Sunglasses found on the Wines2Whales race on 11 November 2011

I found a pair of expensive sunglasses on Day 1 of the Wines2Whales race on Lourensford Farm last Friday (11 November 2011).

They were not collected over the weekend. If you come across this post and are the person who lost them please drop me an email. I'll just ask that you identify the brand and style of glasses so that I can be sure they are yours. If you can identify them I'll be happy to help get them to you.

Happy Birthday Liam the great!

Today our precious son Liam turns 5! We thank God for the gift of his life!

We love you boy!

PS., that's a nice "cheesy smile"! Ha ha!

Tomorrow is 11/11/11

As the title says - tomorrow is 11/11/11 and at 11:11 on 11/11/11 I'll be riding the Wines2Whales Mountainbike race. I should be just past the cut off point at the base of Sir Lowrys Pass, about to make my way up Hans se

I can't wait! Team Frosty (Greg Long and I) did the ride last year . We had an awesome time! 3 days of between 70-90km of riding in the mountains of the Cape! It doesn't get much better than that!

I hope to post some updates from my iPhone on twitter @digitaldion and on Tumblr. So please take a look there for details! We'd also appreciate your prayers for our safety, strength and smooth running equipment. Thanks!

Freedom and responsibility

In recent months a great deal has been said about freedom - particularly in light of the emerging freedom of persons in Northern African countries such as Egypt, and most recently Libya.

However, this freedom is in danger of succumbing to a new form of tyranny. Tyrants are smart. They prey upon the desperate and the idealistic. Without the 'free' even knowing it they find their 'freedom' replaced with new forms of oppression and abuse.

Southern Africa has gone through this cycle more than once. Perhaps the most vivid example is to be found in the once 'freedom fighter' Robert Mugabe and the abuses that he has inflicted upon the people of Zimbabwe. I was born in the beautiful country. However, I have been a citizen of South Africa for some time now. Sadly, the liberators of this new home, many of whom received my vote, and my energy before and after the end of apartheid are turning out to be self obsessed tyrants in the making.

Perhaps we, you and I, need reminding that freedom is not the end. Rather it is just the beginning of what we desire (and need). Freedom is the moment where we pass from one kind of labour into another, from working for liberation to working for reconstruction and restoration.

The following quote from Victor Frankl was particularly inspiring in this regard:

Freedom, however, is not the last word. Freedom is only part of the story and half of the truth. Freedom is but the negative aspect of the whole phenomenon whose positive aspect is responsibleness. In fact, freedom is in danger of degenerating into mere arbitrariness unless it is lived in terms of responsibleness. Victor Frankl

I'd love to hear your thoughts on South Africa (and North Africa) and freedom and responsibility!

Created in Joy! Created for Joy!

I am an avid reader.  I tend to devour everything that peaks my interest - just at the moment I am reading Walter Isaacson's biography on Steve Jobs.  It has been of the most engaging, and saddening, books I have read in a long time.

Steve Jobs seems to have been a person who had a few very 'rough edges'.  Whilst I can certainly see elements of enlightenment in his character and desire, there are some very aspects of his person (most frequently expressed in his fears and his behaviour) that show that in spite of enlightenment he was a rather tormented and unhappy person.

I suppose that in some senses success comes at a cost - in this case the cost is real closeness to other people.  While there is little doubt that many people admired (and still admire) Steve Jobs for his vision and drive, there is also little doubt that there are many who have been left in the wake of an unrelenting and even destructive personality.

In contrast to what I am reading in the Isaacson biography I came across this beautiful quote from Frederick Buechner, the American born writer and theologian:

God created us in joy and created us for joy, and in the long run not all the darkness there is in the world and in ourselves can separate us finally from that joy, because whatever else it means to say that God created us in his image, I think it means that even when we cannot believe in him, even when we feel most spiritually bankrupt and deserted by him, his mark is deep within us. We have God’s joy in our blood. Frederick Buechner.

Indeed, I can see aspects of 'driveness' in my own life.  Those who know me will testify to the fact that I am quite a driven person.  Once I have a particular goal in mind, or an aspiration toward which I am striving, it tends to occupy my mind and direct both my actions and my thoughts.  

