With guest blogger Jessica Middleby-Clements, Program Director for Schools 4 Schools in Australia. Jess has been with the Oaktree Foundation since 2008, taking on the role of ACT State Director. Jess studies Arts/Law at Australian National University. Jess has previously volunteered with World Vision’s schools program and the 40 Hour Famine, and was a founding member of Soul Survivor South Coast, creating a network of organisations to support social justice projects.

Yesterday a group of us went into Durban City to go for a walk around the city with an organisation who work with street kids called Umthombo. After walking down a main street in Durban we happened across a rubbish strewn median strip home to 50 or so street children. Much like the Bliss n Eso film clip the kids stared at us with glazed eyes pumping glue fumes into their lungs. One young girl caught my attention; she stumbled towards us and was intercepted by a young guy who grabbed her, twisted her arm and stole her glue bottle. Enraged she grabbed a jagged glass bottle, threw it at him and ran over the shards of glass after him. Shortly after we heard a commotion and looked up from our conversations and the same young girl was lying pulsing with pain on the main road after being hit by a car. The white car yard guards from across the street were screaming that she had robbed them and aggressively lurched towards the growing groups of street kids with their shambocks (sticks). The police arrived  and without a second glance at the girl (still lying in the middle of the road without any form of protection or barricade) they immediately listened to the white story before even looking at the young girl. It wasn’t until the Umthombo emergency medical van arrived that anyone got down on their hands and knees and stroked her hair or touched her arm to comfort her.

She is one of 500 homeless children - nameless, alone, one of hundreds who prostitute themselves daily, most likely HIV+, begging to buy glue, no one to advocate against the white witness, black and living in poverty without an ID card. Apartheid is over but economic segregation and the legacy of the past means the Zulu people continue to have inferior education standards and extremely low matriculation rates with little hope of employment. Comparing this to the hope, positivity and energy of the Peer Educators that we have spent time with is phenomenal. The Peer Educators have similar stories of abuse, drugs and crime; the difference - the hope they have for the future, the belief and confidence they have had instilled in their ability to do something about their situation and the opportunity to practically do something about it. While GOLD is sometimes hard to quantify, it is easy when faced with 33 vibrant young people at a Schools 4 Schools weekend workshop who, despite their backgrounds, are bursting with energy and enthusiasm – it is simply 33 young people in one year level who have had their lives changed as a result of an amazing program.

Dit onderwerp houdt me veel bezig de laatste tijd: de plaats van jongeren in de kerk. In onze eigen gemeente zien we dat kinderen en jonge gezinnen volop tegenwoordig zijn, maar daartussen zit ergens een gat. Gelukkig zijn ze er wel, dat zagen we bij de belijdenisdienst, maar er zijn er ook zoveel die afhaken.

In mijn eigen ervaring (ik beschouw mezelf nog als jong) wordt er veel over jongeren gesproken in de kerk, maar worden er nooit omstandigheden geschapen waarin jongeren tot hun recht kunnen komen. Ik hoorde een oproep van ds. Hans Esbach tijdens het congres van de Evangelische Alliantie. Hij haalde het Soul Survivor-festival aan en gaf aan dat het zo goed zou zijn als een x-aantal leiders en een x-aantal jongeren zich samen zouden terugtrekken om een nieuwe richting te vinden. Op zich prachtig, maar volgens mij ook misleidt.

In de bijbel lees je meerdere malen dat God jonge mensen gebruikt. Een voorbeeld is de profeet Jeremia (zie Jer 1,6) en Timoteüs, de leerling van Paulus (zie 1 Timoteüs 4,12). Het is alleen niet heel erg duidelijk hoe oud die twee daadwerkelijk waren. Waarschijnlijk waren het geen tieners meer! Hoe dan ook: er is, volgens mij, een natuurlijk proces waarin mensen met het volwassen worden meer verantwoordelijkheid nemen. En daar gaat het mis! Je hoeft jongeren van veertien of vijftien niet de agenda van de kerk te laten bepalen (als je gaat werken ben je over het algemeen ook niet direct directeur), maar je moet ze meenemen in een proces van (geestelijke) groei. Dat bereik je door de randvoorwaarden te scheppen waarbinnen jongeren kunnen functioneren: steun, ontpooiings- en ontwikkelingsmogelijkheid, veiligheid, ruimte voor kritiek, mogelijkheden om te experimenteren.

