Presence - Digital edition 2 - Scope Magazine

CHRISTIAN ON THE WEEKEND

U LT R A H E I G H T S CAMPUS TOUR

DIGITAL ISSUE 2

APRIL 2017

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SOUTH AFRICA

PRESENCE

SPRING EDITION 2017 1 PRINT EDITION

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PRESENCE

ISSUES & INSIGHTS

THE MISSION

EXPOUND

06

TODAY

37

RETHINK

10

INSPIRE ACTION

40

CONFRONT

12

REMEMBER

42

QUESTION

14 DAVID BRAINERD KNEW THE PRESENCE OF GOD EVEN WHEN FACED WITH ADVERSITY.

BEING FULLY PRESENT IN THE MOMENTS YOU HAVE WITH OTHERS.

MUSIC & READING LIVING 2.0

RECOMMENDED 10

44

19

SOUND CHECK

49

EXPLORE

24

CRESCENDO

50

ANECDOTE

27

DOG-EAR

53

POW-WOW

INTERVIEW WITH BENJAMIN SHAW ON BEING AN AMBITIOUS ENTREPRENEUR AND A CHRISTIAN.

CHANCE THE RAPPER HAS STARTED A NEW CONVERSATION ABOUT GOD.

CAMPUS CONNECT

RHYME & REASON

ON THE GROUND

30

FURTHER ALONG

34

FLOW

56

RECIPES

57

FANTASY

60

LIGHTER SIDE

63

A LOOK BACK AT THE FEES MUST FALL PROTESTS AND BEING PRESENT IN THE MIDST OF IT. VICTORIA CHASI SHARES ONE OF HER MOST PRIZED RECIPES AND THE STORY BEHIND IT.

GREETINGS DEAR READER, There is something in the air that hasn’t yet been.

There is a cloud of anticipation hanging over our busy days and dreamy ambitions, calling on the winds of change that stir up the spice of life.

That stirring is displacing what we’ve known to be the status quo – the guarantee that the job will be waiting for me after I’ve studied for it; the anticipation of my favourite artist releasing an album I’ll actually like; the assurance that it would take me 46 minutes to get to my destination because my GPS says so. The stirring is displacing and there’s nothing we can do about.

So what happens when the job isn’t there after you graduate, or when your favourite artist doesn’t release an album of your liking for the rest of their music career? What happens when the unforeseen takes place in traffic and our voyage takes an hour, instead?

The volatility of life, and our responses to it, begs for something constant. Moreover, the human make-up begs for something constant – we want that guaranteed gratification, and when it comes, we keep going back for more. Yet, the reality is that our gratification will never be satisfied by the worldliness of an everchanging world. So we keep searching for a constant.

If this edition of Scope Magazine is guaranteed to do anything, it’s to introduce and affirm that a constant exists in only one entity – God. The Creator of creation. It only makes sense, right?

May this edition bring all our wandering to a halt.

May we find, in our halt, the constant force of God’s loving power, and the clarity that comes with realising that we are never alone.

YOURS IN LOVE,

When our realities are shaken and tossed outside our five-year plans, what is there to hold onto as we try to catch our breath?

“We may ignore but we can never evade the presence of God. The world is crowded with Him. He walks everywhere incognito.”

Presence. God’s Presence.

— C.S. Lewis

MÉGAN SCHILDER Managing Editor

TEAM

INTRODUCING STUDENTS TO A BIGGER SCOPE OF OUR WORLD TODAY THROUGH THE LENS OF THE GOSPEL

PUBLISHING DIRECTOR JONATHAN JUST CREATIVE DIRECTOR DESIGNER

MARK ZION

COPY EDITORS

CONTRIBUTORS

MICHAEL JUST

MANAGING EDITOR MÉGAN SCHILDER MATSHEPO MADUPELA NICOLETTE VAN SCHALKWYK AN-MARI FOUCHÉ

Expound Ray Beckman Rethink Jonathan Just Confront Lindiwe Mpofu Question James Bishop Pow-Wow Phathiswa Magangane Explore Cathryn Moodley Anecdote Jeremy James Bradford On the Ground City Gate Recordings Further Along Brett Anderson Inspire Action Carla Erasmus Today Gabriel Montgomery

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ON THE GROUND ULTRA HEIGHTS CAMPUS TOUR 2017

POW-WOW BENJAMIN SHAW E-NCA INTERVIEW

ISSUES & INSIGHTS

ISSUES & INSIGHTS

EXPOUND

BY RAY BECKMAN

A

t the very heart of the Christian faith is the proclamation of intimacy with God - experiencing His holy presence. (‘Holy’ is an unfashionable word these days that we tend to associate with particular buildings, or rituals, or perhaps those we view as particularly saintly people. In essence, it is a word that means ‘set apart’ or separate.)

Christmas, which was celebrated a couple

months back, proclaims that in Jesus, God is present. He is ‘Emmanuel’, God with us.

It is a remarkable claim: the Creator God has taken on human flesh and come to His earth on a rescue mission. Many view this as blasphemous or simply too bizarre to believe, and yet the birth, life, death and resurrection of Jesus is the climax of the story of God desiring to be near us.

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God desiring to be near man can be seen displayed across the pages of the Bible. When the uninterrupted fellowship of the Garden of Eden was shattered, God didn’t abandon mankind, He sought him out: He chose Noah, called Abraham, raised up Moses, drew a people to Himself. He was with His people, Israel, in the wilderness, and dwelt amongst them, first in the tabernacle, and then the temple (more on this in a moment). He continued to appear to them, speak to them (through the prophets), and woo them. God never gave up on us in spite of our choices to abandon Him. All of it expresses God’s deep desire for relationship and intimacy with us, not because He needs us, but out of His love, and for His glory.

So when John, one of Jesus’ closest followers, writes in his biography of Jesus’ life (the gospel of John) and describes Jesus as the ‘Word becoming flesh’, he is making the stunning claim that God has stepped onto the earth’s stage and has something huge to say to us. If you had been born at the right time in history, some 2000 years ago, you could’ve seen God! All the promises, pictures, and pointers of God’s presence in the Bible are fulfilled in Jesus. Jesus is God present with us.

John wants us to grasp the depth and magnitude of this, and so he uses a word to describe Jesus’ becoming flesh that hooks us straight back into one of those pointers to God’s presence from the Old Testament. In John 1 verse 14 he speaks of Jesus ‘pitching his tent’ among us. Now, John was a whole lot more familiar in his day with tents than we are (actually, our modern camping rarely involves a tent these days, but does seem to involve everything else – microwave, satellite

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dish, lazy boy recliner, and the whole kitchen sink!) But John wasn’t thinking of just any tent. He had a very specific tent in mind (with more humble furnishings) – the tabernacle.

This was a portable tent that was pitched as Israel moved about in the wilderness.

It was made up of rug-like coverings for a roof, and an external courtyard. It was surrounded by a high fence made of linen hangings held by pillars, and divided into the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies. In front of the Holy of Holies hung a large curtain, and behind it was the Ark of the Covenant.1 God gave His people meticulous instructions for its construction. By using these words, John is saying that all that the tabernacle stood for in the life of the people of God in the Old Testament is fulfilled in Jesus. It was always a shadow pointing forward to the reality to come – the mystery and magnificence of the incarnation.

A little more understanding of the tabernacle will help us grasp more of the character and heart of God for His people.

GOD’S HOUSE Firstly, the tabernacle was a picture of God’s house among them (God in the middle and Israel/His people in concentric circles encamped around). It represents an invite into God’s company and the blessing of His ultimate hospitality at His table (the altar).

However, this no longer takes place through a repeated sacrifice; it comes through the once-off sacrifice of the ‘tabernacling’ Word, Jesus.

GOD AS KING

GOD’S DWELLING IN THE TABERNACLE WAS BUT A STEP TOWARD WHEN ACCESS TO THE PRESENCE OF GOD WOULD ONCE MORE BE COMPLETELY UNHINDERED AND EXPERIENCED IN ALL ITS JOYOUS FULLNESS!

Secondly, the tabernacle represented God as King enthroned on the Ark of the Covenant in the innermost Holy of Holies. His royalty is represented by the purple of the curtains, His divinity by the blue. The closer the items were to the Holy of Holies, the more valuable they were: from bronze to silver to gold. Jesus comes as a King like no other. As someone put it: “A thousand times in history a baby has become a king to rule a nation. Only one time has a King become a baby to save all nations.” This thorn-crowned king allowed his own body to be ripped apart (like the curtain of the temple torn in two when he was on the cross).

A MINI-EDEN Thirdly, the tabernacle also resembled a mini-Eden, including the east-facing entrance guarded by cherubim, gold, the tree of life, the lampstand, and the tree of knowledge. It reminds us that God’s goal is to take us back to uninterrupted fellowship with Himself as in Eden, through His Son, Jesus. The description of God walking in the garden with Adam and Eve carries in the original Hebrew translation a sense of great intimacy, not casual contact. The greatest tragedy is to be separated from the presence of God. From the moment Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden, the most devastating loss they experienced was not the loss of the garden itself and its abundant provision, but the loss of God. And as the tabernacle affirmed that God had not abandoned His sinful people, so, as Jesus

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tabernacles with us, it affirms that eternal, intimate fellowship in the presence of God is now a glorious possibility.

But, you might ask, why is all this relevant to me? Why should I care? Well, one final reflection on the tabernacle explains why.

SOLUTION FOR SIN

The tabernacle also represents the great problem of mankind: sin – man’s rebellion against his Creator. Though the tabernacle was the meeting place of God with man, it nevertheless emphasised in its very construction that man’s great problem remains unresolved. Though the tabernacle extended an invitation of grace, it underlined the separation and judgment that has come because of man’s rebellion. God is present with His people, but not completely. God’s dwelling in the tabernacle was but a step toward when access to the presence of God would once more be completely unhindered and experienced in all its joyous fullness! So, in John 1 verse 14 it is saying that Jesus Himself is the ultimate meeting place between human beings and God. In other words, the way that rebels such as you and I come to be reconciled to the holy God is through Jesus. He came with a purpose, on a rescue mission, which was costly – at the cost of His own life. He laid it down to lift you up, right into the very presence of God.

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Isn’t that remarkable news for those who feel too messed up, too dirty, too far-gone to ever think that God would love them? He does, and came to this earth to show you that He does.

Isn’t it wonderful news for those who want nothing more than the assurance that God is with them and for them, forever? He is, and has promised by His Holy Spirit to never leave nor forsake those who trust Him until that time He brings the full restoration of paradise in the new heavens and the new earth.

Isn’t it stunning news that a solution to the most the most terrifying reality of all – separation from the presence of God – is fully and finally offered in Jesus?

Is there any greater present than the presence of God Himself in Jesus?

ENDNOTE 1. See Exodus chapters 25-40

RAY BECKMAN has for more than a decade been living and working as a pastor in central South Africa, in the Cheetah country, the city of Bloemfontein! (Though clinging to his staunch Stormers rugby support!) He is married to Roxy, and have 3 energetic boys, Gabriel, Samuel and Ezra, (with one more boy on the way in June!) He enjoys playing squash, reading, wrestling with his boys, and watching crime series and Masterchef with his wife!

He spends his days discipling and equipping, seeking to love people to Life by sharing the precious gospel of Jesus Christ.