For example, I had been working on my doctoral research for about two and a half years when one day a catastrophe occurred - in an attempt to keep up to date copies of my working file (the actual text of my dissertation) I accidentally copied an old version of my work over the latest versions.  Of the 4 completed chapters (out of 6) in my doctoral thesis I lost 3. Basically all I had left was my research proposal, which would later become the first chapter of my thesis.

As you can imagine I was devistated! After much anger, dissapointment, disbelief and more anger, I made a choice:  I said to myself that I would give this project one last effort.  I decided to wake up each morning and work from 4am to 6.30am every day of the week (7 days) until I could not do it anymore.  

I kept to that discipline and ended up completing my dissertation in just over a year.  I was consumed by the desire to complete it. 

However, I have been working very hard in recent years to be transformed from being driven to being called.  It is a subtle, but significant distinction.  Driven people do things for themselves.  Called persons respond to an invitation from another.  I am attempting to live far more as a person of calling, on who is dedicating his life to a vocation rather than a career.

This reminds me a great deal of this quote from Dietrich Bonhoeffer (whose biography 'Bonhoeffer, Pastor Martyr, Prophet, Spy', I read last month):

Vocation is responsibility and responsibility is a total response of the whole man to the whole of reality. Dietrich Bonhoeffer

As I have taken this delicate and often painful journey of living in spite of my weaknesses and brokenness I have discovered a great deal of blessing and joy. I am beginning to become much more accepting of the truth that I was created in joy, and created by God for joy!

A visit to the Seth Mokitimi Methodist Seminary

This week I had the wonderful privilege of visiting the Seth Mokitimi Methodist Seminary. This is where the minister of the Methodist Church of Southern Africa are trained for the 6 nations of Southern Africa.

It is a truly remarkable place - the attention to detail and excellence is visible throughout the property. Moreover, that staff and students of the seminary exemplify excellence in their commitment to their vocational formation.

I was invited to SMMS to do some examinations for 3rd year students in Systematic Theology (for a course in Ecology and Caring for the earth), and also for 3rd year Church history students. My friend, Peter Grassow, who is a lecturer (and the Chaplain at SMMS) invited me. I also the joy of working with Dr Lilian Siwila, as well as preaching in the magnificent Chapel (for the SMMS community, which makes up staff, students and their families).

SMMS forms part of a theological cluster around the University of KwaZulu Natal in Pietermartizburg. Among the 'cluster' institutions are the University's theological faculty, the Lutheran Seminary, the Catholic Seminary and an Anglican house of study. As a result of this diversity the students get a great deal of ecumenical interaction, as well as the highest level of theological formation for ministry.

Monday morning atheist?

I am sitting at the departure gate to Johannesburg - tonight I fly from Cape Town in order to speak at the Edenvale Baptist Church's two services tomorrow morning and spend some time with their leaders reflecting on what it means to be faithful to God's mission for them in the world.

As always I am excited and blessed by this opportunity!

I have chosen the question 'Monday morning atheist?' as my theme. My friend Doug Spada wrote a great book with that title (you can fin out more about him and the book at http://www.worklife.org - Doug is an amazing guy, and his book is one of the best I have read on being a Christian in the world of work).

Simply stated, I have come to realize that many Christians may behave like disciples of Jesus on Sunday, but many others act like atheists on Monday. We worship in Church on Sunday, but on Monday we act as if we have no faith! This is so sad since the world of work is one of the greatest opportunities for us to live out our faith in Jesus and work to establish his transforming and healing Kingdom in business, education, the arts, politics, the family and a host of other critical aspects of our lives!

Much of what I'll be talking about comes from my book 'Transform your work life: Turn your ordinary day into an extraordinary calling!'. You can order copies of the book (or download a few free chapters) from the links on the left hand side of this blog.

Of you're interested in inviting me to come and share some of what the Lord has been doing among us in the world of work, please drop me a line. I'd be honored to come and spend some time with you or your group!

Please pray for us as we gather tomorrow! God bless,

Dion

Occupy Grahamstown! The poor, the state and the Church?

