There are somethings you can only learn by experience and practice. For example, you cannot learn to swim by reading a book. Another more real example is learning to lead in three places at once. Perhaps you can learn a skill here, or a technique there to put into practice but really this is a sink or swim scenario.
Over this camp experience I feel that I had my first real experience of leading in multiple places at the same time. Lets just say, I learnt a lot. Here are three things I learnt (and hopefully I will never forget): 1. Keep the main thing, the main thing Whilst coordinating camp we had a serious crisis issue which needed to sort out. It was one of those bold, underlined and multiple exclamation mark issues!!!!!!!!!!!! One which falls into both urgent and important. Going through the process of sorting this out in the appropriate manner a friend reminded "Keep the main thing, the main thing". But what did that mean? We were doing camp to share Jesus with the children. No matter what else is going on, make sure that sharing Jesus with the children stays the focus of everything. Do not be distracted left or right, sort out what needs to be sorted out but keep the main thing, the main thing. 2. The ability of trusting people is of crucial importance As I worked through this issue, I had to rely on my leadership team more than ever before. I am aware that I can sometimes seem controlling in leadership, or I trust people to do a good job... so long as I can pick up the pieces if it doesn't happen my way. To keep the main thing, the main thing I had to place my full trust in my leadership team. The could keep the camp ticking over, keeping the main thing as the main thing without me being constantly present. In fact, realising that you are not needed to run a camp is a beautifully humbling experience. 3. In the hardest situations, God's love and forgiveness prevail The winter holidays in Cape Town is the time of year where the most children and young people here the message of Jesus. In this there is a reminder that everyone is human, everyone is a sinner and everyone can know God's love and forgiveness. The love and forgiveness God has for me is the very same love and forgiveness God has for a child who lives in a high gang violence area, and that is the same love and forgiveness God has for a leader who use to be a child alcoholic. This message, the Good News, is a message which is contextually appropriate for every person, no matter the situation they find themselves in. Worldly situations do not define the Gospel or the way it is understood, God does.
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I like aircraft. I would say other than faith and work related interests aircraft and their paraphernalia get the number one spot for interest. I read about aircraft, I watch aircraft, I research aircraft, I track aircraft. I even have my own, fairly detailed spreadsheet of every flight I have been on. I, like many others have been fairly interested in the case of MH370 which went missing in 2014, as if it just went missing off the face of the earth. People do not just want to find out what happened with MH370 so there is an answer as to how all the souls lost came to be lost (an important reason none the less). There are a number of people who want to find out what happened for preventative reasons. The thought is, if you find out the route cause to the incident, then you can prevent a similar thing happening a second time with potential fatalities being over 500 souls! (Note: the A380 can carry as many as 850+ people with a single class cabin, although most A380 operators use it to a 500+ seat three class cabin configuration.)
As four-years-worth of investigations draw to a close with no real answer insight and with two main, but highly debated theories as to what actually happened, the first being deliberate moves by crew to move the flight off course but a non-deliberate/controlled crash (not pilot suicide), or that this was a crime, a calculated mass murder with a controlled landing somewhere in a blind spot in the ocean. Moving on from the aircraft side of things, I would like to suggest we need to learn to mimic the thorough nature of their investigations. There are so many issues within the world where we tackle the surface problem yet rarely explore the core reason (nearly every commercial airline craft/incident results in policy changes or recommendations to try and prevent the core reason causing more incidents). In the news constantly read about:
With these things the surface issues must be addressed, but the challenge I am thinking through is this: Are we doing all within our power to stop these issues at their core? For example, what is the church actively doing to prevent child abuse for now and the years to come as well as assisting in addressing the surface issues. In my mind, the #metoo campaign is treating the surface issue of sexual harassment, how can we change the core of this issue and prevent another similar issue rising in the future? Yes, lets help the surface issues, but lets dig deep and explore how the heart of these issues first came about too. Lets #mendtheheart Over the weekend I attended part of a conference with a focus on youth and children's ministry. In a couple of the sessions the facilitators talked very much about teaching the bible to children. All in all, I have no issue with this. However, this got me thinking around education/teaching in the 21st Century. Anyone who knows me, should know I can moan about our education system for hours on end. This thought, is not one of those moans. This is not about the educational system. This is around the easy societal mind set of what it means to teach. To teach is most commonly seen as passing your knowledge on to someone less superior/informed and often this is measured by age or education. Particularly when it comes to children, we take this mentality to an extreme. So often, we easily assume they know nothing and we, everything. I once heard this rule of thumb which I find very helpful: Do not expect to little from children yet do not expect to much. For every person we must gage where they are at and work with them at the most appropriate level. Yet, I still do not think an authoritative teaching style is the most appropriate. (Here I am being descriptive from my own experiences.) The most learning I remember and had the biggest life impact on me were co-learning experiences between the 'teacher' and myself. The 'teacher' in these instances could literally be anyone. At these moments I was self-learning and the 'teacher' would just facilitate my growth. The thought I would like to suggest is this. For real effective education/teaching we must shift from the mindset of the people in the know must give their knowledge to the people not in the know to the ideal of learning being facilitated on all levels, even to the point of the facilitator learning from the facilitated. I believe you can never force people to learn, they will not learn even if you try (again speaking from my own experience). If we say that teaching is just aiding growth in knowing subject matter, how then, do we communicate knowledge which we desire to pass on in a natural and authentic way? How does this apply to the education system, church, establishments and households? A final question I have is the link between post modernism and education/teaching/learning. In a world with some truth, fake truth, alternative truth, my truth and your truth. How and where does education fit in to a world where the perception of truth is changing?
