Pedagogical Criticality

Adventures in Urban Ministry

2010-12-30T17:32:00.010-05:00

This is another installment of, Adventures in Urban Ministry...

Urban ministry is not for the faint of heart. Certainly "urban" has many meanings, and our church is at a kind of a crossroads. We are located in a gentrifying area. One side is poverty, no other way to describe it. Abandoned buildings, next to buildings that should be condemned, next to half way decent homes... all lined up and joined together in typical Philadelphia row house fashion. Most are inhabited. As near as I can tell, most are inhabited by working class people and poor folk. Around the corner, Parkside Ave. Beautiful, upscale properties with easy access to the zoo, the park, the School of the Future and a new museum. The people are a mixed lot. Reminiscent of the people in the text I am preaching from next Sunday in Acts 16. Where we find Lydia (the purple cloth dealer), a slave girl, and a jailer. 3 people from 3 different economic, social, and psychological backgrounds. This resembles the population we have around our church.

What follows here is 2 sets of dialogue between myself and my friends on Facebook, regarding 2 status updates I posted about a particular young man I noticed in the hood.

Dialogue #1

FH: OK, peep this. Dude across the street from the church... good looking, clean cut, young black man. Lives in a home that kind of looks like a shack, but is rolling in a 100K Benz. Brand spankin' new joint. Am I wrong for what I'm thinking?
December 23 at 12:43pm

KH, Umm...I guess we both are...'cause I'm thinking the same thing!
December 23 at 12:45pm · Like

FH, LOL. I don't want to stereotype, because somebody is likely doing the same with me every day! Even though I'm not pushing the 100K joint. LOL
December 23 at 12:46pm · Like

AP, At least we have progressed with the times I remember that same dudes dad and uncles parking a caddy in the front yard in newark.
December 23 at 1:00pm · Unlike · 2 people

GF, Whhaaaaack. Priorities not in line...
December 23 at 1:00pm · Unlike · 1 person

FH, That was my other thought G. Whether he's slingin' or not, he's sure stupid... then again, maybe he's stacking what he's saving on the mortgage?
December 23 at 1:03pm · Like

CB, and watching the stacks dwindle with the depreciation on the car.
December 23 at 1:21pm · Unlike · 1 person

FH, Which is why you are in charge of the money CB!
December 23 at 1:22pm · Like

RPM, No you're not wrong...matter of fact, you should go tell the brother exactly what you're thinking!!!
December 23 at 3:27pm · Like

FH, I definitely should engage the brother.
December 23 at 3:29pm · Like

MW, I engaged someone once and he told me that everyone is different, he'd rather ride and rent than own...at the time his car cost as much as a house in B-more...so be prepared for ignorance being bliss :)
December 23 at 5:01pm · Unlike · 1 person

FH, M, I have a term for that kind of thinking. Unfortunately I've experienced it all too often.
December 23 at 5:32pm · Like

CM, He probably loves that car more than anything. Bet he doesn't have a garage. Who parks that on the street? Oh, yeah. Somebody living in a shack.
December 23 at 7:55pm · Like

FH, LOL. Exactly. Who parks that on G Ave in the hood?!?! LOL!!!
December 23 at 7:58pm · Like

KW, I have cousins on G Ave in Philly so I've been in that area often. Rev he slinging! Please update us if you decide to engage.
December 23 at 8:28pm via Facebook Mobile · Unlike · 1 person

FH, We definitely have dealers in the hood! We'll see. I'm going to introduce myself just like I do with the cats outside on the corner.
December 23 at 8:57pm · Like · 1 person

MT, Keep us up-dated on this one F. It is very difficult to speak words that change life-styles.
December 24 at 3:12pm · Like

MW, Hey, I just thought about the women with the minks and paying rent...I refused to hang a mink in a rented closet, but that's me. Yeah, chat with the brother but be prepared :).
December 24 at 5:29pm · Unlike · 1 person

Dialogue #2

FH, Remember the brother with the 100K car on W. G Ave? Talked to him. Yup, he's slingin'. Insightful "conversation" about a space he shoveled out in front of the church. He knows my name now... for sure.
December 30 at 1pm · · Like · Comment

MG, Maybe I need to talk to him wit my boys.
2 hours ago · Like

TC, That's what's up keep touching that community ...your doing great brother/mentor/father figure/friend/bro/homeslice/fellowblackman/R.U. Peeps/S.A.I. Peeps.../ etc....LOL
2 hours ago via Facebook Mobile · Like

JN, LMBO! Rev, pray tell. what did u say to this poor guy?
2 hours ago · Like

FH, Hopefully I sowed a seed. That's all I can say. Oh, and he knows "my heart don't pump no Kool-Aid."
2 hours ago · Like · 1 person

JN, LMS, PF, it's nice to hear of u + M's burgeoning dedication to this church + community. Keep on keeping on... + Best wishes for the NY.
2 hours ago · Like

KH, Did he seem some what "receptive" to what you were saying during the convo?
about an hour ago · Like

FH, I think he felt convicted by my choice of words and my mannerisms. I was firm.
about an hour ago · Like

FH, Just bumped into the brother on my way out of the church. He apologized. He said he was in the wrong, and I invited him to church.
about an hour ago · Like · 1 person

MH, Powerful....it is also amazing to me how God utilizes all of our life experiences and brings them to bear into our purpose. You needed to be just who you are to Pastor "where" you are....I am also thankful for the Holy Spirits intervention! Thank ya!~ (in my Pentecostal get your shout on voice)
a few seconds ago · Like

Like I said, urban ministry isn't for the faint of heart!

Subject: Preapred in advance by my mom - A.

2010-12-25T05:47:00.004-05:00

A message from one of my own personal angels, which breaks my heart a little, though it fills me with joy. She manages to capture so much of what I feel, and so much of what I want to say about Christmas. I'm sure she prepared many of these notes for the many she looked over and prayed for daily. Love you Colette.

Merry Christmas Fred!

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way - in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only." - Charles Dickens

My sentiments exactly about the season I find myself in. Best. Worst. Wisdom. Foolishness. Belief. Incredulity. Light. Dark. Hope, Despair. Everything. Nothing. Heaven. especially now...heaven. Christmas is a mixed bag for me. I absolutely detest the "Disneyfication of Christianity" (Don Cupitt) that much of 'the holidays' embodies. But it is in thinking about Christmas that I understand these words of Jesus, "Listen carefully: Unless a grain of wheat is buried in the ground, dead to the world, it is never any more than a grain of wheat. But if it is buried, it sprouts and reproduces itself many times over. In the same way, anyone who holds on to life just as it is destroys that life. But if you let it go, reckless in your love, you'll have it forever, real and eternal." (John 12:24-25)

The moment Jesus landed on this earth, taking meetings with Magi, and ensuring that manger making will forever be a respectable occupation, he started to die. Slowly at first, double speed as time went on. Joy to the world. Dead to the world. That truth helped me to embrace today more fully, appreciate it for what it really is...the beginning of a miraculous ending which was the cause and catalyst for countless miraculous beginnings, not the the other way around. As I write this Christmas is still a ways off, but I can sense things speeding up. There remains real joy in this for me. Clear eyed joy. Not wild and crazy too good to be true joy, but true enough to be good to me and for me joy. So today I will celebrate. Today I am excited, expectant, and energized about the beginning up ahead for me. So today, for me, follow the instructions of Jesus: let your love go, be reckless in it, because love never fails, never ends, never dies.

Love,
Colette

Power Points From This Week's Sermon, 12/19/2010

2010-12-22T12:21:00.003-05:00

This week's sermon focused on Matthew 1:18-25, "God Is With Us"...

1.—Your Lineage Does Not Determine Your Destiny—
Jesus’ lineage isn’t defined by Tamar, Rahab, Ruth or Bathsheba anymore than it is defined by Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Joseph ties Jesus to the line of King David, but the tie to the Davidic line isn’t a manifestation of biological descendents; it’s a product of divine connection.

2.—Following God’s Plan Always Involves a Choice—
Sometimes things aren’t always what they seem, and so you’ve got to be able to follow the leading God, if you want to be a part of God’s plan. Joseph made a hard choice, even going against his own convictions, and the result of choosing God is the divine revelation that situates him in the middle of God’s plan for the salvation of humanity.

3.—The Right Choice Will Lead You to Your Destiny—
Not only was Joseph the recipient of divine revelation, but making the choice to follow God’s plan allowed him to fulfill his own purpose and destiny in God. He became the adopted father of the one who was conceived by the Holy Spirit; sent to save His people; the Messiah… Joseph was granted the privilege of raising the King of Kings as his own son.

4.— He is our Emmanuel—
“The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call Him Immanuel —which means, ‘God is with us’”
Jesus came to this earth 2000 years ago, and His presence… WITH US… today is no less than it was when He walked the earth. How can I be so sure? The gospel tells us. Matthew begins his gospel with the angel’s announcement of the birth of Jesus, who is Immanuel, “God is with us,” and Matthew ends his gospel with the resurrected Jesus saying: “Surely I am WITH YOU always, even to the end of the age” (Mt. 28:20).

Jesus’ birth and mission is not about being born into the right family… the right conditions… or the right circumstances. His birth is about Emmanuel… God with us…

The Christmas story is about the fact that God can step into our imperfect lives and walk WITH US through the realities of the lives we live; and we can look back over our lives and declare “God you were with me.”

Rev. Frederick A. Hanna

Come out and join us one Sunday at FAPC!!!

Adventures in Urban Ministry 2 - "He knew the dopes, the pushers, the addicts, everybody..."

2010-10-30T10:25:00.003-04:00

Sermonizing for this coming Sunday... I got to the office, finished my exegesis, but didn't really have a word yet. I'm coming from Luke 19:1-10. The story of Zacchaeus, the cheif tax collector. I sat back in my guest chair and looked at the "Relentless - Hanna" painting, hoping it would preach to me.

It did, but not what I was looking for. I thought about the fact that Zacchaeus had to reposition himself in order to meet Jesus, so instead of vegging out in the chair, I decided to reposition myself...
...Ministry is about context... relevant ministry is not just about knowing scripture. It's about knowing people and understanding context, and building relationships...

So I went out... and been hanging in the hood all day. 2 transitional homes, a few street corners, a drug spot, NA meeting, front steps of the church... ended up listening to old school hip-hop and R&B on my iPhone with a young man in the sanctuary, who is teaching himself to play the piano by ear...

I met some real genuine people, many of whom are looking for a 2nd chance in life.

This morning I was singing... "He knew the dopes, the pushers, the addicts, everybody" (MC Lyte)... Yeah... Yeah... That's WJWD!!! You gotta know ya hood... "Everybody"... Knowing people's story... That's urban ministry!

Frederick A Hanna

Adventures in Urban Ministry

2010-10-21T11:16:00.007-04:00

Hanging out at the church late last night after a number of meetings and numerous futile attempts at starting this Sunday's sermon... I decided to go out and get a bite to eat. Unfortunately my travels landed me at Checkers around the corner from the church. Checkers offered up a meal of deep fried, extra greasy hot wings! I decided to indulge. A decision met with immediately regrets, as I took my first and subsequently last bite of that first grease bomb. Oh well! My trip to Checkers did bring another interesting experience though.

As I was sitting at the drive-through, a woman, probably in her late 30s to early 40s as near as I could tell... disheveled hair, dirty clothes, slightly dazed look in her eye, standing about 5 feet from the drive-through pickup window... began a solicitation for spare change. At first I turned a deaf ear to her. I had already spotted her staring at me before I even got to the window. I could see in her face that she would be giving me some kind of spiel or plea for money.

She asked, "Sir do you happen to have any change? A nickel, a dime, a quarter? Anything you can spare. I'm hungry. I don't have any money. I've been living on the streets for the last six months."

Still trying to turn a deaf ear to this "same old song"... don't carry cash anyway besides a few coins that I have nestled in my pocket... She continues to talk "I just don't have any money, been living on the street, trying to make it, 37 years old, my whole life has been difficult, I've been on and off drugs, got mental health issues, living in an abandoned building..." When she talked, it was like one long sentence.

She continued, "I have mental health issues... I don't know whether I'm coming or going sometimes... I can't find a job... I finally got a payee, so I can get my money from the state. It's only about $70 a week, but at least it's something. But it's really not that much, especially when you owe people money from a year ago and they're waiting to get paid back... and then my payee? I don't even know if they'll give me the money... they'll probably just keep it all... I don't know."

She continues, "I like that cross hanging in your window. That's a nice cross. I saw one like it down at the Salvation Army earlier today. 'Yay though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil.' I like that cross. It's nice just like that one I saw earlier today. Are you a godly man? Are you a pastor? Do you work at a church or teach?"

Now I'm thinking to myself, "Man! Sister got game!"

Again she says, "Do you work at a church or teach?"

I respond, "Actually I work at a church and teach."

"Really!" she says... "I knew it! I could see it! You have a glow about you. I see that glow in your face. I see that glow in your eyes. I knew you were a special man. I knew you were a godly man!"

Now the only way I could be glowing is if I had been exposed to some kind of radioactivity earlier that day. I've looked in the mirror enough times to know that I don't physically glow, and I know myself well enough to know that I don't have a character that would cause me to glow in any supernatural way. I've got enough flaws to prevent anything like that from happening. So, still I'm thinking, "She got game! Sister got game! She knows this game well!"

She continues talking, "I always wanted a godly man. A man with morals, a man with values, a man with goals." Suddenly there's a sense of clarity in her voice that wasn't there before.

She goes on with an aire of deep sincerity, "All I ever had was men who treated me bad... men who used drugs... men who used me to get their drugs... men who got me hooked on drugs... men took everything I had... men who I tried to help, but they used me and abused me, and treated me bad. I always wanted a good man. A godly man who would encourage me... and love me... and care for me. I always wanted a man like that. I knew you were good man."

I don't know exactly what it was. Maybe I was touched by the depth of the sincerity in her final plea? Maybe I was convicted in my own shortcomings and the fact that the man she was describing was more the man I want to be, than the man I am?

When she was done, I gave her what little change I had. It wasn't much at all. I wish I could've done more. I said to her, "Sister, come on out to the church at the corner of 42nd and Girard on Wednesday at noon. We'll give you a nice meal... and come by the church tomorrow, and we'll give you a bag of groceries. I'm sorry I don't have more change right now to come by the church. I'd like to talk to you."

She smiled and excitedly exclaimed, "I'll be there!"

I hope she comes.

Written by Frederick A Hanna

Many For The Few

2010-08-11T20:40:00.005-04:00

Visited Chichen-Itza today. One of the 7 Wonders of the world. The Mayan’s ancient calendar, which was based on their knowledge of astronomy, is only rivaled by NASA’s modern technology.

Truly amazing. Of course, it is sad to see the Mayan descendents scurrying about, peddling trinkets of their heritage to Western tourists for pennies. I’m not sure why we find so many descendants of such rich culture living in such destitute situations. Perhaps it isn’t them who are destitute. Maybe it’s us. Even after their way of life has been ravaged by outsiders; their sacred practices deemed evil and pagan; their land stripped of its resources; they are still a dignified, hope filled people. Interesting comment by our tour guide today regarding the practice of human sacrifice at Chichen-Itza: “Back then, they sacrificed a few for the many. Today, we sacrifice many for the few.”

Written by Frederick A Hanna

Black Beautiful and Bad

2010-08-04T18:19:00.013-04:00

We spent the last few days of our South Africa trip at the Rugby House... the center of University of Pretoria's athletic training facilities. UP, as it is known locally, had a historical significance in the development and entrenching of Afrikaner nationalism. According to Jonathan Jansen,

"The University of Pretoria was one of the key Apartheid institutions for higher learning and one that fulfilled its white nationalist duty with considerable fervor for more than 100 years."

This was a university that churned out loyal civil servants of Apartheid, and ministers of religion who could defend its racist regime on holy grounds. Its anthropologists assigned ethnic and racial sensibilities that aligned with white racist ideology; its sociologists justified the racial order of society; its political scientists justified Apartheid rule; and its historians "impressed Afrikaner nationalism on public understandings of the past." (Jansen) It turned out prime ministers, business moguls, judges and Springbok (Rugby) captains. Its training originated in English, but was soon taken over by the language of Afrikaner nationalism, Afrikaans. At the center of the university's emblem sits the ox wagon, the symbol of the Vortrekker journey that has taken on mythical proportion in Afrikaner history.

Desegregation at UP -post Apartheid- meant overcoming the fears and racist tendencies that had become a part of university culture. Jansen writes, "This was university change in the context of a country that was itself transforming dramatically in the aftermath of apartheid." This was a long and ongoing process. The desegregation and integration of UP in recent years, means that it has a vastly different feel and look today. Outside of the rugby and cricket teams, most of the athletes we saw at UP were black. Still, all of the service workers were black, all of the cafeteria workers were black, and there seemed to be an air of elitism among whites that was palpable. A group of white American students studying abroad at UP told us how white Afrikaners would speak to them in Afrikaans, as if to test their ethnic allegiance. The seperation among races at the University was so striking that our multicultural group, a group who dined and laughed together, and generally liked each other, seemed a bit of a novelty.

The unspoken tension was never more apparent to me than the day I wore one of my favorite tee shirts. On the front, the sillohette of a naked black woman with a Pam Grier, 1970's Afro... On the back, the words Black Beautiful and Bad.

As I walked into the cafeteria that morning, no less than 3 black women approached me and exuberantly greeted me with "I love your shirt." Others nodded in my direction, gave me clinched fists of solidarity, and smiled at me with their eyes. I felt like a super hero...

...and I wondered, if the blacks are this excited about my tee shirt, what will the whites, specifically the Afrikaners, think? Hmmm... well it didn't take me long to find out. I enjoyed my breakfast and the celebrity status my tee shirt granted me. It was almost time to leave for our daily adventure, and I needed to run upstairs and grab my camera. On my way down the stairs from the 3rd floor, a group of 4 young, blonde haired Afrikaner males exited the gym on the 2nd floor, and were perfectly positioned to get a bird's eye view of the back of my tee. What I heard next was a grumbling of angry words from one of them in Afrikaans. Some words sound the same in every language... so I slowed my gait, squared my shoulders, and stopped...

...complete silence now screamed in the space that was once inhabited by angry words... The silence sounded like, "Oh my God. I hope he doesn't speak Afrikaans."

...no movement... I slowly turned my head to see the 4 youngsters standing frozen about half way down a flight of stairs...

I glared at them... ...the smallest of the 4 then decided to walk past me. As I stared at him, he refused to make eye contact, his face contorted with anger and defiance. What was said? I'll never know, but as he scurried out of the door and the others waited for me to resume movement, it was obvious that he was the culprit. When I resumed movement, so did the group behind me. I told our group what happened after I boarded the bus, and Krystal noted, "It was probably the 'Beautiful' that got to them."