Last week I posted a video and reflection on the growing discontent with global poverty and the manner in which the enfranchised and powerful persons and organs of society are dealing with the poor. Remember what I said about the gini coefficient? The gap between the rich and the poor is not only an affront to God, it is serious challenge to national stability and safety.  Where some people have too much and others have too little a revolution is inevitable.  It is even more volatile in a nation like South Africa where the majority of the people are poor.  Since the Church is called by God to be an agent of healing, transformation and service to society I wonder what role the Church should be playing in reforming the global (and local) economy?  I am sure of one thing, there will be members of various Churches in the crowds that participate in riots, protests and marches.  Others are the sons, daughters, family and friends of Christians.  Of course it is also true that those who occupy positions of power and influence (politicians, economists, business persons, lawyers, police officers etc.) are also members of our Churches!  Surely we have a role to play!

Today I received the following email about an 'people's uprising' that is planned for the City of Grahamstown.  I would encourage you to read the statement - regardless of your political views or your perspective on poverty.  This statement gives a vivid insight into the growing discontent among ordinary South Africans.

What is the role of the Church in such a situation?  What should we be doing, saying and praying?

13 October 2011

Unemployed People's Movement Press Statement

Occupy Grahamstown!

Recapitalise the Poor!

As a movement of the poor we have taken great inspiration from the rebellion that has spread from Tahrir Square in Cairo to Syntagma Square in Athens, the Puerta del Sol in Madrid and now Liberty Plaza in New York. Our comrades in Students for Social Justice have been just as inspired by the growing spirit of rebellion that is jumping, like a fire, from country to country.

 On Saturday we will occupy Grahamstown. The students will march into town from the Botanical Gardens. We will march into town from the township and the squatter camps. We will meet on the square at the Cathedral. We will turn that square into a people's university, a people's kitchen and a space of people's power. Our aim is to bring the rebellion of the poor, the rebellion that has put thousands and thousands on the streets of South Africa in recent years, into dialogue with this global rebellion. The alliance between organised students and the organised unemployed is strong in Grahamstown. Together we can build strong foundations for the struggles to come.

 We have been inspired by this global rebellion because the comrades in Tahrir Square showed the world the strength of a united and determined people. We have been inspired by this rebellion because it has clearly told the bankers that their time of ruling the world is over. We have been inspired by this rebellion because it has clearly told the politicians that from Cairo to New York people are determined to rule themselves and to build their own power from the ground up.

 We will occupy Grahamstown in the name of freedom. We insist that all people have the right to organise themselves according to their own free choices. We denounce the ANC for the murder of Andries Tatane and all the others. We denounce the ANC for the repression of the Abahlali baseMjondolo, the Landless People's Movement, the Anti-Eviction Campaign and all the others. We denounce the ANC for their attempts to censor the media. We denounce the ANC for continuing to claim that the movements of the poor are a Third Force. The ANC insult us by making us live like pigs and excluding us from all decision making and then, when we rebel, they insult us again by saying that it must be a white academic that is making us rebel. The ANC is incapable of understanding that poor black people can, like all other people, think for ourselves. The ANC is incapable of understanding that they do not and have never had a monopoly on struggle. The ANC is incapable of understanding that they are the real counter-revolutionaries.

 We will occupy Grahamstown in the name of real democracy. We join the people of the world in showing our anger at the way that the capitalists have bought the politicians and the whole system. We will join the people of the world in insisting that democracy will have to be rebuilt from the ground up. Democracy is something that you do. It is not something that you watch on TV. Democracy is something that everyone can do. It is not something that experts like politicians or NGOs must do for the people.

 We will occupy Grahamstown in the name of justice. We join the people of the world in insisting that we will not pay for the crisis caused by the bankers. Their wealth must be expropriated and returned to the people. South Africa is the most unequal society in the world. The predatory elite are publicly gorging themselves while the poor are starving, desperate and frightened. Last week Transnet advertised for 30 jobs - 30 boring and badly paid jobs. Ten thousand people came to apply. Forty people were injured when the gates were opened. The contempt with which the poor are treated in this country is incredible.

