Uncle Angus, you have not invited all the christians

Posted on February 28, 2017 by Hansie Louw

It is a wonderful initiative to call one million people together to pray for the country. It is a serious error to exclude the majority of christians in the country to join.

So, my message to you, Uncle Angus is this, “you have left the majority of christians outside this call to prayer”. As long as we do not accommodate each other and as long as we do not talk about forgiveness and restitution, God will not heal our land.

There are many prominent christian leaders in South Africa who are black. Some of them need to be involved in a call to all christians in South Africa to stand together and in fact to not only get together for a meeting, but to stand together. A meeting as such has a little value, the real value comes when christians will put a line in the sand and say – “no more” when they are back in the communities after attending a spiritual gathering. We cannot make a call like this without involving the black christian leaders. We need to think carefully why this was not done in the first place. We may doubt their “christian” faith or their practices, we may doubt their love of the Lord, we may not respect them enough to involve them, we may still be totally racist at heart, believing that as whites we are the chosen ones in South Africa.

One could argue that they are invited to this meeting, that they are not excluded. The mere practicality of having the meeting far away from a major city like Johannesburg does make it not easily accessible. Let’s assume that our black brothers could travel there by bus or taxi. This brings an extra expense to them with many of them not able to afford the amount to come. Many white people will not think twice to say I am going to go. They have the financial means to go. They are fortunate that they are able to go.

The further major stumbling block in this process is our “un-converted” capitalistic outlook. “They did not work so hard, therefore they don’t have money”. To put it differently, “our wallets still have to go for confession and conversion”. My wallet does not belong to me, it belongs to Jesus. This is what we still need to learn in South Africa.

It would be a different thing if each white person planning to come to the meeting would say, “I am going to get four black christians and sponsor them to come. I am not only going to sponsor them to come, but I am going to do my best in the next three to five years to see that they get the best possible chance to grow as a believer, a leader and to grow economically.” Now this will put a totally different slant on the meeting and the proceedings. It will show some of the love in action that we so easily talk about.

help one another

The challenge is that many white christians do not know their black brothers and sisters. They do not know any and they think that the majority of black people are not christian. So what does this say about separation? We will pay thousands of rands to go on a missions trip far away from South Africa, but we will not drive 40 minutes to a place where a church is suffering to exist. We have R60 000 to put a fence around one of our church buildings, but we do not have R60 000 to assist people to get land for their church building in a community not too far from us. The roos of separation or apartheid has been deeply embedded in our psyche and we need to get rid of that.

It is quite possible that our belief is expressed by Senior Pastor Andre Olivier of Rivers Church (Sandton in June of 2016) who said from the pulpit – “We [white people] took nothing from no one. Maybe the law favoured us, but we worked … And when you tell me I need to share my wealth, what are you suggesting? Are you suggesting I give away some of it? Are you giving any of yours away?”

The pastor later apologised for his words, but let us be quiet for a minute or two and reflect about this. Is this not what many white people believe? Is his words not a reflection of the thoughts of the average white christian? You could see that this pastor knows virtually nothing of the struggle of the pastor in the so-called townships. I want to see him building a big church in Soweto amidst the challenges there – poverty, unemployment, drugs, crime, lawlessness.

We cannot make one of a series of excuses, like … “it was my church leaders, it was the political party, it was the politics of the day”, or a good one I have heard recently, “our church only started quite a few years after 1994, so we are innocent”. You may have been less guilty than some other parties, but you are nonetheless guilty if you do not make a concerted effort to assist other pastors in building their churches. I am not talking here of monetary assistance in the first instance although I will not exclude that. We have to be careful how we approach the money and the gifting aspect, though. So we have sinned as whites and we keep on sinning as whites. The church should be at the forefront of getting to forgiveness and reconciliation, but it is possible that the church is not church anymore. It is possible that the church never was church in the first instance. We do not demonstrate the love of Jesus for our enemies, not to say anything about our brothers in the faith. We think along cultural lines only and not according to Kingdom principles.

So Uncle Angus, we have excluded our friends. It is not too late to start talking to them and to hear collectively what God is saying to us, but we cannot go the road alone. That, Sir, is your responsibility. You could lead the rest of the white christians to change their thinking, to change our thinking. All our thoughts must be taken captive by the Father who we claim to serve. I know that you belief that. I trust that you will continue to share that widely and practically.

