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Entries by Dr Dion Forster (1887)

Saturday
Mar262011

Palos Verdes, Los Angeles - 25 and 26 March 2011

Graham and I arrived at LAX airport in Los Angeles on the evening of the 24th of March.  We are staying with our friends Dave and Kristen Wendorff in Rolling Hills (which is in the city of Palos Verdes, California - I guess by South African standards we would say that it is a suburb of Los Angeles).  These are such beautiful, kind people, and their surroundings closely match their wonderful hearts.  It is truly lovely to be among such sincere, loving, and dedicated Christians!

Dave is a property developer (like Graham) - he has had a great deal of success in that field.  However, what is truly significant is that he has seen his business as an opportunity to bless the people of the city, to develop infrastructure to support transformation in society so that the 'good news' may be experienced wherever he has been busy.  So, he prays for his staff, his clients, and even the land on which he is building homes.  It is fantastic to be with Dave and his family!  We hosted their eldes son, Nathan, in South Africa last year.  And their daughter Louisa will be with us a little later this month.  Here we are with some friends from elsewhere in Californa, and our friend Larry Ihle from Minnesota having breakfast.

We are speaking at a 2 day conference on Unashamedly Ethical and Transform your work life at the Rolling Hills Covenant Church.  It is a remarkable Church (which has a South African, Matthew Kennedy, who is the worship pastor!)  We are being hosted by our friend Joy Handley who is the president of Asia Access (a missions organisation that works in Japan).  He was in Japan at the time of the earthquakes last week and share some remarkable insights on how things are going there after the Tsunami.  He and his organisation are doing truly wonderful work!  Then the local pastor is Dr Andy Noch - we have had a great connection.  This is a special guy in an awesome Church.

Today we continue to share on Unashamedly Ethical and Transform your work life - there are about 180 men at this men's conference.  Yesterday we also had a special luncheon with some business leaders and their wives at a beautiful country club (I have no idea what the place was called!) and some meetings with David Wood and his team from Hollywood who are running a Global Day of Prayer event there.  

Today is our last day in LA - we start our long journey home early tomorrow morning (LAX to Washington, Washington to Dakar, Dakar to JHB, JHB to Cape Town).  It will take 2 days to get home, but I can't wait to be home with Courtney, Megie and Liam!

Thanks for your prayers for all of us!  I am so pleased to tell you that Liam has recovered from his tonsillitis and the whole family are doing great!  We skype each other every day / morning (when I wake up at 6am it is 4pm back home - so the timing works quite well!)

This has been such a wonderful trip!  I know that the Lord has done some wonderful work in the lives of the people that we have had the joy of meeting and sharing with. It is always humbling to be encounter people who are doing such wonderful things, sometimes they just need a little encouragement to seek obedience to God, connection with the challenges the world faces, and one or two ideas for doing ministry for transformation.

Friday
Mar252011

A visual illustration of transformation

I am often asked if it is possible for an individual to truly make a difference in the face of the massive needs and problems that we face in the world? The answer is, yes!  Of course you can make a difference - you may be surprised how just a few small choices, acts of mercy, and choices for ethics, justice and peace could transform the world!

This wonderful little video shows how something small can make a massive change.  I often use this video in my talks to illustrate that when one does good and it reaches a tipping point it can change the world.

Isn't this an awesome visual illustration of how small actions of courage can have massive effects on the world?

Thursday
Mar242011

Leaving San Francisco for LA

This picture shows the view from our friends Brett and Lyn Johnson's home - if you look carefully you can see the Apple headquarters (1 Infinite loop, Cupertino) and the Google headquarters in the valley. San Jose is a beautiful place!  It was quite cold up there.

Brett runs a company called Rep (short for repurpose).  He is a Chartered Accountant (I think it is called a CPA in the US).  He has a very keen understanding of the nuts and bolts of business.  He helps individuals and companies to repurpose what they do for greater significance and in order to achieve God's aims of transformation in society.  He is an incredible teacher!  You can see more about his organisation (which works with many of the tech companies in silicon valley, including Apple and Google) here.  Brett very kindly wrote an endorsement for my book 'Transform your work life' when it was published in May last year. When I was writing the book he offered some great technical and theological insights and even reviewed one of the critical chapters!  He is a good friend.