De taak van de ouderen in de gemeente is niet het tegenhouden van ontwikkeling en verandering. Het is ook niet het beschermen van de jeugd voor fouten. De taak van ouderen is het beschermen van de jongeren en de kerk voor de gevolgen van die fouten. Dat wil zeggen: zorg voor een flexibele en veilige omgeving waarbinnen jongeren jong én gelovig kunnen zijn.

Shouts to Crate Kings on this bomb ass video. Pete Rock recently sat down with Zeke The Freak (Peter Parker’s producer) to talk about how the whole Jay Stay Paid album came together, and how close he was to Dilla. He also talks about the new projects he is working on which include Petestrumentals 2 & a new Soul Survivor album. This is some truly great news, Pete is one of my favorite producers, and I can assure you that these projects are going to be ridiculous. Make sure you stay tuned for more news on the #1 Soul Brother.

…to get to and from Polly’s house! That’s not counting the extra 250ish miles going from Polly’s house to Somerset and back!

I’m back home, the rain is pouring down (it literally started rain the moment I crossed the border into Scotland!) and I’m exhausted.

I stayed in the most lovcly B&B a few miles from the showground, but didn’t get much sleep due to the surround sound snoring/coughing going on from fellow guests that was so loud, it could be heard even when I was plugged into my iPod. Oh dear.

I have so much work to do – collating the feedback from the last 5 days and getting ready for the sponsored walk on Saturday.

And I have so much to say. So much I want to read. And again been reminded of things, and opportunities have been opening up and would love to have time to reflect.

I also came home to discover my Mum lying on the sofa, recovering from having had a biopsy. She had a routine mammogram and doctors are not happy with the results. She had a second mammogram, and they were still not happy, hence the biopsy. She should get the results next week, so if you could pray…?

It was lovely to catch up with some of the folks from the Soul in the City folks though, and hearing how they’ve found things since coming back, and also hearing more about how they felt about their experience being there.

Its been awhile since I’ve been to my little wordpress. Spare moments have been hard to find.

But today, I am surrounded by spare moments. A nice sit in Heathrow, waiting for my flight back to LA on my happy Air New Zealand, finds me reflective and content. A state that I only find in the deepest ways when I have encountered God. I wish I could muster up this sense of peace and inspiration all on my own, or eat something that would produce this sort of fullness. But, I suppose, then I would miss out on the very encounter that produced it all. The truth is, experiencing God, seeing His move, watching Him heal wounds and free people from pain, feeling His presence and love, reflecting on His sacrifice and victory…well, there is nowhere else I would rather be.

I was able to set aside this past week for just that. All of it. 5 days with 3500 college students and our God. Soul Survivor’s Momentum. Lot’s can happen when you bring young people to a field in the English countryside…how to even sum it up?

I don’t think I will even attempt it. But I will reveal that as my soul feels full, I am utterly compelled by God’s love. Compelled by His love for me and His love for the world. Compelled that the way to life and the way to peace and the way to completeness is through Jesus. Compelled to serve those that are hungry and in need. Compelled to live my life for Jesus and for others. Compelled to be a part of His plan.

Compelled to a life of worship in action.

I’m tired, so I won’t try and do anything funny other than say the NRBcast is now on iTunes! You can find it here : Please leave a review on the iTunes page, it kicks it up the Featured section and means we can get more listeners, though, to be honest, we’re lucky to have any. On a side note, I’ve just got back from a week of pegging people at Soul Survivor (Christian festival in the heart of Somerset) and thoroughly enjoyed it. I’m going to have a rest now…

Sorry as I never got the chance to write a Wednesday’s Walk post yesterday.

Thinking of one Miss Sweetroot to the Beetroot though, who is starting school today!

There continues to be lots going on and am enjoying catching up with friends gradually before I head to Somerset on Friday for Momentum where I’m working in the marketplace on behalf of a certain pregnancy crisis and pregnancy loss charity. I know there’ll be a few Soul in the City Durban folks there so looking forward to catching up with some of them at the same time.

And tonight I’m going to see Stephen K Amos at the Edinburgh Comedy Festival! Woot!

We can only marvel at the video footage of Santana (originally the Santana Blues Band) at the Woodstock Music Festival. According to legend, Carlos Santana’s band was perhaps the stand-out acts of the festival (they could actually play).

Santana performed on the festival’s second day. In the video the band is performing “Soul Sacrifice,” their second last song. The now legendary personnel were: Michael Shrieve (on drums; at 19 years the youngest performer at Woodstock), Gregg Rolie (vocals and keyboards), David Brown (bass guitar), Mike Carabello (on congas) and Jose Chepito Areas (on percussion).