I wish you well in your great efforts while I pray for huge results in the New South Africa (that is not here yet).

Hansie Louw

Boston, Bellville

27 February 2017

A christian’s response to Mr Zuma, Antichrist or not

Posted on February 17, 2017 by Hansie Louw

How should a christian respond to Mr Zuma? Is it his job to just quietly pray for the leaders of South Africa? Should he resist the leadership and call everyone to the battle? Is Mr Zuma the Antichrist? If he is, what should the response be? So how should the christian respond?

Let us take a minute to define “christian” as the term is used loosely to include a variety of people. A christian is a person adhering to or following the teachings of Jesus Christ, an Abrahamic Monotheistic religion. A survey in 2006 indicate five types of christians ranging from Active to Cultural. The estimate was that Active group then represented about 19% of the christians surveyd. If the figure of christianity in the world is about 33%, then the Active group would be about 6% of all people. In South Africa this figure could be as high as 15% of the population if we take a figure of christians according to

the 2001 census. That census indicated that almost 80% of South Africans thought of themselves as christian. A cultural christian by definition of the survey thinks there are many ways to God and is God aware, but has little personal involvement with God. The figures may be different now as it is almost 16 years since the 2001 census, but if I talk about christians in the context of this question, I am talking about or to the 10 – 15% of people living in South Africa who believe that salvation comes through Jesus and who are committed to sharing their faith with others.

A further definition is that of Antichrist. There is so much wild speculation about who the Antichrist is or will be ranging from Mr Obama to Pope Francis. In general the antichrist is the person who denies the Father and the Son. So this definition could apply to between 70% and 94% of all people in the world in the widest sense. The term is also used is also used to indicate one particular person that will be responsible for a fierce persecution of christians in the end times. So is Mr Zuma the antichrist? In the wider sense of the word, I would say yes. In particular as the one person, I would say no.

I do not want to go into the detail of all the statements of Mr Zuma about the ANC and christianity. What is important to note though is the comment that the “ANC would rule till Jesus comes”. So after the last round of local elections where the ANC lost control in Port Elizabeth (PE) and Pretoria the picture of Jesus in a South African taxi was circulated widely.

ANC will rule till Jesus comes again

It is also important to note that Mr Zuma told church leaders to pray for the ANC and the government and to stay out of politics. Of course this advice is correct in part. The christians should pray and there should be forgiveness for wrongs committed by everybody, including Mr Zuma. As active christian, I will pray for that and ask fellow christians to pray for forgiveness and reconciliation in the land. I will also ask the Presidency to seek justice everywhere for everyone and to focus on good governance in all aspects, to live morally (if not “christian”) clean lives. It seems to me that Mr Zuma, like many other South Africans, has divided his life in different compartments. These compartments are watertight and do not influence one another. So there is his personal life, then there is his political life, then there is his religion. He uses whatever he can get from religion to advance his political life. There is no proof in his life that he belongs to the group of christianity in the Active definition. He may be a cultural christian without Jesus in his life, but that we do not know. What we in South Africa should also keep in mind to understand better and pray more focused is that the African culture plays a huge role in certain church groupings to such an extent that people cannot find true freedom in Jesus and that their vision is distorted of what christianity is. So a person may be cultural christian and then deeply influenced by his understanding of God.

Meshoe: “Zuma must go. He should resign”

So what should the christian response be? We should pray for him. He is correct there. The prayer is not a prayer of “let’s sweep everything under the carpet” and forget that it ever happened. The prayer should be that the Father who knows everything should reveal to Mr Zuma what should be done for South Africa and in South Africa. The prayer should be that there will be a new revelation of what to do to create prosperity for all in South Africa. We do not have the answers, but God does have it. We should also pray that God would protect him. Though we do not agree that other politicians (even ANC members themselves) who disagree from him is of the devil, we do agree that protection is needed in the ANC as well. Pray that God will guide the ANC active christians to speak out against abuses in any form. We also want to pray that people will understand, accept and implement the fact that christianity is not religion that can be boxed in one compartment of your life. This prayer applies to everybody.

As christians we should also work and campaign for change. It may be the last parliamentary term under an ANC president. We should then also pray for the new leaders of the country. We should pray for a peaceful transfer of power. Above all we should pray for repentance for the whole of the country, for everybody living here. Yes, Mr Zuma need to repent of certain things that he has done and said. He and the other parliamentarians are a reflection of the South African community. When we are ashamed of proceedings at our parliament we should remember that it is a reflection of where we are, a reflection of our society.