 It is not just the ANC that treats the poor with such gross contempt. Business is just as bad. We have not forgotten how the big companies colluded, in the midst of mass unemployment, to fix the price of bread. When we are strong enough we will fix the price of bread from below. We will take the struggle for bread that was started in Durban forward. Imagine one day when people around the country enter the supermarkets and begin eating the bread without paying. That will be the last day on which the capitalists fix the price of bread.

 We are not asking for higher taxes to increase funding for the state. Our municipality is a notorious kleptocracy. The ANC is corrupt from top to bottom. We do not want to struggle to buy Blade Nzimande a new car or more houses, cars, watches and sushi parties for Julius Malema and his friends. We do not want to struggle to finance Kebbelism. What is the point of the ANC getting more money to build houses when the houses that they build are unfit for human habitation, fall down in the first wind and are only given to ANC members?

 We are not anti-state. But our state is rotten to the core. Until we can build enough people's power to be able to discipline the state from below we will have to treat it as what it is, a vehicle from the predatory elite to feed off society.

 The capitalists in Europe are saying that the people must pay for the banks to be recapitalised. We say that it is time to stop all public subsidies for the rich. We say that it is time for the banks to recapitalise the people. Abahlali baseMjondolo has correctly insisted that the poor were made poor by the same economic system that made the rich rich. Therefore it is only logical that the billions and billions held in the banks on Wall Street must be used to recapitalise the poor. We are calling for a universal guaranteed income. It must be at least R2000 per month and it must be paid to all people without going through local councillors or party structures.

 Some of the comrades that were amongst the ten thousand in Bloemfontein are coming to Grahamstowm to learn from our struggle. Ayanda Kota was recently in Durban to be at the Abahlali baseMjondolo AGM. We are, day by day, building a national movement of the poor, by the poor and for the poor from the ground up. Every day our struggles and our movements are drawing closer.

Sekwanele!

Genoeg!

Enough!

Liziwe Gqotolo 073 440 5536

Siyanda Centwa 078 571 5507

Ayanda Kota 078 625 6462

I'd love to hear your feedback! If you're in Grahamstown (a city in which I lived for 4 years!) and plan to participate in this gathering please let me know.  God bless, Dion

Update on Friday, October 14, 2011 at 3:14PM by Dr Dion Forster

Here is an interesting perspective from reclaimingthemission.com - Is it time for evangelicals occupy Wall Street?

“We must realize that there are times in history when God’s people cannot participate in systems (even if they be God-ordained) because they have left the ranch, they have turned in rebellion against God and His purposes. They are past the tipping point. We should then withdraw from participation and resist. To me, this may be one of those times. This is what “Occupy Wall Street” is about. I am no socialist. I am no capitalist. I believe Jesus is Lord and so our discussion should revolve around whether participation in the current government-corporate structures is a denial of the Lordship of Christ over our lives. And so I call upon our churches to have this discussion in relation to “OccupyWallSt.” Discern whether to support them, join in with them, on this basis! We could bring a new perspective, the Kingdom of God, into the very center of this movement.”

—	Reclaiming the Mission » Is It Time For Evangelicals to “Occupy Wall Street”?

A hot, wet, busy day in Hong Kong - some pictures

It is hot and wet in Hong Kong today. I have just finished a great meeting and am moving from Admiralty to Queens road Central Hong Kong for my next meeting - grabbing some Starbucks coffee (and free wifi) on the way.

It has been a blessed trip with some important developments. I'll share more news when I am back in Cape Town. I fly home via Dubai in the early hours of Tuesday morning.

The Lord gave me Jeremiah 33.3 for Hong Kong. I wonder what it could mean?

The Church...

The Church is at home everywhere, and everyone should be able to feel himself at home in the Church. Thus the risen Christ, when he shows himself to his friends, takes on the countenance of all races and each hears him in his own tongue.