They had opened the set with a favorite of mine, “Waiting.” I could not find the video for that song, instead here’s a clip of “Waiting” performed live in Ghana two years later:

I was on the train with a friend this morning who spotted over the shoulder of a fellow passenger what looked like an article on Soul Survivor, turns out, after a bit of online exploration, they were right.

This article in today’s Independant provides a ‘fly on the tent awning’ view of the Christian youth festival that happens every year down in Shepton Mallet. There are some slightly cynical points of view expressed in the article, and there seems to be a heavy emphasis on Soul Survivor being all about luring disengaged people in with ‘Rock Music’, but I was pleased to see John Coles quoted as saying:

“The vision is to see the nation changed,” says John Coles, the festival director. “What that means for us is for people to understand and experience the goodness and generosity of God. The basic tenor of our society is secular humanism which denies the reality of God and the power of God to intervene and change people’s lives…

The greatest encouragement about this article, in many ways, is that it was written and featured on the front page of the Independant’s website. I believe the reason this sort of thing is getting reported is because God is at work in a significant number of peoples lives, revealing to them who He is. When that happens, the press get curious and when lots of people start to be affected by something the media don’t know much about, they go along for a closer look. My prayer is that they’d find God in the middle of it.

This trip can be summed up in two words; “life changing”

A lot of people have said that; those that have served in many sorts of ways. Some  serving very close and some very far away.In the past two weeks I have felt God working not just in western countries but in fact more fiercely with the less fortunate, the least and the lost.

I asked myself why is that so? Then I found out. I’m wrong…in so many ways.

One – It’s not that He’s not working fiercely in certain countries. He just does it in so many ways that we can’t begin to imagine or feel it.

Two – It’s not him that’s not working fiercely for our reunion with him. But ourselves blinded by the lives we lead.

The people I have served with and the children I have seen had nothing. They depended on our all mighty God for everything; and that is what’s important at the end of the day.

So why was this life changing for me?

Was it the fact I had to wake up really early and spending the day working in a township?

Was it painting a school or the orphan crèche?

Was it that there was no phone connection or internet?

Was it worship & spiritual hype?

No, is my firm Answer.

It’s not by me or us that we change, it’s by God. God has shown me so much these past weeks that he’s shattered alot of my life and expectations and totally remodeled them.I wish I could share all my thoughts; but here is a few of just many:

On the first few days in Durban my heart was shattered over and over again. God was slowly breaking me down for a purpose I’d find out later.

First we went to visit the churches we were to serve with, one of the schools we were to paint, a nursery & the site where the holiday club would be. It started to sink in how things were there, the tension in the air; and just how things were. When it can’t get any heavier, we visited the orphan crèche at one of the churches. Those beautiful and innocent children…their parents that just left them; we were told the heart-breaking stories of how they got there.As the week progressed without me realising it God was reshaping me. Not until the second day of the holiday club could I see God’s amazing work in this place. After a chaotic first day; I was left asking God “Why?” bad mistake.

God answered me before I could finish my questions. I understood, I caught a glimpse of his pain for this world. And how much he loves them and wants to help them, we are his tools. Now I fully understand why he wanted us to go to serve in Uganda. Not for us. Not for our own fame or simply a good time. Serving is not a holiday, serving is to glorify God, serving is about being God’s tools of healing and ministry.Over the holiday club; I’ve learnt to deal with a lot of real life situations and how to use the skills God has generously given to me. Like the parable of talents, the Master gave generously to his servants according to his skills.

I’ve learnt a lot from thefive short days in the I spent with those kids. I learned how to care, love and serve them. I thought I always had a good idea on how to step into people’s shoes and see their views. But this week I’ve learnt that I could have done  better.  Overall I had a large learning curve both spiritually and physically.

It brings me to think on how I felt about how loved and privilege we are in this country. I always take for granted  a lot of things in my life. I knew about a lot of poverty in other countries but never really understood how bad it was.

I could only imagine and see pictures from TV. But I’d never experienced how bad it was. After all a picture can only tell u so much. In the end I have learnt a good lesson about my own life as well; and brought back new views on how I should live this life. And how to live it with God’s purpose in mind and in a godly way as well.

How can we serve if we don’t set ourselves as examples to this world?

To wrap it up a few things I’ve heard from sermons this last two weeks that stood out more then others:

There was a man who had a vision from God. He was very depressedthat people couldn’t see God’s love and his mercy. (To us Christians we find it easier to see the Lord’s mercy). The vision showed a giant honey comb in the sky; the honey drips onto the earth and lands on people. There were two types of people; ones that thinks is disgusting and tries to wipe it off them and those who couldn’t get enough of it, they loved it and were dancing in it, playing with it, eating it. Which one are we today? Can we see how God take cares of us? A home, food on the table, clothes?