Nearly a week on from the Eurovision finals for 2018 with an interesting song winning for Israel something stood out to me. Nothing about the song, or the chicken noises of Netta or her crazy eyes as she performs. Instead the thing that stood out to me was part of her winners speak. Netta thanked the audience saying: "Thank you for choosing different" This, to be honest, intrigued me. For anyone who knows Eurovision enough will realise that there are normally a number of different acts, some don't make it through the semi-finals and others go and win it! Lordi with Hard Rock Hallelujah are the excellent example. Netta also said she loves diversity, again, this is interesting. As things go, Eurovision is certainly one of the more liberal events which happens around the world. So, what does choosing different really mean?
In interviews Netta explains how her size has impacted the way people have interacted with her and how she is different to the norm. Her song written was supposedly influenced by the #MeToo campaign which is no bad thing. What I would like to challenge however, is the need to celebrate differences in a way which places a person's identity in that difference. For example, if I were to be extreme, defining Netta's difference as her weight (which she alludes to in interviews) then becomes her defining feature. Another example is my hair growing curly with sideburns which is not the most common of looks at the moment, at what point do I allow this to start defining me? I think it is right and proper not to discriminate against people for their differences but as soon as we start to celebrate diversity and differences then we begin to shape people's identity as the way they are not like us and not making the common ground we have with that person as their identity. And lets face it. We all were born, we all live and we all will die. What more do we need to focus on? We have different shapes and sizes, different voices, ideas and ways of thinking but we are all human. To choose different seems to suggest that some people are more human than others or that some people are not human at all. If we truly love diversity, we will not focus on how we are different. We will focus on how we are the same. That we have blood beating in our veins and desire to know others and to be known. #choosehuman Most people have seen the movie Titanic and I reckon everyone has the image of the string quartet playing as the unsinkable ship sinks imprinted in their mind for one reason or another. Just picture the image. I am wondering how I would react in this situation. How do you do your job when everything else is falling apart and yet others are in denial. Do you continue to do your job? Play every note perfectly. Or is there the option of jumping ship along with everyone else? Perhaps there is the third option which seems impossible and I think regularly gets missed in these sticky situations as things fall apart. Stop and fix it. I believe in any crisis or critical emergency we can have a maintenance mindset. By that you maintain the norms, keep things going as they always have because that is your job and what you must do. The string quartet from Titanic is the perfect image for this.
The other is a missional mindset. Think of people going on a mission to the North Pole, they have a destination in mind and they will do everything within their means to get to the North Pole. They will be creative where they need to be creative and careful where they need to be careful. One thing is for sure, when crisis hits they do not keep just putting one foot in front of the other as their job is to walk. Where I work we have been in a time of transition and sometimes it feels like a sinking ship. I have been challenged to work in creative and careful ways which don't always fit with the job I have been given because I believe in the mission we have been given and I want to give everything I have to see that happen, even if that means parts of my job get missed. It is better they are missed and the mission is achieved than visa versa. I have chosen to try and fix the sinking ship and not do my job till I drown. '...the disciple is a follower of Christ whose love for Him transcends all earthly loves.'
This is a quote from J. Oswald Sanders' Spiritual Discipleship which really sums up this ideal of the Christian faith and what it means to follow Jesus. An ideal which can be easily lost in the cluttered business of life. Before I update you on all my comings and goings, I would like to encourage you to press pause and reflect on this statement. Does it reflect something of your life if you are a Jesus follower? The past six weeks it has felt like I have been running full throttle finishing my time at GCF Leadership Experience in Limpopo, a week in Cape Town to finalise plans for Camp HavaGo, a week leading behind the scenes at Camp HavaGo, camp planning for Froggy Pond camps coming up in June/July, partnership meetings with Wortelgat Campsite and East Mountain (a discipleship & ministry organisation), Schools United events, writing WordSpace devotionals, Children's Ministry Training, planning training events for later in the year as well as for 2019 and starting my GCF Leadership Experience ministry project. I can safely say I am in a learning curve of keeping all my plates spinning whilst maintaining a healthy life balance. Among all of this stuff going on, there are three things (...anyone who has sat in lots of sermons know all the best things come in three points, especially if you can make the starting letters the same or spell out a word!) which are really exciting at the moment.