Lastly as christians we need to be outspoken on matters that need to be addressed. The Dutch Reformed Church is still quiet about many important social issues in the country and so are quite a number of big denominations. Tony Ehrenreich of Cosatu says more about the working and travelling and living conditions of the poor than most of the christian denominations combined. Christianity seems irrelevant with the church quiet in most instances.

To summarise: we need to pray, work and address issues in word and deed whether we have a christian or muslim president.

MEC for Co-operative Governance Nomusa Dube-Ncube and KZN Premier Willies Mchunu look on as President Jacob Zuma and TACC president and Chief Apostle, Professor Caesar Nongqunga, share a joke at the Twelve Apostle Church in Christ International thanksgiving day celebration.Picture: Motshwari Mofokeng/The Mercury

Wishing, goal setting and action

Posted on January 4, 2014 by Hansie Louw

We have expectations of the New Year in the beginning of the year.

This year is going to be my best year ever. This year I am going to get rich, thin, fat, famous, popular or independent. It is great to start dreaming again. We often dream as children. We can fly, we can change the world, and we can do the impossible. When we grow older, we see that it is not so easy to achieve what we thought would be relatively easy to achieve. So we tend to stop dreaming and we go to that survival mode where we just live from day to day and make sure that we have enough energy for tomorrow to just live day to day again. So it is good to start the year dreaming or wishing. These dreams may lead to goals and the goals may change your life forever. These goals and our attempt to reach them may force us to make changes that will help us act and behave differently.

So, let us say that your dream is to have enough money to quit your current job that you may have more time to follow your passion. You do have a job that is sapping your energy and you are busy with your life. When the reality of the rat race sets in, it is easy to let that dream slip again. The rate race is a term used to describe a frustrating, hard-to-break financial lifestyle. It is a lifestyle that is lived by countless people. That means that you are so busy every day that you do not reflect on where you are and where you are going. To reach any goal you need to think about what you want to achieve and what price you are willing to pay for it. To define your goal, you need to go through a number of questions so that you have enough clarity for you to only focus on three things. You need to ask yourself three questions more than once a day and get answers to that. You need to learn how to ask “how?”, “does this support my goal?” (answer “yes” or “no”) and also “what next?”

Let us take a closer look at this. Your wish is to have enough money to quit your current job. So how do we make that wish a goal? There are many ways to describe a goal, but the main difference between a goal and a wish is that it is measurable opposed to vague, precise instead of flexible or loose. So the first question would be: how much money would this be on a monthly basis? Let us take $3000 as the example here. The second question will be: how much time are you willing to sacrifice to achieve this goal? The answer to this question is very important to determine what route you should take to reach your goal. There are quite a number of other questions that you need to go through to make sure that you have a clear goal and a clear allocation of time to reach the goal and to maintain the goal in particular.

So, let us restate the wish to make it a goal: In ten months from now I see myself earning $3000 per month to enable me to be master of my own time by doing ….

Now you need to start asking the question HOW? The goal is set and it is precise. Ten months from now $3000 per month> How am I going to get it?

There are different answers to this for different people. Let us assume that you are going to sell second hand cars and that your profit per car is $300 on average. That means that you need to sell ten cars per month. If you are selling a product where the profit is $10 per sale, you need to sell 300 units per month to get to your goal. If you do internet marketing and your profit is $1 per product, you need to sell 3000 units of your product to get there. You could reason that you are not so much into sales. That means that you need to find something else where you can add value to people’s lives where you would receive a benefit to get to your desired income.

So once you have the HOW in place, you may start asking the two questions: “What next?” and “does this support my goal now?”

So let us say that you have decided to sell second hand vehicles. This is going to be your plan to get the money in. You have also chosen to devote ten hours per week to this (five over weekends and five during the week). Now you need to ask the question: “what next?”. As you have no idea on how to do this, you may want to google “selling cars” to determine what is next. If you know some-one who is in the business you may want to go to him or her to gain knowledge or to be trained. Once you have the knowledge you may still need to acquire the skills for this. That will be the next step, but you may combine this with selling. So you learn as you go!

To illustrate the other question, consider the following. You have set aside two hours tonight to spend time researching the prices of second hand vehicles in your area. Your friends phone you to watch a game with them and to have a great time. So the question is “does this support my goal now?” Of course the answer is “no”. If you do go, however, you have to make up for the two hours of lost research.