"I bet you're right," I said.

Written by Frederick A Hanna

I Believe

2010-08-02T17:04:00.006-04:00

"I watched and listened to a child, a girl, who lives in a shack, walk to the front of the classroom, with dirty close cropped hair, and dirty, high-water pants, and they weren't Capri pants, and I distinctly remember the big hole in the elbow of her sweater... I watched her look into my eyes and listened to her tell me that she was going to be a doctor, and I believed her." ~ Frederick A Hanna

But That Doll is Black

2010-08-01T07:52:00.015-04:00

Our first night in Johannesburg and we are walking down Melville Street looking for a place to grab dinner, when something catches my eye. Two black rag dolls in the window of a toy store. I had been looking for a black rag doll for a special little girl, and here was a matching pair. One male and one female, and the male was wearing a bow tie, so you know this was meant to be. Right? Well, unfortunately the store was closed as it was late in the day, so I made plans to return before we checked out of the B&B.

Two days later and I finally made it back to the store the morning we were to check out. I was excited to make this purchase as I walked into the store and cautiously asked to see the 2 dolls in the window. Why cautiously? Because in the light of day, I noticed something different about these dolls as I spied them in the window. While they were cleverly dressed, well made and priced right; they didn't exactly look like me. When I say "me" I mean "black people."

After I asked to see the dolls, something else happened that was peculiar.
The shopkeeper (and owner) said, "You will be the 1st black person to ever buy a black doll from me!"
I said, "really?"
She said, "Yes, the white people buy the black dolls and the black people buy the white dolls."
"Strange," I thought as I looked at this doll. "I wonder why that is," I said.
"Well the white people say they remind them of their gulley's! The ones they had when they were children. " she exclaimed, which she explained to me was what they called this kind of rag doll regardless of color.
"That's a relief," I thought to myself.
"Well," I said, "I don't know if I can buy this doll because its black, like black, like I'm not black, not like this. But that doll is BLACK." She looked at me strangely and I said, "You know, like you're not white. You're pink, and none of the white dolls are white."

What followed was an insightful conversation between an American Black man and a White South African woman about the Clark Doll Test:

...And other matters of history, race and children. I explained to her that this black rag doll could have a profound affect on a child, and how I wouldn't want my daughter to look at this black doll and think it was ugly, and perhaps think of herself as being ugly by association. Without going into all the details, the conversation ended like this... The shop owner said, "If you can come back before you leave South Africa, I will have brown dolls for you, and if you don't come back, don't worry - someone else will buy them. Thank you for educating me. May we all continue to educate each other, and evolve together."

With that, we hugged and parted ways.

This is one of the reasons why I love South Africa. The simple act of buying a rag doll in South Africa can have so many implications, and can turn up such complexities and such opportunities.

Written by Frederick A Hanna

Never Again

2010-07-29T14:46:00.007-04:00

Tonight was my final debrief with the SAI 2010 graduate students. I started off by reading this address from Nelson Mandela, 1994:

STATEMENT OF THE PRESIDENT
OF THE AFRICAN NATIONAL CONGRESS
NELSON ROLIHLAHLA MANDELA
AT HIS INAUGURATION AS
PRESIDENT OF THE DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC
OF SOUTH AFRICA
UNION BUILDINGS, PRETORIA
MAY 10 1994

Your Majesties,

Your Highnesses,

Distinguished Guests,

Comrades and Friends.

Today, all of us do, by our presence here, and by our celebrations in other parts of our country and the world, confer glory and hope to newborn liberty.

Out of the experience of an extraordinary human disaster that lasted too long, must be born a society of which all humanity will be proud.

Our daily deeds as ordinary South Africans must produce an actual South African reality that will reinforce humanity's belief in justice, strengthen its confidence in the nobility of the human soul and sustain all our hopes for a glorious life for all.

All this we owe both to ourselves and to the peoples of the world who are so well represented here today.

To my compatriots, I have no hesitation in saying that each one of us is as intimately attached to the soil of this beautiful country as are the famous jacaranda trees of Pretoria and the mimosa trees of the bushveld.

Each time one of us touches the soil of this land, we feel a sense of personal renewal. The national mood changes as the seasons change.

We are moved by a sense of joy and exhilaration when the grass turns green and the flowers bloom.

That spiritual and physical oneness we all share with this common homeland explains the depth of the pain we all carried in our hearts as we saw our country tear itself apart in a terrible conflict, and as we saw it spurned, outlawed and isolated by the peoples of the world, precisely because it has become the universal base of the pernicious ideology and practice of racism and racial oppression.

We, the people of South Africa, feel fulfilled that humanity has taken us back into its bosom, that we, who were outlaws not so long ago, have today been given the rare privilege to be host to the nations of the world on our own soil.

We thank all our distinguished international guests for having come to take possession with the people of our country of what is, after all, a common victory for justice, for peace, for human dignity.

We trust that you will continue to stand by us as we tackle the challenges of building peace, prosperity, non-sexism, non-racialism and democracy.

We deeply appreciate the role that the masses of our people and their political mass democratic, religious, women, youth, business, traditional and other leaders have played to bring about this conclusion. Not least among them is my Second Deputy President, the Honourable F.W. de Klerk.

We would also like to pay tribute to our security forces, in all their ranks, for the distinguished role they have played in securing our first democratic elections and the transition to democracy, from blood-thirsty forces which still refuse to see the light.

The time for the healing of the wounds has come.

The moment to bridge the chasms that divide us has come.

The time to build is upon us.

We have, at last, achieved our political emancipation. We pledge ourselves to liberate all our people from the continuing bondage of poverty, deprivation, suffering, gender and other discrimination.

We succeeded to take our last steps to freedom in conditions of relative peace. We commit ourselves to the construction of a complete, just and lasting peace.

We have triumphed in the effort to implant hope in the breasts of the millions of our people. We enter into a covenant that we shall build the society in which all South Africans, both black and white, will be able to walk tall, without any fear in their hearts, assured of their inalienable right to human dignity - a rainbow nation at peace with itself and the world.

As a token of its commitment to the renewal of our country, the new Interim Government of National Unity will, as a matter of urgency, address the issue of amnesty for various categories of our people who are currently serving terms of imprisonment.

We dedicate this day to all the heroes and heroines in this country and the rest of the world who sacrificed in many ways and surrendered their lives so that we could be free.

Their dreams have become reality. Freedom is their reward.

We are both humbled and elevated by the honour and privilege that you, the people of South Africa, have bestowed on us, as the first President of a united, democratic, non-racial and non-sexist government.

We understand it still that there is no easy road to freedom

We know it well that none of us acting alone can achieve success.

We must therefore act together as a united people, for national reconciliation, for nation building, for the birth of a new world.

Let there be justice for all.

Let there be peace for all.

Let there be work, bread, water and salt for all.

Let each know that for each the body, the mind and the soul have been freed to fulfill themselves.

Never, never and never again shall it be that this beautiful land will again experience the oppression of one by another and suffer the indignity of being the skunk of the world.

Let freedom reign.

The sun shall never set on so glorious a human achievement!

God bless Africa!

Thank you.

I chose to read this as I reflected on Edwin Smith's comment the other night that Nelson Mandela may have hurt South Africa by saying the words "never again." Why? Because it almost seems as if blacks need to create a similarly unjust system -as the one that oppressed them for nearly 2 centuries- just to close the gap in racial inequality that still exists in South Africa today. It is an utterly complex country with as complicated a history as we have in the United States against our own backdrop of racial inequity and oppression.

Reading this out loud to the group was powerful for me. To think about what Mandela had lived through, and what his hopes were for the future of his beloved South Africa against the backdrop of everything we had seen stirred deep, conflicting emotions. You could not have read this address before the trip, and read it after the trip... and have had the same experience of reading it each time. Thus, I asked the group, "What has South Africa done to you? Because if this place hasn't done anything 'to you' then you weren't really here. You may have been here physically, but you could not have truly come to South Africa if it didn't do anything to you."

Written by Frederick A Hanna

We All Need Goals

2010-07-28T15:00:00.004-04:00

After doing a little "technologies" teaching today, I decided to keep up my theme of goals and vision. It was really inspired by the 6th grade students sharing "what they want to be when they grow up" with me. So, I began an impromptu talk about what it means to set goals and the kind of goals that a 6th grader might be thinking about. At the end of the session, I asked each of them to share some goals with me... goals that they will write down and actively work towards:

Here's a short list. I hope you'll be as inspired as I am.

1. You cannot be "Daddy" before you are "Husband."
2. Mommy 2nd, Wife 1st. No babies before finishing school.
3. Never smoke drugs.
4. Make better marks next term.
5. Don't bully other students at school.
6. Avoid peer pressure.
7. Do what the teacher instructs.
8. Come to school with the expectation to learn.
9. Build good study habits.
10. Take responsibility for my education.
11. Become a doctor, judge, teacher, lawyer, soccer player, pilot, architect, taxi driver (hey don't knock it!), singer, artist, police officer, soldier...

I felt so inspired by these young people's excitement around goal setting. Sometimes, all young people need is some encouragement. Someone to say "you are special" "you are beautiful" "you are uniquely and wonderfully created, and you have a future and a hope and a destiny"...

Written by Frederick A Hanna

Learn How to Tell Your Story

2010-07-24T21:57:00.004-04:00

These 5 young men gave me a chance to share my story with them, as they shared their lives and their dreams with me. It is important that we all learn "our story." That is, the journey that God has you on in this thing called life. Why did you go through this or that? How have your experiences impacted or changed you for better or worse? How do you process each experience so that it becomes a marker on the journey, and not an exit ramp that takes you off course and stops you from reaching your God ordained destiny? Who are the people who have helped you along the way? What choices did you make that helped and/or hindered the process?

We left off with this,

1. We all need "purpose." In order to understand our purpose, we need to know who we are-our identity; what we are good at-our gifts and talents; and what we love to do-our passion.
2. Next, we must set goals, short term and long term.
3. We need to evaluate those goals in a timely fashion. If we aren't making progress towards those goals, then we need to make adjustments that will allow us to move forward.
4. Overall, we need to have a vision for our lives, and we have to believe that we can, with God's help, see that vision come to fruition.

And anyone who doesn't believe in that vision or discourages it in any way can keep it moving!

Frederick A Hanna

Killed You on Your Own Track

2010-07-08T07:27:00.000-04:00

Remember when Redman killed killed EPMD on their own track, Headbanger?

How about when LL killed EPMD on Rampage?

Or when Cannibus ripped LL on 4, 3, 2, 1? (the original lyrics, not the LL revenge joint)

I remember me and my boys talking about how EPMD always had a fly collabo on every album where another artist basically got wreck on them.

I found this ill list of artists who got "murdered on their own track." Can you add to it?

Here are the rules as per the link below:

1. Guest artist must outshine song’s host.
2. One song per artist on the list.
3. No bootlegs or freestyles.

Killed You on Your Own Track

Be Ready When The Door Opens

2010-06-29T11:48:00.006-04:00

Matthew 25 - The Parable of the Ten Virgins

With so much going on in my life right now, I was led to this text today...

1"At that time the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. 2Five of them were foolish and five were wise. 3The foolish ones took their lamps but did not take any oil with them. 4The wise, however, took oil in jars along with their lamps. 5The bridegroom was a long time in coming, and they all became drowsy and fell asleep.
6"At midnight the cry rang out: 'Here's the bridegroom! Come out to meet him!'
7"Then all the virgins woke up and trimmed their lamps. 8The foolish ones said to the wise, 'Give us some of your oil; our lamps are going out.'
9" 'No,' they replied, 'there may not be enough for both us and you. Instead, go to those who sell oil and buy some for yourselves.'
10"But while they were on their way to buy the oil, the bridegroom arrived. The virgins who were ready went in with him to the wedding banquet. And the door was shut.
11"Later the others also came. 'Sir! Sir!' they said. 'Open the door for us!'
12"But he replied, 'I tell you the truth, I don't know you.'
13"Therefore keep watch, because you do not know the day or the hour.

Some seasons in your life are times of preparation for what's next. Its easy to get frustrated or anxious in those seasons. You might even be tempted to think that time and chance have passed you by. The worst thing you can do in these seasons is to become complacent or despondent. Instead, PERSIST IN THE THINGS THAT WILL PREPARE YOU FOR YOUR DESTINY... And, Stay ready! The worst thing you can do is to not be ready when God opens a door for you.

Be Blessed,
Written by Frederick A Hanna

A Challenge to the Black Church

2010-05-26T15:33:00.005-04:00

article here: Blacks, Mirroring Larger U.S. Trend, 'Come Out' As Nonbelievers

Frederick A Hanna

I don't honestly see this as a threat to the Black Church, but a challenge. I hate when people criticize black churches without having spent significant time inside of them. AND when I say "inside" I don't mean some jaded experience you had that disenchanted and marred you as a youth, nor do I mean a cursory outsider's perspective based on your intellectual opinion.

Nonetheless, statements like,

"...religious principles get in the way of effectively addressing the social ills facing the black community, including a higher proportion of HIV and AIDS cases compared with other races and ethnicities."

AND

"... black churches are sometimes be part of the problem, not the solution... We need clinics, jobs, and schools in black neighborhoods... We need proactive solutions, and praying and churches is not the answer." (which I would change to "is not the full extent of the answer")

are at least partially true for far too many churches. Movements like this should force churches to critically analyze their role in society in a post modern age. Preaching and praying isn't enough. I have said it before, it's not enough to "have" church we have got to "be" the church. Far too many Christians don't truly understand what that means because they have become ensnared by religion. Still, as a good friend of mine once told me, "you can't blame the people for that, it's what they've been taught."

Remember who killed Jesus? Religious folk! The religious elite... the establishment...

Having said all of that, if I'm going to roll the dice, I'm rolling with Jesus!

Building a Better Teacher

2010-03-07T13:18:00.002-05:00

Doug Lemov gets to the point... well, at least one of the points that are of importance when looking at educational outcomes... "The smarter path to boosting student performance, Lemov maintains, is to improve the quality of the teachers who are already teaching."

This is the path I favor in improving educational outcomes. We can't just sellout and fire all of the teachers in failing schools. We have to help the ones who need help and want it. If they don't want it, then out they go. Too many teachers are victims of poor training, and I don't think it's fair to hold them accountable where the system has failed them without offering to help make up the difference. We also need to elevate the standards for those coming into the classroom now and in the future so that the cycle is ended, and we need to pay teachers in accordance with the significance of the job they do.

Nothing new in this article from my perspective. It's just something that needs to be said. Subject matter knowledge, pedagogical knowledge and pedagogical competence add up to good teaching. PERIOD

Building a Better Teacher - NYT Article

School’s Shake-Up Is Embraced by the President

2010-03-07T13:05:00.001-05:00

If an entire faculty needs to be fired - which I find hard to believe yet not impossible - then there are clearly some deep and pervasive issues here.

School’s Shake-Up Is Embraced by the President - NYT Article

Bill Perkins Opposes Charter Schools Popular in Harlem

2010-03-07T12:59:00.002-05:00

Mr. Perkins' voice needs to be heard. I'm with him insofar as questioning the wholesale selling out of public schools that seems to be being advocated today. If bureaucracy is such a huge issue for public schools, then let's change the system so that we can devise better ways to educate!

“When you are dying of thirst, you will drink whatever is wet,” Mr. Perkins said of the parents who yearn for more charter schools. “You are at the mercy of whoever is holding out some hope for you. So I don’t see the number of applicants as evidence of success for charters, I see it as evidence of failure of others.”

Bill Perkins Opposes Charter Schools Popular in Harlem - NYTimes.com

Time and Space

2010-01-30T11:41:00.012-05:00

I read a great essay yesterday by Ira Berlin, entitled “Time, Space, and the Evolution of Afro-American Society on British Mainland North America.” I read the article on the advice of Hilary Moss (Schooling Citizens: The Struggle for African American Education in Antebellum America)who recently commented on a draft of my dissertation proposal. She was cautioning me on an assumption that I seemed to be making in my writing that suggested a monolithic African American/Black culture in North America. While this wasn't my intention, I could see that she was correct. In my thinking, I always make the distinction between northern and southern black culture especially since I married a woman who's regional and cultural tendencies are decidedly southern.

In informal conversations I find that most Southerners think that Northerners see them as stereotypically simple and stupid (Here is a Southerner's Response). While it is probably true in many cases that Northerners see Southerners as gullible, charming folk, who speak with a drawl, drive pick up trucks, and prefer fishing to intellectually stimulating conversation; not all Northerners would agree to such stereotypical representations of our southern brothers and sisters. For me, Southerners are just different... from me. My sensibilities, likes, my style, what I am attracted to, reflects my upbringing in the urban centers of northeastern United States. Even down to what I like to experience in worship. This is something I am acutely aware of, so it was strange to think that I would write pages upon pages melding northern and southern black culture together as though they were one.

Berlin's article was helpful as it pointed to 3 distinct African American cultures developing in the 17th and 18th centuries. Distinctions which are probably still relevant today in many ways. These distinctions were mediated by time and space. Berlin suggests that one culture developed amidst a nonplantation culture in the North, a a 2nd was a Southern plantation system in the Chesapeake area, and a 3rd plantation system developed in the South Carolina and Georgia low country. To find out the particulars of the differences, I suggest you read the essay.

There are a number of things that these groups held in common however: a common African lineage, a common racial oppressor, and a common desire to create the richest life possible for themselves and their families amidst intensely difficult circumstances. Black life in the US is mediated by time and space; by social circumstances and local traditions; by cultural distinctions and regional sensibilities; and although African American life has grown immensely in diversity since the antebellum years, one might argue that it is still held together by the same commonalities today.

Written by Frederick A Hanna

US Christian Roots

2010-01-23T11:43:00.002-05:00

Just a simple question...

If you can acknowledge the existence of racially based policies such as slavery, the near extermination of Native Americans and their removal from "their" lands, the super-exploitation and degrading utilization of Mexicans and various Asian groups as contract laborers, Jim Crow and any number of other degrading practices that were a part of US history from at least 1776-1960's... ...Can you still laud the Protestant religious foundations of the US as pure and true?

I love America and I love Jesus, but if I hear one more person talking about the Christian roots of our forefathers without acknowledging the bigotry and discrimination that excluded even most white men and all white woman from the rights of citizenship as part of the development of a liberal nation-state, I'm gonna throw up.

Holla Back!