ISSUES & INSIGHTS

RETHINK

BY JONATHAN JUST

H

ave you been in a restaurant recently where family and friends are sitting together, so absorbed in their smartphones that the only time they look up is not to make eye contact with each other, but to see how far their food is? It’s a pretty typical sight. Even though they may be at the same table, they could very well be on different planets.

We live in an age where we don’t see the need to sacrifice or share more than what you’ll find on social media. We have chosen convenience over what is costly – not prepared to count the cost, not knowing how to. Time is everyone’s currency, but few feel the need to invest in what really matters.

Contrary to popular belief, time is not circular or moving in a clockwise direction. Rather, it’s more linear as it marches forward on an everchanging landscape of moments that you can either choose to explore, or not. I fear that because most people see reality from behind a screen, we’ve disregarded the living-andbreathing people right in front of us who we’re meant to be exploring with. Howard Fyvie recently released a hilarious video talking about something similar where he says we’ve become phone zombies (check it out here).

Presence or pretense?

There’s something about being in the moment that a picture or status update will never fully capture. Social media steals that away from so many – the appearance of being with others while never fully being in the moment with them.

Social media has shifted people’s understanding of relationship, where we can be supposedly ‘connected’ to hundreds of people while never moving beyond the surface level.

It really comes down to whether or not we consider the family and friends in our lives as important enough to commit to when it’s not convenient to us. Do you know that your presence is a gift that no-one else can give the way you can? Our social media presence may partly reflect who we are, but for most it’s a platform to shine the spotlight on us – my achievements, how funny or clever I think I am.

Legendary hip-hop artist, Lecrae, put it best when he famously said: “If you live for people’s acceptance, you’ll die from their rejection.” I think we inadvertently try and validate who we are and why we matter when we fail to see that we matter to God, and He accepts us as we are.

“You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.”1 The

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RETHINK

DO YOU KNOW THAT YOUR PRESENCE IS A GIFT THAT NO-ONE ELSE CAN GIVE THE WAY YOU CAN? cool thing about God’s presence is that when you begin to experience Him, you want more.

As He reveals more and more of who He is to you, so your desire for His presence grows. It becomes less about you and more about Him. You see more of His glory and that fills you with joy like nothing else. It moves you forward down this path of life where other people’s opinions matter less than knowing for sure He loves you, He’s with you, and He will forever be with you.

Tear down the curtain Something incredible happened while Jesus was on the cross, breathing His last breath – the curtain in the temple tore in two from top to bottom.2 Yes, you read correctly – from top to bottom. For most of us today without any prior Jewish understanding of why the curtain was such a big deal, it basically separated God’s holiness from the sinfulness of His people.

Once a year, the high priest would go behind the curtain and make atonement for their sin. So, when Jesus died on the cross, He essentially shed His blood as a final atoning sacrifice opening up God’s holy presence to all who would repent and believe the good news.3 Even though there is no longer any obstacle stopping us from entering into God’s presence, aren’t we the ones who put up our own kind of curtains that separate us from each other, like believing social media is social and smartphones

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are smart? Please don’t get me wrong; there’s nothing wrong with technology in any form or shape – it can bring a lot of good to our world.

But if families and friends are more concerned about checking on social media than checking on each other – I’m worried.

You are the temple As the curtain was torn in two, Jesus made it possible for anyone to not only enter into the physical temple of God, but to be the temple.

The apostle Paul poses this question to the Christians of Corinth: “Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit lives in you?”4 It’s a radical statement if you think about it; the Holy One not only dwelling amongst sinful people, but also living inside of them. You don’t get more up close and personal than that!

As He builds His temple, it’s important for us to remember that He’s not building according to our clock. His presence is there in the moments when we are fully present; sharing in the joy of seeing Him do glorious things which will continue long after the clock stops.

ENDNOTES 1. Psalm 16:11 2. Mark 15:37-38 3. Colossians 1:19-23 4. 1 Corinthians 3:16

JONATHAN JUST is a writer/editor/publisher-in-progress who loves people and is amazed at how God uses our brokenness in His grand narrative. When time allows, he also enjoys a good run-around on the squash court.

ISSUES & INSIGHTS

CONFRONT

BY LINDIWE MPOFU

“J

ust keep swimming. Just keep swimming. Just make it to Sunday.”

This was the Finding Nemo-inspired mantra I repeated to myself a few weeks ago when I was having ‘one of those weeks’ feeling far away from God with no desire to get closer to Him. It was during a time when I had been processing one of the most hurtful things I’ve ever had to deal with. It felt like I had gone beyond my breaking point. I felt hopeless and helpless.

While I knew that the only thing that could help was to fix my eyes on God and cast my cares to Him, I couldn’t bring myself to do anything ‘spiritual’. I simply wallowed in selfpity and chocolate mousse. But I could keep this up and survive till Sunday’s church service.

Surely once I was at church it would be easier for me to focus on God, ‘fuelled up’ with the encouragement I needed to make it through till the next Sunday. It seemed like a foolproof plan to me. Or so I thought.

Sunday came, but even as we sang songs in worship I still felt very distant from the God I was singing to. By the time we got to the third song, I stopped singing, stopped trying to focus; I zoned out and imagined the service as a production with a production team, band, keynote speaker and on that day I was just part of the audience. A spectator instead of a participator. It was at this point that I sensed God reminding me that His presence was all around me and He had been with me throughout the entire week – I was the one who

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CONFRONT

had chosen not to be present with Him. This was obviously followed by my ugly, snotty cry as I brought my heart before God and repented of trying to live apart from Him, taking His presence for granted. I committed again to be more intentional about abiding in Him1.

As image-bearers of God, we flourish most when we are in His presence: naked and unashamed, vulnerable and wrapped in His love. The fall of man through sin created a distance between us and God which left us as slaves to sin, deserving of eternal death. Since then, man tried many things to get to God, our best never quite being good enough. This is why He chose to come to us as Christ incarnate – bridging the gap and dwelling among us as fully God and fully man. God’s redemptive plan for our lives, displayed through the cross and resurrection, is that we would dwell in His presence every waking moment. And we can.

What Christ gave the world is an invitation to experience His presence through the ups and downs of life. How could I have restricted His presence to merely a Sunday church service?

The ‘Christian on the weekend’ mentality is foolish and futile when you think about it. Noone would have one meal a week and expect that to be enough to keep them going. So, why do we do that with God whom we need far more than food? This is how I picture it: God offers us a 24/7 all-you-can-eat buffet in His presence, yet we have convinced ourselves that it is a Sunday-only special. Cultivating a 24/7 relationship with God is in some ways similar to building any other relationship – it takes good communication and spending quality time together. It requires intentionally seeking Him by reading His Word (the Bible) and interacting with Him in prayer. It’s not always easy, especially during the times when we get consumed by life’s busyness. Cultivating this discipline means acting beyond how we feel, making that decision to take time out to hear

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How could I have restricted His presence to merely a Sunday church service?

God speak even if you’re not hearing much.

“For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.”2 During the times when the craziness of life gets in the way and you struggle to keep up the discipline, you may get tempted to run away or hide from God. This is self-defeating because in running and hiding, you’re pushing away the only One who wants to help and hold you. You can welcome Him when you’re at an all-time low, and He promises to meet you at that place of despair to fill you with an unspeakable joy.

In the words of the great St Augustine: “Flee to God Himself if you would flee from Him: flee to Him by confessing and not hiding; for hide you cannot but confess you can.” Will you choose to be in His presence in those moments?

God gave us the wonderful gift of the church – the body of Christ – with Christ as its head. It is impossible for the rest of the body to be alive, let alone healthy, if it only connects to the head once a week for 2-3 hours. It is right then what A.W. Tozer said that “the church is famishing for want of His presence.” Fellowshipping with God should be every moment of every day – not just on a Sunday. No weekly ‘fix’ could ever replace the value of daily, personal fellowship with God.

ENDNOTES 1. John 15:4 2. Hebrews 12:11

LINDIWE MPOFU Born and raised in Zimbabwe, she moved to Cape Town to study Politics and Public Administration. She sees herself as a bit of a Daniel in Babylon - having an untameable passion to see South Africans reconciled to God and each other.

ISSUES & INSIGHTS

QUESTION

BY JAMES BISHOP

QUESTION

I

f God is all powerful then why is there such evil and suffering in the world? Can God not just step in and do away with it all at once?

If He chooses not to, is He then indifferent? These are justifiably some of the biggest questions we can ask of the Creator God who is all-powerful and all-loving, yet also exists in a world full of pain and suffering. However, let’s focus on God’s presence in the face of suffering and pain in the world.

our Creator is broken.

I think in approaching an issue like this, we need to come at it humbly. We should not overestimate our ability to understand the ways of the infinite God, because we will never have an absolute answer to some of the questions that we face – God’s very presence in the midst of pain and suffering a case in point. There’s an element of mystery to it all. This question we are dealing with touches on the ultimate nature of human existence where we simply cannot resort to sitting on the fence or avoiding it.

But even given this sorry moral state, God is not detached from it. He cares for us in our suffering and pain as the widely-quoted verse from Psalm 34:18 says, “The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit.”

The Bible is full of men and women who suffered. Perhaps the character of Job is the most poignant and informative of all.

In God’s eyes Job was faultless but ends up experiencing misery for months with open sores all over his body to show for it. He loses his wealth, his wife, children, and even his very best friends. Over time, Job understandably begins to question God’s goodness and caring nature. In fact, he thought God had made him His enemy. Yet God’s presence was with Job just as it is with us today. We find that the purpose of Job’s suffering was to demonstrate God’s glory as well as God’s intent to refine Job’s righteousness. God was not detached then and neither is He detached today.

God is in full control now just as He was when Adam and Eve first sinned in the garden. Nothing happens that He does not know about and nothing takes Him by surprise. But what the Bible tells us is that suffering and pain does not exist in some vacuum. No, there is a reason for it and the biblical diagnosis of the human condition goes a far way in explaining why we find ourselves in a world of suffering and pain. Good and evil exist objectively. They’re not illusory products of our imaginations. We really do fall short of God’s moral standard because a moral standard does exist, and we have all willingly sinned and thus transgressed it. Thus, the biblical diagnosis is clear: our relationship with

The ultimate demonstration we have that God really cares for us is in the suffering of Jesus Christ. Jesus didn’t only suffer on the cross, but experienced real human pain throughout His ministry. His own family rejected Him, as did those who claimed to follow Him. His life was threatened on numerous occasions, and He knew that many He loved would spurn His message. Even prior to the cross, Jesus, so fearful for what would befall Him, prayed to the Father for a way out. What was God’s response to Jesus?

It was no. Not because God didn’t care about His pain, but the very pain Jesus Himself experienced is the result of living in a fallen world. Does this somehow mean God’s presence was not with Jesus

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as He went through such immense physical, emotional, and spiritual torture? If we believe that Jesus was God incarnate, without sin yet suffering for our sin, we begin to have a better context for our own pain and suffering.

THROUGH SUFFERING, GOD NOT ONLY BRINGS PEOPLE TO HIMSELF BUT ALSO MAKES HIS PRESENCE KNOWN TO OTHERS. If God is not indifferent to our physical, emotional, and spiritual suffering, the writer of Hebrews can say then that this is a God who sympathises with our own personal struggles. It begs the question how Jesus could live a sinless life, yet still sympathise with the sufferings of others?

God doesn’t sweep sin under the carpet, but instead embodies its consequences to save us from it and offer us what we all truly long for – the presence of God. His presence gives us purpose in the pain.