In this picture Brett is teaching one of his groups of business people on the relationsihp between faith and Capital (i.e., finance and human capital).  It was an awesome evening.  Graham and I got to share with the group.

Here's the original post:

We're sitting in San Jose airport about to fly to Los Angeles. Our time with Brett and Lyn Johnson and the Rep (Repurpose) team here was awesome!

It was fantastic to connect with our friends and I learned such a great deal about repurposing business for purpose, and of course the purpose of business should be to work together with God to transform and bless society.

I don't have much Internet access so I will have to write a more detailed reflection when I have more time.

I'm excited about the 2 day Unashamedly Ethical and Transform your work life conference Graham and I will be speaking at in Rolling Hills, LA.

We also had a chance to do some sight seeing.  Here's a picture of Graham and I at the Golden Gate Bridge.  I just love San Francisco!  It is an incredible city!  I need to visit here again!

Wednesday
Mar232011

San Francisco - 23 March 2011

It was an early start today - 3.15 am wakeup call so that we could leave for the airport at 4.00 am to fly to San Francisco (via Houston at 6 am).

Our time in Jacksonville ended on a great note last night. Before departing South Africa I had been contacted by a member of the 'Sister Cities' organization to say that Jacksonville is a sister city to Port Elizabeth (also known as the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan). Since we (The Power Group) have offices in Port Elizabeth they wanted to host a reception where Graham was to speak, share some greetings, and we were to hear of the work that the sister cities project are doing. I say that it was a highlight since I left the reception with such a sense of encouragement at the goodness of people - we were met by a group of about 10 persons (about a third of the Jacksonville sister city committee). They told us of the work they are doing in establishing a primary health care clinic in a township of Port Elizabeth. I thought to my self how magnificent it is that ordinary persons would give up their time, energy, and finance, to create awareness and raise funds to better then lives of others half way across the world!

Indeed, God has created humanity to be good - these kind people were a wonderful reminder of that fact! I spoke very briefly at the reception about the suffering that is experienced by persons who are HIV+, and the high infection and mortality rate that is a reality in the Eastern Cape. As you would know I have such a passion for raising awareness of our global responsibility to care for persons who are infected, or affected, by HIV and AIDS. I shared some statistics from my book "Christians and Positive: Reflections on Christianity in an HIV+ world", and encouraged the Sister Cities in their great work.

I have been living for Micah 6.8 for some days: "What does the Lord require of you? To act justly, to love mercy and to walk humbly with God". In particular the injunction to "love mercy" (and I guess that would extend to acts of mercy and merciful people) has resonated strongly in my heart.

Jacksonville is blessed with many people who are committed to tangible expressions of the good news of God's Kingdom! Fr Peter Church, Charley Christie, Jim Young, Bp Vaughan Mclaughlin, the members of the Sister Cities project...

I am looking forward to being back here in June this year! If you would like to join us in the Global Day of Prayer celebration and conference please visit http://www.fcgdop.org for details.

Today we change gears as we join our friend Brett Johnson from 'Repurpose' in San Francisco. The next two days will be spent mainly with business people who are seeking to find ways of repurposing their influence, income and work life for Kingdom directed social and structural transformation. For the Christian business should not be only about making money! There is so much that we can do through our network of relationships, our influence, and even our products or services to see justice, mercy and God's love established in society!

I am particularly excited to visit San Francisco - I have often admired the unique beauty of that city!

Tuesday
Mar222011

Jacksonville - 22 March 2011 - Prayer breakfast and off to San Francisco

This morning we awoke early to get to the 'Potters House' for Graham to speak at the Jacksonville Prayer breakfast.  It was a lovely event with 700 persons in attendance.  The theme of the breakfast was to work together for community transformation.  Jacksonville is a very good example of how Christians can work together to engage the 'systems' and 'structures' of society.  They have engaged local politicians, the Sherif, the schools and various businesses.

