Hope and Fear over Zuma presidency

This article was linked in Dennis' latest prayer update for Bridges of Hope.

Hope and Fear over Zuma Presidency
source: http://www.capeargus.co.za/

Cape Town (South Africa) - ANC President Jacob Zuma, who will within a few days be the country's president, is suing the Guardian newspaper and writer Simon Jenkins for a column saying South Africa should get used to Zuma's style of government - "morally contaminated, administratively chaotic and corrupt" and also - perhaps most legally damaging for Jenkins - calling him a "rapist" perhaps without realising he had been cleared by a court of the charges.

By Cape Argus (South Africa) | 04.20.2009

Perhaps Zuma's lawyers missed the article in the Daily Mail by Peter Hitchens asking British readers to imagine their feelings if their prime minister Gordon Brown "opened and closed his election rallies by bursting into a song called Bring Me My Machine Gun, swaying and jigging to the hypnotic chorus of this menacing ditty", also that Zuma was "alleged to be taking campaign money from Colonel Gaddafi; faced 783 counts of fraud, racketeering, tax evasion and corruption".

"If you can picture all this happening here, then you have an inkling of the horrible process South Africa is now going through. Except it is much, much worse."

Hitchens noted concerns that South Africa would "rapidly become a lawless kleptocracy when he comes to power, which he will do after a hopelessly one-sided and rather crooked election."

But not all the international commentary on Zuma becoming the next president is so gloomy, even in Britain, where criticism has generally been much harsher than in the US or elsewhere.

The Economist's latest editorial is balanced and hopeful, urging Zuma to "confound us all" and advising that "If Jacob Zuma avoids becoming a caricature of African leadership, he could change the whole continent for the better".

The journal lists Zuma's good points, calling him "undoubtedly a man of remarkable qualities," including the ability "in contrast to his dour predecessor, Thabo Mbeki [to] charm the birds out of the trees. Unlike the racially twitchy Mr Mbeki, he feels good in his skin, happy to acknowledge, even celebrate, his modest background".

continued...

Pray for leadership, wisdom, compassion and humility for Jacob Zuma

Training # 3

We had training #3 for the July/August 2009 trip yesterday. Fund raising looks like it is going well and the team is really starting to bond. We spent time in prayer and worship and covered a great devotional on spiritual warfare. We then talked about testimonies and defining moments and everyone will be sharing theirs with the rest of the group over the coming weeks. These are good preparation and used often when meeting new people in a new culture so we like everyone to have one ready. We also learned more about how to create a lesson plan since some of our work could include teaching classes at the Bridges Academy. We did a "River Crossing" skit which is and early CHE lesson to discuss the difference between relief and development.

Dennis Wadley came and spoke to the whole team about Bridges of Hope and the model they have used (CHE - lifewind.org) in transforming Phillipe and what we have started in Sweet Home. It is always amazing to see how far they have come and how much more is possible.

The next training is a service day in Watts with Watt's Powerhouse Church. Serving there is always amazing and we really enjoy Pastor Todd Grant.

These are the two memory verses for the week.

1 Peter 5:8,9
Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings.

James 4:7,8
Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come near to God and he will come near to you.

Sweet Home using Google Earth

I found Sweet Home using Google Earth. Here is the image.


If you would like to use Google Earth to explore Sweet Home yourself, I created a kmz file which you should be able to open after you have installed Google Earth.

The pin in the picture is placed on the corner of the shipping container that is used as the creche (pre-school). If you follow the direction of the pin you will see a tree. That tree is the tree behind Joy in the picture from the previous post. The line of toilets extends from the tree and you can see some empty space behind them. That would be the location of the Church plant if our information is correct.

Church plant in Sweet Home

We've been hearing for a while about a church plant going on in Sweet Home. We asked for more information and this is what we received from Lisa.

No solid info. I know it's going to be located right next to the area you guys worked in before, like behind those toilets. It's not really very connected to Bridges b/c the church that is planting it is from another community, not philippi. But the CHE Champion heading this up is named Joy. So that's about all I know, they haven't started building it yet though. SH seriously NEEDs a church though, pray with us!

We met Joy on our first visit into Sweet Home and he was amazing. This is one of my favorite pictures from that entire trip. He is one of the people I remember most from that trip. In this picture, Joy is playing Fire On The Mountain with the kids at the creche (preschool). Behind him is the exact spot that Lisa mentioned in her message.

Sewing Business

We received another update from the Sweet Home sewing business. This is a picture of
Nowethu and Nolutando making bags for the academy gift shop.