Written by Frederick A Hanna

Christmas Dream

2009-12-28T11:56:00.008-05:00

I was startled from my sleep on Christmas Eve by an urge to do good deeds. I looked at the clock, 11:59pm, without even a thought, I jumped into my Green Lantern costume, ran to the front porch, and took off through the air towards my hometown, Jersey City, NJ.

As I flew over the church steeple of St. Patrick's Church on Bramhall Avenue, and the clock struck 12, I knew there was no time for complacency or sloth. There was just too much to do.

I first flew over all the corners where drugs were being sold and turned crack rocks into skittles! BUT not only that, I instantly enrolled the young entrepreneurs into small business owners classes and arranged for them to get grants to start their own businesses, provided they finished their coursework.

Next I waved my hand and everyone with an addiction was enrolled in a program to help them get clean and stay clean...

Next, I got all of Jersey City's great athletes, business owners, professionals, and celebrities who had made it out of poverty and had them start up job training programs, as well as, open businesses in the community that would not only put people to work, but would give them long term stability and security. Then I put them in contact with all of the unemployed, under employed, and those who had just given up, and told them to get to work... TOGETHER.

Next I identified all of the undernourished children and arranged for them to have healthy, nutritious meals 3 times a day. Part of this plan involved making sure that there were food stores in the community that sold healthy, fresh, affordable foods.

I also arranged for all of the children to have access to free, HIGH QUALITY healthcare...

Then I flew over every detention facility and "bam" they all had REAL rehabilitation programs that help ex offenders to enter back into society with REAL hope.

After that, I made a pact with every ex offender that they would speak in schools and community centers about the mistakes they had made, and implore others not to do the same.

Next I pulled every corrupt politician together and had them make retribution Zacchaeus style. Read it for yourself:

Luke 19:1-10
Zacchaeus the Tax Collector

1Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through. 2A man was there by the name of Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector and was wealthy. 3He wanted to see who Jesus was, but being a short man he could not, because of the crowd. 4So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore-fig tree to see him, since Jesus was coming that way.
5When Jesus reached the spot, he looked up and said to him, "Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today." 6So he came down at once and welcomed him gladly.

7All the people saw this and began to mutter, "He has gone to be the guest of a 'sinner.'"

8But Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, "Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount."

9Jesus said to him, "Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham. 10For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost."

From there I flew over every courthouse and decreed that JUSTICE would prevail in every situation. That all people, rich and poor, black, white, brown, yellow, or red would be ensured impartiality and fairness in every situation.

Next I flew over all of the schools, identified all of the underachieving TEACHERS and ADMINISTRATORS, and enrolled them in programs to bring them up to an elite standard. I also gifted every under resourced school with all of the resources it needed to give young people the best possible education, so that every child has the opportunity to go to college.

Then I flew over the projects and the sub standard housing, turning them into beautiful places to live, and making many of the people property owners. I also launched programs in every community that taught people to value their properties, how to keep them up, how to save money, and create wealth.

I also, built homeless shelters that were safe, clean, and packed with resources that would help people get back on their feet.

Next I visited every house of worship and confronted the leaders with the urgency of the day. I implored them to act with self-LESS-ness, to walk the walk even better than they talk the talk, and we all prayed and cried together vowing to do our part.

I know there was much more to do, but I only had a few hours, and besides, it was just a dream... BUT it's not impossible.

Christmas isn't just a day, in fact the day itself is only "symbolic" in every possible way (no way that Christ was born in December). The true spirit of Christmas should be expressed in how we serve those less fortunate; those in need; the "least of these."

Written by Frederick A Hanna

Best Christmas Memory

2009-12-24T14:15:00.007-05:00

I grew up the only child of a single mom, and we were tighter than pantie hose 2 sizes small! Still are to this day. We accept each others flaws, hoping we both grow, but not judging the other less worthy because of our imperfections.

One Christmas, mommy got her Christmas club money out and we headed to Toys'R'Us to get your boy his Christmas wishes. We went in the store and shopped every isle. I was elated, then we got to the cash register, and something had gone wrong. The yellow envelope that mommy's money was in was gone. Seems it fell out of her pocketbook when we got out of the car to go into the store. We searched to no avail, so we left the store with me confused and mommy in tears.

Mommy was proud. She was/is the kind of woman who finds it hard to ever ask anyone for anything (a pathology we share), and so we were resolved to have a less than perfect Christmas... still, we had each other.

Well, just like old fabled St. Nicholas, my grandpop (God rest his soul) showed up on a snowy Christmas Eve. His nickname happened to be Nick too. He had a motto, "Say it with cash," and that's what he did. He heard what had happened and he came around with a little "ice cream money" for us!

My fondest Christmas memory is the one of me and my mother walking through Jersey City... up Monticello Ave, through McGinley Square, and into Journal Square, buying gifts all along the way on a snowy Christmas Eve. I don't remember what we bought, but I remember holding her hand, and I remember our footprints in the snow.

Do you have a favorite Christmas memory?

Images of Black Masculinity

2009-12-07T12:44:00.001-05:00

Think with me! One of my dudes, a consummate thinker, commented that my new profile pic was very rap album-ish. I agree totally and found it quite funny. I also saw a lot of irony in the comparison when I thought of "typical" rap album images and messages they send about black masculinity. While all rappers do not portray themselves in the same manner, I think its safe to say that many people think of thugs, misogyny, and bling, when they think of rappers. I decided to post my picture side-by-side with one of these images and ask you all, "What ironies do you see?" and "What images (myth or reality) of black masculinity do you see in these pictures?"

What is the Mixtape of Your Life?

2009-11-21T12:00:00.009-05:00

I heard a great talk yesterday at the Rutgers Camden Urban Youth Symposium (http://childhood.camden.rutgers.edu/urban_youth/schedule.php). The talk was led by English Professor James Peterson of Bucknell University. He writes and teaches in the areas of Africana Studies, Hip Hop Culture, Popular Culture, Media, African American Literature and Sociolinguistics. He talked about the influence of hip hop culture, and the significance of hip hop culture as something separate and distinct from other forms of culture. The hip hop aesthetic! He talked extensively about the literary potential of hip hop as a way of reading and interpreting culture, and he suggested that if Rutgers Camden had its own mixtape... a mixtape made up of 5 songs that tell the story of the school and perhaps more importantly the city of Camden... the 5 songs would be:

1. Lupe Fiasco – Put You on Game

2. Immortal Technique – Dance With the Devil

3. Jay Z - Meet the Parents

4. Grand Master Flash – The Message

5. Common - The Corner

I would have probably added Ghetto Bastard by Naughty, but you get the concept right?

If you take the time to listen to these songs, they paint a grim picture of Camden. I may have added a song that conveyed a stronger sense of hope and resilience, but maybe people do really perceive Camden as being devoid of hope. Peterson and his students, who are all outsiders to Camden, came up with this particular list. I wonder what songs would have been chosen by Camden natives?

Well, this all got me to thinking... If you had to construct a mixtape of 5 songs that told the story of your life... that if people listened to the tape and deconstructed the literary context of the lyrics, they would have a deeper sense and understanding of who you are... WHAT 5 SONGS WOULD YOU CHOOSE?

Written by Frederick A Hanna

The Problem With Exclusionary Discipline

2009-11-11T11:53:00.003-05:00

Exclusionary Discipline

Students who experience academic failure are more likely to be pushed out of schools through exclusionary discipline practices. Exclusionary discipline practices are disciplinary measures that remove students from the learning process. These practices can be anything from timeouts, to suspensions, and expulsions. “Suspension and expulsion, the most common responses in discipline policies, are not effective in meeting the needs of any student and, ironically, exacerbate the very problems they are attempting to reduce” (Christle, 2007, p. 539). Any disciplinary act that separates a child from the educational experience could fit into the context of an exclusionary discipline practice, but zero tolerance policies have been most complicit in these practices. Zero tolerance policies demand punishment for violated school practices and policies, and often enact the most severe punitive response to any infraction of the rules. One of the dangers associated with zero tolerance policies is that students are singled out and severely punished for infractions that are commonly associated with adolescent immaturity. Acts like day dreaming, doodling, and talking out of turn are viewed as threats to the teacher’s authority, and certain students are repeatedly targeted with harsher consequences (Christle, 2007). These targeted students tend to be black and Latino males who are notoriously victimized by criminalization and stereotyping in America. As a result, zero tolerance policies that were put in place to curb inappropriate behavior may “exacerbate racial discrepancies” (Monroe, 2005, p47). Educators' unwillingness to draw distinctions between severe and minor offenses and the breadth with which zero tolerance approaches are applied appear to be primary sources of the problem (Skiba and Peterson 1999). The lack of practices that mediate discipline problems in the classroom can result in the victimization of the student. The emphasis on zero tolerance may also contribute to an “inattention to the value of working cooperatively with parents and communities to construct schools where disruption is minimized overall” (Monroe, 2005, p. 47). Once students are removed from the classroom, the process for the school to prison pipeline commences (Christle, 2007).

Modern day attempts at school reform linked to standardized tests can also have the affect of pushing children into the school to prison pipeline. When students are identified as not being able to meet academic standards, or as contributing to school failure, it is easier to eliminate them from the equation than to enact measures to assist them in meeting the standards. “These children are often identified by their apparent inability to acknowledge and follow the hidden curriculum of schools and their failure to acquire the skills necessary to successfully negotiate the school environment” (Fenning and Rose, 2007, p. 237). Schools can mask their failures by removing children that do not make the grade. This is exacerbated in schools located in areas of concentrated poverty that do not have the resources to undertake the kind of in school reforms that are necessary to counteract the historical inequalities related to American schools. High stakes testing associated with No Child Left Behind has done more to reinvent school inequality, than to undermine and correct it.

See NY Times Op-Ed article for more info: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/11/opinion/11wed2.html?th&emc=th

Written by Frederick A Hanna

The Church, Not the Public School... QUOTE

2009-10-22T13:56:00.006-04:00

In reading about the Cincinnati Bible War today, which concerned the debate against teaching Protestant Christian religious lessons in public schools in the 1870's, I found this interesting quote from a staunch Calvinist Presbyterian elder who was also an attorney for the Cincinnati school board. He said this in defense of his position that "the church, not the public school was the proper agency" for religious education:

"Cannot the church send out it's ministers? Or are they too busy, day after day, in their studies, preparing to dole out dogmatic theology Sunday after Sunday, to the tired ears of their wearied congregations? Cannot they send out their Sunday School teachers? Cannot they send out their missionaries?...Must we say that the church has grown idle and lazy, and can only hobble on its crutches, and therefore that our school directors must set themselves up as teachers of religious truth? No! Let the church cease to depend upon any adventitious or external aids. Let her rely solely upon the strength of the Spirit of the Lord that is in it...Here is our work to evangelize, to save the lost and perishing crowd"

--Stanley Matthews--

I could site any number of local missions opportunities in this declaration that the modern church misses time and time again that would get people out of the pews... Compelling argument in my opinion.

King's Intertextuality

2009-10-16T17:32:00.007-04:00

Today I found myself reflecting on some comments made by Bishop Jakes at a training I attended a few weeks ago. His comments were about the gulf that seems to exist between intellectualism and spirituality in the minds of so many church goers. This supposed gulf impacts me in a personal way as I attempt to write my dissertation which deals with emancipatory education and the Black Church. The other day, I was explaining to my peers at the Center for Race and Ethnicity that my work, in addition to embodying my own personal sense of agency, attempts to bridge intellectual and spiritual territories that are often disparate. As I contend in my work, this should never be.

In the course of my reflections, I recalled the first time I read King's Birmingham Jail Letter during my 1st year of seminary in my New Testament class. I was amazed at King's ability to weave the African American story into the narratives of the Bible so seamlessly. Their were times where you were so caught up in his explication of the plight of the Civil Rights movement that you didn't realize that he was discussing the ministry of the Apostle Paul. It was upon reading this letter that I realized for the first time that Dr. Martin Luther King was not just "a young black minister from Georgia" as President Obama so frequently likes to refer to him. King was in fact one of the best theologians, intellectuals, and preachers in the history of the United States.

In considering this fact, I enjoy the way one of my former professors, Dr. Hak Joon Lee says it in his book, "We Will Get to the Promised Land: MLK's Communal-Political Spirituality. Lee notes:

"King was a philosopher and systematic theologian by training. It was King's belief that religion should be socially active as well as intellectually respectable. To be intellectually respectable, religious ideals and principals need to be communicated through reasonable and sensible language, in terms that the public can understand. In formulating a plausible form of public theology for social change, King translated his particular religious language and symbols into public terms, identifying and interpreting in spiritual terms the challenges and problems of a society. A master of intertextuality, King freely interwove various spiritual, moral, and intellectual sources for the persuasion of the public. He creatively mixed spirituals, African American proverbs, and folklore with phrases from the Bible (e.g., the Exodus, wilderness, crucifixion, redemption, and eschaton), Western philosophies, theologies, and political documents, such as the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights, in making a public case for the freedom of African Americans."

Dr. King was indeed a minster from Georgia, but it was his God given intellectual prowess that separated him from the masses as an effective leader, that enhanced his ability to so profoundly articulate the gospel, and to encourage peoples' participation in the struggle, which for him was as much spiritual as it was political.

The next time you hear someone refer to King as simply a "young black minister from Georgia"... whisper in their ear that he was "much more than that." AND the next time someone tries to tell you that intelligence and spirituality can't coexist, remind them about a "young black minister from Georgia" who was really, really smart.

Written by Frederick A Hanna

The Power of Christ Crucified - A Church Revived

2009-10-09T12:39:00.003-04:00

Exceprts from a sermon preached on October 8, 2009 at Cedar Park Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia, PA by Rev. Frederick A Hanna.

You know as we open this 1st night of revival, I must confess that I have been thinking about this whole revival thing… I’ve been thinking about the meaning of the word “revival”, literally "to put life back into," and I’ve come to the conclusion that for one to say that one is having a revival is really a peculiar thing for a church to do…

Why? You ask… Well… looking back at the history of the Protestant church movement in America, you will certainly see the phenomena of revival… and history will tell you that a revival…
Was often held in a tent or during a camp meeting…
often involved a series of meetings over the course of days or nights and it
often involved preaching that was inspired… and was…
often held for the purpose of inspiring current church members to go out and seek new converts to the faith…

I don’t know about you, but that sounds like a good idea to me because...
We ought to always be doing whatever we can to win people for Christ…
We ought to always be doing whatever we can to see that souls get saved…
We ought to always be doing whatever we can to gain converts and to expand the Kingdom of God…

BUT… There is an interesting dilemma when we talk about REVIVAL… AND what REVIVAL means in a spiritual sense… AND The dilemma is that we will never truly have revival in our churches…
no matter how many wonderful preachers we invite…
no matter how many wonderful songs we sing…
no matter how many people we can pack into the sanctuary…
…unless God by the power of the Holy Spirit decides to show up, to meet us, and to revive us… We need the PRESENCE and the POWER of God if we are ever going to truly have revival…

AND today we need revival like never before…

....................................................................................

You see if we are ever going to be able to take the city for God, then we have to get out of a church mentality… We have got to expand our thinking until it explodes into a Kingdom mentality… we have got to begin to focus on the cross of Christ, and the cross of Christ is not about us as individuals… For the Son of God was not sent for JUST us… but the Son of God was sent that through Him, the world might be saved…

.....................................................................................

BUT If we’re not careful… AND FAIL to rely on the Spirit… …we’ll become the church that…
…specializes in how to do church, but has no relevance in the community…
…talks loud but is silent when we need to be heard…
…occupies a corner on the street, but is irrelevant to the people on the street…

If we really want to see revival, we have got to remember the cross of Christ… and the power of the Holy Spirit tear down strongholds… and break the yoke of bondage… and set the captives free… we have got to remember what it means to be the church…

.....................................................................................

We as the church have ONE SINGLE concern… and that is that the gospel be proclaimed through the weakness of human beings like us, such that the power of the Spirit begins to change lives… to change individuals… to change relationships… to change families… to change communities… to change cities… to alter the very fabric of civilization through an encounter with Jesus the Christ…

Our faith -- yours and mine, must never rest in the wisdom of a man, but in the power of God -- the power of the Holy Spirit… the power of Cross…

Written by Frederick A Hanna

Chicago Olympics

2009-10-03T11:49:00.005-04:00

Sorry Pres, but when you and the wife were making your pitch for summer games in Chicago, I was shaking my head. A little boy is beaten to death in Chicago, and you are wasting money on jet fuel to fly to Copenhagen. Money that could be used to improve schools and housing, and any number of conditions that contribute to the well being of the city you love. Not to mention that you are, in your words, willing to put the full force of the United States behind protecting foreign citizens who come to the city for the games. Try protecting the U.S. citizens who live there. Yay Rio!

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kevin-powell/chicago-obama-the-olympic_b_307564.html

Every Thought Captive

2009-09-28T07:00:00.003-04:00

2 Corinthians 10

3 For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. 4 For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, 5 casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ, 6 and being ready to punish all disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled.

What does it mean to bring every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ? Jesus once prayed "My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will." (Matthew 26:39) Jesus had taken every though captive. He was able to follow God so closely that his will and the Father's will were indistinguishable. He had disciplined himself to be the perfect example of obedience to God, and he is the model that we all aspire to.

The next time you feel the impulse to jump and act, take a minute to stop and think first... "Is this an act of determined obedience, or is this an act of human nature?" You can do a great deal of practical work that is good work for good reasons, "but true determination and zeal are found in obeying God, not in the inclination to serve Him that arises from our own undisciplined human nature. (Oswald Chambers)"

Take every thought captive!

Written by Frederick A Hanna

The Power of Images

2009-09-22T13:55:00.001-04:00

I've got a joke for you! Listen...

Some people look at these images and find them to be little more than a harmless joke... an effort to get one's point across... a kind of political satire. Others look at these images and see hate... tasteless morbid humor and racism at its best.

Who's right?

The Jerry Dome

2009-09-21T17:17:00.000-04:00

As a life long Cowboys fan, I have 2 comments about last night's game 1) "Boo for Tony Romo," terrible game; and 2) "Bigger Boo for Jerry Jones," what a waste of money that stadium is. It epitomizes America's lust for luxury and dismissal of thrift. "For a list of 20 major traded commodities, it (U.S.) takes the greatest share of 11 of them: corn, coffee, copper, lead, zinc, tin, aluminum, rubber, oil seeds, oil and natural gas. For many more it is the largest per-capita consumer." The next time you complain about an athlete's salary, think about how much we "invest" in our teams (tickets, jerseys, time, etc.). Too bad we don't invest as much in our communities, or better yet our teachers... monetarily and educationally. We worship our pets, our teams, our homes, & our cars... You should have renovated the old stadium and built 10 schools and 500 affordable homes Jerry, but that would be too unAmerican for the owner of America's team.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/21/sports/football/21giants.html?th&emc=th

Written by Frederick A Hanna

You need THE Paraclete? - When people aren't enough, you need a "Go-To-God."

