Monday, November 24, 2008

Get real or die trying

I finally got to bed after midnight last night. It was just one of those crazy days. I met up with a guy about two weeks ago who wanted to know if I can assist in securing foster care for two children. I tried to help as much as I could, but I realised that what he needed wasn't as basic as just that. I found out that two kids have become pawns in the hands of a child welfare organization called Cafda. They decided that it would be more "beneficial" tothe kids to be placed in an institution rather than in the care of their own families or even foster care. Its absolutely dispicable that this center has been unwilling or unable to adequately adress such an important issue and they have been going about this totally unprofessionally and without any regard for the wellbeing of the children. I am totally appalled at this state of affairs. But that isnt even the half of the story, I know of 3 other cases that I personally handled where I had to fight with them into the middle of the night to have 3 young children released into my care. A young boy was sexually molested and sodomised by his cousins and they are still to come to remove this child, after 3 years, I just got in there and removed him myself. A grandmother who had to wait 2 years for the kids to be legally placed into her care so she can apply for social grants, while she has been looking after these kids for th epast 17 years. And she is yet to have that case finalised. I have dealt with one too many cases of young people who have come out of the child "care" system of this country, where they have been abused, sexually molested and just plain neglected by the very people who are paid "caregivers". I am disgusted that Cafda has refused to accept any legal opinion by any other entity that these kids would be better off at a home where they can be cared for by a loving family rather than in an institution. I am just so appalled that these kids have become a toy to "social workers" with personal agenda's against people. It hurts me that these kids have been staying in a so-called "place of safety" where they are exposed to various threats on a daily basis. They are neglected and suffer abuse of a psychological nature. Its about time that somebody says the things that needs to be said. Our kids find themselves on streets because the very people who need to look after them are failing intheir most basic God given duty. I cry each night knowing that as I tuck into my food and get into my warm bed, there is a child out there who is hungry and sleeps under cardboard. I cannot fathom for one second how we can consider ourselves a civilised country while our children are treated like animals.
Ryan is starting out there tonight, lets make some time to go out and join him one of these nights or days, even if just for a few hours and get up close and personal and look into the hardened eyes for these "glue koppies", as we call them. And see that a child on a street, is still, JUST A CHILD. And lets realised once more, that its not the pain of the few, but the silence of the many that keeps them there.

http://www.pdy.co.za/

Friday, November 14, 2008

Was it all worth it

You’ll never know, you’ll just never know- Until you press in and you realise that as the crowd is stepping on your fingers and as you’ve made up your mind that you heard the Saviour is in the area and He’s doing miracles, you know you’ve been suffering of this specific ailment and you know that He is the Only One who can heal you from it, you’ve tried everything, you’ve spent all you had, you’ve been cheated so many times, BUT TODAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! OH TODAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! THE SAVIOUR IS COMING AND YOU KNOW HEALING IS HERE.
As you leave your house and you hear the shouting of the crowd as they pass, you know somewhere in that throng of people, THE SAVIOUR IS DOING HIS MIRACLES. The crowd is blocking your view of him, but you know in your heart of hearts, all you have to do is, touch the hem of His garment and you are healed. And as you set your jaw in the wind know that crowd is growing bigger and more boisterous, you know you don’t have a choice, you gotta go and press in until you get to him.
Eventually you made it to the edge of the crowd, but you keep getting shoved back and you know these people, they aren’t here for their miracle, they are here because they want to see HIM perform miracles for others. And as they touch Him, you just trust that you’ll be able to get through them to also touch Him. Eventually you’ve been elbowed so many times that you decide to rather go on your knees and crawl in between their legs to just touch His garment. But as you go down, they start stepping on you as well, you fingers are bleeding already, but you know and you know and you know, the pain you experience now, is nothing in compare with the healing that is waiting for you, all you gotta do is just endure this for a moment and press in towards your healing, finally He is only a feet away from him. And you find it so funny that you can actually see His feel through the crowd. You ask yourself, how is it possible that I can recognize His feet, I’ve never seen it before, I don’t even know what His face looks like. But then you realise, I know what healing feet looks like. Its like His love oozes out of every pore. And finally you see a clearing and you know if you don’t give it one last push, you’ll never touch His garment, and your healing is lost forever. You steel yourself and hold your breath as you prepare with one last push, to just make it, you heave yourself forward with all your might and you can feel somebody trying to stop you, you stretch yourself out, for a full body dive, and as your finger tips just brush His garment – OH MY GOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YOU CAN IMMEDIATELY FEEL THE MAGNIFICENT POWER OF HIS HEALING COURSING THROUGH EVERY VEIN AND SINEW OF YOUR BODY AND YOU KNOW, OH YOU KNOW, YOUR HEALING TIME HAS COME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
But then suddenly the entire crowd stops as He has suddenly stopped as well. And you think, oh no, oh no, He caught me- you hear His magnificent voice, a voice like none you’ve ever heard before in your entire life, so sweet and gentle, you can feel the love on His every breath. And He says “ Somebody touched me”