A shepherd to his flocks; is not the leader but rather the servant to the flock. He’s there to look after them and make sure they don’t get lost or hurt. In a sense we are all shepherds to each other; the foundation of the church is our love for one another. To care, guide & listen to one another. Even if it means admitting you are wrong.

Lastly, what do you class yourself as? White? Black? Asian? Mixed? As Christians we all bleed the same blood; we bleed Jesus Christ blood. We are all part of the Great body of Christ. There is no difference, the only race we all belong to; is the race of Christians – God’s People. The body is as one and should live in harmony together; one supporting another and working as one. This Trip to me is truly “Life Changing”
God Bless you all

A shot of the holiday club

I went and saw the Salvador Dali exhibition yesterday at the NGV with Em and Bec and it absolutely screwed with my mind.

You’ll have to forgive me, I may sound like a bit of a pretentious tosser here but this is art after all*.

The whole exhibition was fascinating. Dali was a genius. There were paintings displayed that he had done when he was 15! It was so interesting to see Dali find his own style. As he grew up, he went through periods of being heavily influenced by certain artists, such as Pablo Picasso.

After what I’m going to call the ‘Soul Survivor incident’, I have started to think about art differently. About the subject of paintings. About the meaning of paintings and how that reflects upon the artist.

What is going on inside his head???

This is a visual representation of  Salvador Dali’s beliefs and understanding of the world. This the essence** of him on a canvas.

What does this mean for me? Whenever I hear people talk about the meaning or message of a painting I always think of a big political statement. But it doesn’t always have to be that way.

I am painting pictures which make me die for joy, I am creating with an absolute naturalness, without the slightest aesthetic concern, I am making things that inspire me with a profound emotion and I am trying to paint them honestly. – Salvador Dali

 Dali was doing what he loved.  This was him expressing himself through painting. No matter how weird/disturbing/brilliant.

 Wow. I never really fully got the connection between art and artist. Creating means putting yourself out there. Your beliefs, your personality, your character. Being completely honest with the world.

Sorry if this is a bit of an odd post. This is just something I’ve been mulling over for a while. It seems like I’m always doing this, but over the last 6 months I have really just been sorting myself out. Finding out who I am as a follower of Jesus, as a 20yr old girl living out of home in Australia, as an artist and as a human being. Another big question is am I ok with what I find? Sorry. Lol.

Any thoughts?

* I miss Marita.
** Oh wow. I told you this would be wanky.

“I watch time stand still I’m just one man”

It’s crazy how a song can give you the feeling of a certain time of day.  Some mornings I need music to give me a boost to jump start my day and other mornings I just need to zone out.  Today I took a trip back to 98/99 and through in Pete Rock’s Soul Survivor.  I can’t even remember the last time I listened to this album.  This whole record takes me back to my freshman/sophomore year, rolling around in Logan’s gold Honda.  I remember how dope Pete Rock’s beats are but I forgot how nice he was on the mic too.  Pete Rock was NICE.  Joints like Tru Master and Half Man Half Amazing show PR’s abilities to stand alongside Inspectah Deck, Kurupt and Method Man.  My favorite joint on this album and the perfect song to start my day is Take Your Time.  The whole vibe is incredible.  It’s one of those songs that I could play for anyone, regardless of age and I guarantee they could appreciate it.  I might email it to my grandma later.  I can just imagine my grandma bumping Pete Rock at her next bridge club get together.  How ill would that be?  I had to run this song back 3 times this morning and I will probably listen to it at least 4 more times today.  This is hip hop at it’s finest.  I haven’t even made it through half the tracks on the album because of this song.  I am kind of excited to listen to Verbal Murder and Strange Fruit.  So I welcome you all to kick back, zone out and enjoy some classic shit.  I had a hard time even finding this song on the internet.  What type of this is that?????

Pete Rock-Take Your Time

HHHTaichung Bound,

Tomorrow night is SOUL SURVIVOR.  And you should be there.  You really should.

The CAPtain will be there full force and destroying minds with some Hip-Hop 101 meanwhile, HHHT alum, Bobby Bonestorm promises something……….I don’t even wanna provide an adjective to it.  Just go.  As far as prep for what’s about to go down, I give you some up jump, head nod, feel good type ish.

Summer Love

C’mon man.  These guys are just too smooth.