Over the next six weeks we have three camp training days and then three children's ministry training events for the next 12 months. There is always something exciting about resourcing others to develop the ministry of their local churches. As previously mentioned we have had some partnership meetings and we have some more on the way. There is always something encouraging about synergy in ministry instead of reinventing the wheel which can maximise our ministry impact. As these develop I will share some more. To Pray for...
It feels like only two or three weeks ago we were celebrating Christmas and wishing everyone a Happy New Year and now March is nearly upon us!
For those who do not know I am currently in the Limpopo Province at Shikwaru Game Lodge located between Bela-Bela and Polokwane for the Global Children’s Forum “Leadership Experience” (LE). I am with seventeen other people who are all involved in Christian Children’s Ministry from around the world (people are from across the six main continents, sadly no one from Antarctica joined us). We are having five weeks of intensive training in various aspects of Children’s Ministry which we will then take back and apply and share in our “home” contexts (the course is meant to compliment your current ministries). This is particularly exciting for me as it builds on what I learnt when I was studying, and I am gaining a new fresh perspective on how best to work with children and young people. Also, it is wonderful to connect with people from all over the world who share the same heart and passion for leading children to know and walk with God! Having returned to Cape Town in mid-January I have been go, go, go! The first week back we spent time re-orientating ourselves for 2018 with some new volunteers who are working with SU full time. The following week, five of the full-time staff headed to Kwazulu Natal for Count Me In (CMI), a week of training for new staff and volunteers in SU South Africa (this is the first week of this kind to happen for several years within SU South Africa). Following CMI, our staff team had a week to prepare and duplicate the training for our staff and volunteers in Cape Town which ran in the second week of February. During this week I also ran a four-hour sex education workshop in a local high school with 30 16-year-olds (a new experience). Then the week to follow was spent reconnecting with some key people from 2017 and preparing to leave for LE. Global Children's Forum: Leadership Experience I am currently two weeks into the five-week intensive of LE with the days containing a good six – eight hours of teaching. So far it is almost information overload having spent the first week on the biblical view of children and the second looking at the context of a child/children at risk. The second week, although a heavy topic to look, has been eye-opening and is creating a greater passion within me for the holistic care of children and supporting the church to care for children and make them the priority. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! Thank you for all the support in 2017 and I trust you all have an enjoyable festive season and know the faithfulness, love and hope of Jesus as we remember His birth.
As of January I will have been in Cape Town for a year and I am now feeling fully settled, and as it is the end of the year I have written a quick whistle stop tour of everything that has happen.
Christmas seems to be well on the way and it is only the beginning of November! Over the next two months as a region we have five camps, a leader training weekend a three day first aid course and 2018 strategy meetings.
For myself and the rest of the team October was a bitter-sweet month with Natasha (one of our key staff members) leaving being clearly called with her husband away from Cape Town. Much of the month was spent putting in actions plans to cover her administration work and her farewells. In addition to this we started the follow-up sessions with King's School following their camp in September and had meetings with NGOs, churches and schools to partner with them over the Froggy Pond camps developing those existing relationships to be more intentional, especially how we can support one another with a "kingdom focus". Along with this other school lessons, a church talk, a Christian Union gathering from across the area (Schools United) and 2018 planning for SU Western Cape. In the next two months our main focus is the summer camps. I am running a Froggy Pond boys camp (ages 7-9) from the 11th - 16th December. Over the next three weeks I will be developing the programme, teaching material, finding 20 of the right leaders who are suitable to lead and starting their training for the camp and coordinating 20 NGOs/Churches/Schools dropping off and picking up a total of 100 boys. For this we have a joint leader training weekend with all the other camps running 1st - 3rd December. The vision behind it is to help the leaders own the identity of SU, to understand who SU is and most importantly be equipped with vital leadership skills. I am also running a leadership day with a high school in my area with their Grade 12s (17/18 year olds) on the 4th December. This day forms part of my relationship building within the school to be able to partner with them with other SU projects and ultimately see the love of God shown to the young people in that school. Over the next couple of weeks I have a number of meetings looking forward to 2018. These meetings cover a range of things from developing our framework for ministry, exploring and support the work of new volunteers, and exploring partnerships with other like minded churches and organisations. |