It is great to see Christians (and Churches) taking responsibility for the tangible transformation and renewal of their society.

Graham spoke wonderfully about the power of simple choices to live with values and ethics, to stand against corruption, greed and abuse, and to life sacrificially to see God's Kingdom established in tangible ways in society.

We wrap up this evening at a city event - the City of Jacksonville is a sister city to Port Elizabeth in South Africa.  So, Graham, Etienne, Dawie and I have been invited to a banquet to celebrate that partnership and share greetings with some city officials in Jacksonville - today happens to be election day!  So, it is going to be an exciting evening.

We also had 2 hours off yesterday - Graham had to get some clothes sorted out, and so the rest of us headed along to the St John's Apple store!  I saw the iPad 2 in person... It is not enough of an update for me to upgrade (not to mention that my cash flow is WAY too tight), but there is simply not enough of a change for me to part with my 32gig 3G first generation iPad.  But, it was fun to be at the Apple shop - it was SO busy there!

Graham and I head off to San Francisco tomorrow at 4am tomorrow.  We will fly out of Jacksonville at 6am and then to Houston in Texas and arrive in San Francisco by 11.30 am.  Tomorrow evening (Wednesday) we will be speaking at a Christian Business gathering in San Francisco with Brett Johnson.

Please continue to pray for us.

Can I also please ask, very especially, that you pray for my wife Megan and my kids Courtney and Liam in South Africa?  Liam is sick at the moment - he has tonsillitis.  Please pray that he recovers quickly and completely!  It makes it quite difficult for Megie to manage her work, looking after the kids, and taking care of little Liam when he is sick and con not go to school.  Thank you!

Monday
Mar212011

Jacksonville - 21 March 2011 - Human rights day

This morning I woke up realy early - I guess that my 'clock' has not yet adjusted to the timezone, and now that the fatigue of our journey has worn off I don't need as much sleep.  So, I came down to the lobby of the hotel (where there is free wifi) and did a facetime call with Megie, Courtney and Liam!)  FaceTime is so cool!  It is much less bandwidt intensive, so the call and video quality are much better than skype.  I use my iPhone 4 and Megie has her Macbook Pro at home.  Being able to do a video call home is just such a blessing when one has small children!

From there I went back to the gym and did a great cardio cycle - I can't loose too much fitness!  I'll be riding the 60km Vigne-a-Vigne mountainbike race when I get back home (it is part of the last stage of the ABSA Cape Epic and is quite a tough ride).  So, I need to keep my weight down (a tough thing in a town that has such great food and big portions!) and my fitness up!

Today is a public holiday in South Africa - human rights day.  It is the 11th anniversary of the very first Global Day of Prayer gathering in Cape Town in 2001.  11 years ago today we met at the Newlands Rugby stadium together with 45 000 other Christians to pray for our city and nation.  Of course, from there it spread throughout the world until in 2009 every nation on earth participated in this prayer gathering (it is now held on Pentecost Sunday) - it is estminated that around 450 million people gathered in homes, Churches, public places (parks, schools and stadiums) across the world.

Human rights day this year has a special focus for me.  I have been thinking a great deal about the 'allied attacks' on Libiya.  I have been thinking and praying about the 'line' that gets crossed when one nation invades another.  I do believe that there must be a time when action is required to end the tyrany of a state or individual.  However, I am not sure when that line should be crossed.  Moreover, I find it extremely difficult that certain nations are left unchallenged (like Zimbabwe and Rober Mugabe), while others (like Libiya and Iraq) are invaded.  The only thing that I can assume is that there are other motives - such as oil, or regional political concerns, that make such action necessary.

Regardless, I shall be praying for the citizens of Libiya, and for those whose task it is to enforce the 'no fly zone' in that region.  May Christ rule in peace, and may that peace come swiftly and effectly without the loss of human life.

Today, here in Jacksonville, we shall be doing a speaking engagement for Unashamedly Ethical with 50 of the top business people in the city.  I am convinced that one cannot end systemic poverty without dealing with systemic corrpuption - that corruption takes on many forms.  In some instances it is structured (collusion, bribery etc.) in other instances it is much more subtle (little dishonest choices, greed, lust and disregard for the rights of others and the will of God).