So, to wish is easy. It is but a fleeting expression of a desire that is deep down somewhere. To turn that desire into a goal requires passion and discipline. So your first goal may in fact be to acquire passion and discipline before you tackle that audacious goal.

anxious hands grabbed into my heart for sweets

Posted on December 18, 2013 by Hansie Louw

Waiting for sweets

On 16 December of most years I run a 10 km race in a place called Gugulethu close to
Cape Town, South Africa. It is not really a race for me as I normally go to enjoy the people. you get runners there from all over Cape Town and then also some people on holiday from other places of Africa or the world. You will see quite a number of Santas around running with big bags full of sweets. They then dish this out to kids along the road.

There are places in Guglethu where you get better houses, but then you also get areas where there are cheaper almost makeshift houses or shacks. Normally when you hit this portion of the race you find many kids lining the streets. They are looking for gifts, well actually sweets. Now I know that we should not give sweets to kids. The sugar content is far too high etc etc, but we were giving out sweets.

So I gave a few sweets to a number of people and everything seemed to be fine in the beginning. About five minutes later I had these kids running alongside asking, please some sweets, please some sweets. They would run 50 or 100 meters or so in the hope that they would get something. Many of them had plastic bags with them to gather the sweets.

Then about eight minutes later I stopped to give some sweets from a bag that I was carrying. Within 30 seconds I was surrounded by about 10 to 15 kids each one trying to get to the front to get a sweet. The hands were stretched out and many of them tried to open the bag to get to their sweet. Some tried to get a second sweet. It seemed that they were impatient and anxious to get to the sweets, to their helping.

When I was young I was taught to wait, to not grab and not to be first in line. I was often told, “be patient, there is enough for everyone”. I know I was extremely fortunate when I grew up. We did not always have cake or sweet things around, but I remember on Sundays and Wednesdays. There was always enough to eat. The rules here seemed different. You have to be first in line, you have to race to get it, you have to by all means get into the bag, to get your portion as there may not be enough for everyone.

I was emotionally deeply disturbed emotionally by this. I could not quite understand why I was so upset at that time. They were all anxious to get something. The bigger kids pushed the hands of the smaller ones down. I was anxious as I was running out of sweeets to give and as I was deeply embarrased about what was happening in this fight for survival. About 500 meters or so from there a similar thing happened and I gave the balance of the sweets to one of the bigger kids asking them to share. I am not sure if the sharing happened, but after that I started running again, a bit more free now to just run. It is easy to run and just close my eyes and ears to the anxious hands.

The image of hese hands, however, did not stop when I was not confronted by individuals anymore. It lingered on and found a way to reach into my heart. They are in there looking for an answer to their needs. We must find a way to turn this around.

Now reflecting about what happened there, I wish I was able to buy sweets for everyone in that area. Well not really sweets! I wish I could give everyone a tool so that they could grow up and change their thinking. One way to think is to say: there is enough for everybody, there is abundance. The tool does exist of course and that is education.
What often is absent is a father or mother or adult that could help them and motivate them.

Education is much more than teaching mathematics or science or languages, but education is needed.

If you want to make a contribution in time, energy, ideas or skills, please let me know so that we can tackle this challenge in Africa and worldwide!

Nelson Mandela (Madiba) : “Education is a powerful weapon for emancipation”

Link

Madiba on the cover of Time Magazine

In December 2013 Nelson Mandela passed away in South Africa at the age of 95 years. Many world leaders came to South Africa to say goodbye to this giant who was able to guide South Africa from possible bloodshed in the period of the transition of power in the period from 1990 till after the first democratic elections in South Africa in 1994 when everyone could vote for any candidate or party at the same time in the same elections.

He was elected as president of South Africa and worked during his term of five years in office to reconcile the people in the country. He stepped down after his first term and devoted the rest of his life to furthering a number of causes. The most important one of them was and is education. He understood the value of education and worked tirelessly to install that belief in many people. This is a far cry from the slogan, “Liberation before education” that was used during the days of the struggle in South Africa.

For South Africans Mr Mandela is known as Madiba, his clan name. This is how Martin Hall describes his understanding of Madiba’s position on education and an interaction with Madiba when he was close to the end of his tenure as president of South Africa.