As we live in this broken world, we needn’t forget the way that God’s presence has been demonstrated in the works of His followers. For God’s people to be effective in aiding and sympathising with others as God sympathises with us, we need to suffer ourselves. Even though suffering is undoubtedly unpleasant, it is the mark of a Christian. Consider the powerful words of Pastor Charles Spurgeon who once remarked that “I am certain that I never did grow in grace one-half so much anywhere as I have upon the bed of pain.” What about the sufferings of some of the most holy people such as Mother Teresa in the slums of India, Dietrich Bonhoeffer in Nazi Germany, and others? These men and women hardly had it easy. But even in the midst of their suffering and indeed the many sufferings of today, the Apostle Paul assures us that Jesus is made manifest in our pain. We are humbled and refined in the process of our pain. In our weakness others will see the image of Jesus as God gives us strength to endure and even rejoice in tribulation. Suffering, therefore, is our greatest teacher as we seek to help others in a world so riddled with pain. We carry the presence of God as we go out to serve with unconditional love.

Although it is difficult for us to try and make sense of heart-breaking evil in the world, God still has a purpose in it. There are some remarkable testimonies of how pain and suffering has brought people to God. The well-known evangelist Ravi Zacharias, for example, discovered Jesus’ grace and mercy after a failed suicide attempt. David Wood, after failing to murder his own father, was overwhelmed with Jesus’ love in a prison cell where he spent several years locked up. Nick

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QUESTION

Vujicic, born with no arms and legs and who himself attempted suicide in a bath, is now one of the world’s leading motivational speakers and evangelists for Jesus. Through suffering, God not only brings people to Himself but also makes His presence known to others. One could add that this is because the consequences of evil and the experiences of suffering cause people to question their existence.

At times when I have been content in the here-and-now I’ve lost sight of the existence of God; whether there is life after death and whether or not our lives matter in the context of eternity. I do believe these things to be true, but they have only become more apparent as I have faced unwelcome pain and suffering of my own.

The Apostle Paul was one wellacquainted with suffering. In sharing the gospel and seeing many come to faith in Christ, he was flogged, imprisoned, abused, stoned, scorned and beaten. He certainly stands in as one of Christianity’s most pertinent examples of what it means to suffer for Jesus, and he has every right to say that no matter what suffering we will experience, it will never separate us from the “love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”1 He correctly understood that his own suffering, and the suffering of others, resulted in imperative qualities that would not have developed if he had not gone through the furnace of affliction where “suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does

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not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us”2.

In closing, even as evil and suffering run rampant in our world, it points to the fact that God is just and righteous. God choosing to make His presence known to us in our troubles is confirmation that He has not abandoned us and is still working out His perfect plan through the pain.

God is righteous, impartial, and holy so we should call out to Him when we feel wronged. We have a fuller picture of who God really is when we come face-to-face with the injustices of this world, knowing that they won’t have the last word. God will not let evil go unpunished, but Jesus will come back to judge the living and the dead and usher in a new world free of pain and suffering. He promises that all who hold on will live in His presence forever.

ENDNOTES 1. Romans 8:28 2. Romans 5:5

JAMES BISHOP identifies as a theological rationalist and evidentialist.

He has written on subjects pertaining to apologetics and philosophy for close to five years, and is currently enrolled in a BA in Theology & Psychology at Cornerstone Institute. His normal day begins with a cappuccino and ends with lots of reading and writing. He loves sport especially minigolf and table tennis, and often goes to movies with his friends. In his free time, he reviews video games and films at his blog The Rambling Bishop. Readers can follow his theological work at his other blog, James Bishop’s Theological Rationalism.

LIVING 2.0

LIVING 2.0

POW-WOW

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Benjamin Shaw chats to Phathiswa Magangane

nshrouded in what felt like our own private botanical oasis, stirring teaspoons and faint whistles of the breeze between the leaves lay a calm atmosphere compensated by the vibrant energy emanating from Mr. Benjamin Shaw.

While most 25-year-olds are beginning to get comfortable in their chosen career path and working their way up the proverbial corporate ladder, not so with this bright, confident and ambitious CEO of HouseME – his own rapidly growing startup company. Sitting down over a pot of tea, I was eager to find out more about this dedicated and hard-working young anomaly.

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POW-WOW

In your own words, who is Benjamin Shaw?

That’s a dangerous question. In my own words, Benjamin Shaw is a Christian, he’s a Chief Executive Officer and ex-investment banker, a part-time gamer, a full-time thinker, a big reader and hopefully, one day – what someone might describe – as a visionary.

I informed him that he stole the intro to my next question as he just quoted his Twitter bio! To which he incisively replied: “I’ve always thought that the presence you have on social media needs to be indicative of who you are in real life because if you are two different people, online and offline, it causes a disconnect. I try [my best] to marry the two.”

Interesting that you mention presence, as that is the theme of this edition of our magazine. How important would you say the idea of presence is in your career field of finance and entrepreneurship?

The one area where this is important is how your presence is felt as a young businessman in South Africa. How you make it in the startup world of a developing country. It is tough to make your presence felt in a meeting with a boardroom full of executives that might be 2 or 3 times your age. I think one of the key things that you have to be strong on is that you can bring value into any negotiation or discussion. A lot of that has to do with your self-belief going into these negotiations. I would argue that that is learned over time but it can also be something intrinsic. For me, a lot of my self-belief comes from the identity I have in Christ and I guess that’s the second presence you can talk about.

The presence we have of God in us and letting this light shine and work through is what I’m trying to do at the moment. I’m

21 DIGITAL ISSUE 2, 2017

Chief Executive Officer of a start-up called HouseME and HouseME is trying to solve a lot of social problems around the country. I don’t think I’d be willing to tackle a problem that is as big as that if I didn’t know I had The Maker walking alongside me.

When would you say you were made aware of God’s presence?

That’s a very tough question… I’ve been a Christian for a very long time. Some people have really remarkable conversion stories but mine is not really like that. Mine was very gradual. As a kid, when I started to understand more I started to relate more and read more etc. So it’s kind of a boring story in that regard but because of that, throughout my life, I’ve felt close to God and what the Christian walk looks like. And it doesn’t mean I don’t stray from time to time, but it does mean that I’ve got a focus and an identity and I think that’s the key. I feel God’s presence not in the easy times, it’s in the tough times. I can tell you right now, starting a business is tough so those moments occur quite frequently! It’s great when you know that you can rely on the Father to take you through the dips and the valleys and hopefully push you up to the peaks.

For those of us who don’t know, what is HouseME? HouseME is a start-up company. It’s a tech business that connects prospective tenants to landlords and residential accommodation – that’s not very new as there are a lot of tech projects trying to do that, but what is unique about it is three things.

1) The one is that we allow an auction

mechanism wherein tenants can bid on what they are willing to pay for rental. In fact there are only two other companies in the whole world that do that and neither of them offers the other services that HouseME does.

2) We match the auction system with a dual-sided rating system that’s similar to businesses like Uber and Air BnB where we are able to help tenants rate landlords and landlords rate tenants and then reward and incentivise good behaviour from both sides.

3) And then the third is a suite of features and services that will help both sides of the rental equation. What I mean by that is we have the opportunity to offer discounted maintenance, discounted legal services, and a plethora of administration and payment solutions that we can provide.

The long term vision is that as we are able to generate profit from our higher-end transactions so that we will be able to plough it back and give discount rates to tenants who otherwise wouldn’t be able to afford accommodation. One of the key disparities in this country, even in the new South Africa, is that sometimes, as a tenant, you won’t get rental because of a demographic bias and that’s unacceptable. That’s something that HouseME seeks to solve.

How did you recognise this need and devise a plan that would fill this gap in the market?

I was working at an investment bank and I really enjoyed banking, but I didn’t have an opportunity to work on anything outside of it. One of the things that banking teaches you is efficiency of systems, efficiency in terms of work hours, efficiency in terms of client interaction, efficiency in terms of

market and then I started to think about markets that aren’t efficient and rental accommodation came up as one of them.

Barely anyone knows about pricing, no-one knows good tenants from bad tenants, noone knows if landlords are good landlords or bad landlords. I used to face this problem as a student all the time and that doesn’t really change when you become a young professional – you just pay more. So I saw the opportunity there. Originally, the need that I had seen or identified was just pricing inefficiency which is where the auction mechanism came in. But we’ve spent a lot of time collecting research and data and finding out what isn’t working for landlords and tenants, and it’s not just pricing. There’s a whole range of concerns they have and that’s what HouseME is now – it’s a platform solution with a whole range of offers we are trying to bring under one roof via an end to end solution built on technology that’s a world first.

You’ve gathered some good traction thus far as a relatively new start-up, how do you continue to affirm your presence as HouseME? I think there are two ways that you can gain traction as a start-up company. The one is what you could call traditional marketing that would include your P.R, your marketing etc. where you pay to reach your consumer.

The other half – which is the more exciting one, particularly for a start-up company with next to no budget – is word of mouth.

We want to go impress clients to the point where they can’t wait to go and tell their friends and family. We want to go and deliver a solution that’s so unique that we delight the person who is using it.

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POW-WOW

The presence we have of God in us and letting this light shine and work through is what I’m trying to do at the moment.

You’ve already spoken a bit about HouseME and where you see its future. Where do you see Benjamin Shaw in a couple of years?

I think the next step for me is to go and build a sustainable business. At the moment we are able to create jobs and really influence the way South Africa treats residential rental and I’d like to have a hand in that.

As I said there are social problems and ills that we can address and hopefully in 2 or 3 years-time help globally. South Africa has unique problems and nobody would argue against that, but we are not the only country in the world with similar problems and a lot of them can be solved by building the right company and creating a social benefit from that. I’m also quite an advocate for the fact that there isn’t a massive difference between

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a social venture and a for-profit venture that is built for social good. We are certainly forprofit but we believe the impact we can have is significant right across the board. That’s hopefully the story for the next 10 years. In a sort of philosophical view, if you believe that the only stakeholders that a business should cater for are the shareholders, you’re not going to be successful. Hopefully, that’s a methodology that many start-ups will follow in this country. [eNCA Interview] https://youtu.be/zA-wN_UwT_Q

LIVING 2.0

EXPLORE

BY CATHRYN MO ODLEY

‘D

well’ is a word we don’t often use anymore. We ‘stay’, we ‘sit’, we ‘chill’, we ‘hang’ – our lives can sometimes feel like a series of superficial, disconnected events with us simply passing through. What does it mean to truly dwell in a place, or on a thought, or with a person; and why should we do it?

There are many aspects to ‘dwelling’, and lots of spaces in which to explore these aspects. We live in such a culturally, socio-economically, and geographically diverse place with endless opportunities for meaningful dwelling as individuals and in community. I have only ever lived in two provinces of this country, so these suggestions are limited and deliberately vague. The ideas behind the suggestions can be applied to many contexts, and my hope is that they would spark more thought, conversation, and action as we learn how to be in the world.

DWELLING AS RESTING

To dwell in a place often means to find rest, to relax. The word most frequently translated as ‘to dwell’ in the Bible is yasabh, which means “to sit down”. In this world, we dare not allow ourselves to sit down for fear that responsibilities or deadlines will pass us by and leave us straggling behind in the race of life.

When we forget how to rest – whether physically, emotionally, psychologically, or spiritually – we rob ourselves and the world of experiencing the fullness of what we could be.

