Ekhaya.......

Yes, home.......

Back amongst bitter winter chills, whirling cyclones of icycle stalagmites, tight jaws raw gusts impaling your jacket on your body like flags clinging to patriots, safely mitts, scarves and balaclavas make the impassible possible............

all but worth it if not for family ties that hold you down when you lost floundering, warmth of a hug, of a well placed smile, of a dap, of a hand gripped in brotherly solidarity, of a prayer offered in your behalf, of a love that unfailingly surrounds you > this is the sun in an existence that is thirsty for heat, this is my heart, this is family

Blessd

Greetings I bring from Jah....

Hey Famz,

how r u? TIngs here are kool. Very busy right now because i depart for the land of the frozen sun soon - Dec 16th. Before then there's lots to do here - connect with peoples (esp my church famz), set things in motion for Interns coming and going and i'm helping out at a 4 day conference here called the Gospel and the Arts. One of the tracks for it is Poetry and there has been space made for me to facilitate it - nuff prayer for guidance in my preparation would be nuff appreciated! Any recommendations in terms of poetry to share with the people is also welcomed.

Ya, life is nice right now by God's grace.....although i find myself wishing i wasn't leaving so soon because there's still so much going here that i don't really want to put on hold......yet i can't wait to be at home again! that's what happens when you develop more than one home i guess. It's all good, God's timing is PERFECT!

Just a little aside:

That picture is from Hillbrow, Jozi. That's one of the most hectic places on this planet! I was actually luvin the joint - there's so much life, so much vibrancy and activity. It's an innercity suburb with a high immigrant population and was there because........one of my friends insisted i buy some sausages from a store she last visited 6 years ago (it was apparently under an Indian restaurant - there are no Indian restaurants within a 6 mile radius of Hillbrow......didn't find the sausages).

Well that building has a sign in the windows reading "Afro Kombs College....." - thought that was funked up. On my way out though i rolled up on a car from which 4 gunmans spontaneously jumped out and booked down the road after which 2 nex mans jumped in the whip and bimmed - all in front of a police cab at 12 noon. I made the block in probably 7 mins and by the time i came back everything was normal - you wouldn't know something jus happend. Was high drama - but this is what Hillbrow is known for.

Anyways Family, we don't glorify the brokeness, violence, anger and sin in this world; we give glory to the One who is the Answer, the Messiah full of grace and truth.

In Jesus,

Luv

Durbz and back again....

From last Thursday through to Sunday we had an outreach happening in Durban.....it was incredible.

We have a church plant that was essentially started by 3 women who attended our Easter Convention and decided they wanted some of what we have out here in PMB, out there in Durbz. Those three women have been amazing in how they have mobilized their communities and been the channels through which so much has taken place out there.

The outreach was in a set of flats called Kenneth Gardens (flats are like apartment buildings to us, but only 3 levels high). We did tent style evangelism which had never been done in that community. We typically had a healing clinic (prayer for the sick, etc.) in the mornings, a children's program in the afternoon then an evangelistic meeting in the evenings. There was quite a bit of time between each of these things which was time used interacting with the community one-on-one, prayer walking, etc.

This was unlike any other mission i'd been on because God began to really open my eyes to the brokeness of the people we met. There was such a deep, deep hunger for God; so many were in crisis experiences and didn't know where to turn. So many were desperate for help; i personally counselled quite a few people who were begging us to stay in the community longer because of the need. There is a lot of work to be done there in following up; we actually had 70 people make commitments to the Lord over the 4 days and we're already challenged with the capacity to nurture them. We could really, really use y'alls prayer support for that.

Yup, back in PMB now at my desk trying to create some good infrastructure for the Intern Programme. There is also going to be a workshop here in Dec just before i come home called the Gospel and Arts which i'm really looking forward to. I'm actually helping facilitate part of it, i'm grateful for that opportunity. Gotta come strong wit it......

Wunluv in our 1stLuv

Ndiepi famz!

Ya, doin well by God’s marvelous grace – it’s like.…the beginning and end as far as life go it’s only natural I explain my plateau and also what defines my name… Tings been healthy. Wanna let y’all know that there have been a few rocky days though, but those are the spice of life.

Last week Thursday was a day that I won’t forget. The night before I had cleaned my shoes so thorough I could see myself reflected in the canvas material. They were still a likkle wet in the am so I decided to do what I know you would’ve too – lean them up on my space heater for a few. I did that and checked to see if they were burning – no problems. Why is it a few minutes later Rick (a housemate) called my attention to smoke rising to the ceiling……. Needless to say I was bummed.