Madiba had a lifelong respect for education: in his early years at Fort Hare; in pursuing legal qualifications (and writing examinations under threat of a death sentence in jail in Pretoria); on Robben Island, in his now famous organisation of seminars while working in the blinding light and dust of the lime quarry. He saw equality of opportunity through education as key to emancipation, a principle yet to be realised in South Africa, or elsewhere.

This respect for informed and independent thought and for freedom of expression was apparent in one small encounter that I shared with others in 1999 in the last year of his presidency. With little warning or ceremony, some 20 of us from the University of Cape Town, led by our vice-chancellor, were invited to Mandela’s nearby home. President Mandela wanted a seminar to evaluate the successes and failures of his time in office. For three hours he responded to our commentary: on reconciliation; on economic policy; on HIV and Aids, then growing to epidemic proportions in South Africa. His respect for informed criticism and research-based perspectives was palpable. When the time came for us to leave, he showed us out himself, waving as we drove away. (Martin Hall)

Madiba continued after his period as president confirming through his actions the importance of education. His leadership in combatting HIV/Aids once again was education in action. His quotes on education will inspire others:

Education
“Young people must take it upon themselves to ensure that they receive the highest education possible so that they can
represent us well in future as future leaders.”

“No country can really develop unless its citizens are educated”, is another quote that we need to adhere to. This applies to any country anywhere in the world.

In South Africa today there are many who are free politically, but many are still prisoners financially. This is the reason why a political party will attract attention and maybe even votes if the preach economical freedom and the benefits that go with that. So the question today is: how do you get this economical freedom. Does it come through a weapon or intimidation or does it come through education?

Let us take two stories of two young ladies that live and learn in the same area in a so called township in South Africa, an area where a number of people live in quite proximity to each other, some in better accomodation and others in smaller and cheaper places. Let us call the one lady Sindi and the other one Thandi.

Sindi does her schooling, but does not complete it. She is forced to leave school by her circumstances. She looks around for a possible job and then finds that cleaning a house is a possibility. She earns $15 per day for that, but her transport leaves her with about $10 per day. Out of that she needs to buy food and pay for lodging. That does not leave her much, even if she works everyday of the week.

Thandi does not complete school either. Her circumstances forces her into the same job as Sindi, which is cleaning of houses. She gets the same amount of money as Sindi. The difference is that Thandi spends $5 per day on her education every day. She learns to speak better English and English for business. She learns some selling skills and negotiation skills. She also learns how to program. She has the same time every day as Sindi and the same amount of money, but she uses it differently. She learns mathematics and a bit of science.

Now Thandi has the ability to program on a basic level on the internet and computers. She spends 6 hours every day on that and gets paid $5 per hour. Her income now is $30 per day which will leave her with $25 per day. She again uses half of that on education. She becomes an even better programmer. She now earns $25 per hour. Everything is changing for her as a result of the income that she is generating. As she is very good in English as well she is able to get work from all the English speaking individuals in the world that would like to employ her on a contractual basis. Her income is not limited to the economic conditions of the region or country where she lives.

Thandi works hard and puts in ten hours of work per day. She employs two people that she pays $15 per day. She makes over $200 per day after her expenses. Setting aside $150 per day she will be able to buy one of the better houses in her area after 400 days of work

That is less than two years of hard work when she is qualified enough to give that value to the market place to command about $25 income per hour. She needs some other skills in this process though.

She must be able to negotiate and market herself (or have someone do this on her behalf). Her communication abilities in English must be great. Then what is probably the most important skill has to do with financial intelligence. A car must not be first on her list of ‘new toys’or ‘so called’ assets. Rather it must be something that can produce income. Again the education is paramount. She needs a thorough understanding of money and the pitfalls around money. Then of course she does not want to continue working ten hours per day. She wants to work less hours and have time for life as well. Again there is the choosing of a partner and starting a family. Education is vital again.

It goes even further than this. Thandi can start a business employing other people to do what she is doing. Now it is a question of getting someone to manage them if that is not what she wants to do (or should do). Then it is controlling the finance. After that comes expansion and a possible listing on s stock exchange somewhere, but everything comes back to education again.

One of the greatest gifts of Madiba was that he made it quite clear that education is immensely valuable. He also demonstrated this throughout his life leading by example and by his involvement in various campaigns and foundations after 1999 when he left the South African Parliament.

Madiba was a remarkable man. Let us give others the chance through education (in it’s widest possible meaning as well) to make the world a better place for all.