‘Rest’ can mean different things to different people, and it’s important to know what makes you feel genuinely rested. Rest is also not a luxury for a privileged few. In this world and in our country, many leisure activities have been explicitly or implicitly reserved for those with power, status and wealth. Think

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EXPLORE

about the many parks, art galleries, beaches, or libraries reserved for ‘whites only’ during apartheid: this robbed many people of the right to relax, enjoy life or appreciate their environment. It’s time for all people – across racial and socio-economic lines – to find rest again, and to find space in this beautiful country to do so.

SOME SUGGESTIONS OF RESTING PLACES:

- The natural environment: the beach, mountains, botanical gardens or a small field near where you live… We live in a strikingly beautiful place that we sometimes don’t realise – we just need to take the time to stop and appreciate it.

• Examples: Hiking trails around the Magaliesberg, the Garden Route or in an area near where you live.

- Art spaces: This could be a formal art gallery, a public mural, an artist’s studio, a place where artists meet or even some graffiti in your neighbourhood.

• Example: The Green Camp Gallery Project (246 Umbilo Road, Durban) is an artistic hub and sustainable farming experiment in the middle of the city.

- Music spaces: Anywhere music is played and enjoyed is often a good place to relax. It could even be your own house on a Saturday night. Many towns and cities also have regular open mic nights or performances by local artists, which are quite often under-attended.

Like art, music takes us out of our logical, linear thoughts and helps us access a more hidden – but no less important – part of ourselves.

• Example: The Orbit (81 De Korte Street, Johannesburg) is a live music venue with a reputation for music of the highest quality.

This is probably a bit on the pricey side, but there are definitely cheaper options available in any town or city. (Newspaper gig guides and Facebook events are a good place to look.)

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DWELLING AS BEING HOME

One aspect of dwelling is to live in a place. A dwelling place should be a space where one feels safe, comfortable, ‘at home’. As people living in South Africa, we are generally not very comfortable in many spaces around the country. There are areas in our cities, our neighbourhoods, and maybe even our own homes in which we feel decidedly out of place; not at home. There may be many different reasons for these feelings, but I believe that one of the best ways of feeling at home is to invite others into your home.

There is so much to be learned and gained from visiting peoples’ homes and inviting them into your own: our most personal, intimate and vulnerable space. They are where we are our mundane selves and where we, hopefully, are comfortable simply being.

In our country, however, the home space is also the most segregated and often violent place in society. To be in a person’s home is to see something profoundly human about that person, and also to humble oneself as one accepts hospitality. To invite someone into your home is to open up and expose an intimate part of yourself, risking rejection, awkwardness or ridicule. These are both difficult, beautiful experiences which have the potential to drastically change society.

PEOPLE AS A DWELLING PLACE

Throughout history, people have found spaces of belonging and acceptance in other people.

Communities are ‘places’ in which many things can dwell: love, hatred, knowledge, compassion, life or death. The Bible speaks about the early Christian churches being “built together into a dwelling place for God”1. This makes it clear that community is an integral part of human life, and that we can experience something of the beauty and goodness of God through others.

One of the lies our society has taught us is that our own personal happiness is separable

WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO TRULY DWELL IN A PLACE, OR ON A THOUGHT, OR WITH A PERSON; AND WHY SHOULD WE DO IT? from the well-being and joy of the people around us. The truth is that community (or the lack thereof) can either make or break a person, so it’s vital that we place ourselves within communities in which true life dwells.

Find a group of friends who really care about you unconditionally, and share your life with them. Don’t be satisfied with shallow, convenient relationships: go deep, give and receive real love, carry each other’s joy and pain.

DWELLING AS OFFERING HEALING

The picture of God shown in the Bible is of a person who is “near to the brokenhearted”, who dwelt among – and was friends with – the poor and marginalised in society, and who shared in the suffering of those around him.

Often, the most life-changing places to visit and dwell in are those in which people are working together to bring healing to broken

spaces. There is often a special kind of life and sincerity in these spaces, which cannot be experienced anywhere else. Although such places are usually in need of volunteers, however, one should be careful of visiting as a once-off ‘experience’ instead of building real relationships and long-term partnerships.

Spaces of healing, suffering or marginalisation are complex and multifaceted, and no single person has all the solutions to societal problems.

HERE ARE SOME SUGGESTIONS FOR FINDING SPACES WHERE HEALING IS NEEDED:

- Look or ask around for organisations like church groups, grassroots organisations, women’s groups, NGOs or local schools which are actively engaging with those on the margins of society and ask how you could get involved.

- Be aware of marginalised people in your own community: they could be people of a different race, ethnic group or nationality from you, people with a disability, people who are poor and/or unemployed, people with a mental illness or depression, people with addictions, people who have not recovered from traumatic experiences. There are many whose lives are considered less valuable because they are not ‘normal’ in some way.

We can be a part of creating and extending spaces in which marginalised people have the freedom to speak, love and be loved.

ENDNOTES 1. Ephesians 2:22 2. Psalm 34:18

CATHRYN MOODLEY is passionate about Jesus, children, and imagination. She recently graduated from university and is currently interning at an NGO in Durban where she does a lot of reading, writing, and learning. She is interested in Education, and is a firm believer in the potential and beauty of everyday people.

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LIVING 2.0

ANECD OTE

SUICIDE

Y E S T E R DAY I AT T E M P T E D

BY JEREMY JAMES BRADFORD

I

wrote these words whilst journaling at a table in the garden of the Kenilworth Psychiatric Clinic. Words about a day that I don’t remember too well, but only a sense of what I had tried to do. Death felt like the only way out of the depths of a major depressive episode. I remember a distinct weight of shame pulling my shoulders towards my chest and casting my eyes to my feet afraid to meet the eyes of those around me. Looking inwards I realised that I was a person that I could not trust.

Just what lead to this point remains complex and full of uncertainty. My psychiatrist’s question of “why did you do it?” echoes in my mind to this day. It is a question that

27 DIGITAL ISSUE 2, 2017

used to haunt me, but soon I was haunted by other questions following my suicide attempt. Questions of self-love, self-trust, God, relationships, meaning and existentialism.

These are questions that still penetrate my soul and the frustrating thing is that my answers to all of them are riddled with doubt

WHAT WHAT II AM AM HAVING HAVING TO TO LEARN LEARN ON ON A A DAY-TO-DAY DAY-TO-DAY BASIS IS THE PRACTICE OF LETTING GOD GO, SO THAT GOD MAY TRULY HOLD ME.

and uncertainty. Like Job, I wondered how God allowed this to happen. Like Christ I ask, ‘My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?’

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, from the words of my groaning? Oh my God, I cry by day but you do not answer, and by night, but I find no rest. (Psalm 22 verse 1-2) Reading these words in some way articulates the existential position of struggling with depression; the very real feeling of nothingness is ever present. Answers are absent and rest is out of reach. God is gone experientially.

I remember when I was younger and had the opportunity to read a book called ‘Private Peaceful’ which tells the story of a soldier fighting in World War II. The story is devastatingly sad, and the only way that I could cope with this book was to read the last chapter to find out if there is hope or some sort of beautiful ending that I would like. I wanted certainty that the end or the future would be better than the present.

This is some form of rationalisation: a psychological phenomenon of ascribing significant meaning to one’s behavior or current life situation. ‘Things happen for a reason’ is a common example of this. Jumping to the conclusion of a book helps us process the ‘reason’ better. People surrounding those who suffer from a mental illness, the loss of a loved one or seek to comfort those going through the trauma of life, will resort to finding reasons as in the case of Eliphaz, Bildad and Zophar in the book of Job. My experience and conversations with those who have experienced the void of meaninglessness through depression, hardship or despair has lead me to a different understanding of the presence of God. God is not an object or a magician that offers a quick fix or a machine that provides meaning. God is not an answer that serves our existential pains or something that fills our nothingness. God is

not a thing. When I clutch at straws for answers, for meaning; I find myself reducing God to something. When I reduce God to something, I give myself something to hold onto tightly – a crutch of sorts. Peter Rollin’s calls this the “idolatry of God”.

Giving myself something to hold onto, whether it be a reason, an idea, relationships, meaning, or even God – I find myself becoming attached to these things. They give me purpose or hope that is reliant on how tightly I grip onto them. In turn, I choose to save my life through reducing God to something like meaning or a reason or an answer. Albert Nolan, a South African writer and theologian, suggests that when we hold too tightly onto God, we do not allow God to hold us; like a child clinging onto the leg of the parent finding false proximity/ comfort with the parent because the child does not become vulnerable enough to be held.

When I say ‘My bed will comfort me, my couch will ease my complaint,’ then you scare me with dreams and terrify me with visions, so that I would choose strangling and death rather than my bones. (Job 7 verse 13-15) It’s incredible to read that God’s response to Job was not an answer or reason for what happened. It was a riddle of questions – an affirmation of the mystery of God. Reasons and meaning, although not always bad, can often become the beds and couches that provide comfort and relief only to be interrupted by the reality of their emptiness. We can make new beds only to find ourselves losing ourselves trying to save our own lives. What I am having to learn on a day-to-day basis is the practice of letting God go, so that God may truly hold me.

I cannot say that I continually feel or know that God is present; it would be dishonest of me to say so. However, I do take comfort in the fact that Christ remains ever faithful through His honesty towards God in asking, “Why have you forsaken me?”

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CAMPUS CONNECT

CAMPUS CONNECT

ON THE GROUND

U LT R A H E I G H T S C A M P U S T O U R 2 0 1 7

BY CITY GATE RECORDINGS

ON THE GROUND

A

fter many months of prayer and planning in the City Gate Recordings (CGR) team, the Ultra Heights university campus tour actually happened. For the team, it truly felt like witnessing and taking part in a miracle. From it starting as simply an idea and a dream, to actually visiting 17 campuses and 6 cities around South Africa – it certainly was no small feat, and the hand of God was clearly seen at every turn.

C A P E TOW N Leaving Johannesburg in the early hours of Thursday the 9th of February, Blaque Nubon, Lilly Million, Lutic Mosoane of CGR along with videographer, Hazer Mokhoane of Beyond The Eyes Network (BTE), piled into a car and set off for the first stop of the tour – Cape Town.

What better place to begin than the Mother City, right? 15 hours later and the team was welcomed by Coby and Pamela McGinty who so generously gave up their granny flat for us to

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have a place to call home for the next 10 days. It would be a busy stay in Cape Town.

With one day to rest, the team went straight to work putting on their first event at George Whitefield College, hosted by student, Reggie Lamityi. The rest of the time consisted of visits to various student ministries including an openair event at the CPUT Student Y as well as a talk on music and the gospel given by Blaque Nubon at St James Church. Due to unforeseen circumstances, Ultra Heights was unable to get a venue on UCT campus but the show was held at The Message Church with a vibrant crowd.

Our final event took place at Christ Church Stellenbosch. Again, we faced issues with getting a venue on campus, but had a great time at the church.

In retrospect, we can definitely say that our concert in Heideveld was the closest to our hearts. It was a privilege to bring light to such a broken community, and an eye-opener for us to see some of the struggles still plaguing the marginalised of our country. Being able to spend time with the young children was particularly

special. We hope to go back there soon.

With a few events under our belt, we were beginning to feel the toll these back-to-back concerts were taking on us; setting up sound, performing, preaching, meeting with students as well as packing up afterward was no easy task.