Well I headed down to the office and everything was cris, I told people it was a great day and as I stepped out of my house a meteor landed on my foot – like a blessing. I had to make a quick dash out and when I returned attempted to park where I usually do, on a narrow strip of grass overlooking a ravine/gorge arrangement. Little was I aware that wet grass is like ice….to my surprise when I jammed my breaks (at a slow speed) my car continued…..directly towards the edge of the ravine/gorge arrangement. Well I was a little shocked and made a decision to try a few things before bailing. Man, I was going for the edge when all of a sudden the car came to a sudden halt – there was a stump/rock joint that the car got caught on. Praise God for that stump/rock joint > wasn’t my time to head home yet. After many attempts to tow it off, we finally settled on about 10 dudes lifting it off and pushing it back……

That's a nice ravine behind those bushes

A day i won't forget.......


The next am i drove out to Joburg - a blessed time i had there. I bucked my cousins and we hit an Oliver Mtukudzi concert which was amaaaaazin!!! I just rocked to it all night long - been a while since i had a dance you know? I really feel his music, especially cuz of how his faith in Jesus is a big part of his music. The weekend there was refreshing, mainly being with famz, having no responsibilities and having fun. During Mon and Tues i made some connections with other NGO's that may be able to help me with expanding the Intern Programme.

Yes, that's it for now. Stay Bless, wunLuv

<<<<<<.........>>>>>>

Hearts broken are open mended, ended, me, she, it was us not no more...

Bangin it out....

Yo famz,

wuts gud? past few weeks have been pretty eventful....there is a young dude from Sydney, Australia who came through and i toured him around AE. Turns out he's into film and produced a film that was nominated (and won) Best International Doc of the Year at a film festival here. It's called Ubuntu: a Street Child Story one of the key interviewees is Stephen Lungu, the CEO of AE. Anyway, in that way AE is connected to the film and we were invited into a partnership with this film festival through it all - madd kool connect, God is good!

What that meant is that last minute we had to send someone to the award dinner and there was no one available except for my colleague Jerry and yours truly (was also hype cuz we're both into independent film and are always talking about it - oh, you should check a SA produced film called Jerusalema if you can).

Jerry and I - hot ta deaf ryt?

So after travelling into the depths of nowhere on dirt, deserted road and in thick fog we end up at the venue. Was a small gathering and they were expecting us.....soon as we reach the director of the festival comes up to us and tells Jerry he's presenting an award....caught him off gaurd. It was a nice scene, as we met producers and directors from all over the world. So we were waiting in tension for the moment of being called up to present the award cuz Jerry didn't wanna do it and neither did i; he was saying they actually had my name in the schedule to announce it so it was a mistake they went to him...whatever, i wasn't sure what it was so was just tryin to stay calm. Well the moment came and my man took it by the........ He actually presented the award to the overall winner of the whole festival, he's actually the dude who directed Pretty Woman and Undersiege! He and his wife produced this film called Jackson which is like a street opera; we saw a clip and it looked pretty hype.

Jerry's moment of fame

There were quite a few hype-looking films there....another one called Machetero out of New York about the Peurto Rican independence struggle. Check out any or all of the above films, especially Ubuntu of course......

yup, that's it for now. Stay bless to be bless!

Ya ya famz,

bak again.......tnx to those of you who were supporting re:touching a mic. It went aight....wasn't totally pleased with it, but "i know i'm my own worst enemy, i make things harder when it's really elementary.........." Basically i had to switch it up right before i stepped on stage (which was massive, highly elevated and plain) cuz there was all this crumping activity right before me (nothing against that artform at all) and then i was supposed to come on some spoken word - howz dat for killing the energy? So i came with something that was more punchline oriented den my sistren, Carmel, joined me for the rhyme joint. That was going okay until i found out after that they couldn't hear us over the instrumental....can't really blame the hosts cuz the dj came set up his equipment.....den boogied. Anyway, it was kool for the fact that i brought some Americano's with me and they got a good look into Kwaito culture and other local music. Big up to most of the musicians, they did a pretty good job.

Americanos - students from Azuza Pacific University

That's how it goes. I've been really thinking though about coming alongside the event organizers (good peoples) and helping them establish this platform they're trying to create. Praying for direction with that.

The two sistrens who organized the event in black, MC in orange, Carmel (singer) and her daughter in white

Peace&Bless