We shall also have various meetings with the organisers of the First Coast Global Day of Prayer event which will take place in June 2011 - they've been doing wonderful work to date!

Yesterday I attended 3 different Churches - each one unique, special and a blessing.  I went to CrossRoad United Methodist Church, then to Bishop Vaughan's 'Potters House' (a special experince) and finaly to a very contemporary, young 'hipster Christian Church' called Celebration.  Each Church engaged with Kingdom issues and the Gospel in different ways.  The first Church is an affluent, largely white congregation.  The second Church is an African American, Southern Baptist, congregation - one of the candidates for the local Mayoral election was in attendance.  It was refreshing to see how this Church engaged their members, community officials and 'other powers' (such as gang leaders and drug dealers) in their service.  They are truly working for social transformation economic refermotion.  The final Church clearly catered to young, hip, Christians - they were energetic and MANY.  It was very encouraging.

Well, please continue to pray for us!  

Sunday
Mar202011

Jacksonville 2011 - a beautiful place and wonderful people!

It is Sunday 20 March 2011. In 30 minutes my friend, Jim Young, will be collecting me to go with him to CrossRoad United Methodist Church. It is always such a joy to connect with Methodist sisters and brothers one my travels. The rest of our team are split up to go to other Churches for worship and to speak.

Later in the day we will all gather at the Potters House with Bishop Vaughan - a real Southern Baptist preacher, for some meetings and planning for this week's activities and our Global Day of Prayer conference that will take place here in June (9-12 June). Later in the day we have a luncheon with some church and community leaders and then will do some sight seeing (Fort Caroline?) before a Church service and dinner this evening.

I slept well last night after the long journey from Cape Town (to JHB, to Dakar, to Washington and then here). This morning I woke early and headed to the gym - such a blessing to be able to keep those routines when on the road.

I also managed to call Megie, Courts and Liam (when the time zones are really conflicted I use Skype on my iPhone, with skypeout credit, to call Megie on her cell phone and speak to the kids). I prefer to use FaceTime or skype video, but the difference in time makes it difficult for everyone to be close to a computer and wifi. I am so thankful that I've found free wifi in the hotel lobby!

Well, I'd appreciate your prayers. Today I shall focussing on the topic of serving Christ's Kingdom in the world of work, prayer mobilization and ethics in the workplace.

Thursday
Mar172011

I'll be in the USA - drop me a line if you'd like to connect

Tomorrow I'm starting a LONG journey that will take me from my home in Cape Town for 10 days.

Here's the summary of my trip:

  • 18 March Cape Town
  • to Johannesburg (stop for some meetings)
  • to Dakar (refuel)
  • to Washington
  • to Jacksonville (arrive 20 March.  Do planning for the Global Day of Prayer international conference and broadcast in June. Do some speaking on Unashamedly Ethical and Transform your work life.  Graham to speak at the Governor's Prayer Breakfast).
  • to San Francisco (arrive 23 March, meet Brett Johnsonn, speak at an evening event with Christian business people
  • to San Jose (spend time with Brett and Ed Silvoso)
  • to Los Angeles (arrive 24 March (late) speak at a two day conference (25-26 March) on Unashamedly Ethical and Transform your work life)
  • to Washington (27 March)
  • to Dakar
  • to Johannesburg
  • to Cape Town (late 28 March)
  • to bed  ;-)
  • to work (29 March!)

It is going to be an excinting time!  I count it as an immeasurable privelage to be able to do such trips! We do a great deal of practical and spiritual preparation to do the most possible good with each visit.

Please pray for the relationships we'll form, the speaking we'll do and the opportunities to encourage and bless the people we visit with. 

If you'd like to connect with us while we're in the US please drop me an email or DM me @digitaldion on twitter.

Please also pray for our families while we're away!

Wednesday
Mar162011

The courage to be a parent

Of all of the 'offices' I hold there is no office more important than being a father to my two children, Courtney and Liam.  Before I am a priest, before I am a scholar, before I am a servant to society I am a father.