However, the mission was more important, and with prayer and teamwork the load was possible to bear. Off to Durban…

DURBAN With a less hectic schedule in KZN, the team had ample time to rest and enjoy fellowship with some old friends. After some refuelling, first up was a very successful open air concert at UKZN Howard College Campus hosted by The Bible Talks. Those performances are always intimidating due to the nature of doing a concert for people who haven’t necessarily asked for one.

However, to our surprise, a mass of students

F R O M I T S TA R T I N G A S S I M P LY A N I D E A AND A DREAM, T O A C T U A L LY VISITING 17 CAMPUSES AND 6 CITIES AROUND SOUTH AFRICA – IT C E R TA I N LY WA S N O S M A L L F E AT, A N D THE HAND OF GOD WA S C L E A R LY S E E N AT E V E R Y T U R N .

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ON THE GROUND

were drawn in despite another concert taking place at the same time. Our last Durban event was in one of the lecture halls at the UKZN Westville Campus, where we performed to an energetic audience. Also, for a change, performing in a lecture hall really made us feel like we were on a ‘campus’ tour. We wrapped up our time in KZN with a mini performance during the evening service at Christ Church Pinetown, and next was Bloem…

BLOEMFONTEIN Arriving at Maselspoort Resort, CGR had the privilege of staying in a beautiful (and quiet) place, only a short distance out of the main city.

Hosted by Sean Darker of St James Church, we got to attend a Bible study on the University of Free State (UFS) campus and meet with the students. Blaque and Lilly went on to do a short, impromptu, unplugged promo concert for a few students at the amphitheatre. Our main event took place at the Kopanong auditorium; this was the first event where we didn’t have to set up any sound and it was a great relief. Energised and ready to go, we were excited for a great show and felt the blessing of the rain just before the show. It turned out to be a beautiful night and had a little jam session with some of the members of the crowd afterwards. It was great to see again how music can unite people.

Our final concert was at the St James Church evening service and then it was off to Port Elizabeth, our favourite city (as decided by Blaque and Lilly).

EASTERN CAPE Being somewhat used to the road, the drive to Port Elizabeth should have felt short – it didn’t! We couldn’t wait to arrive and catch up with old friends at the Word of Life student

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church. It was straight to work with another open-air event outside the cafeteria at NMMU. At lunchtime, Blaque and Lilly performed to a crowd of receptive students and Lutic confidently offered a gospel presentation till it was all systems go for the main event held at NMMU South Campus. Due to technical difficulties, we had a very rough start to the show but it ended up being truly powerful. If you may indulge us a bit, it is every musician’s dream to have a crowd sing along to their music and we got treated to that by the students at NMMU. Many invited friends to the concert and a few even became believers that night.

Our Eastern Cape tour also took us to Grahamstown where we performed at the nightclub, Prime – our most interesting venue to date. We had the ‘Christians at Rhodes’ students attend with other passers-by walking into the club to hear something different. Some stayed, some left, but seeds were definitely planted. Finally after 34 days on the road, the CGR team finally made their way home on the 13th of March to close off the tour in Gauteng.

GAUTENG In our final leg of the tour, we were blessed to be at Christ Church Tshwane, the UJ Auckland Park campus, UJ Doornfontein campus and lastly, Christ Church Midrand. It was great to wrap up the tour at our home province; the music and the gospel talks going off well.

It has been a crazy and amazing ride with 24 music performances by Blaque Nubon and Lilly Million, and 18 gospel talks by Lutic Mosoane.

CGR would like to thank REACH SA, all our hosts who housed and fed us, the various student ministries as well as every individual who made the tour possible by volunteering their time, resources and finances. All being well, we’ll definitely be back at it in 2018!

CAMPUS CONNECT

FURTHER ALONG

BY BRETT ANDERSON

H

ow did someone who is 42 years old and long since finished with studies have any way of understanding what happened at our university campuses in 2016? By showing up.

on a CD in my car.

And the walls kept tumbling down In the city that we love Great clouds roll over the hills Bringing darkness from above

When the #FeesMustFall protests flared up around September last year, a group of local churches in Cape Town issued the call to be something called a Peace Justice Witness (PJW).

So I went to take a look at what that was about.

We were told the main focus was to be an observing presence on campus when things got a little heated. But also hopefully to be a deescalating presence for the students and the police/security.

And I thought to myself: “Wow, that seems like familiar imagery. I wonder if this is the #FeesMustFall theme song?”

But if you close your eyes, Does it almost feel like Nothing changed at all?

And if you close your eyes, Does it almost feel like You’ve been here before?

How am I gonna be an optimist about this?

How am I gonna be an optimist about this?

Thinking this was an excellent opportunity to put my faith into action, I signed up, completed the training, and that very morning was on the way to the University of Cape Town (UCT) campus.

FLASH FORWARD – A FEW WEEKS LATER

I was driving to a university campus in Cape Town to do a PJW shift and listening to the band Bastille

But actually the part that hit me the hardest is the bridge: Oh where do we begin?

The rubble or our sins?

Oh where do we begin?

The rubble or our sins?

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FURTHER ALONG

ARMCHAIR WORRIER OR ACTIVIST/PEACEKEEPER?

Many things in life cannot be categorised into either/or. Is the student protesting bad? Some of it is. Is the student protesting good? Some of it isn’t.

One of the clearest examples to me of the part that was good was listening to the songs and music of the movement.1 Another obvious element is some of the really powerful leadership that has emerged amongst a few students as they look beyond their personal agendas to try and figure out solutions that will be good for everyone.

THE RUBBLE

Students burning paintings, throwing faeces at statues (and people), burning buildings, throwing rocks, throwing water and pee balloons, beating up a guard, interrupted classes, postponed or cancelled exams. Private security presence which can be quite intimidating at the best of times,

MANY THINGS IN LIFE CANNOT BE CATEGORISED INTO EITHER/OR. IS THE STUDENT PROTESTING BAD? SOME OF IT IS. IS THE STUDENT PROTESTING GOOD? SOME OF IT ISN’T. police shooting rubber bullets, police firing tear gas, security dressed in riot gear, police firing water cannons, police/private security raiding student reses, security blocking entrance to buildings, students arrested and awaiting trial or sitting in jail.

OUR SINS

Where have we (the people of South Africa/ government/university heads and staff) got it

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wrong? What aspects of present education bear remnants of a broken past? How do we decolonise education? Joel Modiri put it well: In their call for decolonisation, the students have issued a searing challenge to academics to seriously reflect on what we teach and its relevance to our specific location and social context. What civilisational delusions and historical misrepresentations, what epistemic illusions and entrenched biases do we maintain when we fail to reflect on the knowledge we convey in the classroom?2 WHERE DO YOU STAND?

The armchair commentators and virtual stone throwers (because let’s be honest, it’s who the majority of people are) certainly tend to take the rubble approach, which sadly mostly prevents them from engaging more authentically and trying to hear/see/understand the bigger picture that exists beyond whatever newspaper headline, news story or forwarded Facebook status they chose to base their entire feeling on.

There is also a group, or groups, of people who are trying to hold both together in tension. As part of the PJW team, we stand present among some of the rubble created by both sides while we reflect and try to understand the deeper question and answer of the sins. Students are doing that.

Hopefully more staff and leaders of universities will as well.

It starts with us showing up. Listening, looking to stand alongside the marginalised, speaking against injustice. Being agents and instruments of love.

ENDNOTES 1. https://brettfish. co.za/2016/10/06/thepassion-of-the-cries/ 2. https://www. dailymaverick.co.za/ opinionista/201610-16-in-the-falldecolonisation-and-therejuvenation-of-theacademic-project-insouth-africa/

BRETT “FISH” ANDERSON is a freelance writer and a follower of Jesus with a penchant for living life to its absolute fullest. He is married to tbV [the beautiful Val] and owns the world’s most famous stuffed dolphin, No_bob [who he was going to call ‘Bob’ but it doesn’t!]

You can find him at @BrettFishA and his musings and sometimes controversial writings at https:// brettfish.co.za/

THE MISSION

THE MISSION

TODAY

The reallife story of Mr. R* in Central Asia

BY GABRIEL MONTGOMERY

When did you know that God wanted you to go into missions?

For me it was a growing understanding of missions as I grew as a Christian, realising more of what it was like for those that had not heard – and would not have the opportunity to hear. There were small steps along the way but there was also an intentionality to work towards it and take opportunities that came.

It started with smaller shorter trips that were more local or a day’s drive and then three months away to take time to grow. Each time through prayer we came one step closer – but it was a long journey.

However, we’ve always had the vision, along with all of life’s responsibilities. So when the door opened we made sure it was there and realised there were a lot of steps towards it. Even though there were challenges in getting to this point, we kept on fanning the flame to do missionary work. We met up with people who shared the same interest as us, heard testimonies from people who have gone 37 DIGITAL ISSUE 2, 2017

before us, and started supporting missionaries.

How is it to spread the Gospel in a city that is not ‘predominantly Christian’?

It is the same as it would be in any other city. For example, get into a taxi-cab, strike up a conversation, try to swing it into a religious context, and see what traction comes from that. It takes minimal effort, whereas striking up a religious/spiritual conversation in country like South Africa or America can be challenging. Making it relational is where the challenge is, but what we do is no different to other evangelists across the world, except that the people don’t know about Jesus. We do use recreational activities such as soccer as a draw card to build relationships, which leads to a lot of ‘preconversion discipleship’ such as praying for people and exercising love.

When they resist you what do you do?

Did you ever feel like giving up?

The people are very unaware rather than ignorant.

We always honour them and pray that God blesses them. We’re not coming from an argumentative point of view, so if it’s not going well, we just look for an exit.

Yes. Probably far too frequently than we should admit, but God’s grace is what sustains – we really are not here by our own strength. Prayer here becomes tangible – we pray a lot more – probably not as deep but a whole lot more earnestly. If God does not act we are in serious trouble and we know that. So in those times, we know that God called us here and God keeps us here, not our resolve.

Were there any major distractions before going to central Asia, and what were they?

Yes. The general responsibilities of life, society’s ideology of the ‘American dream’, family, and what people thought: “There is so much need in SA, why go elsewhere?” Thinking that raising support was difficult (this one kept us slow for a long time). It was one year’s hard work – and still is – but we trust God a whole lot more now and see His plan through it all. We got here 7 years after we had hoped, so we had many distractions.

How has God provided for you throughout all these years?

God’s hand of provision has come through in the big things such as visas, support, schooling for kids, language, friends, and opportunities to share life others – but God provides daily. The things that were daunting three years ago are now normal faith steps and not crushing hurdles. For example, sometimes you can only get a new visa when your

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TODAY

current one is only valid for two more weeks. The hurdles have become being called in by the police, conflict in relationships, but these too will become steps when we trust. Despite the faith steps and hurdles, we have more experience in God’s faithful provision in so many more circumstances.

What inspires you to keep going?

Jesus. Tangible Jesus. By that I mean, Jesus is present in the small things: cops pulling us over because I broke a law I was unaware of, or overcoming the language barrier on a daily basis. Jesus needs to act, because these are His people that He loves and we can’t do anything if He doesn’t act. The need is great, it keeps us on our knees.

How do you continue doing what you do in a society geared towards selfish gain?