2009-09-21T07:00:00.001-04:00

Sometimes people fail you...

...They let you down.
...They aren't in place when you need them.
...They're not up to the task.
...They're flakes.
...They fall asleep on the job.
...They're not accountable.

If you think I'm being a pessimist, then you either haven't lived long enough or you don't like dealing with reality. Human beings are fallible, and even the best of us make mistakes and fall short. That's why you need the Paraclete!

Who's always on the job! Never sleeps or slumbers? Has your back, front, undersides, oversides, and insides? None BUT God!

Paraclete, translated as comforter is the word most often used to depict the Holy Spirit, but its also a word that Jesus used to refer to Himself.

The Holy Spirit is like a garment that God has given us to prepare us as we suit up to do battle with the forces of the world: racism, poverty, oppression, grief... Since we are wrestling with powers that are greater than our humanity, we need an Advocate who is greater than our humanity and greater than our adversaries. Jesus promised us that we would never be left alone in this battle.

"Our greatest asset is invisible and intangible. The Paraclete goes out into life's conflicts with us and protects not only our backs, but also our sides, our fronts, and our insides, the whole being!" L Sweet

The Paraclete imbues us with Confidence, Humility, and Courage:

Confidence... The confidence of the Paraclete means that your confidence is not in yourself, but in a hope that arises from a deep faith in the providence and protection of the Paraclete.

Humility... The humility of the Paraclete means that you have a monstrous modesty. "The disciple of Jesus stoops to conquer" (L Sweet). In the Bible, the path to exaltation is paved with humility.

Courage...To face the world with confidence and humility, you will need courage. The Paraclete gives you the courage to live your life to the fullest, to stand toe-to-toe with your fears, to push through circumstances and situations that appear to be meant for your destruction, to be more than a conqueror!

John 14:26 (NKJV)
26 But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you.

You need the Paraclete.

Written by Frederick A Hanna

Where is Your Place? - You need your own little Jerusalem (City of Peace).

2009-09-14T21:03:00.001-04:00

Everyone needs a PLACE in life. Not necessarily a physical place, but a place where you feel grounded and secure, a place where you feel emotionally, mentally, spiritually at peace.

1. You need to FIND your place...
Is there a place that you long to return to? A place where you feel whole? A place where you feel completely at ease?

OR

Are you like many, "hopelessly searching for spiritual roots without earth to plant in?"

2. You need to live in your place...
Once your find you place, you've got to situate yourself in it. You've got to get accustomed to it and committed to it. You've got to understand its narratives, its traditions, its landscape, how it functions and how you function in it.

3. You need to speak the language of your place...
"When you speak, can people hear the personality of your place? Do you speak with an accent? Does your 'speech betray you,' as it did Peter with the servant girls?" (L. Sweet)

Never betray your heritage and lose your accent! Your accent isn't just in the twang in your tongue, or the local meanings of certain words and phrases, BUT in the spirit of where you come from. You speak with the accent of your heritage.

Martin Luther King made famous the words, "Free at last, free at last, thank God almighty we're free at last," but those weren't his words. They come from a song called "I Shall Get Home Some Day" by Charles A Tindley, BUT when King spoke them with the accent of the black church... the pain, the struggle, the tension, the freedom, the power... The magnificence of the tradition of the black church that colored King's accent made these words immortal. What's your accent?

We all need to have a PLACE in the world. A place where we find the peace of God and the purpose of God for our lives.

Written by Frederick A Hanna

ABD (All But Dissertation) Baby!

2009-09-10T11:53:00.005-04:00

I offer this not as a means of bragging or of pride, but as inspiration to my peers... This is the email I received from the Dean for Academic Affairs today. I had written somewhere in the neighborhood of 70 pages for this exam back in the March-April time frame, and was asked to revise 1 question. I am VERY happy, and hoping that my wife will treat me to a new bow tie as a congratulations!

Dear Reverend Hanna,

Congratulations! The ETPA department has informed me that you have passed satisfactorily the Qualifying Exam for the degree of Doctor of Education.

Please contact your advisor for further guidance. I would like to take this opportunity to offer my best wishes for continued success in your doctoral studies.

Sincerely,
Dr. William Firestone
Associate Dean for Academic Affairs

Almost there!!!

But I Will Trust in God…

2009-09-06T19:21:00.006-04:00

Have you ever gotten down on yourself because you felt that your TRUST IN GOD was challenged? Did you think that you were alone in that place? That what you were experiencing was something unlike what other Christians experience?

Well, I read in Psalm 13 where King David said,

1 How long, O LORD? Will You forget me forever?
How long will You hide Your face from me?

2 How long shall I take counsel in my soul,
Having sorrow in my heart daily?
How long will my enemy be exalted over me?

This was King David! The great king David... the mighty warrior, King David... God's chosen, King David...

A lot of churches today will tell you that if you’re feeling the way that David felt in Psalm 13, then you are a spiritual failure… your faith is weak… BUT the fact of the matter is that most of us can identify with David’s cries… Most of us have struggled with the fact that life isn’t always easy, and life isn’t always fair, and blessings don’t always look the way we think they should look… Have you ever heard that saying,

“that was a blessing in disguise?”

Well I don't know about you, but I don’t want all my blessings to be in disguise all the time! Sometimes I need a blessing that I can see coming! A blessing that I can Recognize… A blessing THAT LOOKS just like I prayed it would look…

I want you to know something today, I want you to know if that’s you… if that’s you… crying out like David… struggling with God… I want you to know that kind of cry does not indicate an absence of faith. In Fact it may very well be the most sincere expression of faith because it shows that you are involved in a process... A process that takes you on a path of moving forward in life… a process that takes you on a path of growing with God… …of learning to trust God… of learning to

“trust in the Lord, and to lean not on thine own understanding…”

Learning to TRUST in God can be a process, but the destination is sweet... "the peace that passes all understanding…"

An excerpt from a sermon preached on September 6, 2009 at Cedar Park Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia, PA

Written by Frederick A Hanna

In the Midst of Adversity

2009-08-31T07:00:00.002-04:00

John 16:33 “In the world you will have tribulation, but be of good cheer. I have overcome the world.”

Some people think that becoming a Christian means that you will be delivered from adversity, but that’s not what it means. That lie has thrown too many of us off track. The truth of the matter is that being a Christian means we are delivered in adversity.

God doesn’t erase the tribulations, trials, and circumstances of the world. God gives you the power to stand in the midst of them. Psalm 91, “He who dwells in the secret place of the most high God, shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord, you are my refuge and my fortress, my God, in you I will trust.” When troubles come, we take refuge in the fortress of God, and we fight the good fight of faith because God has already given us victory over the world. Fear not people of God, for we have overcome the world by the blood of the lamb and by the word of our testimony!

“God does not give us the overcoming life, He gives us life as we overcome.” Oswald Chambers

Written by Frederick A Hanna

What Purpose Do Prisons Serve in America's Justice System?

2009-08-25T07:15:00.032-04:00

The question has been raised again and again, "What purpose do prisons serve in America's justice system?" Is it to rehabilitate and reform, or is it simply a place to gain a stigma that will follow the offender throughout his or her life? A stigma that will tacitly deny the former offender opportunities to enjoy the liberties that many of us take for granted. To be labeled as a criminal, an offender, an ex-con is not something that goes away. Offenses stay on the offenders record, even offenses for charges that have been dismissed, and people make judgements based upon these offenses. The failures of a justice system that has disproportionately prosecuted and convicted poor minority offenders, often for minor infractions are magnified by high rates of recidivism and reports of atrocities in juvenile detention centers like those in New York state. These detention centers are now under fire for use of excessive force due to a federal investigation:

4 Youth Prisons in New York Used Excessive Force

While we cannot hold the entire penile system responsible for the repeat offenders, we must address the fact that prisons in the U.S. do very little to rehabilitate inmates. What purpose is served when a juvenile inmate is subjected to full prone restraint or has his teeth knocked out for sneaking an extra cookie? The four NY centers singled out in the federal report excessively used physical force, and they failed to provide adequate counseling and mental health treatment for a population of prisoners who often enter into the justice system because of misdiagnosed and undiagnosed mental health issues. Many (3/4) of the children entering New York’s youth justice system have a history of drug or alcohol problems, more than half have diagnosed psychological problems and a third have developmental disabilities, according to statistics published by Office of Children and Family Services.

Instead of being astonished and appalled by the size of America's inmate population, we seem to grow more accepting of it. Prison after all is big business. The United States spends an estimated $60 billion on corrections each year. We cannot continue to allow poor policy and poor implementation to circumvent programs and activities that would discourage recidivism and promote real rehabilitation, nor can we allow state and federal funds to be funneled toward community and non profit based organizations who have found that recidivism programs are the latest way to pimp the misfortunes of the poor. The problems in our prisons, much like the problems in our schools, start long before the offender enters the system. Conditions of poverty and oppression create feelings of desperation that often result in illegal activity and acts of violence. Don't think that I am attempting to justify acts of lawlessness as being acceptable under certain conditions. The importance of individual responsibility must be asserted, but we must also strive to understand the conditions that often precede criminal activity. Working to correct social inequalities would go a long way towards decreasing our future inmate populations. We must also be concerned about the disproportionate number of African-Americans and Latinos involved in the justice system and what this says about the color of American justice. Until we address how justice is meted out, we will continue to see this disproportionality. Inside of prisons, we must have improved mental health care, medical care, and education and literacy programs. Having a prison system that houses over 2 million inmates on a given day, 60% of whom will return as repeat offenders is just not acceptable.

Written by Frederick A Hanna

Who's Your Rhoda? - You need a little one.

2009-08-24T07:00:00.001-04:00

Who is Rhoda you ask? Rhoda was a doorkeeper at the house of Mary in Jerusalem. She was the servant girl who answered the door when Peter knocked after being released from prison.

Acts 12:

12 So, when he had considered this, he came to the house of Mary, the mother of John whose surname was Mark, where many were gathered together praying. 13 And as Peter knocked at the door of the gate, a girl named Rhoda came to answer. 14 When she recognized Peter’s voice, because of her gladness she did not open the gate, but ran in and announced that Peter stood before the gate. 15 But they said to her, “You are beside yourself!” Yet she kept insisting that it was so.

When all of the prayer warriors were focused on the task of praying, it was Rhoda who was able to break away and see that their prayers had already been answered. It took Rhoda's persistence, the persistence of a child... a little one who was willing to imagine that Peter's presence wasn't just her imagination.

Sometimes it takes a child to point out the obvious... to "lead us" to see God. Why is it that Jesus always points to a child when He wants us to see the truest example of discipleship?

Because children are innocent? pure? unjaded? Nope... Nope... Nope!

Those are modern day depictions of children and childhood, but they are not consistent with biblical depictions of children. Children were considered to be of the lowest status in Jesus' day. The reason that "Jeeeesus loves the little chiiildren" is because in the kingdom of God, the last shall be first and the first shall be last... BUT still, we can learn a lot from the little ones.

A few reasons why you need a Little One in your life:
1. Rhoda's keep you dreaming. For some of us whose dreams have long since faded, little ones allow us to dream through them. As we dream of all that we hope they will be, our dreams are given new life... even if its only in our hopes that their dreams will come true.

2. Rhoda's help us to remember our nightlites. My nightlite comforted me when the lights were turned off at bedtime as a child. I now know that there was nothing there in the dark that would harm me, but the imagination of a child is still capable of wondering what's out there.

3. Rhoda's keep us small. Have you ever watched a child play with a new toy? OR watch the same movie over and over and laugh at the same parts each time. I'm always amazed at the power of stickers with children. Children love stickers! I'm not sure why, but I vaguely remember loving stickers too. Little ones help us to remember the meaning and significance of the small things.

4. Rhoda's keep you light. If you ever start taking yourself too seriously, hang out with some children. The don't play for entertainment or because their bored. They play because its fun.

Who's your Rhoda? Who keeps you dreaming... keeps your imagination alive... helps you to remember the importance of the little things... and helps you to NOT take yourself too seriously?

Written by Frederick A Hanna

Working While Waiting

2009-08-21T06:00:00.001-04:00

Luke 24:49 (NKJV)
49 "Behold, I send the Promise of My Father upon you; but tarry in the city of Jerusalem until you are endued with power from on high.”

Have you ever been in a place where you felt God had told you to go... AND you expected that when you got to that place there would be some kind of reward... ONLY instead of a reward there was nothing... JUST more waiting?

In Luke 24:49, Jesus instructs His disciples to go and wait, BUT tarry -or kathizō in Greek- doesn't simply mean to wait. It has the connotation of patience or sojourning. As if to say that this waiting is part of your journey; part of your process. Sometimes God requires us to just wait until the "promise" comes. In this text the promise is the Holy Spirit, so what God really wants us to wait on is Him.

"He works where He sends us to wait" Oswald Chambers

Written by Frederick A Hanna

South Africa – Day 18, Going Home-Leaving Home

2009-08-19T08:24:00.009-04:00

Well, what do you say after spending nearly three weeks doing something you have dreamed about all of your life? I remember watching the movie Roots as a child, and being fascinated with the prospect of finding my own ancestors in Africa one day. I remember the black consciousness movement during the late 80’s when we were all listening to Public Enemy, X-Clan, The Jungle Brothers, and other conscious hip-hoppers. We all wore our “Africa Pieces.” “I wear no gold around my neck, juuuussst black medallions… (Jungle Brothers—Straight Out the Jungle)” These were leather, metal, and stone medallions bearing images of Africa—hanging from leather strings or wooden beads—in colors like green, black, red, and gold—“The red’s for the blood, and the blacks for the man, the green is the color that stands for the land… Africa! Talkin’ ‘bout Mother Africa…” I finally got to experience it for myself, and I was able to come during a time of personal growth that allowed me to look below the surface, beyond my fascination with Africa to see the struggles of a people, a nation, a continent. The struggles made even more telling, more complex, and more indelible as viewed through the lens of a country still emerging from Apartheid.

As we disembarked our first flight from Cape Town to Johannesburg en route home, Heather overheard a coloured fight attendant say, “All these Americans look coloured.” If I had heard her make this statement, I would have told her, “We are.” We haven’t gone so far as to create a separate classification in order to define ourselves as separate from other blacks. If we did, we would likely all be categorized as coloured. I recently began work on my family tree and found out that my paternal great grandfather was Cuban; my maternal great grandfather was a mulatto (white and black parents); my paternal great-great grandmother was a Cuban immigrant; another paternal great-great grandfather was a Seminole Indian; my great-great-great grandfather was a slave whose mother was African and whose father was a white slave master. So yes, “I am coloured” according to Apartheid. I would be quite amazed to find any descendants of African slaves in the U.S. whose blood remained purely African, let alone of a single tribe. As I told the students at Bergendal, African slaves in America were separated into groups who didn’t speak the same language, were not from the same tribe, didn’t practice the same traditions; families were separated; slaves were raped, escaped and married Native Americans, etc. This explains our many hues, and it explains our deep desire to find out who we are and where we come from. It explains why Africa beckons us to “come home.” The question now is, “How do I just go back home, when a big piece of my heart was left in Africa?”

Written by Frederick A Hanna

South Africa – Day 17, Last Day and Bergendal, 2nd Visit to Vlakte Brick and Farewells

2009-08-18T21:35:00.026-04:00

Today is our last full day in South Africa, and I am not looking forward to saying goodbye. I have arranged for someone from the staff at Bergendal School to take Monique over to Vlakte Brick Farm. I wanted her to go as a physician in hopes that she might be able to advise the people who live in a tiny village where everyone has tuberculosis, and in order for her to experience what I experienced there. It was a feeling of utter helplessness that words just could not express.

We started off the day with our normal ritual of morning devotion before I spent some time outside just loving on the kids and letting them love on me. I sought out some of my little friends to enjoy some laughs and smiles on what would be a difficult day of goodbyes.

Soon it was time to go over to Vlakte Brick. As we drove over, I tried to prepare Monique and Gay for what they would see, but again words seemed to fail me. As we drove in, we were greeted by the village matriarch, Rhoda. We chatted a little, and I asked Rhoda if she could take us into one of the houses so that everyone could see the living conditions. We had driven passed a number of informal settlements during our trip, but had never been able to go inside. Most people advised us that going into an informal settlement was far too dangerous a thing to do. Visiting this farm community gave us a chance to go into the living quarters of some of South Africa’s poor and get a sense of what it is like to actually live in these cramped inhumane conditions. The home that Rhoda took us into was actually a bit better than the first one I visited a few days prior. The dimensions of the space were the same, but only 3 families lived in this unit. It was also a little cleaner than the first unit I visited, and there was a homemade bed in one of the rooms as opposed to blankets on the floor.

Still it was unimaginable that people were living like this. Monique would later say that she felt as though she had entered a time warp and traveled 200 years back in time to a slave plantation. While Monique and Gay talked to Rhoda, I decided to walk around and take some pictures. I spotted a friend from my last visit and went to greet her. She took me over to the building that had the water spout on the side. This is where all 48 families must get their water. She told me that there were bathing facilities in the building. She also showed me the drains where they must empty the contents of the Porta-Potties. The drains are at the same site where the clean water spout is located, and my friend expressed to me that the people were sure that their water was contaminated by the waste. Across a span of about 20 yards from where we stood in front of the water building was the farm owner’s office. On my last visit, I asked if I could talk to the owner and I was told that he was in there with his gun and would probably be “happy” to see me. Well, “momma didn’t raise no fool,” so I elected not to go over and visit that day. As I noticed customers and trucks going in and out of the office area, I turned to my friend and asked her, “Is the owner there now?” She replied that she did not know. As we talked, I noticed that there was another building adjoining the water building. I asked my friend what was inside, and she said, “that is the church.” She then asked, “Would you like to see it? Shall I get the key?”

The church was locked up. Just like many churches in America, closed and locked up most of the time. I’m so tired of irrelevant churches that haven’t figured out how in infect communities with the gospel message by seeing the church as a vehicle for social transformation, not just a place to Bible thump on Sunday’s and one other day when Bible study is held… BUT that’s another blog post… BACK to business… As she ran off to get the key, I started my steady determined walk to the owner’s office half wondering if these would be my last steps.

I walked confidently into the little building where I was greeted by a receptionist. It was a brightly lit, clean, well kept office, and it seemed that business was good.