I do not take this responsibility lightly.  Professor John Volmink once commented in a talk that "Just about anybody can give birth to a child.  Very few people have the courage to be a parent".  I tend to agree with his sentiment.  Having children and being a parent are very diffirent things!

Liam and Courtney are precious gifts from God.  I give thanks for them today.  Liam survived a very shaky start to life, having being born premature at 27 weeks.  Courtney survived a brain tumor at 11 years of age.  However, these are not the things that define these two precious people.  They are unique, special, gifted, beautiful individuals - created uniquely in the image of God.  Their lives lie before them, filled with endless possibilities and opportunities.  Of course there will be challenges, dissapointments and dangers along the way.

My role is to love them.  My greatest desire is to place within them a perspective of the world that says "The world is a good place.  God has made it good.  It is good to be alive.  I live in love and joy.  My life is full.  In fact it is full enough to spend it on others".

I will not lie to you, it is frequently a great challenge to create this space, this 'shalom', this fullness of life (John 10.10).  Sometimes I suffer under scarcity - I have a scarcity of financial resources, a scarcity of time, a scarcity of energy, a scarcity of love.  At other times I suffer under reality - we live in a poor nation, we live among people who are not 'good', we live in a society that values things more than people.

But, the great hope is that we know a different way!  That way is the way of a person, a person named Jesus Christ.  He is the one who established a Kingdom that is more powerful than the economic, political and social systems of the world.  His way is a way of grace, a way of acceptance, a way of inclusion, a way of transformation, a way of fullness, a way of abundant life.  His way is a way of love.

And so, the following quote from Stanley Hauerwas challenges me to be a parent to my children.  Pray for me. It takes couarage:

What must be said, and said clearly, is that the refusal to ask our children to believe as we believe, to live as we live, to act as we act is a betrayal that derives from moral cowardice. For to ask this of our children requires that we have the courage to ask ourselves to live truthfully.

- Stanley Hauerwas (via @invisibleforeigner's tumblr blog).

Today I celebrated with my friends Gary and Ilene whose daughter Madison was born - a healthy young princess!  I also remember my friends Zdzislaw and Heilie whose son Christopher passed away 4 years ago.

It is an immeasurable privelage, and responsibility, to be a parent.

Saturday
Mar122011

What to do if you get an error 1013 or 1611 when updating your iPhone to OS 4.3

I decided to update my iPhone 4 to iOS 4.3 this morning (mainly because I would like to use the personal hotspot feature).

So, last night I left my Macbook downloading the update and after I got back from the Junior Argus with my kids at lunch time I hooked up my iPhone to my Macbook and let it update. When the update finished I was greeted with a message on my Macbook to say that an unknown error hard occured and my iPhone could not be updated and needed to be restored. However, no matter what I did, each time I restored it with the 4.3 iOS update it would give the same error.

So, this problem is described here. It seems to be related to an Apple update verification server that is problematic (gs.apple.com that is in the 'hosts file located at /private/etc/).

The bad news is that no matter what you do you'll loose your photos, music etc., that has been changed since your last backup or sync with your Mac! My suggestion is that you ALWAYS backup your iOS device before performing a firmware upgrade.

Now, if you have the correct permissions set on your mac there is an easy solution to the 1013 or 1611 error. Just follow these instructions: Method 1 (the easy way)

On a Mac:

* Open Finder

* Hold down COMMAND + SHIFT keys and press 'G'

* Enter "/private/etc/" in the field and press "Go"

* Find "hosts" file in the directory

* Drag the file to your desktop

* Open it in text editor

* Remove the line that has gs.apple.com entirely or put a # at the beginning of it to comment it out

* Save the file

* Drag it back to the /private/etc/ folder.

* You'd need to enter your username and password to authenticate the move

On Windows:

Locate the hosts file in one of the following directories:

Windows 95/98/Me c:\windows\hosts

Windows NT/2000/XP Pro c:\winnt\system32\drivers\etc\hosts

Windows XP, Vista, 7 c:\windows\system32\drivers\etc\hosts

Right click and click on "Open With..." and then click on

"Notepad" on the list.