Realise our own sin and see our own sinful desires to realise just how similar we are to those around us, but how gracious God is. What if we were going through normal life as we are but did not have God’s reassuring presence with us? There must be so much anguish and pain in a life without God. We’ve learned that you don’t break away an ideology – you replace it with something greater. Why live for this life when we’ve got so many promises for so much more?

What fuels your awareness of God’s presence in your life?

Stepping onto the street (hahaha!). Daily praying, daily reading His word – it is not rocket science!

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What if we were going through normal life as we are but did not have God’s reassuring presence with us?

There must be so much anguish and pain in a life without God. But seriously, as I mentioned, just daily occurrences that keep us on our knees and in need of help.

What advice would you give to younger believers who want to get into missionary work?

Trust that God is at work, it is not about you. It is up to Him, not you.

If you can go with those you trust, then go with them. Going with people you trust can increase your time on the field, because you know each other’s work ethic. As the African proverb says: “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.”

God uses all kinds of people in all different circumstances. Teachers are key in different contexts – study hard. Qualifications in today’s world help, and there are lots of opportunities. I encourage getting the qualification and using it in a different context.

You will be going cross-cultural, so start cross cultural ministry and focus on those different to you right now in your local community or in your city.

Continue fanning the flame and open your mind to shorter missionary trips over the vacations; there are people who don’t have a city with churches on many corners. Take the step. It’s worth it! *Mr. R is a pseudonym to protect the identity of the interviewee

THE MISSION

INSPIRE ACTION

MARRIED & ON MISSION

BY CARLA ERASMUS

I

n 2012 I was invited to go to Mozambique on a mission trip with loads of teenagers and a few passionate leaders. It was the first time that I, an Afrikaans girl from an Afrikaans neighbourhood and an Afrikaans school, experienced God in a cross-cultural ministry setting. After high school, I committed a year to getting to know God in a very practical way in South America, with a group of crazy Christians. This was just the beginning of an even bigger missionary adventure to come.

Needless to say, in 2012 a desire was birthed in me that would change my whole life from that point onwards.

Last year, I married my best friend at the young age of 20. We decided that the best way for us to get to know each other and God better would be to serve His people together. When God started talking to us about getting married, He revealed to us His desire towards His Bride and the way that He continues to love, serve

and raise her up to show more and more of His Image. He gave us the choice to partner with Him in being part of seeing that in the world we live in. He told us to trust and hold on. So, we hopped on a plane to Brazil with a return ticket for five months later, and no plan other than following where we felt Him leading us.

Early in my Christian life, I heard somebody quote the following and it stuck with me from then on: “If God orders the pizza, He’ll pay for it.” And that’s what He did. We’re just two young people with no salary and no savings, but we decided to believe that God meant it when He told us to “Go big”. There are loads of stories I can write down, but one in particular lights up in my mind as I think back on our fivemonth missionary adventure. We had barely overcome our jetlag while staying with some pastor friends in Brazil when they asked us if we could help them out with something at church.

“Anything,” we said. They explained that they

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INSPIRE ACTION

hosted a prayer meeting for all church members on Friday evenings and would love for us to lead this. Being the youngest of all (by far), we had expected him to ask us to stack the chairs. We realised soon enough what a great honour this was and that these pastors heard something from God about what He wanted to do, and we obeyed. We prayed together, then alone, and then together again before Jaun-Claude and I wrote down what we felt God was leading us to do and say, and most of it matched up perfectly.

So we planned the first half of the get-together and left the second half, by God’s instruction, to see what would happen in that moment.

After a Portuguese song and opening prayer, the mic was handed to Jaun-Claude as I prayed silently for God to do what He wanted to do. After an authentic testimony about reconciliation and fatherly love, the atmosphere was heavy with the tangible presence of the love of Father God. When the mic was handed to me, I prayed and can’t remember too much detail after that. Each person spontaneously forgave their absent fathers and invited Abba to be what their earthly dads were not able or willing to be for them. Only as we sat down for

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WE SEE EVERY STORY AS FRAGRANT WITH THE SMELL OF JESUS’ LOVE IN A LOST AND LONELY WORLD. pizza in the early hours of the morning did our pastor friend explain to us what had happened and how many of the people who came to church had real problems understanding the love of the Father because of abandonment, abuse, or absence from their own fathers.

This is a big story, and yes, God definitely works in massive ways to bring His Kingdom through those who choose to step out and say yes. However, we also have hundreds of stories of taking someone a piece of bread who really needed it, of smiling sincerely, or hugging the unwanted child. We see every story as fragrant with the smell of Jesus’ love in a lost and lonely world.

Each of us have the privilege of knowing God more and more as we walk according to the great purpose He has for each of us; knowing Him inwardly, revealing Him outwardly.

d i v a D d r e n i a r B THE MISSION

REMEMBER

BY AN-MARI FOUCHÉ

G

od makes His presence known in a multitude of ways. In biblical times He often appeared to His people through dreams, visions, physical manifestations and, most importantly, through sending His Son to suffer for our sins.

Today He works in another way as well: through missionaries. These are people who are -handpicked by God to spread His Word and reconcile people to Himself. These missionaries become His presence in places which are hostile to the Gospel, often suffering greatly themselves. One such missionary was David Brainerd.

In many ways, he wasn’t your typical missionary.

He went to Yale to study for the ministry but was expelled after insulting a tutor, saying that he “had no more grace than a chair” – a statement he would later regret. He was sickly his whole life; contracting measles in college and suffering from tuberculosis, of which he would eventually die at the young age of 29. He only spent three years in the mission field before becoming too sick to continue. Depression and bitterness were a continual struggle for him.

Orphaned at the age of 14, he had a difficult life.

As a young man he devoted his time to studying the Bible and fasting and praying – something he often did throughout his life. In 1739 he had a conversion experience where he realised his own helplessness and lost state, as well as the glory of God and salvation.

After being kicked out of college, he became despondent and unsure of what God wanted him to do. So he fasted and prayed, seeking God’s presence. God answered, and on the 30th of July 1742 he preached his first sermon. In November of that same year he met with the Scottish Society and started his missionary work in April the next year.

During his three years in the mission field reaching the Native Americans, he had many battles. He was often lonely and had meagre food and inadequate shelter for the harsh weather. He was faced with the real challenges of illness and

pain, long journeys by foot and a translator who didn’t know the Bible. Despite all this and several offers of a more comfortable life working as a pastor of a church back home, writing in his diary:1“[I] could have no freedom in the thought of any other circumstances or business in life: All my desire was the conversion of the heathen, and all my hope was in God: God does not suffer me to please or comfort myself with hopes of seeing friends, returning to my dear acquaintance, and enjoying worldly comforts”.

Prayer was, once again, his solace. In June 1745, after much prayer, he baptized his first two Indian converts. August brought along the powerful presence of God as Brainerd preached to a small group of Indians which grew, and he baptized 25 at the end of the month. From there on many more milestones were reached before he eventually became too sick and died on October 9, 1747 at the home of his friend, Jonathan Edwards.

David Brainerd’s legacy is one of endurance through many battles. Just like Jesus when He was on earth, Brainerd also experienced much suffering but pressed on for the bigger purposes of God. He wrote that he wanted “to burn out in one continual flame for God”. He wanted to reach people who had no contact with the Gospel before, and so spread the love and presence of God. Even after his death, his diary continued to inspire many missionaries and preachers (such as Jim Elliot and William Carey) who went on to reach even more people for God. Through his life, he showed that if you fervently seek God, there is no limit to what God can do through you.

ENDNOTES 1. Read The Life and Diary of David Brainerd

by Jonathan Edwards.

AN-MARI FOUCHÉ is a Language and Literature student at the NWU-Potchefstroom. Some of her favourite things include most things French, correcting people’s grammar, and spending quality time with close friends being silly and eating pizza.

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MUSIC & READING

MUSIC

RECOMMENDED 10

Two local South African musicians, Lilly Million and Ndumiso Manana, share their top 5 artists/bands that draw them into the presence of God

RECOMMENDED 10

LILLY MILLION is a singer-songwriter who wishes she could live on cereal and sushi. She recently released her album Crazy Believer and just came off the Ultra Heights university campus tour put together by City Gate Recordings, a label she runs with Christian rapper and husband Blaque Nubon.

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usic stirs our emotions and helps us connect on a level beyond our consciousness. It is a gift, I believe, God gave to us very deliberately. In my Christian walk, music has been a key player, not just as one who creates it but as one who often needs it to get past the mess in my mind in order to connect with God.

We Will Worship is a local gospel band with an urban but still African sound. I’ll never forget the first time I heard ‘Like Oil’ during a performance we did together. It uses the story of Mary who poured the most expensive oil on the feet of Jesus, to demonstrate how we need to pour out our lives before the Lord in light of all He has done. As the song says, “You are worthy, worthy, worthy Lord”.

To begin with, Beautiful Eulogy: they are an American Christian hip-hop trio. What I love is their musicality as well as their theologically heavy content. One song that has stood out for me in the past 5 years is ‘Anchor’ with the soothing chorus featuring folk artist, Josh Garrels, that has many times brought me clarity: “Anchor of my soul, You sustain. When I’m in the storm, You remain good to me”.

When I am overwhelmed and struggling with the issues of life, the song serves as a great reminder that no matter what, God is always good.

Being a sucker for old classic hymns sung by the powerful voices of black women, the late Mahalia Jackson has to be on my list. Every line she sings is an experience. It is because she sings with all her heart and soul that I think it is impossible not to feel something. Her rendition of ‘Trouble of the world’ is beautiful but honestly a bit painful to listen to due to the hurt that comes through in her delivery. The song reminds me of the eternal hope I have when I get caught up in worldly things: “Soon I will be done with the trouble of this world, I’m going home to live with my Lord”.

My next choice as has to be Jason Upton who has one of the most soul grabbing voices I have heard. His lyrics time and time again explain the tensions of living for the glory of self vs the glory of God. His raw honesty is explicit in the song, ‘In the Silence’. Repeatedly, I have been brought to tears by the opening line: “I’m tired of telling you, you have me, when I know you really don’t”.

Last but not least has to be Abel Chungu Musuka, straight out of Zambia. His ability to translate the gospel through a very current and urban sound, while still maintaining its essence, is something I appreciate. His album ‘Love Unleashed’ opens with the words: “All who are weary and tired, come”. A stunning song that has many times set the tone during my quiet time with God.

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RECOMMENDED 10

NDUMISO MANANA or just “Manana”, is a singer, songwriter, arranger and performer of jazz and soul music, and is currently based in Cape Town, South Africa. He recently returned home after touring Germany, Switzerland and South Africa with jazz/soul collective called Seba Kaapstad, where they promoted their debut album Tagores. Fun fact: Ndumiso shared a stage with Pavarotti at age 11.

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’ve been living in hostels for most of my life. This is not really a bad thing, but in retrospect I admire my parents for trusting God enough to allow me to leave home for hostel life at 8 years old. Without knowing God’s abiding presence in my life over the last 15 years, I know I wouldn’t have had the grace or opportunity to actually live out what I’ve been called to.

At different stages of my life, music has played an important role in ministering God’s truth to me, so I picked five bands and artists that contributed to my understanding the importance of God’s presence. The first one being Ron Kenoly.

I grew up listening to Ron Kenoly and, as a child, being exposed to music written straight from scripture made it quite exciting for me to memorise Bible verses. With knowing scripture came applying scripture, allowing the songs to become more than words and melodies, but personal anthems.