Keep in mind that the people of the village had all told me that the farm had been sold and that the clay (brick making) business had been shut down as a result of the sale. This was the reason they had all lost their jobs. I was perplexed by what I saw, and figured that there must be more to the story. I walked up to the counter and was greeted warmly by the receptionist. She asked how she could help me. I said, “I am a pastor from the United States and I would like to speak to the owner about the living conditions of the people on the farm.” I was hoping he might not shoot a clergyman. The woman said, “I will see if he is available,” and to my surprise he agreed to speak with me. I walked into the office to see a rugged looking, forty-something white male sitting in front of his computer and talking on his PDA phone. He told me that he was not the owner, but the manager (the owner’s son-in-law). I asked him what had happened with the business and why the people had not been paid their severance. His response to me was that the business was broke. I asked him about the trucks going in and out and he forcefully replied that he could show me the books that business was down 85%. He stated that the recession had killed the clay business. This is a fact which I had pointed out to the people of the village the day before. I asked him if the farm had in fact been sold (as the people had told me) and he said that it had not been sold, it had all but failed and that’s why the people lost their jobs in December of 2008. He also informed me that there are 2 businesses on the farm: a clay (brick) factory and a cement factory. The cement factory was still running and about 5 of the people in the village were employed there. This was news to me, but it still didn’t explain the living conditions of the people in the village. I asked this man if the people would be paid their severance, and he said that he didn’t have money to pay them… even though the farm owner owns several other farms in the area. I asked him if he had seen their living conditions and if he knew that they often didn’t have food to eat (farm owners provide and maintain housing for their employees on these farms).

He said to me, “Look man, I don’t lose any sleep over that. I don’t have a guilty conscience. That place wasn’t like that when those people moved in!”

I replied, “But you underpaid them for years, and you did no upkeep on the property. Of course it doesn’t look the same.”

He said, “Would you like me to take you into town to one of the compounds man? Can I show you how they live there?”

I replied, “I have been to those settlements. They are horrible. BUT you are not responsible for those settlements. You are responsible for the housing here on this farm.”

He replied, “There is a housing problem all over South Africa man!”

I replied, “That’s true. BUT you are not responsible for all of South Africa. You are responsible for the housing here on this farm.”

He responded, “Pastor, I am going to have to ask you to leave,” as he stood up from his desk.

I said, “You have to be accountable to those people.”

He responded, “Pastor, I am going to have to ask you to leave,” as he walked me towards the door.”

I said, “The living conditions are deplorable.”

He responded, “Pastor, I am going to have to ask you to leave,” as he walked me over the threshold of the door.”

I said, “Don’t you care about their children?”

He closed the door and locked it as I stood outside facing him.

I walked back to the church building in disbelief. The door was open and my friend rushed over to find out what happened in the owner’s office. An older woman accompanied her. They stared at me, but wouldn’t ask the lingering question… “What did he say?”

I told them that he said the farm wasn’t sold, and that their job loss was due to a decline in business. I also told them that he said he was broke, and that he had no plans of paying them any severance. I didn’t believe that he was broke, but it didn’t matter because that’s what he had said, and it was obvious that he had no plans to pay any of those people a dime. “He doesn’t care about you,” I said. “If you dropped dead on this farm, he would be happy. You have to leave this place. There’s nothing here for you. He doesn’t care.” They nodded in agreement. Easy for me to say (well not really), but some of them have lived on that farm for 30 years. The prospect of leaving can’t be easy.

I looked at the makeshift church, and rejoined the group. As we drove away, those who had visited for the first time were visibly shaken. As we contemplated what we had just seen and heard, I began to explain how the people as laborers on the farm are tied to those properties, which they don’t own, and can be evicted from at any time. If they gripe about anything, they have to worry about being kicked out. I also began to share that the schools on farms, like Bergendal, had to play a political game of chess with the farm owners who actually own the schools. These kinds of schools were built by farmers to educate the children of the farm laborers. It was obviously in their best personal interest to educate the children only to the point that they would be the next generation of farm laborers. The farm owner’s wife would have been the schoolmarm at one time. Eventually, schools like this were leased to the government, but principals must still play nice with the owners. Ultimately, the farm schools belong to the farm owners. Now that’s power. Employment, housing, and education all in the hands of one man… This is the case for countless farm laborers in this part of South Africa.

I also began to share that all farm owners weren’t so heartless. I had heard that the owner of the Bergendal School was known to be generous, and to take good care of his workers. Adele (a teacher at Bergenadal and our escort) began to expand on this. She took us to the Seidelberg Wine Estate. Mr. Seider is the owner of the estate, the Bergendal School, and the Fairview homes. Mr. Seider has paid for some renovations at the school, secured donations of coats for the children, and recently held a jazz concert where the proceeds were donated to the school, and more (more info here: http://www.seidelberg.co.za/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=24&Itemid=49). We stopped at the estate, and had a look at their glass blowing operation. There is a store on the site where beautiful glass art pieces blown on the site are sold.

From there we went back to the school which is right next door. I decided to take Monique on a walk through the Fairview homes located just next door to the school for comparison to Flakte Brick. We found a couple of students who lived at Fairview and they took us on a quick tour. It was a thousand times better that Flakte Brick.

Monique’s comment was, “So it doesn’t have to be that way.”

“Exactly,” I said.

Truth be told, the whole farm laborer/farm owner relationship needs to be overhauled, as it does in many parts of the world including the U.S., but people should be treated like their lives matter.

We spent the rest of the day hanging out with the kids… laughing, dancing, singing… it was a great time. It was capped off with a few songs from the Bergendal Gospel Choir, and boy are they good. I mean they are fantastic. We each said our farewells, Tristian wowed them with a quick Que Dawg step show, I told them my life story, we prayed, we all cried, hugged, blessed, ate, exchanged gifts and eventually tore ourselves away. Two words, “life changing.”

We finished the day with several celebrations, food, reflections, a visit to 2 churches, words of encouragement and affirmation. One thing that was interesting for me is that they let me speak and pray as a minister on several occasions. I usually try to keep the clergy and the academic separate, but they allowed me to be both with no censoring. I’m saddened to say goodbye to my new family.

Written by Frederick A Hanna

South Africa – Day 16, Stellenbosch, Amstelhof, Madiba House and Dennegeur

2009-08-17T16:00:00.005-04:00

A day ago I received a message that I would not be back at Bergendal on Thursday. Today, Claude de Jager was to pick me up spend a little time giving me his perspective on South Africa, education, poverty, and the issues that impact the schools in Paarl. Claude is the principal of Amstelhof Primary and is very knowledgable about the local school sytem. We started off by taking a ride to the University of Stellenbosch. I had heard about this university the night prior from Mr. Thomas. He was talking to me about accessibility to South African universities, and whether or not blacks and coloureds could get a fair shake at “university.” Regarding Stellenbosch he said (paraphrasing), “How could one expect to get a fair chance sitting in classroom with the same professors who had told them that blacks and coloureds did not belong in schools with whites because they lacked the mental capacities... the same professors who had voted for Apartheid?” Mr. Thomas said that if perhaps, on the long mile to freedom, they had each walked a half mile he could make sense of it, but since blacks and coloureds had walked a half mile and whites had only walked a few meters, it didn’t make sense.

So with these thoughts in mind I arrived at the University of Stellenbosch, which would simply be a site to set the stage for my day with Claude. We went there to have coffee and to begin a dialogue. Having been in the midst of the impoverished sections of Paarl and inundated with the narratives of the children for the last few days, driving through the streets around the university was a bit surreal. It could have been almost any university in almost any U.S. city… beautiful buildings, students hurrying to and from classes, signs about upcoming functions, and very few students of color. The school is priced out of consideration for most non white South Africans. Stellenbosch is one of South Africa’s former all white institutions and the powers that be have fought to maintain its cultural heritage; thus, the primary language of education is still Afrikaans. Afrikaans was used in schools in South Africa very much in the same way that English was used throughout America’s history. It was used to exclude and prevent certain groups from both attending schools and from achieving in schools. Some could forcefully argue that the English language is still used for exclusion and subordination in American schools today. Claude’s own daughter attended Stellenbosch. For Claude, his daughter’s attending and graduating from Stellenbosch was a way of conquering a myth that students of color couldn’t compete with whites at the university level. It was a way of “showing them” that we were/are every bit as good as they are. This narrative echoes those of many African Americans who desired to prove to whites that they were/are every bit as intelligent as whites and able to compete academically at the best universities. Claude also discussed South Africa’s educational legacy… that blacks were to be educated as laborers, coloureds were to be educated as artisans, and whites were to be educated to be society’s elites. At one time it was against the law for a black man to pick up a hammer or a trowel in South Africa. The black man’s tool was the shovel. This subordination was perpetuated in the schools through the Bantu laws, and substandard curricula for black and coloured schools… the different teacher student ratios: 1:20 for whites, 1:50 for coloureds, and 1:Whatever for blacks. A black school could have 100 learners and 1 teacher. Blacks were typically educated to a 5th grade level, coloureds to a 9th grade level… reminiscent of industrialized education for blacks in the Jim Crow era… actually worse. Keep in mind that South Africa today has approximately 49 million people: about 4 mil white, 5 mil coloured, 1 mil Asian, and the rest black. A hierarchy was set up which even taught the coloured man to fear the black man. Can you see what was happening? All of this was designed to keep the majority at bay while this small group of immigrants, who now claim to be indigenous people, raped the land of its resources, became filthy rich, and took ownership of the land. It was genius in its insidiousness. It was so powerful that it continues to manifest 15 years after Apartheid. According to Claude, whites in South Africa still own 87.5% of the land. This against the backdrop of informal settlements (squatter camps or shanty towns), and inadequate housing throughout the country which are inhabited by blacks and coloureds. LAND equals WEALTH equals POWER. So even though you have a black government in charge in South Africa, the prevailing question is “Who really has the power?” To most South Africans, the answer to this question is obvious.

In terms of teachers… teachers in South Africa were once educated to an 8th grade standard, and required to attend a teacher’s institute for 2 years to attain a teaching certificate—again similar to what was happening with rural teachers trained at places like Hampton Institute in the U.S.—many of these South African teachers did not receive the proper academic training in subjects like math, and some of them are still in the classroom today. Eventually the requirement was extended to make grade 12 matriculation a requirement, but for many teachers already in the system, this amounted to little more than writing an essay. Then they extended the requirement to demand 3 years of training beyond matriculation which could be done in the form of a correspondence course. According to Claude, this ended up being more of an on paper requirement, than one requiring elevation of teaching skills. “He/She is now 45 years old, completing a correspondence course, and still struggling in the classroom.” So today many of South Africa’s teachers can say that they have met the 12th grade matriculation plus 3 years post requirements and hold all of the appropriate credentials although they have not been in a formal educational institution since age fifteen. In all fairness, the people who are taking this circuitous route have full time jobs, families, other responsibilities, and live great distances from the universities. It would be impossible for most of them to just put their lives on hold to go and fulfill these requirements any other way. Its probably worth mentioning that the same low standards did not apply for white teachers in South Africa.

“I hope you see this whole spiral of reasons why we are struggling in our schools.”
Claude de Jager

The question going forward, "So how do you lift the standards in the schools with this backdrop?"

From Stellenbosch, Claude took me on a tour of his pride and joy, Amstelhof Primary School where he is the principal. Before we went to the school, we drove through the neighborhoods where the children who attend the school live. It is painfully plain to see that the conditions for learning begin to take shape well before the student enters the classroom. At Amstelhof Primary one need only look through the schoolyard gate into the adjoining informal settlement… shacks, people with no jobs, no healthcare, little food, trash, drugs, gangsters, squalor, and abject poverty all intersecting right there for all to see. The teachers here can’t deny the harsh realities of their students’ lives.

As we drive at a slow crawl through the settlement adjacent to the school, Claude speaks to everyone. A teacher is still respected in many places here and Claude has been an educator for over 30 years. It rained yesterday and the sun is shining bright today. These are the perfect conditions for clothes washing in a place where everyone still washes by hand and dries on a clothes line (clothes dryers are a commodity, even for working class people), thus the community is bustling with clothes washing activity. Women pump water at a communal tap, as though they were living in a rural village, not in the heart of an urban area.

They scrub clothes in plastic basins, and carry the clothes back to their homes where they hang them on clothes lines. We drive pass a set of communal toilets. They look like permanent Porta-Potties made of concrete with sinks adjacent.

Lots of children scurry about. Some are school aged children who should be in school at the time we are driving through. Many more are preschool aged children who would benefit from early childhood development centers.

Many are unemployed or hustling… selling candy or other goods from their homes, selling an illegal home brewed alcohol, drugs, doing hair, etc. Julius Wilson documents similar practices in the ghettos of Chicago in “The Disappearance of Work.” One of the things that has always amazed me about poor people is their resourcefulness.

It takes great resolve, courage, and oftentimes genius to hustle and survive in the throngs of poverty. Many of these poor people display the same kind of leadership qualities and ingenuity that it takes to be successful in the corporate world. These are some of the realities that the children of Amstelhof face everyday before they even get to school.

Once at school, I am told that the children of Amstelhof engage in practices that are designed to build basic math, writing, and reading skills before they enter into a more formal class schedule. Claude likes to point out that on one side of the school are the informal settlements and on the other side of the school is the highway—metaphorically the highway to the world beyond the throngs of poverty—. The school, or EDUCATION, then serves as “the pathway to the world.” Great concept made concrete by the fact that you can stand outside of the front door of the school and see both sides.

Amstelhof would be more consistent with what I would call an urban school. Though I am able to clearly see differences between the urban schools and the farm schools (like Bergendal), what’s most telling are the similarities. The students and the teachers are fighting the same war on different terrains. It is essential that the educators at these schools understand their terrain, and the sources of opposition they must face in these environments. They must also align themselves to share each others successes and failures in order to better implement best practices. Claude showed me around and explained to me how he leverages resources, and how the generosity of many contributes to his unending efforts to provide the best education possible for the students of Amstelhof. He demonstrates that good leadership is a key to the success of schools. Research has shown this time and time again. School leaders who are tough, determined, committed, and inspired can make a difference. Claude is clearly a man of great faith.

Mandela (Madiba) House
Next we visited the house that Nelson Mandela stayed in during his final months of incarceration. The house remains largely intact and helps to tell the story of his continued movement towards an amicable negotiation of the end of Apartheid. This was the last prison that would ever house Mandela, and the gates we walked out of were the same gates he walked through as he strode to freedom.

Visting a place where such an incredible human being lived was nice. Personally, I was mentally preoccupied with what I had seen over the last few days, and I was struggling to keep being a tourist on this trip. I was processing, and praying and wishing I could help people. Taking pictures at Madiba House just didn’t seem important.

To that end, I was treated to a trip to a development that was committed to making a difference for the families of Farm laborers in South Africa… Dennegeur…

Dennegeur is a community built for local farm laborers with donated monies. The idea of Dennegeur shows that situations like Flakte Brick farm do not have to be… There are other paths that farm owners can take to ensure the well being of their employees, and to repay them for their decades of hard work by ensuring that they have adequate housing and resources that position them to give their children a better future. Dennegeur was paradise for a farm laborer compared to what I had seen so far. In addition to a rugby field, basketball court, pavilion, huge swimming pool, health center, daycare center, and educational/spiritual training facility, they are growing their own food and installing tunnels for tunnel farming. The community is clean, with green backyards and beautiful gardens in the front yards. Its secure and it feels safe. It has rules to foster social cohesion. It is night and day from the housing that I have seen for most poor South Africans up until now. In addition, the people will own these properties and pass them on to their children. This is a a far cry from living on a farm where your employment is directly tied to your housing and the education of your children. More info here: http://www.la-motte.com/index.cfm?event=centralContent&intCentralContentID=7957

From Dennegeur we took a quick ride up to a French village amongst the Paarl mountains called FRANSCHEOK. It’s a quaint little town that looks like its for the wealthy. We grabbed a cup of Rooibos tea there before heading back to the bed and breakfast.

We finished off the day at our final dinner with the Bergendal staff. The restaurant, De Kelder, boasted a “Bottomless Ribs” special on Thursday nights. We ended up cleaning out their ribs… SERIOUSLY! Most of us were on our 3rd slab of babybacks when the waiter told us that they only had 3 slabs left. I wanted to come back later and vandalized their sign so that it would read “LESS Ribs,” but that’s not why I was in South Africa. It was another excellent time of fun and fellowship. Bergendal really adopted us, and loved on us. They made Tristian and I feel very special. Great day.

Written by Frederick A Hanna

Who's Your Zacchaeus? - You need a misfit!

2009-08-17T07:00:00.000-04:00

Remember little Zacchaeus? The little despicable man with the despised profession? The one who robbed all of the people's money and got rich in the process? Yeah! That guy!

Luke 19

1Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through. 2A man was there by the name of Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector and was wealthy. 3He wanted to see who Jesus was, but being a short man he could not, because of the crowd. 4So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore-fig tree to see him, since Jesus was coming that way.
5When Jesus reached the spot, he looked up and said to him, "Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today." 6So he came down at once and welcomed him gladly.

7All the people saw this and began to mutter, "He has gone to be the guest of a 'sinner.' "

8But Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, "Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount."

Funny, Zacchaeus wasn't just a tax collector, he was architelones, the "chief tax collector," a phrase used only once in the New Testament. He was the best of the bad, but he was in need.

Your Zacchaeus is someone who needs your help...

1. This is someone who is up a tree.

This person is disgraced and isolated "either socially, mentally, physically, or economically." The thing about people like this is that if we genuinely look at them, we will get clearer glimpses of ourselves. To be able to look at someone who is "up a tree" and to acknowledge them as a person like you or me, just an everyday person with needs, mirrors the relationship we ourselves have found in our personal relationship with Christ. We all have needs and we all need somebody.

2. This is someone who is an outcast.

Society sees this person as an enigma, and so they have pushed her/him to the borders. Oddly enough, they can't get rid of Zacchaeus because he is a structural part of the community. Think about that? People society wants to get rid of, but can't. How do we "handle" those people?

3. This is someone who wants to follow, but can't get close enough.

Sometimes we can be so consumed with the Messenger, that we forget the message... and more importantly who the message was for... the outsider, the cosmos, those who don't know...

Sometimes we have to remove ourselves - literally "self" in order to reach those in need.

HERE's the BEST part!

4. Zacchaeus is in position to do something that you can't do.

Because Jesus took the time to stop and "see about" lil Zacchaeus, Zacchaeus was able to see himself in a new light... AND he was able to pour out his resources—which need not be money—in a way that helped the very people who rejected him.

Do you just hang with the folks in the crowd, or do you look outside of the crowd to find those who may not fit? The misfits, the outcasts, those on the margins...

