With the south african elections only days away, on wed, this post was supposed to be entirely about politics, sa-stlye. I was supposed to write about how the ruling party, the anc pretty much has this thing wrapped up and only need to make sure that they have a 2/3rds majority to ensure that they can pretty much do whatever it is they wish. Or about how the anc president and soon to be sa president, zuma (or more appropriately 'j-zed') has been on trial for serious charges for the past several years, only to be exonerated of all charges due to some questionable practices performed by the lead investigator/prosecutor. and though there's no pronouncement of guilt or innocence, or even validity of the evidence that led to his exoneration (nor of how it was obtained), we can rest easy cuz - due to proper procedure not being followed in the investigation - the matter has been resolved; justice has been served...Or how the the soon to be president, with his new leash on life, now wants some kind of revenge on the justices that paraded him to court and pronounced these horrible judgements on him. These are the justices that sit on the highest court in the country. he would like to strip them of their powers. according to our soon-to-be prez, the justices are starting to act like god (not like the anc or the prez himself, oh, heavens no! not at all..). therefore they need to be brought down to earth; read: the constitution needs to be changed so that justices sit under and are accountable to the prez. i am NOT making this stuff up. hey 'j-zed', ever heard of separation of powers, checks and balances, or about the independence of the judiciary, which is supposed to be the cornerstone in any democracy? or hey, maybe its me that forgot that its probably much too early to pronounce this country as a true democracy. yes, the vote! wooptie doo!
I was also supposed to write about the 1st lady. who's it going to be? with the soon-to-be president having now 5 wives, the battle of first lady must be well in full swing. wonder who's winning...I was supposed to ponder about how the shower (apparently the #1 cure for hiv, according to j-zed) is working. I was supposed to write about the 'new' party, which is actually a spin off, breakaway faction, of the anc, which actually includes many of the same old leaders from years past who have left the country as is today. this party's slogan is lovely: "choose hope. vote cope". hope for what? change? in what way? its the same people. ok, theres a former minister at the top. but hes a minister, not a politician. as much as i don't like politicians, their's is an art; and no ordinary person or minister can aspire to achieve great things without knowing how to play the game. in my view anyway. i was supposed to write about race politics, still the name of the game in sa politics. I think i was also going to write about all this complaining that I and a lot of my colleagues are doing. how in a way its good because this means that people are engaged and thinking, but also how we must all have a bit of patience, realising that 'change' and evolution does not happen overnight. it took the US 200+ years to have a black president. south african democracy as we know it has been around for 15years. its a new teenager. ever tried to get anything across a teenager's mind? or expected the teenager to act in a rational, forward thinking manner? there is progress in sa; but people, myself included, are so impatiently ready for more; to see this country speed up the process, grab hold of this promise of a rainbow nation, take the baton of beacon on a hill and guide other african nations on the path of true democracy. our liberal idealist tendencies may have to do some waiting.
well, like i said, those were some of the things i was going to write about, but nope, i'm not going to do that. decided to write about something else instead. this blog post will be about church.
yep, church. so, i go to church today, like i often do on sundays, mostly. kinda feeling bleh...the last few ______(fill in the blank, weeks, months, years...) i think i've been generally burnt out. and not necessarily with work. just at best running on fumes. last week, easter sunday was not that different. the preacher preached something. i listened to some of it, tho most times my mind wonders off. then he gets to the last portion and it really grabbed my attention. this was the re-affirmation of peter, where jesus "re-instates" him, 3 times. i learned something new: apparently the first 2 times that jesus asked peter if he loved him, jesus used the greek word, referring to agape love (the highest form of love), and peter replies saying of course u know i love you, using philia (i believe, more of a brotherly type love). so then when jesus asked the 3rd time, what hurt peter was not only that jesus was asking him a 3rd time, but also, now jesus uses the word philia when he asked the question instead of agape, essentially saying, i know that agape love may be too much to ask from you right now, but lets start with something. thought that was interesting. so fast forward to today, we were singing some song that ends with "jesus, i love you, i love you". the guy leading the worship, just kept repeating that line. and i kept singing, until all of a sudden i started listening to myself. and when i did that i realised that if jesus were asking me today what he aked peter a couple thousand years ago - folu, do you love me? - would i really be saying what i was singing? i couldnt answer that. or maybe i was afraid to answer that. so i sat down.
fast forward to the end of service. we had the head of the vineyard churches in south (or southern) africa come speak today. never met the guy. just know that he's preached at our church a couple times. our church believes very much in the practice of the fruits of the spirit. so every once in a while, those that have the gifts of prophecy, will speak up and tell the church what they believe they are hearing from god about a generic situation or sometimes about a specific person. usually they do this after a lot of prayer and thought. and when the preacher does it, its usually pretty powerful. and here i am, just getting used to this kind of thing, usually trying to avoid getting caught up in it, and definitely making sure that i hide myself so that no one will specifically pick on me. i dont like to be embarrassed or to think that someone has a view into my life when i havent specifically given them the appropriate rights and security codes. so the preacher ends his thing by doing a bit of prophecy. he pointed at a guy (first time visitor) and noted that he had been fighting with god and he felt like god wanted to tell him that he's here for a reason and about to show him what he's been asking. turns out true. he points at another lady and says, "please let me know if i'm completely wrong here, but..." (they like to do this!) he could feel a pain on the left side of his back and felt that somehow that related to this lady and god wants to heal her. yep, true. then he points at me! maybe it was the bright blue shirt i was wearing. by now it was surreal; me? really? i thought i was doing such a good job of being inconspicuous. he goes on to say that he's feeling something that telling him that i'm a soldier, and god wants me to take a hold of that and do great things for him, and that, this is what got me, ugly things have been getting in the way, such as guilt, that make me feel inadequate and start doubting. yoh! that was pretty powerful, on a couple fronts. first i was filled with guilt, first for not being able to answer the "peter question" and for a few other reasons. and was definitely starting to doubt and settle more soundly in my blah stage, where i was no longer running on fumes, but perhaps now at best walking, leisurely strolling. the other reason it was powerful was because i had recently asked god to show me what i should do (in terms of everything). but i didnt want him to give me a hint, or to whisper it to me softly while i was in bed, deep in sleep. no, i wanted something loud and clear. i believe my exact words were, "im dense, knock me over the head". so i'm pretty sure that being singled out amongst 200 people counts as a knock-me-over-the-head moment, right? ok, so maybe god does listen to prayers. again i was pretty shocked and stunned, having never personally met or spoken to this guy and him knowing this about me. i had to sit down. while i was sitting, i could hear something telling me to simply "fiyin fun olu wa, iwo okon mi, ma se gba-gbe gbo-gbo ore re..." (psalms 103)
Sunday, April 19, 2009
Saturday, April 11, 2009
Wedding
I'm finally getting around to posting these! anyway, toyin and fiyin's wedding was lovely. i can say that now that i'm sitting down and looking at the pics and remembering the good times. i'm not so sure how much of that i could have said when we were running around like headless chicken tryin to pick up the right people, grabbing one of the mothers who was left behind at the church, tryin to organise the 2 mercs (thats right, we rode around in style!) while tryin not to clobber the ridiculously stupid agents at the car rental place, etc etc. in the end, the most important thing happened: they got married. the other stuff that led to us getting about 4hrs of sleep in 4 days just kept things interesting! and now theyre living happily ever after. fiyin and toyin are 2 of my best friends here and 2 of my best friends ever, so i wish them nothing but the absolute best of luck and god's grace, speed, joy. i couldnt be happier. follow the link to the pics. enjoy!
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