Hillsong. The music of Hillsong Church has always ministered to the importance of my relationship with God. I’ve come to learn that you cannot really live for a God you do not have an active relationship with. Through listening to albums like ‘God He Reigns’ and ‘For All You’ve Done’, I learnt to develop a relationship

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with God outside of a Sunday service or even cell or prayer meetings. Although the greater gathering of the saints cannot be despised – as we are taught in scripture – understanding the importance of personal and continuous intimacy with God is what sustains our relationship with Him. The next two Artists are Marvin Sapp and Travis Greene. In the last year I had to learn how to worship even when things don’t feel like they are going great. The testimonies of these two musicians have helped me to believe, more and more, in God’s goodness through many difficult seasons. Trusting that God is with me or that I am where God wants me to be does not always come easy, and the peace and assurance I felt from songs like ‘Made A Way’ and ‘I Win’ significantly changed how I’d see my circumstances.

Lastly, Beautiful Eulogy. This experimental hip hop group has a sound that isn’t the typical sound expected from either the Hip Hop or Gospel genres. Their music ministers to the identity crisis I sometimes find myself battling with. Listening to their albums helped me understand God’s call for me to be His son, and to live knowing that I am loved as His son, no matter what career path I’ve pursued, how much money I make, or how underqualified I feel to take on the industry I am working in.

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MUSIC

SOUND CHECK

C H A N C E

R A P P E R

BY RATI MASHEGO

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was thinking back to 2016, reflecting if you will, and wow! I mean, what a time to be alive, right? From student movements that are genuinely reshaping the landscape of education, all the way to Trump actually becoming the president of the USA! If this wasn’t enough, the Queen Bee released Lemonade, which, as a full video album, took the music industry by storm. But also, there’s Chance The Rapper. Who is Chance The Rapper and why is he so important? Stick around and I’ll tell you.

No, his real name is not Chance, in case you were wondering. Chancelor Bennet is his actual name and he was born in Chicago on the 16th of April 1993. He was raised in a community that needed to continuously have safe spaces for targeted young black children growing up. Thankfully that safe space that Chancelor would go to was the public

CHANCE THE RAPPER HAS MANAGED TO SHOW T H R O U G H H I S G O S P E LI N S P I R E D A L B U M T H AT THE MUSIC BELONGS TO THE PEOPLE. library. It was here in the library where the facilities that allowed youths to explore and develop hidden musical talent were found. It was in this space where ‘Chance The Rapper’ was born.

We don’t need to fast forward too many years to get to where we are now because, let’s get serious, Chance is actually quite young. As some of you might know, he has chosen to remain as an independent musician. Now here’s a quick tutorial for all those who don’t actually know what that means. In the big ‘bad’ world of music there are the big fish, there are the small fish, and there are the fish who really don’t matter at all. Labels and record companies are the big fish, the ones who 49 DIGITAL ISSUE 2, 2017

run the show. The small fish are the musicians who are signed to the labels but don’t really have enough clout to make pond-changing decisions.

Then there are fish like Chance The Rapper. Or so we thought…

When Chance released his first mixtape he wasn’t seen as much of a challenger or contributor to the world of rap. After he released his second mixtape, Acid Rap, people started paying more attention to the budding artist. And now with the release of Coloring Book, his latest mixtape in May 2016, the industry has no option but to shift gears around him.

Coloring Book is the very first online streaming only album to appear on the Grammy nominations list. And did I mention that all of his streaming is free? For the longest time, the Recording Academy rules have not allowed for musicians who don’t release sellable content such as CD’s or paid downloads to be eligible for award nomination. But with the impact that Coloring Book had in its first few weeks online, and the months thereafter; the Recording Academy chose not to turn a blind eye.

In the world of album releases, international tours, Grammy awards, and mass stardom, Chance The Rapper has managed to show through his gospel-inspired album that the music belongs to the people. You see, Chance was not merely nominated for some obscure award, he was nominated for seven of them— Best Rap Album and Best New Artist, just to name two, which he subsequently won!

The young Christian man that he professes to be, Chancelor Bennet has decided to have an open conversation about God in the music industry and has not been put to shame. Rather, he is boldly leading many people to enter into that conversation.

RATI ‘MASH’ MASHEGO likes things. He studies music, works for a watch design company, loves eating great food, treasures his friends and girlfriend, and loves seeing the culture of the Kingdom expand through the people around him. Mash likes nice things.

MUSIC

CRESCEND O

LUX KENT

BY MARVIN KIMANI

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uxolo “Lux Kent” Kentane is a 20-something Christian rapper and self-taught sound engineer originally from East London. He released a song titled Image in 2016 and swiftly followed up with what is possibly one of the best music videos from the local Christian Hip Hop (CHH) scene in recent times. As a passionate supporter of doing things in the Lord’s name, and with excellence, the song and video immediately caught my attention.

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CRESCEND O

“MY MUSIC IS ALWAYS FOR THE PEOPLE. I WANT TO KNOW WHAT PEOPLE NEED TO HEAR, WHAT THEY KNOW, AND HOW I CAN CREATIVELY SPEAK INTO THAT.”

I initially thought Lux was a new artist, but he has been doing his thing since 2012. He has two mixtapes under his belt, Past12 definitely worth a listen on SoundCloud. He started making music at only 17 with a deep desire to make a positive impact on people’s lives through the gospel. This continues to inspire his music. “My music is always for the people. I want to know what people need to hear, what they know, and how I can creatively speak into that,” said Lux. He was grinding hard in 2016, most notably releasing an EP titled Resilient – a milestone for any rapper’s catalogue. According to Lux, you can expect to hear the following from his offering: “A passion that people will live loud and love strong. I write music that comes authentically from me but with the hopes that when you sing it, it comes from you. I think songs will encourage you, challenge you and maybe make you turn up!” He believes that if lives are not being changed, communities are not being restored and churches are not being planted, then artists are wasting precious time.

Besides being an upcoming rapper and artist, Lux is also a communications student and co-founder of a movement called Living Legacy. The movement houses two other rappers by the names of Gruth and Av, whom Lux holds in high regard as “incredible artists and missionaries”. Speaking a bit more about Living Legacy, he said: “We started a movement where we can get to build with likeminded artists.

Our mission changes as we navigate and make mistakes, but our vision is simple. We want to make sure Jesus’ legacy continues to live on.”

With such vision it’s exciting to think what Lux and the team will be up to for the rest of 2017. Living Legacy certainly seem to be a growing presence in the local music scene, and I sense bigger and bolder things are yet to come.

You can find Lux on Facebook @LuxKentMrLegacy SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/luxkent Watch Image ft. YeYe: https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=E-rylKDQpD8 MARVIN KIMANI is a 25-year-old creative spirit with a passion for the culture of Hip Hop, rap music and the use of art as a medium for conveying truth. He enjoys reading and engaging his mind creatively using words. Marvin loves people and He considers a relationship with God as the most important thing in his life.

EP LAUNCH 20 MAY 2017

LUX KENT WILL BE LAUNCHING HIS EP RESILIENT ON MAY 20 WITH A LIVE BAND! ON THE NIGHT EXPECT POETRY FROM JOSEPH BENTIL, GOSPEL SOUNDS FROM PORT ELIZABETH GROUP MAGNIFY AND LEGACY MEMBER GRUTH. VISIT LIVINGLEGACYMOVEMENT.COM FOR MORE INFORMATION.

READING

D O G-EAR

BOOKS FOR THE NEW(ISH) YEAR

BY MATT O’KELLY

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s I As I often remind myself: “Life is simply too short for the wrong books, or even the right books at the wrong time.” I wish I could claim those words as my own, but alas, they are the wise words of Tim Park.

I’m mindful that not everybody is a reader. Reading is important. We can’t get away from that. Confucius says: “No matter how busy you may

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think you are, you must find time for reading, or surrender yourself to self-chosen ignorance.” I think he’s onto something.

There are loads of Christian books out there – some good, some not so good – and at times it can be a little hard to know what to read. So if that’s you, here is a list of just four books that really had an impact on me, and I’m convinced will have an impact on you.

J. I. PACKER KNOWING GOD

After sitting on my shelf, doing little more than gather dust for a good four or so years, I finally picked up Packer’s Knowing God. Why it took me so long, I have no idea. Packer’s premise is that, while many of us may say we know a great deal about God, the real question is: can we say that we know God? Far more profound than an object of study, knowing

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God means relationship. Our doctrine should never stop with mere doctrine; doctrine should always manifest itself in devotion and doxology. It’s off of this challenge that Packer dives into crucial theological groundwork, but significantly, this isn’t just for knowing more (although, no doubt you will having read it), but for knowing God better, and loving Him more deeply.

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JOSHUA HARRIS DUG DOWN DEEP

Joshua Harris has to be one of my favourite authors. His writing style is engaging, such that once I’ve started, I find his books hard to put down. Theology matters. I don’t need to convince you of that. Theology matters, not as a study simply to know

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more, as if delving into a textbook to pass a course. Theology matters because the better we know God, the better we know how to please Him. The better we know God, the more we will desire Him above all other things.

And the better we know God, the better we will be at being able to share Him with others.

VAUGHAN ROBERTS GOD’S BIG PICTURE

I remember recommending this book to a friend a number of years ago. His response was that he just wanted to get through the Bible first. I take His point – reading good Christian books should never replace our reading of the Bible. But that’s the thing about God’s Big Picture: it’s not there to

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replace our reading of the Bible, but rather to help us read it better. God’s Big Picture is essentially a roadmap to the Bible, giving an overview for the whole Bible story. It gives the big picture (hence the name), making it easier to place things when we’re digging into the details.

ANDREW SACH & NIGEL BEYNON DIG DEEPER

Okay, I get it, I may know where things fit into God’s big picture, but that doesn’t make some passages any less confusing. I get that. That’s why the last book I would recommend reading is Dig Deeper – a book

purposed to equip you to read the Bible better, to understand it better, to know God better, to love Him more.

Dig Deeper is essentially a toolbox for handling Scripture to understand what it is the Bible is saying.

MATT O’KELLY is a composer, band leader, and theology and philosophy nerd, who compensates for his profound thoughts with a ridiculous sense of humour and bare feet. Matt is currently an Apprentice at Tokai Community Church with hopes of going on to study theology at George Whitefield College in 2018.

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RHYME & REASON

RHYME & REASON

FLOW

BY ASHLEIGH DAVIDS

Seeing You in pretty things is my safety net I don’t jump too high to line Your face in the clouds Or land too far when tracing Your name amongst flowerbeds Being held by You is easy in the Springtime You dot my vision with butterflies and birdsong How could l miss You when You stand there?

Jacaranda arms greeting me in the morning You are a park bench where l rest happy feet.

must feel like I fear the simple Convinced that water must turn to wine I cannot drink You in When You arrive on donkeys And sweat of humble carpentry I crown You But not in thorns and blood I cling to roses

But l wrap You in feathers, Too delicate to touch with dirty hands I’ll wet You with my tears And who would have that?

I hide You beneath my bed for better days You are my Sunday best And mum always said that dress shoes aren’t for walking.

Your baubles lay untouched on shelves Stowed for a season more cheery than my snowfall I only carol by candlelight and it’s dark here I have made you too good for a manger.