Written by Frederick A Hanna

South Africa – Day 15, The Bergendal School Day 2 and Flakte Brick Farm

2009-08-14T12:00:00.004-04:00

Today we started off at the Bergendal School with the normal ritual of devotion and morning meeting. I am slightly struck and pleasantly pleased that the day starts with the teachers gathered together at a table listening to a devotion, a prayer, and a thought for the day. However perfunctory this might feel, I think its an important part of the day when you are often facing such difficult circumstances.

Its raining and cold today. The rain is hard at times, and many of the children walk to school. Attendance is low on days like this, but many learners arrive and stand outside in the rain waiting for school to start. The siren sounds to call them to order and they all stand in their lines for an Our Father before scurrying off to their classrooms. What I am most struck by today is the orderly fashion in which they proceed. It reminds me that circumstances don’t necessarily determine the child or the child’s future. Some children find a way to succeed against all odds.

I decided that today I just want to sit in a classroom and observe the teaching styles and techniques of Bergendal’s teachers, and Florina and I head off to her math class with the 9th graders. The learners enter the cold class very orderly and take their seats. They sit quietly and they listen to their teacher intently. At first they appear as though they are not interested in the basic algebra lesson, but within 10 minutes they are more and more engaged. Their desire to learn for me is without question. As I listen to the sounds of the learners responding to the teacher's questions over the sound of pouring rain, I am reminded of how privileged a profession teaching is. It is not privileged because you make lots of money, and achieve great status from being a teacher, its privileged because you have the opportunity to mold and shape young minds and to perhaps help a child to achieve her/his dreams. As the rain comes down harder, the learners disengage a little and begin to chat as 15 year olds do. Though I don’t understand Afrikaans, my impression of Florina is that she is a thoughtful and knowledgeable teacher. My conversations with her yesterday ensure me that she is concerned about the well being of these young people.

The teacher steps out for a minute and the learners fall into disorder, but it is not the Hollywood- Dangerous Minds disorder that people tend to associate with poor disadvantaged students. I am continually struck by the feeling that these are just regular kids.

As I sit here in class typing notes, I am reminded of how cold the class is by the temperature of my fingertips. 9:30am and some of the children are summoned to eat. They eat as food is ready today so only a small group eats at first. The meal, bread covered in some kind of porridge. It doesn’t look appetizing, but they seem to enjoy it. Eating is a necessary disruption.

Next we visited Flakte Brick Farm to give some rations to the families there. This is a farm where all 48 of the families living there have lost their jobs. The families that work on many of the farms live in little “villages” on the estates.

It is reminiscent of the quarter communities that African slaves lived in on American plantations. Some of the children from Bergendal school live in the village at Flakte Brick Farm. A lady named Rhoda met us at the village and she took me around. When she led us into the first house, I was speechless. I was told that the conditions there were horrible, but nothing could have prepared me for what I saw there. Four families live in each house. The house is actually more like a room. In fact my living room at home has more space than one of these houses. The house is made of brick with concrete floors. There is no plumbing, no heat, no air conditioning, and the people sleep on mats or old dirty comforters. There are 3 Porta-Potties that serve all 48 families and a “hall” with a tap where they go to fetch water for baths, clothes washing, drinking, etc.

There is a pit in each house where the 4 families must burn wood for heat.

The kitchen, where one of the four families lives, is a hotplate… that’s it… a hotplate on a makeshift table.

I looked over at the fire pit in the house I visited and there was one of the bright faced little boys I had met at school the day before. He had stayed home because he was sick, and there he was standing in front of a fire pit shivering. That really brought it home for me. How is a kid able to bring himself to go to school 6 kilometers away on the back of a pickup truck with 20 other kids when he lives in these conditions? How does he find the strength to hope when he lives in squalor?

The ladies told me that everyone in the village has TB… the men told me that no one has a job, and the owner cheated them out of their severance when the business went sour… no one has a car… what worried me the most was that no one had any hope. The women told me that they “couldn’t leave because of the children.” I told them that they “couldn’t stay because of the children.” They said, “OK, where do we go?” I have no answer… No answer… and my heart is breaking… They showed me around a little more… I talked to them about hope, but I knew the needed money and food… they don’t even have enough money to leave… I was overwhelmed… I fought back the tears as we drove away from that place…

Somehow I ended up walking about the campus having chats with students who were mingling about, still thinking about Flakte Brick, and I bumped into a little ray of chocolate sunshine named Abigail. She said, “Hi sir! When are you coming to our class?” She told me that she was in grade 5, and I said I would visit ASAP. I asked her what she wanted to be when she grew up and she said “a singer.” So, of course I asked for a song. After a few minutes of blushing and indecision, she grabbed my arm and said, “I’m ready sir.”
Then she stole my heart with a song. After I hugged her and did my best to encourage her and the other 5th graders, I hurried off to lunch.

We had a nice lunch again with the staff at and a spirited conversation about the poverty in places like Flakte Brick Farm. I finished the school day in the computer lab before Ms. Thomas took us around to the Flatse… This is the slang name for the informal settlements and the schemes (projects) in town… SmartyTown, SpookieTown, Kingstontown, Fairy Land, Chester Williams Town, etc… The level of poverty is beyond belief. Its just more than you can imagine, and yet some people, like Ms. Thomas and her husband have managed to escape it.

It was an incredibly emotional day capped off by dinner at Martha’s, excellent conversation with Randal (Ms. Thomas’ husband, a special education teacher), and great fellowship again. I’m so happy that the teachers brought us into their homes. They really made us feel like family.

Written by Frederick A Hanna

Purpose in the Process

2009-08-13T07:00:00.002-04:00

Mark 6:45-51 (NKJV)
Jesus Walks on the Sea

45 Immediately He made His disciples get into the boat and go before Him to the other side, to Bethsaida, while He sent the multitude away. 46 And when He had sent them away, He departed to the mountain to pray. 47 Now when evening came, the boat was in the middle of the sea; and He was alone on the land. 48 Then He saw them straining at rowing, for the wind was against them. Now about the fourth watch of the night He came to them, walking on the sea, and would have passed them by. 49 And when they saw Him walking on the sea, they supposed it was a ghost, and cried out; 50 for they all saw Him and were troubled. But immediately He talked with them and said to them, “Be of good cheer! It is I; do not be afraid.” 51 Then He went up into the boat to them, and the wind ceased. And they were greatly amazed in themselves beyond measure, and marveled.

Jesus "made His disciples get into the boat" (v45), and yet half way through their journey, they find themselves in distress with no Jesus in sight. He even "saw" (v48) them as they struggled against the wind and the sea, and it was in the midst of their struggle that he "came to them" (v48) though they didn't see Him initially. When they saw Him they were troubled until he spoke to them, calming both their fears and the stormy sea.

What God desires for you is for you to see "Him walking on the sea" with...
No shore in sight...
No outcome that you have planned...
No goal that you can see...

...and STILL have absolute certainty that everything will be all right because you see "Him walking on the sea."

Oftentimes following God is not about reaching a specific destination.
Oftentimes its about learning that in our obedience to His instructions, He meets us and makes us in the midst of the storm.

Written by Frederick A Hanna

A Blessed Gift From My Kindred Brother in South Africa

2009-08-12T12:40:00.007-04:00

This is a the cover of a book given to me by my South African brother Glen Samaai.

This is what he wrote on the inside cover:

Dear Fred,

The author of this book gave me this copy as a present at the funeral of my minister, the Rev. Abe Moart. Rev. Moart was a great man who was locked up several times by the Apartheid government.

Jama's autobiography tells the stories of the freedom fighters activities in and around Paarl. I am sure that he would approve of me giving you this book - in doing so, his story will spread to other parts of the world as well.

Many of the people in this book are familiar to me:

- Patrick Ricketts is the brother of one of my colleagues at school. We all attended Noorden Paarl High School.
- Vivian Matthee, murdered by Apartheid forces, was a classmate of mine in grade 8.
- Lloyd Fortuiu lives 2 streets from me. His wife served on our school governing body.
- The Essup family is also a tennis playing family in Paarl. Their daughter Shamiela was a member of the provincial team I captained in the 1980's. This team was awesome - we won the provincial tennis tournament, and were crowned South Africa's best team six times in a row!!

Enjoy reading this book.

Glenn Samaai

I'll be reading it on the flight home... can't wait!

South Africa – Day 14, The Bergendal School

2009-08-12T12:28:00.007-04:00

Today was an interesting day at Bergendal. We got to meet the staff in a more personal setting, and to get a glimpse of what life is like for a teacher on the quaint campus of a school in the middle of a farming community. The children are poor, the teachers are not rich, the classrooms are cold, resources are limited, but the school is an escape from the harsh realities of life as many of these children know it here in Paarl. Its an oasis of hope and love in the middle of a valley of uncertainty.

I started off my day by befriending a group of youngsters ranging in age from 6-10 years old. I asked them to show me around. They grabbed my hands and begin taking me to each classroom, and pointing out significant landmarks on the campus ... like the basketball court, the computer lab, and the library to me.

I started off in the 9th grade class. I was hoping to get a glimpse of what a typical classroom session looks like for a 9th grader in Paarl, South Africa. Instead I was told that this class would be a free session and no instruction would take place; thus, I was invited to lead an “inspirational chat” with the learners. This would be the 1st of 2 such chats today where we talked about violence, sex, suicide, race, dreams, goals, vision, and the importance of education. I told them my story… how I grew up in Jersey City, NJ in the midst of drugs and poverty, and how I watched my mother struggle to make a better life for me. To this day, I can’t say that I grew up poor. I was surrounded by poverty, we had hard times occasionally, but I never went without. I don’t know what it is like to not have food; what it is like to not have shoes and proper clothing, coats and such; what it is like to not be able to see a doctor when you are sick; what it is like to not have school supplies; what it is like to not have proper housing… I told them about how irresponsible I was during my undergrad years… I told them about my abuse of alcohol and the promiscuity and violence that was often associated with it… I told them about how I took school for granted and how much I value the opportunity to earn a doctorate today… I told them about having a vision and a dream and a hope… I told them that the next president of South Africa could come from Bergendal… I told them to dream big... I told them that there is nothing that is beyond their ability.

Break time hasn’t arrived, but the children begin systematically leaving their classrooms around 9:30am to get PB&J sandwiches from a table near the kitchen. I am told that the children have to eat in shifts like this otherwise the little ones get pushed around and don’t get to eat. You see, many of these children haven’t eaten since they had lunch on Friday afternoon (its Tuesday, as Monday was a holiday). I was told by one of the teachers of a father who made R45 a week (around $7 American). This father said that R45 wasn’t enough to feed his family, so he would rather spend it on wine than to be sober and watch his family starve. Some of the children ask for bread to take home on Friday so they will have food on the weekend. Much of the food is donated or provided by some external agency, but at times the teachers will take from their own money to buy food for the children. Most South Africans will never eat in most of the restaurants we’ve eaten in during our visit.

Before lunch I talk with Florina, who shares with me some of the problems with alcohol abuse among the students. "Many of the students here drink wine," she tells me... a byproduct of the areas wine industry. They gather at a place near one of the farms to drink (13-16 year olds). They say they have nothing else to do. 14 year old girls trade sex for wine, or for money for wine. They ask to get birth control shots when the mobile clinic comes around to the school because the don’t want to get pregnant by the older men who have sex with them in exchange for wine and money. I hear stories of girls who are raped and molested by their mother’s boyfriends while the mother turns a deaf ear because she needs the money that the boyfriend brings in. Some mothers simply sell their young daughters like prostitutes. At least one young lady at the school has attempted suicide as a result of her molestation. I even hear of a 14 year old black girl who left school last year to live with a 36 year old white man who she is now pregnant by (because this is South Africa, I felt that the races of the girl and man were important to note). My heart breaks for these children. Tomorrow I will get to see their living conditions, which I am told are often deplorable.

We had a fun lunch with the teachers where we ate “fite cooke,” vegetable soup, and pumpkin fritters. They love to laugh and treated us with warm hospitality.
Amidst all of these horrors, many of the children are bright, intelligent, well behaved, neat, courteous, loving and kind. A parade of little ones crowded around me and piled on top of me as they taught me to count in Afrikaans, and I taught them to count in Spanish. Apparently, numbers, laughter and love are universal. I thank these little ones for the gift of innocence and love, and I pray that God covers them in the vulnerability of childhood.

We ended the evening with a “braai” (BBQ South African style) at Natalie’s. Best lamb I have had in South Africa. The food was superb, and the company was splendid.

Written by Frederick A Hanna

South Africa - Day 13, Chat at Klein Nederberg High School, Wine Tasting and Fair Valley Eco Villiage Project

2009-08-11T16:21:00.016-04:00

Day 13 was an interesting day. We started off with a motivational chat for teachers at Klein Nederberg High School. The talk was given by Professor Alex Wiseman of Lehigh University. It was a pep talk on change, and I kind of checked out of the talk fairly early into it. It sounded like your typical "change" talk... positive thinking and a little sermonizing. So I decided to slip into ethnographer mode and started taking field notes. As I looked around the room, I noticed many people had checked out along with me, except instead of being ethnographers, they were staring into space, text messaging, sleeping, and fiddling. My impression was that a few of the teachers were interested, but many tuned out. Probably because it was actually a holiday. Oh well, such is life!

Next I had 2 unexpected treats...

The 1st was when one of the teachers approached me and said, "I asked God to send you supernaturally to talk to me, but since He didn't send you, I decided to come to you." I was a little surprised at first, but knowing that this is a faith community, and that they had already been acknowledging me as clergy, I was very interested in what she wanted to talk to me about. We ended up having a wonderful conversation about ministry beyond the church, and about how we make the gospel a central part of our communities. It turns out that she and her husband had already found 3 poor families who they were teaching about budgeting, helping to grow their own food, and selling the excess food at different places around town. I suggested that they disciple these families and she was already on board with that. She was also praying with her husband that God would open a door for them to minister to married couples. Unfortunately we were short on time and we hand to end our impassioned talk with me offering a prayer for her and her giving me a word of prophecy. I was so blessed to see God working in her.

The 2nd treat was the driver who took us back to the Bed and Breakfast. He was a coloured man who lived through the Apartheid era and he shared a little of his story with us... until it became too emotional to continue. One of the the exchanges we had that stuck with me went a little like this:

Me:

Do you see yourselves as coloureds and blacks or all the same?

Joe:

We see ourselves as coloureds. We don't mix. What Apartheid did to us makes it hard to be any other way. We don't mix. Some of the younger people in town you may see mixing, but us, no.

This was a powerful exchange for me because it reinforced just how deeply Apartheid had affected the people of South Africa, and just how much pain is unresolved.

Finally we arrived at Fairview Wine and Cheese Estate for a wine and cheese tasting. I'm not a wine drinker so I just smelled. Monique on the other hand was tossing them back! The cheese was not my thing either, but I did enjoy an alcohol free beverage they shared with us called Ega.

Finally we had a lecture and chat led by Ilan Ori. Ori led a spirited talk about the issues faced by the local farm laborers and the farm owners after he discussed a project that he has been working own to build a sustainable, holistic community for the farm workers. More on that at this link: http://fairvalleyecovillage.blogspot.com/?widgetType=BlogArchive&widgetId=BlogArchive1&action=toggle&dir=close&toggle=MONTHLY-1204322400000&toggleopen=MONTHLY-1204322400000

Ori answered some difficult questions for us about the farm workers, and he shared some interesting stories with us about race in South Africa. I can't say that I shared all of his opinions on race, but I appreciated his willingness to engage in a difficult conversation. We all need to be willing to have frank, sometimes irrational conversations about race if we are ever to move beyond our differences as a "human race," or at least to understand one another better.

Written by Frederick A Hanna

South Africa - Day 12, Arriving In Paarl

2009-08-10T17:52:00.001-04:00

We arrived in Paarl on Day 12 to continue the relationship that Rutgers University Graduate School of Education has built with the farming communities in this area. There are a number of wine estates in this part of South Africa, and they house the families of farm workers in housing that has been built adjacent to the farms. These workers have families and children who attend some of the schools that we will be working in. The school I will be working in is the Bergendal School. I got to meet some of the teachers and the principal of the school at a welcome ceremony at Bergandal. They all seem to be lovely people. It was my first informal interaction with what South Africa calls "coloureds."

Its hard to define who coloureds are. According to definition, the term "Coloured" is used to distinguish people of mixed ancestry from white South Africans of European descent, and the darker black South Africans. Coloureds run the gamut. Some look like black people and some look like white people... some look like East Indians, Arabs, Asians, etc. It can be very confusing. I'm not 100% sure of whether I would be coloured or black in South Africa. I guess I would be coloured as I have Cuban, white, African, and Native American ancestors. The people we met here in Paarl are "Cape Coloureds."

The term Cape Coloureds refers to the modern-day descendants of slave labourers imported into South Africa by Dutch settlers as well as to other groups of mixed ancestry originating in the present-day Western Cape. They are the predominant population group found in the Western Cape Province. Their population size is roughly 4 million. Most Cape Coloureds are mother tongue Afrikaans speakers, as a result of their cultural development in the Dutch and Afrikaans-speaking areas of South Africa; but a minority are English speaking. Slaves of Malay ancestry were brought from Indonesia, Malaysia, Madagascar, and Mozambique; and from these diverse origins they gradually developed into a grouping; along with coloured people (African and European origin); that was subsequently classified as a single major ethnical grouping under the Apartheid regime. In many cases the slaves were imported to be concubines and wives to single male Dutch settlers. People from India and the islands within the Indian Ocean region were also taken to the Cape and sold into slavery by the Dutch settlers. The Indian slaves were almost invariably given Christian names but their places of origin were indicated in the records of sales and other documents so that it is possible to get an idea of the ratio of slaves from different regions. These slaves were, however, dispersed and lost their cultural Indian identity in the course of time, hence being labelled Cape Coloureds. Much racial mixture has thus occurred over the generations, between the Europeans, Indians, Malays, various Bantu tribes, along with indigenous Khoi and San.

In today's South Africa, all non whites are categorized as blacks; however, the categorizations thrust upon people by Apartheid are still a huge part of the way that people self identify, and a huge part of the way that they are identified by other South Africans.