Henri de Lubac, Catholicism (via invisibleforeigner)

I love the Church. This evening I listened to one of the most powerful and wealthy men in Malaysia, Tan Sri Dato Francis Yeoh, speak about his experience of the Church. He is a deeply committed Christian who is clearly very deeply committed to the Church - as every Christian should be. Yet, he does not hold a romanticized picture of the Church.

His description of this blessed community was as follows: It is a little like the story of a group of porcupines who were caught in the coldest of winters. It was so cold that many other animals were dying. So they decided to huddle together for survival and warmth. However, whenever they came close they would wound each other (most often inadvertently and without malice or intent). Of course there were times when one of the animals would choose a position in contrast to the good of the rest - that would cause much more pain and hardship. Some of the porcupines found this unbearable and so they broke off from the rest. Sadly, without the warm and closeness of the others they were soon overtaken by the cold and lost.

As a result they soon learned that a few small wounds were a small price to pay for the collective blessing of life.

I have experienced the Church in this manner at times. Yet, it is the Body of Christ, a place of blessing and life. And so, even though I am sometimes misunderstood, sometimes hurt, I still draw near, for it is one of God's means of grace - a chosen instrument to help me find life and share life with others.

What is your experience of the Church? I'd love to hear!

Giving thanks for the life of the Rev Dr Angela Shier-Jones

It was with great sadness that I learnt that Angie (Dr Angela Shier-Jones) passed away in September this year.  This is such sad news.  Angie had been struggling against cancer.

I remember a great conversation we shared last year when I was in the UK.  We were on the train after a meeting at LEAT and we were talking about dissease and faith.  The topic of our conversation centered around a special edition of the Epworth Review of which Angie was the editor for which I had written an article on being Christian in an HIV+ world.  As always her input was deeply challenging, a magnificent theological mind matched only by her pastoral heart!

Thanks for sharing the news of her passing with me Jenny.  I am deeply saddened by the news of her death.  However, I can only imagine what she is doing in heaven!  

Here are two wonderful memorial posts I would encourage you to take a look at.  Each of them gives a wonderful insight into one of the great (Methodist) theologians of our age.

• In Memoriam of Angela Shier-Jones from PMPhillips
• In Memroy of Angela Shier-Jones from Listen : Think : Act :

Indeed, Lord, thank you for the gift of your daughter Angela.  Teach me to number my days correctly that I may gain a heart of wisdom (Psalm 90.12).

A reflection on being a Christian in the world economic crisis

This morning I was struck by the news on the riots, unrest, protests and unhappiness at the world economic situation.

In this video I reflect on what I believe a Christian response should be to the economic, social and political inequalities in the world.

I would love to hear your thoughts.  By the way, you can find out about the gini coefficient here. Also, in the video I made mention of the book '44 sermons to serve the present age' - I accidentally said that my friend Lisa Withrow was the editor (while she contributed it was in fact Dr Angela Shier-Jones who edited the book.  Sorry for fumbling that one Angie!  Jetlag brain!)

God bless from Malaysia!

Dion

Update on Thursday, October 6, 2011 at 9:45AM by Dr Dion Forster

It was with great sadness that I learnt that Angie (Dr Angela Shier-Jones) passed away just in September.  This news is such sad news.  Angie had been struggling against cancer.

I remember a great conversation we shared last year when I was in the UK.  We were on the train after a meeting at LEAT and we were talking about dissease and faith.  The topic of our conversation centered around a special edition of the Epworth Review of which Angie was the editor for which I had written an article on being Christian in an HIV+ world.  As always her input was deeply challenging, a magnificent theological mind matched only by her pastoral heart!

Thanks for sharing the news of her passing with me Jenny.  I am deeply saddened by the news of her death.  However, I can only imagine what she is doing in heaven!  

Here are two wonderful memorial posts I would encourage you to take a look at.  Each of them gives a wonderful insight into one of the great Methodist theologians of our age.

• In Memoriam of Angela Shier-Jones from PMPhillips
• In Memroy of Angela Shier-Jones from Listen : Think : Act :

Indeed, Lord, thank you for the gift of your daughter Angela.  Teach me to number my days correctly that I may gain a heart of wisdom (Psalm 90.12).

I will also put this follow up post into a seperate post.