys pass village.  The second climb is the one up to Hans se Kop with kilometers and kilometers of fairly technical downhill single track!  Super riding indeed!

One of the stupidest philosophies in the world

Yesterday morning I began my talk to the Unashamedly Ethical community [MP3, 29MB] with a confession.  I confessed that I am an addict.  I am addicted to a way of life that is killing me, killing others, killing the world - it is even killing generations to come.  I live for tomorrow and don't value today sufficiently.  I want bigger things, better things and more things.  Who I am and what I have just doesn't seem good enough

I am dangerous.

But, I am a recovering addict.  Since being encountered by the Prince of Peace I have embarked on a daily journey that seeks peace.  I live my life in the cause of true peace - peace with God, peace with people, and in fact peace with all creation.  It is not an easy journey when you're as addicted to yourself as I am.  Perhaps it is easier for you?

Just to mention that my confession was motivated by this incredible video made by my friend Alan Storey - thanks Al, you continue to inspire and challenge me along my journey.

You can listen to my talk by downloading it here.

This quote made sense in the context of my confession.

Here is one of the stupidest philosophies of life I have ever heard, and yet it is the one that drives our whole civilization: it’s the idea that the purpose of life is to get good things in the future that you don’t yet have, rather than enjoying the good things in the present that you do have. A thought voices from every corner of our culture whisper that lie. Fight the voices. Command your own thoughts (they’re yours to command!) to look at the present and its beauty. If you have to force yourself to stop and smell the roses, well, then, force yourself.

— Peter Kreeft, Before I Go: Letters to our children about what really matters, n.18, pp.30-31 (United Kingdom: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2007) (via @firstbreath90)

Clever spammers and hackers are keeping us in contact. Thank you!

Yesterday I got a few emails from friends asking if I had truly given up using my Apple Mac in order to buy a cheap Chinese laptop... (in truth, the Apple is a cheap Chinese laptop with a huge markup... But let's not talk about that now ;-)

The reason for all of these emails was that everyone in my address book had received the following email from me:

Dear,

How are you?

I'm so happy today because just received my laptop from {insert URL for cheap Chinese electronics reseller here}  the with such low price of the quality goods , you can have a look if

God bless you !

The subject was either 'Good News!' or 'Whit is new today?'

So, I logged onto my gmail account to discover that the clever little hackers had managed to gain access, send out the email above to my whole contact list... But here's the clever bit!  They also set my 'vacation message' to autoreply to everyone who sends me an email with the above message.

2 points for the spammers!  I love ingenuity, and I'm impressed by creativity that leads to innovation and unconventional productivity...

I just wish it wasn't the spammers who were so clever!

Why can't a few of these clever women and men apply their superior intellect to solving complex conflicts, or resolving the world's energy crisis!?

Anyway, if you received an email from me, I'm glad we 'touched base' in some way - and no, I'm still using my Macbook White.  I promise to email you personally if I should every decide to buy a cheap Chinese laptop.  Deal!?

Needless to say I have changed my passwords - I encourage you to do the same!

The cost of right choices

This is the start of Holy Week in the Christian Calendar. In my devotional time this morning I prayed the following prayer:

O God, whose very presence causes us to choose whom we will serve, help us to joyfully choose always for you. Let us not be tossed about by conflicting motives but live solely for you. In the power of Christ's name. Amen.

May you be blessed as we journey towards the celebration of Easter, remember that God chose us, and so we can choose Him.

Riding the new Schapenberg Mountainbike trail from Ongegund in Somerset West

Greg and I headed out to ride the new Schapenberg MTB trail ride this afternoon - it is just above Sir Lowrys pass in Somerset West.  We intended doing the red route.  But, when we arrived they were closing up and so Johan Kriegler (the guy who does the Wines2Whales trail) told us how to get in along the Knorhoek road.