Camp Lo continues their onslaught this year of good ass hip-hop.  This one’s for the sun.

Camp Lo – Summer Love

Truck Jewels

As I had anticipated, it’s arrived.

Straight from the Okayplayer msg boards.  This little sample of the ?uestlove endorsed emcee seems promising.  I’ve only heard a few tunes thus far, and as of yet, it hasn’t let me down.  With guestspots from Black Thought, Wale, Dice Raw, Reef the Lost Cauze and the highly underrated Roscoe P. Coldchain, I’m assuming there’re plenty more goodies on here.

Lemme know what you think.

Truck North – Truck Jewels Mixtape

And finally….some visual entertainment.  The Mighty Mos Def a.k.a. Flaco Bey clearing some things up with Angie Martinez, and proposing one of the most exciting events in Hip-Hop history (IF it were to go down.  Which I doubt.)

Watch and enjoy.

It’s Friday folk.  1 more sleep.

Get ta vibin.

Trip.
www.ppfhouse.com

My father informed me about this story that aired this morning on Fox and Friends about an 11-year-old who’s allegedly living proof of reincarnation. That’s right. And if you believe that, I’ve got some tiger repelent and magic beans to sell you.

The reason Fox News is so convinced this is credible enough to devote time to because there’s so much clear evidence like 9-year-old accounts from memory of a 2-year-old’s “not ordinary nightmares” that continued allegedly for several years, which were remarkably similar to historical accounts of a World War II pilot’s incredibly unremarkable and quite common death. And obviously, given the enormous weight of evidence here, the parents have concluded that the only rational explanation for this and the kid’s ability to come up with the incredibly uncommon name “James Houston Jr.” is magic reincarnation. Duh!

Oh, did I mention that the kid’s name is also James. Now an evil  cynic might say that that just illustrates how common the name really is, but we know better, right. Clearly it’s just another sign that James Leininger really is the reincarnation of James Houston. And the kid allegedly knew a lot about specific airplanes that the parents believe he couldn’t possibly have known at his young age. What more evidence do you need? Oh, and did I also mention that the kid no longer even remembers these amazingly unusual dreams that are being regarded as the principle evidence supporting their theory. Again, an evil cynic might argue that if there was any weight to this claim at all, we’d expect to see the kid remember more of his past life as he gets older, not less. But again, those are obviously just close-minded fools.

And of course the parents now wrote a book, Soul Survivor” (Get it! Get it! Because the guy died and their claiming his soul survived in their son! I don’t know about you but my clever meter is off the charts!) where they’ll no doubt provide all the information I just told you in one short blog expanded into several hundred pages. I wonder if they’re aware that the human population has grown exponentially since early man. I’d love to use this as an excuse to mock Fox News but sad, this kind of absurd and credulous reporting of alleged paranormal claims could just as easily been on any news show.

Of course although I have insufficient data to conclusively explain what’s really going on here, it doesn’t take a huge leap of imaginary to find a non-supernatural explanation. I don’t believe the parents are deliberately making up the story but that they’re merely victims of a misunderstanding. We see this all the time with believers of all different paranormal claims. The problems with human memory are well known. Studies have shown that people routinely misremember events and misjudge statistical probabilities. Maybe the kid saw something on TV about planes prior and has an eidetic memory. Or maybe he’s got a form of Aspergers and so he became obsessed and fixated on airplanes. There are some kids who have a freakish amount of baseball trivia in their heads. Some kids are fast learners. Mozart was writing whole symphanies by 6. I don’t know but my point is that there are an endless number of more plausible explanations than the one we’re being told is “the only” explanation. Weird things happen all the time. So what?

When my niece was only 3 months old, I put a cell phone to her ear, telling her to say hello and she actually did. And unlike the Leininger family, I actually have empirical evidence of it as it was caught on videotape. Now most people would think it were impossible to get something that clear and coherent out of the mouth of a 3-month-old infant, especially given that because my niece is autistic, she barely talks even now at the age of 6 years. But I’ve got the tape to prove it. Does that mean there must be some paranormal explanation for it? No. Weird stuff happens and we can’t always explain it. And sometimes we misjudge the statistical probability of things.

The last point I wanted to make is that this whole story rests on several year-old anecdotal evidence about very specific facts that turned out to be true. But what if the kid made more generalized statements and it was only after the parents learned of James Houston’s fate, that information replaced the original statements by the kid in their memories causing the parents to remember the general statements as being more specific. This is often the case with alleged psychics, as Paranormal Investigator Ben Radford explains in an interview he did in episode 102 of Skepticality.