Silent nights don’t bring joy to the world where l am from We beg for fireworks Your voice is of burning bushes And sacrificial lambs We adorn ourselves with beautiful ashes Not sackcloth I erect sculptures of goose flesh Train my ears for audible sounds But reject whispers Because whimpers don’t depict what Heaven

I tirelessly search Sending smoke signals for Your perfect gifts Convinced that l cry for You But l’ve swopped Your presence For your presents Itching for Kingly stories from wise men Scratching at the tale that You once lived as peasants do.

I choose which book to read Insistent of the one I think You write for me.

And so You struggle to resuscitate flailing lungs High strung on pipedreams You part seas of imagination And walk on the watered down eulogies l recite in remembrance of You Taking down the altars l have established on hilltops You show me valleys And we lay there Awash in the absence of careful algorithms I fail to sum You up Because You are everything Presence.

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RECIPES

Glory Glory Bread

BY VICTORIA CHASI

Ingredients 125g butter/ baking margarine (I prefer Stork) 1 cup sugar 2 eggs

6 mashed bananas 1 banana to decorate

Instructions

2 cups flour (sifted if plain, if brown flour, whisked for air)

Cream the butter and sugar together until it looks like light yellow, double thick cream. You can use a wooden spoon if you don’t have an electric whisk or hand blender, it just takes slightly longer (about 15 minutes). I suggest taking the butter or margarine out about an hour before you bake so it’s soft and easy to work with.

180g Cadbury wholenut chocolate

Preheat the oven to 175°C

A pinch of salt

Add the eggs and mix.

1 tsp bicarb ¾ tsp baking powder ¾ cup warm milk

I REALLY LOVE TO SEE THE JOY AND PLEASURE THAT MINGLE ON THE FACE OF SOMEONE WHO’S JUST TASTED SOMETHING HOMEMADE JUST FOR THEM, WITH LOVE AND CARE.

Add the bicarb and baking powder to the warm milk, make sure there’s room in the container for the foamy reaction of the bicarb and milk.

Add the salt to the sifted flour.

Pour the milk mixture a little at a time into the bowl of creamed butter and sugar, alternating with spoonfuls of sifted flour.

Lastly, add the bananas and chopped slab of wholenut chocolate ( I chop each little piece in half).

Pour the mixture into a loaf tin and bake for an hour. If it’s not quite done, turn off the oven and let it bake for another 15 minutes as it cools down. I recommend leaving it to cool down and deepen in flavour overnight.

This recipe is an adaption of one posted on: www.yuppiechef.com/spatula/how-to-makebanana-bread/

Baking beginnings My journey with banana loaf must have begun when I was around 12 or 13 years old. To my mind, the December holidays were obscenely long and baking was a constructive way of passing the time for me. My mum used to bake a lot when I was very young and when she was in her 20s, she even made wedding cakes. As soon as I got permission from my mum to bake one thing during these holidays, I noticed a trend beginning where everything I baked would be finished before supper time, and the very next day I would be met by expectant questions about what I was going to bake that day. I was soon put to work baking things for my ravenous family to consume for the rest of the holiday. Whilst this was tiring work for a still little human, I found I got better at it with practice, and it really made everyone so happy to find something to satisfy their sweet tooth.

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When I got bored of cupcakes, I moved on to muffins, and when I got bored of muffins I moved on to cake, at which point I realised that I don’t like icing or working with it and so arose the banana loaf challenge. I really liked banana loaf so I decided to try and make it. It was a hit.

However, after the second holiday season, I took a long hiatus from baking after having learnt my lesson not to fall into the baking trap. One thing did remain, however – a sense that baked goods add peace in a place and soothe even the most harried of people.

Where the name came from The name ‘Glory Glory Bread’ came from my homegroup leader, Julia Armstrong. It was subsequently given to her in a recipe book which one of her friends put together of a whole

collection of food they had shared with Julia that she loved. At this point it gained its first nickname: ‘Double Glory Bread’. Julia, herself, has now shortened the title to something more Intstagram-able, calling it‘Glory Bread’.

On the particular night it gained its name, she was hungry and homegroup was at my house. I had recently adapted the Yuppiechef recipe above, adding chocolate at the stroke of some inspiration, and wanted to try it again. I may or may not have been on snacks duty, but sometimes I just liked to surprise everyone, so I decided to make this recipe. In fact, I remember offering my small flat as a homegroup meeting space for most of the year, because I distinctly felt like homes are incredibly powerful weapons to use against an often dark and tumultuous world.

I feel the word ‘home’ in its true sense should be synonymous with ‘refuge,’ ‘stronghold’ and ‘fortress’.

In a home you can set the tone, you can prepare a place for people to be reminded of peace and plenty. I pray before anyone comes over or before I go to anyone for tea. It’s always cool to see how God’s Holy Spirit goes before you every time. Home is something you can carry with you, just like baked things, it’s a place that one should want to run to when everything else is overwhelming. A home that takes care to care lovingly for people can really change someone’s day, week or life. Having baked things also always gives you an excuse to invite people in.

Now, there may be better recipes out there worthy of the title ‘Glory Bread,’ but this is the one I know and love, and is one that has received high praise. On my last day in Cape Town before going home to see the family, I was able to take this loaf to a friend’s homegroup where the many young adults utterly demolished it. I really love to see the joy and pleasure that mingle on the face of someone who’s just tasted something homemade just for them, with love and care.

RHYME & REASON

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LETTERS IN THE SAND PART 2 STORY BY LAUREN KIRK-COHEN

U

ILLUSTRATION BY SIMEON VAN DEN BERGH

sually, school helps. Being busy helps me forget, helps the day pass by quicker. I haven’t been required to go to school since Isabelle died, but I’ve gone anyway. Not today, though. Today I go straight to the city library.

“Can I help you?” the kind lady at the counter asks.

“Yes,” I say. “I’m looking for books about Jesus.”

“About who, dear?”

“Jesus.”

“I’m not sure I know who you mean; is this a historical figure?”

“No, He’s…” I run my hands through my hair, trying to think. Who is He? That’s the whole point of this excursion, to find that out. “He’s…

God… I think.”

The librarian frowns as she checks down some long reference list. “I’m sorry, but I don’t have any record of a God called Jesus. I suppose he could have been one of the long-ago gods lost in SCOPEMAGAZINE.CO.ZA 60

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myth… not all of them were recorded. Much was lost at the great merging of the lands, when –” “When the realms of magic and non-magic collided,” I finish for her. “The lands reordered themselves and much of history was forgotten. I know.”

I bite my lip, thinking, wondering what my best option is. Some scholars think there are yet other worlds out there. The drawings are disturbing: monstrous metal creations, houses that stretch so high they block out the sun… maybe Jesus is known better in one of those other worlds.

“Can you show me books of religions and different gods?”

“Of course, that’s in section C, right this way.”

I eye the books with keen interest and pull a few down from the shelf. A quick look in their references tells me there are no sections on Jesus, but I skim through the chapters just in case there’s a passing mention. Where else would I find Him? Surely He must be a God, to have written to me in the sand like that, without any physical form?

I work my way through most of the section until I’m cross-eyed. Most of the gods listed seem trivial and almost unbelievable. Someone believes in each of them, though; enough to write it in a book.

Bored and frustrated, I wander over to the adjacent section, old mythologies.

A symbol catches my eye. It’s a fish, but a very simply drawn one with only two curved arcs

making up the body and tail. It reminds me of the little fish Isabelle and I would sometimes see as we sat on our rock, just beneath the water.

I pull it out and open it. The name jumps out at me at once: Jesus.

Sinking back down onto the chair, I read eagerly.

The book tells a story of a God who longed to save His people from themselves, so He sent down His Son, Jesus, to earth. Jesus took on all the wrongdoings of all the people, and was punished for them. He died for them, so that they did not need to suffer.

It’s a moving story. I remember being told similar ones when I was younger. Why was this in the myth section, though?

The librarian is watching me as I come back, holding the book in my arms.

“Can I ask you a question?”

“Of course, dear.”

“Why are some books about gods put under myth and others put under the sections that list all the existing gods?”

“Myths are stories that are told to children, usually to teach them something, or to entertain them. The records of the gods are true writings of gods that really exist.”

“How do we know that, though? How do we know the gods in the religion section really exist? How do we know the ones thought of as myth don’t?”

She looks bemused, and I’m sure she’s never been asked that question before. We’ve been brought up to believe certain things, and I’ve never really questioned before now. I guess no one does.

“Well… people can give evidence of the real gods. They’ve had experience with them, done things to earn their favour and been rewarded. No such experiences exist for the myths.”

“But what if the rewards after favours are just coincidence? How do we know?”

“Be careful, child, that your questions do not anger the gods.”

I really couldn’t care less. I’m doubting more than ever that these gods have any power, if they exist at all.

“What about the myths – if someone had an experience with one of those gods, would it prove they existed?”

“We know all the gods there are. Trust the books, they are the work of many generations.”

I don’t ask any more questions as I sign the book out. I spend the rest of the day in my room, reading the stories of what Jesus did when He was on earth.

Only when the sun starts going down do I realise I’ve been so consumed with searching for information on Jesus, I haven’t felt sad or guilty the entire day. I wince as I think of Isabelle. Can I have forgotten her so quickly?

Without thinking, I get up and walk the familiar path to the river. This time I don’t even try to make it to the rock. I sit down on the same patch of sand I was on yesterday, and wait.

Nothing happens.

“OK,” I SAY TO JESUS, WHEREVER HE MAY BE. “YES, ALRIGHT, I’LL FOLLOW YOU. WHERE DO WE BEGIN?”

If He’s a God, He can hear me, right?

I start talking aloud. “I don’t know who you are, really. Everyone else seems to think you’re a myth… but you’re the first God to speak to me.

I’ve never heard any of the others. None of them made me feel better about Isabelle. Are You real?

Or am I just imagining this?”

I look hopefully at the sand, but it remains blank.

I get up, sighing. In my desperation to find some solace, I’ve just made up a pleasant story. A story of someone who will forgive me, no matter what.

With a heavy heart, I start walking home. Out of nowhere, the wind kicks up. A palm tree bends down, the branches blowing in my face.

I freeze. One of the stories in the book talked about Jesus walking into a city, and people laying palm leaves under his feet. Is this just a coincidence…?

Just in case, just to be sure, I turn and walk back to the sand. For a moment, I think I am imagining things, but there it is. As I lean down closer in the fading light, I see two words clearly, written neatly in the sand.

Follow me.

I look around me, as though expecting to see some sign of Jesus, but all I see is the empty lakeside before me. This doesn’t discourage me.

I find myself laughing, happy for the first time in what seems like forever.

“Ok,” I say to Jesus, wherever He may be. “Yes, alright, I’ll follow you. Where do we begin?”

There’s no answer. I don’t let that get me down.

He’s shown He can clearly communicate with me when He wants to. I basically skip home, excited to find out more about Him. The book is waiting for me. When I reach home, I open it up to my place, immersing myself once more in the story of Jesus.

It takes a while before I notice that I’m sitting in Isabelle’s chair. I wait for the familiar grief to hit, but instead I just feel like she’s wrapped around me like the chair, holding me in her arms. Or maybe Jesus is.

LAUREN KIRK-COHEN was born in Cape Town and grew up as an atheist. Diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome at sixteen, it started causing problems for her in early adulthood, which is when she turned to Jesus. She has been writing for a couple of years now, and recently gave up her day job to write full-time. Apart from writing, a typical day for her involves reading, TV, computer games and time with her boyfriend or friends.

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