I had a great talk with a gentleman who teaches at one of the high schools here. Let's call this gentleman, Mike. Mike told me that he was a teenager before he met and talked to a black man for the first time (Mike is a coloured). He said that he believed the lies that he was taught in school about blacks until he met 2 young black men who educated him. One of these 2 men was a 2 years older than Mike. His name was John and he came to live with Mike's family in order to learn to play tennis from the Mike's father. They shared a room and would stay up late at night exchanging stories about one another's culture. One night John asked Mike what he knew about the Battle at Blood River. Mike recanted the story as the Voortrkkers tell it, and John told Mike that the Voortrekkers lied. John said that he knew this because his great great grandfather was one of the Zulu's who fought at this battle. The Voortrekkers claimed that the Zulu's went back on a deal they made with them for 400 head of cattle and ruthlessly attacked and murdered a number of the Voortrekkers. This was the Voortrekkers' justification for murdering 10-12K Zulus. The truth, according to John was that the Voortrekkers stole the cattle, and under Zulu law, they were to be publicly executed. The Zulus were simply enforcing their law in their land, and for this they were massacred.

Mike also told me that John was an excellent student. He passed every subject with flying colors except history. John failed history because when he was asked questions about the Battle of Blood River, he chose to tell the truth that had been passed down to him by his ancestors through the oral tradition.

Written by Frederick A Hanna

Who is your Deborah? - You need someone who's got your back!

2009-08-10T07:00:00.000-04:00

I once heard someone say, "If I have your back, you never need to look behind you." I like that! I lived by that in the streets. If I was your friend, you never needed to wonder if I had your back. I'd be there for you without question. That worked well for a while, until the night I was shot behind Howard University Hospital in Washington, DC. That night made me start to wonder who REALLY had my back.

The one who has your back is your protector, your coverer. They don't let anything sneak up on you.

Who's Deborah? Shame on you! One of only 3 people in the history of Israel to hold the combined offices of prophet, judge, and military leader. The other 2 are Moses and Samuel. "What was that?" "Women can't do what?"

When Deborah brought the word of the Lord to General Barak that he should mount up and ride on those busta Canaanites, Barak said, "Only one way that's gonna happen baby girl... you gotta ride shotgun." He needed a real ride-or-die sister to have his back.

Judges 4:

8 Barak said to her, "If you go with me, I will go; but if you don't go with me, I won't go.9 "Very well," Deborah said, "I will go with you."

Why do you need a Deborah?

1. Because people will stab you in the back. Especially when you are good, gifted, anointed, and have God intentions. Enemies will raise up even from the ranks of friends. The O'Jays put it like this:

A few of your buddies they sure look shady
Blades are long, clenched tight in their fist
Aimin' straight at your back
And I don't think they'll miss.
They smile in your face,
All the time they want to take your place,
The back stabbers...

Len Sweet notes that "the church seems to be especially rampant and flamboyant about its friendly fire." So much of resistance in churches today comes from folk who don't want to change. So while you are trying to move the church forward, they're digging in their heels behind you trying to hold you back. Well, you better have a Deborah behind you fending them off if you want to make any progress.

2. Sometimes your Deborah isn't riding along side you physically because he/she's busy praying for you. Your Deborah knows that all enemies aren't made of flesh and blood, and knows that the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty in God...

Pastor Alister Begg tells the story of the "boiler room" in the lower level of Charles Spurgeon's church. It wasn't an actual boiler room, but a lower level of the church where prayer warriors gathered during every service to cover their pastor in prayer. That's serious rear coverage!

3. You don't have eyes in the back of your head. Since you can't see every attack, you need a Deborah to keep watch when you're not looking.

A good Deborah is a CYB, not a CYA. I had a Deborah who I thought had my back until I realized that she used her relationship with me to get the spotlight she coveted for herself. I'm not even sure that she was fully aware of her need to shine until the day the knives came out of the sheaths for me and I saw her fall in with the enemy ranks. She looked innocent enough falling back, but I could see in her eyes that she knew she was leaving me to fend for myself. Maybe she was deceived because it was friendly fire. I'm not sure... BUT from that day on, whenever she's supposed to have my back, I keep my hand on my gun. Metaphorically of course.

My advice, get as many Deborah's as you can, then look for one more.

Written by Frederick A Hanna

South Africa - Days 9 ,10 & 11

2009-08-08T18:07:00.008-04:00

Days 9, 10 and 11 have come and gone swiftly.

Day 9
We rushed out of the Hilton a few days ago and grabbed a flight to Cape Town. Cape Town is roughly a 2 hour plane ride from Johannesburg. We arrived in the Cape and headed to our accommodations at an upscale guesthouse called the African Villa: http://capetowncity.co.za/villa/.

Very nice accommodations once again. We ate out at the Africa Cafe the first night. It was a wonderful authentic dining experience complete with African dance, song, and drumming. There was no menu at this restaurant. They bring you bowls of 12 or so different dishes... you taste everything... and you ask for more of what you like until you get full. The food was good, but the fellowship was great.

Day 10

We visited the District Six Museum today. We heard the awful yet fascinating story about how the coloured people of Cape Town were removed from their homes, their homes were demolished, and they were relocated to a flatlands area outside of the city. Their entire lives were uprooted and many were never the same. It was eminent domain to a degree that even poor inner city dwellers in America have seldom known. The tour was especially poignant as told by our museum guide, a member of the community that was uprooted: http://www.districtsix.co.za/frames.htm.

Here is something that especially struck me... Our guide said that the whites justified displacing the coloureds because this section of the city was in disrepair and it was a "slum." Our guide told us of the rich history of the area and the people. and showed us the beautiful architecture on the buildings that were once there. He commented that the place was a little run down, but it just needed renovation, not displacement and demolition. My question to him was, "What were the conditions in the community prior to the displacement that led to the community falling into such disrepair?" I asked this question because I have seen this happen in many minority neighborhoods in the U.S. and not all of them poor. The people in District Six were working class people as near as I can tell. Our guide said that it was white landlords who didn't care about the properties because it was "just blacks" living there. I thought to myself, "With South Africa's history, that's a fact, but there's more." Feel free to post your thoughts on that one.

The rest of Day 10 was spent at the African Market and at the waterfront. I found my knobkerrie, a Zulu weapon I was coveting for my collection, and my lion count is up to 6. The wife says, "No more lions for me this trip." It was a nice day.

Day 11

This was shark diving day. It started EARLY, 5:30am. I had no anxiety whatsoever, and was looking forward to the experience. We drove 2 hours out to a township who's name I can't pronounce or spell. We got on a 32 ft. boat and went out to a point between Dyer Island and Geyser Rock, a place frequented by juvenile Great White sharks... and that's where it all went wrong for me. I have never been seasick before and never want to experience it again. The boat anchored, started rocking, and my stomach went queasy. I tried to throw up, but couldn't get anything to come up. A few other folk threw up, but I was left to sit there holding my head for most of the trip. I did manage to look up and see a number of Great Whites attempting to take bait from the boat. Even though they were small (for Great Whites), they were pretty big and exciting to see that close. I finally got to a point where I was able to squeeze into my wetsuit and get into the cage to see the sharks up close. It wasn't exactly diving. The cage was tethered to the side of the boat and it was 1 meter above the water. You basically stood up in the cage with your head above water, and when a shark came near the cage to take the bait, a dive master yelled "down." At that point, you took a deep breath and ducked under the water to see the sharks. I'm happy to be able to say, "I did that," but more happy that I am no longer seasick.

After a nice dinner with Cienai, DC, and the wife... I'm off to bed!

Written by Frederick A. Hanna

South Africa – Day 8, The National Zoological Gardens of South Africa and the Voortrekker Monument

2009-08-06T19:16:00.004-04:00

Today we visited the National Zoological Gardens in TSHWANE… Well OK the name of the township isn’t Tshawane, but our host, the zoo’s executive director, Dr Clifford Nxomani, referred to it as such. Tshawane is the name of the Zulu Chief of the indigenous people who originally inhabited that area. The real name of the city today is Pretoria. The name Pretoria comes from the name of the Voortrekker leader Andries Pretorius. More on that story later. The name Tshwane is sometimes used as an alternative name for the city of Pretoria itself, and following the city council's vote of March 8, 2005, it could become the city's new name if approved by the central government. Should the change take place, "Pretoria" would continue to refer to the city's central business district, as proposed by the current municipality.

Back to the zoo… We arrived early for our special “behind the scenes” tour. This zoo was actually founded 110 years ago, and in 2004 it was declared a national research facility. The reason for this was the recognition of the potential that the zoo carried for advancing life sciences and supporting education in the local schools. Most of the people who live in South Africa would not be able to afford to visit the game reserve that we visited a few days ago, or any of the game reserves in the area, and thus would have little access to seeing the kinds of animals that are housed here. This is particularly interesting to hear as I sit in this room located in AFRICA. The zoo has a threefold mission. They have a public mission to be a zoo, a statutory mission to be a top notch research facility, and a responsibility to be a metropolitan tourism facility. The NZG is known as “A place that’s good for the soul.” As part of their customer service approach they utilize a concept called “service recovery.” The zoo’s executive director used an illustration to explain this concept:

“If a child drops a smoothie while visiting the zoo, what do you do? Do you say, ‘R5 for another smoothie?’ or ‘Do you replace that smoothie for free?’ They empower their staff to act in such a way as to make the NZG a place where people have a great experience that will encourage them to return again and again. Under their philosophy, you replace that smoothie free of charge”

One of the more interesting topics discussed by our host dealt with the lack of black South Africans in the maths and sciences. He explained to us that this deficit is the result of a cumulative historical inequality; thus, there is a 3-fold mission by the government to increase the numbers:

1.Interest – they want to generate interest in the sciences.
2.Access to resources to promote success – they want to make sure that minorities have resources to pursue educational opportunities related to the sciences.
3.Careers, awareness and accessibility - they want to make sure that minorities have awareness of and access to scientific careers.

The zoo does its part to assist in fulfilling this mission as we saw when we visited their state of the art laboratories where they are doing some great research. Very interesting that South Africa must think about race in everything it does. Even in how it runs its zoo. While at the zoo, we also got a tour of the zoo’s hospital and kitchen. So we got to see how the animals are given medical services, and how their food is prepared. Next we hopped on golf carts and toured the zoo. Great visit, and a nice zoo. I especially enjoyed the snakes… nice variety.

Next we visited the Voortrekker Monument. I don’t even know where to begin. A nice old gentleman named Villiam led us on a tour of this monument… one of the largest monuments in all of Africa. It is dedicated to the triumph of the indigenous Dutch Afrikaans (something about that should sound really strange to you) over the Zulus who lived in that part of Africa when these Dutchmen arrived. The Voortrekker showcases a beautiful marble basrelief which tells the story of how this group of people fleeing persecution discovered this part of Africa and conquered the savage Zulus who lived there (this is some Christopher Columbus type discovery – like how do you discover something that was already there and already inhabited?). Villiam, who is a direct descendent of the Voortrekkers told us how the great Voortrekker general outwitted the Zulus and how 500 Dutchmen with guns and 50,000 bullets somehow managed to defeat 12,000 Zulus wielding spears and leather shields at the battle of Blood River. Hey, I don’t know about you, but I’m not fighting some dude with a gun when all I have is a spear. I don’t like those odds! The artfulness of the monument is impeccable although it’s a hideous depiction of the murder of the original inhabitants of that region of South Africa. It shows the Zulu king being murdered and it celebrates the event as something that God did for the Voortrekker’s. They even built a church to commemorate their victory over… I mean slaughter of these people who were only protecting their land.

This monument is the Voortrekker’s attempt to establish a national identity and to justify what they did to the REAL indigenous people. It is a bastion of white supremacy commemorating the ancestors of the fathers of Apartheid.

I could really go on and on and give a lot more detail about my experience at the Voortrekker… BUT I won’t do that… I will share a few of my emotions about it though. There were several moments when I just wanted to curse while listening to Villiam talk and looking at those images, and I did antagonize him with some “in your face” type questions (which he cleverly sidestepped)… BUT you know what? History is about who’s in power and who’s telling the story. This was these people’s interpretation of their history, and even though it was a complete lie in my eyes, its their version of the story. History is funny that way. All I could really do was to process it in comparison to the rest of the history that I have explored over the course of 7 days in South Africa. In the end, I asked Villiam, “Do you personally believe that story is the whole truth.” He said that the truth was “twisted” and he said that the irony is that the day that the Afrikaans celebrate the building of that monument, December 16th, is the same day that the ANC was born on… Interesting.

Last stop… the home of Dr. Edwin Smith to hear his personal story. Smith is from the Eastern Cape and he grew up as a political activist in Apartheid South Africa. I had no idea that his story was so rich. He was actually in exile for 18 years. He treated us to a fantastic mini lecture about history, racial psychology, growing up a “coloured” in South Africa, and about our role as educators. He left us with this tidbit, “Very often it is the teachers who trap us, and cause us to look at the world with a certain disposition.”

Very full day… lots of emotions…

Written by Frederick A Hanna

The Secret of Divine Contentment

2009-08-06T07:00:00.001-04:00

Philippians 4:11-13 Message

Actually, I don't have a sense of needing anything personally. I've learned by now to be quite content whatever my circumstances. I'm just as happy with little as with much, with much as with little. I've found the recipe for being happy whether full or hungry, hands full or hands empty. Whatever I have, wherever I am, I can make it through anything in the One who makes me who I am.

"A man may know much of Christ and yet not learn Christ"
Thomas Watson

It won't matter that you heard the message if you never LEARNED anything.

A life of faith must be learned because:
1. Spiritual things are against nature.
For a human being to deny her/his will and take up the cross of Christ is an unnatural act.

Romans 8:7 (NKJV)

7 Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be.

2. Spiritual things are above nature.
Knowing the depths of God takes searching. You can mine the scriptures for jewels of wisdom, but true wisdom can only be found when the Spirit of God teaches...

1 Corinthians 2:10 (NKJV)

10 But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God.

What had Paul learned? The word used for content in the text is autarkēs. It means to live above both need and abundance. It doesn't mean that you are oblivious to your circumstances as if they weren't real; BUT when you are truly content, your BEING is not determined by your circumstances. This state of being didn't come to Paul in an instant, but over time. The secret of divine contentment is in the learning.

Written by Frederick A Hanna

South Africa – Day 7, Apartheid Museum and Hector Pieterson Museum

2009-08-04T17:35:00.018-04:00

Today we visited two museums that focused on South Africa’s racist history. First colonialism, then Apartheid, and the continued marginalization of black Africans today, particularly its most vulnerable citizens, even with a government now run by blacks. One of the most distressing facts of life for many black South Africans today is that the end of Apartheid and the election of a black democratic government have not meant a mass change of fortunes for most black South Africans.

The Apartheid Museum is located in Johannesburg. It is one of the best museums I have ever been to. I may have a bias as a burgeoning race scholar, as this museum was all about the politics, sociology, anthropology, and history of race in a country founded on white supremacist values. The museum starts off by having whites given passes indicating that they were black, and being forced to walk through doors marked “non Whites;” and blacks given passes indicating that they were white, and being forced to walk through doors marked “Whites.”

Notice that just as in America, "white" is the norm against which all other races are measured. Everything else is "non white." This is one of the problems with the way we talk about race in America. We talk about race as a black-white binary, ignoring both the vast diversity of people who would not consider themselves to be either black or white, and the intersectionality of race:

"Intersectionality – means the examination of race, sex, class, national origin, sexual orientation, and how the combination plays out in various settings."
Race is a lot more than black and white.

Since our group is made up of blacks and whites who all get along extremely well, it was interesting for us to be separated along racial lines and cattled through the appropriate doors. Upon entering the doors, we were bombarded by 3’ x 4’ replications of ID cards belonging to South African citizens during Apartheid.

These ID’s were used to move in and out of places in South Africa during a time when certain races were not allowed in certain areas, and these cards clearly indicated race. South Africa’s history is tragic and awesome at the same time. From the time whites set foot on the area known as South Africa, they were menacing. They used guns to slaughter a people who believed that they could overcome the threat of the white invaders by spiritual forces. The price they paid was blood. Africans were seen as sub humans by their white invaders, and whites sought to subordinate them and claim the land as their own. The history of South Africa is too vast to cover in a single post, so I will stick the highlights of the museum. Early South African art depicts white settlers murdering the natives and taking them as prisoners, and the settlers are always pictured with guns.

The Mandela exhibit was fabulous. One of the best single exhibits I have ever seen. I’m sure it’s partly because he is just a phenomenal man. Its amazing to see how his life took shape… the choices he made… the way he thought… the great people he met and called friends… the way that those friends shaped his character… the fact that he wrote (a lot)… the way he was constantly critically reflecting on the world… the way that he was willing to live in the tension… He was so special that people gave him various names to describe how special he was. One that we saw over and over again was “Madiba Magic.” Here are some others:

Mr. Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela is sometimes called by other names.

Each name has its own special meaning and story. When you use them you should know what you are saying and why. So here is a brief explanation of each name.

Rolihlahla – This is Mr. Mandela’s birth name: it is an isiXhosa name which means “pulling the branch of a tree”, but colloquially it means “troublemaker”. His father gave him this name.

Nelson – This name was given to him on his first day at school by his teacher, Miss Mdingane. Giving African children English names was a custom among Africans in those days and was influenced by British colonials who could not easily, and often would not, pronounce African names. It is unclear why Miss Mdingane chose the name “Nelson” for Mr Mandela.

Madiba – This is the name of the clan of which Mr Mandela is a member. A clan name is much more important than a surname as it refers to the ancestor from which a person is descended. Madiba was the name of a Thembu chief who ruled in the Transkei in the 18th century. It is considered very polite to use someone’s clan name.

Tata – This isiXhosa word means “father” and is a term of endearment that many South Africans use for Mr. Mandela. Since he is a father figure to many, they call him Tata regardless of their own age.

Khulu – Mr Mandela is often called “Khulu”, which means great, paramount, grand. The speaker means “Great One” when referring to Mr Mandela in this way. It is also a shortened form of the isiXhosa word “uBawomkhulu” for “grandfather”.

Dalibhunga – This is the name Mr. Mandela was given at the age of 16 once he had undergone initiation, the traditional Xhosa rite of passage into manhood. It means “creator or founder of the council” or “convenor of the dialogue”. The correct use of this name when greeting Mr Mandela is “Aaah! Dalibhunga”.

I was comforted to even know that I had some things in common with this great man… I wondered how his great passion for equality in South Africa impacted his personal relationships. He had such passion. Was there even room for either of the 2 wives who divorced him?

The remainder of the Apartheid museum was about “Apartheid!” What else!?!? Great exhibits all the way through that left me with many questions, and kept me drawing comparisons to the experiences of blacks in America. The 3 ½ hours we spent there wasn’t nearly enough time.

Next we visited the Hector Pieterson. This museum was much smaller, but equally moving, especially since it is situated in the same place as the events that killed its namesake took place. Check the link for the story: http://www.southafrica.info/about/history/hector-pieterson.htm

We capped off the day with another trip to an African market and then to Mandela square for a great African style buffet dinner at Lekgotla. Dinner included a traditional African hand washing, great food, face painting, and great fellowship. It was a great end to a great day.