* Remove the line that has gs.apple.com completely and save the file.

This should work fine but you will lose all music, photos, videos and books

If your permissions are not set correctly on your Mac you will soon discover that you can't save the edit 'hosts' file and copy it back to its original location. It will keep telling you that you do not have the necessary permissions to save the file and move it.

So, if that is the case, here is an alternative solution (it requires a little 'terminal alchemy', but just follow these instructions and it will work like a charm. This was how I managed to do it - which reminds me I must do a disc repair to find out why my permissions are mucked up!). Method 2 (get your Unix geek on!)

Step 1 – Open the Terminal.app

Either by start typing Terminal on the Spotlight, or by going into Applications -> Utilities -> Terminal.

Step 2 – Open the hosts file

Open the hosts by typing on the Terminal that you have just opened:

1

$ sudo nano /private/etc/hosts

Type your user password when prompted. Step 3 – Edit the hosts file

The hosts file contains some comments (lines starting with the # symbol), as well as some default hostname mappings (e.g. 127.0.0.1 – localhost).

Simply append your new mappings underneath the default ones. Or edit one of the default values if you know what you are doing!

You can navigate the file using the arrow keys. Step 4 – Save the hosts file

When done editing the hosts file, press control-o to save the file.

Press enter on the filename prompt, and control-x to exit the editor.

Step 5 – Flush the DNS cache

On Leopard you can issue a simple Terminal command to flush the DNS cache, and have your host file changes to take immediate effect:

1

$ dscacheutil -flushcache

You can now perform your update using the downloaded iOS 4.3 and it will work like a charm!

Wednesday
Mar092011

Becoming the best that you can be (and other myths)

The lenten journey is about becoming the kind of persons that God has designed us to be.  Lent is not about giving up chocolate or meat...  It is far more profoundly about 'becoming' a true person through the discovery of our need for Christ and others.

There must be more to being a Christ follower than giving up chocolate as the following tweet illustrates so aptly!

UthGuyChaz What if, for Lent, we gave up thinking that Jesus died so that we could go to church, hear a good sermon, and give up chocolate?

The wonderful quote below comes from Stanley Hauerwas.  It reminded me that my purpose in life is not become 'the best me'.  Rather, I am created to become the beloved of Christ, fully human because of His grace, love and power.

Without Jesus, Peter might have been a good fisherman, perhaps even a very good one. But he would never have gotten anywhere, would never have learned what a coward he really was, what a confused, then confessing, courageous person he was, even a good preacher (Acts 2) when he needed to be. Peter stands out as a true individual, or better, a true character, not because he had become “free” or “his own person,” but because he had become attached to the Messiah and messianic community, which enabled him to lay hold of his life, to make so much more of his life than if he had been left to…

Stanley Hauerwas (via @invisibleforeigner's tumblr blog)

And so my lenten journey begins.

Saturday
Mar052011

Will Blackberry make their great Blackberry Messenger available for Android and iPhone devices?

I have to carry two phones each day. My personal phone is an iPhone 4 - I simply could not manage without my iPhone! I use it for calls, web browsing, email, my mileage calculator for tax purposes, my camera (instagram!), this blogg (this post was written on the sqaurespace app for iPhone), twitter, my Audible books... The list goes on and on!

However, my employer has supplied me with a great little Blackberry 9700. I also love the BB, it is not a great phone, neither is it a great 'consumer' or entertainment device like the iPhone. However, I have become so reliant on the Blackberry Messenger! My wife and many of my friends use BBM. It is fantastic to stay in touch, share pictures, and do it all for free. I know many people who have cut their monthly cell phone bill drastically through using BBM to stay in touch with friends and family all over the world!

It would be fantastic if Blackberry made their messenger available for iPhone (and Android)!

So, this story from One of my favorite blogs, jkontherun that discusses the possibility of RIM putting the BBM on iPhone and Android really got me excited! http:/http://gigaom.com/mobile/will-or-can-rim-take-the-road-ibm-once-travelled/

What phone do you use (or want) and what do you love about it?