OH, YOU’VE BEEN CAUGHT, but then the disciples save you the embarrassment,

“ Jesus, there’s thousands here, everybody is touching you” then He gently says again,
“ Somebody touched me, I could feel healing power leaving me” and as the battle rages within you and darkness threatens to take over again, you know, you will have to get up and confess or your healing will not be complete, as He stoops down and gently lifts you up, and you look into the most loving eyes you’ve ever looked into, and His eyes tells you, “ I have everything for you” He gently tells you,

“ My child, your faith has made you whole”


AND YOU KNOW , YOUR HEALING IS COMPLETE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

The day after tomorrow

Eish, yesterday was a killer, I thoughtI was gonna lose my guts. For those of you who knows what "Jippo Guts" is, knows exactly what I mean, if you dont, then sorry, but its just too gory to go into details.
I was invited to participate in the debate on the tabling of the new Provincial Liquor Bill, before its signed into power by the Premier. Anyhow, so I couldn't make it, but I'm still all better for not going in the first place. At the end of the day, it would just have been some politicians rubbing shoulders and networking while I have to smile and nod at all the nonsense vitriolic banter, they spew. Anyhow, didn't go, happy for that.
My concern however is, how many of our families have been torn appart by the general abuse of alcohol. Our communities are ripped appart by drug merchants and shebeeners who couldn't care less about the lives they destroy as long as they make their blood money and is able to drive their "lang slap Beemers" living it up in luxury in their expensive houses int he "Burbs"
How many of our children are suffering of FAS because the mothers did not even think two seconds before downing the bottle of cheap wine or "papsak". This has caused our kids to suffer abuse of the most horrendous nature. Therefore it is mostly understandable why children would feel, life on the streets are a lot better than living in a house where they never get a decent meal, where they are sexually abused by people who's supposed to keep them safe, where they are forced to turn to a life of crime or in the case of young girls, where they are forced to sell their bodies just to get their next meal.
It is a sad day where billions are spent each year on road accidents related to alcohol, where communities are driven into poverty, where crime spirals out of control and meantime, we have the politicians smiling and sipping their bloody marys. I believe a moritorium should be placed on the issuing of liquor licences to all liquor outlets trading from residential units. Until a proper impact assesment can be done to assess them exact damage alcohol abuse does to our country. It isnt rocket science to see the effect it has. All most of these guys can do is get out of their expensive cars and come out from behind their high security walls with their fancy armed response. They will see that economics does not favour everybody. I think the big companies producing beer and other alcoholic beverages, are the biggest drug merchants that exists. The worst thing is, they do it legally with no consequences to them. The people who pay the price, ultimately, doesn't have a face or name, he is just revered to as "the consumer"

To be continued.......

Change is inevitable, resistance is futile

We live in an amzing country. That I discovered very recently. I am a born and bred local boy, but you know how it is, a person's heart is always on about leaving the country and plying your trade somewhere else. I have quite a few friends and family spread accross the globe and I always envied them for being able to just bounce and be gone, just like that.
Until I started looking at the amazing oportunities they are passing up and rather running off to go do these very things in a different country. We are living in what most people would call a historically hedgemonic society/country. Now appart from using big words, I can also explain them, hedgemony basically means, the subjection of one group to various tactics like intimidation, threats of violence or violence itself, to achieve the objectives of another group. And obviously we all know the history of apartheid and whatever goes along with that. Anyhow, so we have passed from one hedgemonic stage to another, where we are "led" by a group who feels themselves the "liberators" of this country and now this then automatically intitles them to certain views and actions. This also then creates a sictuation where another group's views/opinions, are now suppressed by various means. I therefore see a change in the atmosphere that we have come to accept as the status quo. I remember my days of political activism and how I had to hide from the cops who were hell bent on our irradication as "terrorists". And the funny thing is, I was never part of the so called "liberators" group, I was just compelled by my need to see my nation freed from the intelectual and physical oppression.

Anyhow, so jump 15 years later and you find a country at the precipace of a great new era. We have been democrated (my word) since 1994, where I finally had an opportunity to choose who I want to lead my into liberation. Unfortunately, that all changed as we got people who had their own agenda's and objectives, we now find these very people at each other's throats. Well lemme just end for now and say, THERE'S A BIG CHANGE COMING, WHERE GOOD OR BAD, WE CAN CHOOSE.

Be prepared, be informed, be the change