We met up with a few friends along the way and started riding the route with them. They turned off onto the shorter yellow route and we decided to take the red route.  About 10 km into the ride we realised that we were at the cut off point of day one of the wines2whales!  We knew that with just a little climb we would link up with the most amazing single track (from Hans se Kop down into the valley). So, we braced ourselves and climbed the black route... Quite a climb to the top, but some beautiful views and incredible single track on the way to the top!  It was worth doing the black route!

At the top we made the turn and hit the road down.  Greg was in fine form flying down the technical stuff!  I was a little... shall we say ‘sensible’ about my descent? Just when we thought it was over the route took us into a tunnel of trees and a whole new section of single track!  At the end of that we climbed next to the railway for a few km’s only to be taken into another section of incredible downhill single track – some of it quite steep like on our Helderberg ride.  Super stuff.

This is certainly a route worth riding.  Because we came in from the side (since the Ongegund office was closed) we probably missed the first 18km of the trail.  But, the last 23km we did ride was absolutely amazing!

Blessings,

Dion

PS.  If you have google earth installed on your computer just click on the attached file for a ‘fly through’ of the route.  If you don’t have it installed download google earth from here:

http://www.google.co.za/earth/

The fire on the Helderberg Mountain, Somerset West

This morning a fire broke out in the Helderberg Nature reserve.  From what I have heard it started at around 8am.  Unfortunately the vegitation in our area is extremely dry at this time of the year - our rainfail comes in winter.  That, accompanied with the very strong South Easterly winds is a recipe for dissaster.  The fire quickly spread across the side of the mountain.  By lunch time there were 4 helicopters and 2 crop-duster planes trying to put out the fire.  In addition I heard that somewhere between 80 and 250 firefighters and volunteers were on the mountain trying to stem the spread of the fire.

I'm not sure how many homes have burnt down.  There are man different rumours about how many have burnt down.

One of my photos was used in the Times Online article today. The article gives some more information about the fires.

Below are a series of photos - most of them were taken by my wife, Megan.

This photo was taken from my friend Graham Power's home at about 8pm this evening.

I took the photo below with my iPhone when I went cycling this afternoon. It shows the width of the fire.  From here it 'hopped' around the left hand side of the mountain towards Stellenbosch (along the R44).

Here are some photos taken by Megan of the helicopters and planes tryinig to put out the worst of the blaze.

In this picture you can see one of the helicopters scooping water from a dam at the bottom of the nature reserve.

This is one of the two crop dusting planes that also pitched in to help.

Please spare a prayer for the firefighters and those who have evacuated their homes, and those who may have lost homes and possessions.

Another chapter published!

On Friday I received an email from Paul Chilcote to let me know that 'Making disciples in a world parish: Global perspectives on Mission and Evangelism' was published.

I was privileged to contribute one of the chapters that make up this book.  I wrote about the theology and ministry of Christians in Southern Africa in response to the HIV/AIDS pandemic.  In my chapter I discussed issues such as the contextualisation of theological methodology, an insight into what it means to live with HIV/AIDS and what it could mean for Christians and the Church to respond appropriately in that context.  It is entitled 'Evangelism, mission and discipleship in Southern Africa: How hope is overcoming tragedy'.

I'd encourage you to check out the book at the following URL - you can purchase the book from Amazon here.

Liam's cool boat!

Lent - the importance of Easter in the Christian faith

As I'm going through Lent, and preparing for Easter, I have been reflecting on the importance of this feast in the Christian tradition. Somehow in the West we place more emphasis on Christmas - perhaps it is because we're so self centered and are caught up in the reward and response of giving and receiving gifts!

This quote reminded me how important Easter has been for all of Christian history:

Take Christmas away, and in biblical terms you lose two chapters at the front of Matthew and Luke, nothing else. Take Easter away, and you don’t have a New Testament; you don’t have a Christianity; as Paul says, you are still in your sins. We shouldn’t allow the secular world, with its schedules and habits and parareligious events, its cute Easter bunnies, to blow us off course. This is our greatest day. We should put the flags out.

- N.T. Wright, Surprised By Hope (via @invisibleforeigner's tumblr blog)

May the Lord richly bless us as we prepare to celebrate the significance of God's generous gift in Christ.