Signing off!

Written by Frederick A Hanna

South Africa – Day 6, On to Johannesburg

2009-08-03T18:50:00.008-04:00

Well today was low key, but fun. Our planned trip to the Apartheid museum was postponed, so we went for a nice drive through the countryside to a place called Chameleon Village. There is an African market there. Its basically a flea market where you can find all sorts of things that tourists buy to commemorate their trips to Africa.

Monique and I bargained a man down from 1200 rand to 400 rand, but we backed out at the last minute, and purchased a few things from another vendor. So far I have added 3 lions to my collection on this trip without spending much money. The wife tells me that I don’t need any more lions on this trip even though she practically forced the 3rd one on me. Don’t get me wrong, I REALLY liked it, but she loved it. I want to say she bought it for me, but I think that’s coming out of the house pot. Eventually we got back on the road and headed to Johannesburg to check into the Hilton. Since we were only a 10 minute walk from Mandela Square, I suggested we head over there. Our trip leader suggested that we go there in a group so we aren’t vulnerable as tourists. Well, you know my Jersey City bravado kicked in and I assured Monique that the 2 of us would be fine together. She still refused to walk though. So we took a cab over, walked around the mall, saw the 40 ft statue of Mandela, had a decent Thai dinner, and headed back to the hotel.

A Little Critical Reflection
As we drove from Chameleon Village to Johannesburg, we passed a place that the locals call “Mini Capetown.” It’s a beautiful mountainous range located right on the water. The hillsides are dotted with beautiful homes, and luxury cars frequently sped buy our 16 seat bus.

Our driver informed us that mostly Afrikaans (white South Africans) live in that area. So, I looked at my wife and said, I wonder when we will see an “informal settlement.” People who don’t know any better refer to the informal settlements as squatter camps, but they are not squatter camps. They are literally villages that spring up when poverty pushes large groups of people into a small area where no affordable housing is available. I explained to my wife that anytime you have a population of people this wealthy, you have to have a population of poor people to fill the service jobs that serve the needs of those wealthy people. They need maids and landscapers, opares and porters, drivers, etc. Sure enough, a few miles after we drove pass the homes of the wealthy, we came upon an informal settlement that covered an entire hillside. I’m talking a few miles on each side of the road of shacks built out of sheet metal, wood scraps, and tarps.

In case you are wondering why I expected to see this, I did a mini study on the history of Asbury Park, NJ several years ago. This is a little of what I discovered:

Asbury Park is a small city on the east coast of central New Jersey. The geographic dimensions of this city are about one and a quarter square mile. Asbury Park was actually named after Bishop Francis Asbury, the founder of Methodism in America. The city’s founder, James A. Bradley “wanted a special character for Asbury Park and donated land to religious and civic groups, offering only large residential lots to them. Most of the churches front 100-foot-wide Grand Avenue and are surrounded by large Victorian-style homes.” A major change occurred in Asbury Park “in 1906, when Asbury Park doubled its size by annexing the area west of the railroad, then known as West Park and part of Neptune Township.” It was a thriving resort town that needed a work force to sustain its tourist industry. “The area west of the railroad began to be settled as early as the 1880s by people needed as support staff for the many large hotels, and numerous services provided for the tourist trade.” This gives true meaning to the phraseology of coming from “the other side of the tracks.”

I found that this phenomenon is commonplace. So when I saw that settlement I wasn’t surprised. There are bottoms, lowlands, skids rows, slums, ghettos, "other side of the tracks," and informal settlements existing in the shadow of prosperity all over the world. These issues are not unique to South Africa. They are global issues. The question is, how do we go about addressing these issues? If your answer is meritocracy, I’m gonna have to ask you to do some homework before you offer me that one.

1 http://asburypark.net/info/history.html
2 Ibid

Written by Frederick A Hanna

Who's Your Paul? - You need a wise mentor.

2009-08-03T07:00:00.000-04:00

We all need someone in our lives who's "been there, done that" and has had the wisdom to learn from the experience. When I was growing up in Jersey City, we got all of the New York City radio stations, and one of my favorite programs was the Mr. Magic Rap Attack on WBLS, featuring "Super Rockin' Mr. Magic, and his man DJ Marley Marl." At the end of every show, Mr. Magic would say, "Any fool can learn from his own mistakes, but it takes a wise guy or a wise gal like you and me to learn from the mistakes made by others."

Who is that person in your life who has made those mistakes... who HAS LEARNED and lives to share those lessons learned so that you don't meet with the same pitfalls?

Your Paul is your sage. The one who you submit yourself to in order to learn “the way,” the basics, the one who tutors you in matters of tradition and experience. Your Paul will help you to understand which battles are worth fighting and which ones are not.

Your apprenticeships will change, but they should never end.

Sometimes your Paul’s will choose you, but oftentimes you will choose your own Paul’s. So how do you choose your Paul?

Some characteristics that you should look for in a Paul:

1. HUMILITY – A good Paul will know that they don’t know it all, and has a willingness to learn with you, as much as a willingness to teach you.

It has always been my personal position that I would rather walk with people, and learn beside them than to dictate to them what is right and what is wrong from my perspective because my perspective isn’t failsafe. Contrary to what people might think, I know that I don't know it all.

The one who knows much says little; an understanding person remains calm. Proverbs 17:27

2. HONESTY - A good Paul will be willing and able to tell you the truth, “even rebuke you, especially when you are willing to settle for easy answers.”

Someone who is unwilling to tell you when you are wrong or at least enter into a dialogue about it, is someone who will never facilitate your growth.

3. CRITICAL – A good Paul must be critical WITH you.

Some people equate being “critical” with being negative. BUT you see, there is a difference between “criticizing” and being “critical.” Its hard to criticize without doing harm, but to be critical is simply a way of dissecting the truth in search of the smaller deeper truths that shape the greater truths. It also involves debunking lies and half truths, which undermine the real truth.

4. INTEGRITY – A good Paul is a man/woman of integrity.

What I mean by this is simply that they practice what they preach. They talk the talk, and they walk the walk. You will never respect a Paul who doesn’t walk in integrity.

5. RESPECT – You must respect your Paul.

When I say “respect” here, I’m not thinking Aretha Franklin…

"R-E-S-P-E-C-T, Find out what it means to me… Just a little bit!!!"

I’m thinking more like HONOR. Your Paul should be someone who is honorable in thy sight. That is to say that they are deserving of honor. Whenever I get ready to sit down in a pulpit, I always pause, take a knee, and pray, “Lord cleanse thy servant of all unrighteousness that I might not dishonor you in service to your kingdom.” I do this because I realize that to sit under God as a minister of the gospel is an honor, thus I wish to return that honor to God in service. Your Paul should be such a one that, by her/his relationship with you, demands such honor. Not worship-that belongs to God alone, but honor.

Nathan’s point the way… Barnabus’ encourage us along the way… Jonathan’s walk with us along the way… Jethro’s bless up to go the way… PAUL’s guide and teach us as we go.

South Africa – Day 5, Safari at Pilanesberg Game Reserve

2009-08-03T03:05:00.008-04:00

After spending a thought filled day of service at Teboho Trust yesterday, we had a rather light day today. We checked out of our accommodations in Pretoria and headed 1 ½ hours to Pilanesberg to the Kwa Maritane Game Reserve. The park is home to Africa’s “Big Five”: lion, leopard, black and white rhino, elephant, and buffalo. Our stay at the reserve began with a fine buffet that featured everything from Sushi and pastas to traditional African fare. The meal cost us 160 Rand each, which amounts to around 20 US dollars. That’s a good deal. We checked into our plush rooms at the reserve, and I do mean plush. The rooms were very nice, but we didn’t have time to take it all in… safari at 3!

We all piled into an open air truck, and our guide “Ranger Louie” took us on a 4 ½ hour drive through the reserve. We saw zebra, several species of antelope, wilderbeast, giraffe, elephants, black and white rhino, a female lion, wart hogs, 2 hippo carcasses (sorry, no live hippos), and plenty of indigenous plant species. About half way through, we stopped at a shop run buy the game reserve and purchased a few souvenirs. We headed back to the game lodge from there, where we had another big buffet meal included in the price of lunch. I told you it was a good deal. After some good dinner conversation with Jose Bright and the rest of the group, some of the younger folk headed over to Sun City. The rest of chatted with Jose Bright before turning in for the evening.

See! I told you it was a light day. I’m going to get a good night’s rest. Tomorrow we visit the Apartheid Museum.

Written by Frederick A Hanna

Learning to Receive

2009-08-01T20:00:00.001-04:00

Have you ever heard the saying, "It is more blessed to give than to receive?" Well, the first time I was invited to a church to minister to a youth group, the leader of the group put a check in my hand after I finished up. I promptly returned it explaining to her that I didn't come for money. She then grabbed my wrist, opened my hand, and said, "You are going to have to learn to receive!" She said, "You have to allow other people the privilege of blessing you."

I had never thought of it that way, and now years later I still have a problem allowing people to "do for me." Oh, I receive the check at the end of service now... more like I give it to my wife, but we don't turn it down! BUT, for some of us, its hard to receive. In fact, not being able to receive, whether it be gifts of money, words of wisdom, or general kindnesses is akin to a God complex. In our relationship with God, God is the primary giver, and we are the primary receiver. Not liking to receive is to prefer God's place.

Len Sweet says, "as important as it is to be generous, its even more important to be gracious receivers."

South Africa – Day 4, Teboho Trust

2009-08-01T15:34:00.018-04:00

Today we spent the day with the Teboho Trust family. It was a wonderful spirit filled time. The children were very special. They run an all day Saturday program at Teboho. The program starts at 9am and it ended today at 7:30pm. They start off with their pledge, a few songs, their anthem, and a prayer. When they finish the prayer, they break up into various age groups. The first 1 ½ hours is dedicated to English, the next 1 ½ hours is dedicated math, that was followed by lunch, and life skills sessions. I spent the English and math sessions with a group of 4th and 5th graders. We put together a skit called “Girls and Boys with Attitudes.” The kids dreamed up the whole thing. I was the teacher in the skit, one of the students was the mother, and 3 others were students. The drama was about 3 kids who are so poorly behaved on their first day of school that the teacher ends up sitting at the desk holding his head by lunchtime. The kids come back from lunch, apologize to the teacher, give him hugs, and promise to change. The moral of the story as told to me by my students was “respect everyone, and treat them with kindness because everyone depends on everyone.” Next I worked on multiplication tables with the same group during the math session. The little girls I worked with were delightful. The rest of the day I spent hanging with the little kids, who taught me Zulu:
Sanbonani – Greeting recognizing your presence.
Yebo - Yes
Ongani- How are you?
Sikona – I am fine.

They also made me draw butterflies, moons, and stars for them. Tristian and Lindsay did some mathematics exercises with them, but they were a bit rambunctious. The children were incredibly sweet. Children are children all around the world. It just so happens that these are children of poverty… children of Soweto. After hanging with the little ones for a while, I went to hang with the older boys for a rap session. I kind of got bumped out of the rap session when I challenged a young man named Mdo to a game of chess. I was a bit rusty, but when I had 2 queens, a rook, a knight, and a pawn left on the board to Mdo’s king, I decided to call it a draw. We ended off with the kids thanking us, and when we were almost about to finish, Tristian decided to kick it up a notch and treated us to an Omega Psi Phi chant and step routine.

I have to admit, Tristian definitely did his thing. He also sparked off a series of students to demonstrate their own brand of stepping for us.

The final dancer wasn’t a student, but a mother.

Let’s just say “the percolator” started in Africa. Mama got down for hers. We then gave out gifts and school supplies before closing in prayer, a song of praise, and the anthem.

Of course we couldn't leave without laying hands on God's vessel...

The BIG school issue here is not so much about education as it is about the societal factors that impact education because they impact a child’s ability to achieve academically.

Around 27-28 percent of all children in developing countries are estimated to be underweight or stunted. The two regions that account for the bulk of the deficit are South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa.

If current trends continue, the Millennium Development Goals target of halving the proportion of underweight children will be missed by 30 million children, largely because of slow progress in Southern Asia and sub-Saharan Africa.

Less than one per cent of what the world spent every year on weapons was needed to put every child into school by the year 2000 and yet it didn’t happen. Source 8

Infectious diseases continue to blight the lives of the poor across the world. An estimated 40 million people are living with HIV/AIDS, with 3 million deaths in 2004. Every year there are 350–500 million cases of malaria, with 1 million fatalities: Africa accounts for 90 percent of malarial deaths and African children account for over 80 percent of malaria victims worldwide. Source 9

Water problems affect half of humanity:

Some 1.1 billion people in developing countries have inadequate access to water, and 2.6 billion lack basic sanitation.

Almost two in three people lacking access to clean water survive on less than $2 a day, with one in three living on less than $1 a day.

More than 660 million people without sanitation live on less than $2 a day, and more than 385 million on less than $1 a day.

Access to piped water into the household averages about 85% for the wealthiest 20% of the population, compared with 25% for the poorest 20%.

1.8 billion people who have access to a water source within 1 kilometre, but not in their house or yard, consume around 20 litres per day. In the United Kingdom the average person uses more than 50 litres of water a day flushing toilets (where average daily water usage is about 150 liters a day. The highest average water use in the world is in the US, at 600 liters day.)

Some 1.8 million child deaths each year as a result of diarrhoea
The loss of 443 million school days each year from water-related illness.

Close to half of all people in developing countries suffering at any given time from a health problem caused by water and sanitation deficits.

Millions of women spending several hours a day collecting water.
To these human costs can be added the massive economic waste associated with the water and sanitation deficit.… The costs associated with health spending, productivity losses and labour diversions … are greatest in some of the poorest countries. Sub-Saharan Africa loses about 5% of GDP, or some $28.4 billion annually, a figure that exceeds total aid flows and debt relief to the region in 2003.Source 10

Number of children in the world
2.2 billion
Number in poverty
1 billion (every second child)
Shelter, safe water and health
For the 1.9 billion children from the developing world, there are:

640 million without adequate shelter (1 in 3)
400 million with no access to safe water (1 in 5)
270 million with no access to health services (1 in 7)
Children out of education worldwide
121 million
Survival for children
Worldwide,

10.6 million died in 2003 before they reached the age of 5 (same as children population in France, Germany, Greece and Italy)
1.4 million die each year from lack of access to safe drinking water and adequate sanitation
Health of children
Worldwide,

2.2 million children die each year because they are not immunized
15 million children orphaned due to HIV/AIDS (similar to the total children population in Germany or United Kingdom)
(http://www.globalissues.org/article/26/poverty-facts-and-stats)

Poor children often do not have access to the resources that would improve their chances of being successful in school. Basic needs like food, clothing, school supplies, healthcare, stable housing and family life are too often an afterthought. It is highly unlikely that a hungry child with a toothache will be an academic standout. Educator, Paulo Freire, wrote about his family’s financial troubles which took them from affluent status to working poor, and how his grades suffered amidst his chronic hunger. The children in Soweto are living in desperate situations. They are desperate for help, but not desperate of spirit, not desperate of love, not desperate of courage, not desperate of gifts, not desperate of talents and intelligence and anointing. They need a fighting chance. That’s all Jose Bright is trying to give them, a fighting chance.

As a person who recently studied out of school spaces, I saw some similarities. The educational support program was fairly well structured compared to some others I have seen. I think that our presence made it run a little disjointed today, but I could tell by the homework assignments and the work that the kids were doing that this was a valuable program. They do much with very little. As with many programs of this nature, there is an intangible something that you just can’t touch or name, unless you are a person of faith that is. I was struck by the fact that there was prayer and open talk about God throughout, and it wasn’t in a cheeky, churchy way. There was a genuineness about the people, the children, everyone. It’s the kind of thing you experience when you come in contact with a people who have no other choice, but to trust God. Its an atmosphere for miracles to take place, for promises to be fulfilled, for the presence of God to be made manifest. Jose Bright demonstrates the Spirit of Christ… the kenotic anointing of one who is willing to humble himself, to pour out his spirit that someone else might be saved. The significance of Christ’s redemptive work was that He divested Himself completely (kenosis) into the community that He was sent to minister too. This is clearly evident in the Scriptures, Philippians 2:5-8:

“5 Your attitude should be the same that Christ Jesus had. 6 Though he was God, he did not demand and cling to his rights as God. 7 He made himself nothing;* he took the humble position of a slave and appeared in human form.* 8 And in human form he obediently humbled himself even further by dying a criminal's death on a cross.” (NLT)

“When Jesus sought to win humanity to God, he became one of us, lived among us, voluntarily took upon himself our limitations.” Jesus was the personification of empathy as He emptied Himself into humanity, that He might truly stand in our shoes.

Written by Frederick A Hanna

South Africa - Day 3, Soweto

2009-07-31T17:03:00.007-04:00

Day 3 started off VERY early. After 5 hours of sleep, I was up at 1am and didn’t know what to do with myself. I laid there in the bed for a while and finally decided to go out to the large conference table outside of my room to read and write a little. I was kind of hoping that someone else would be out there who was having the same problem as me. No luck. I started answering emails and within 20 minutes, Tristian appeared.

Ah!! Another night owl! We got started talking and not long after, Kareem appeared.

Looks like all 3 of the guys on the trip are night owls. We had a good time doing some male bonding… sharing our life stories, and the wisdom of life’s experiences very much in the tradition of our ancestors who were storytellers. I have to say that I am very impressed with these 2 young men. They are focused and determined, and they know what they want out of life. They have very clear goals, good mentors and role models, and they are in fact role models themselves. They also display a resilience that you could hear in their stories. Each of us has had experiences that could have taken us off track; instead those experiences have molded our character, and inspired us to work harder to reach for our goals. After a little while, Lindsay and Cienai appeared. Apparently we woke them up with our noisy conversation. Cienai ended up staying up with us until 5am or so, and she also shared life stories. I definitely enjoyed bonding with the 3 of them. OK, 5:30am, need to get some shut eye, so we can be ready for part 2 of day 3.

Part 2
Teboho Trust
The staff a TT is made up of executives, teachers, parents and former beneficiaries. The organization was formed as a result of a need observed by the organization's founder and visionary, Jose Bright.

Jose is a native of Compton, California. He is also a lawyer who was working in the mayor’s office in Washington, DC on various education initiatives before coming to South Africa. He worked with 4 of the poorest provinces in several departments of education. When he started off, he was doing consulting work around the new dispensations for education in SA. Similar to desegregation, many people were afraid that the new dispensations would result in a lower quality of education.

Part of the new dispensation was centered on a transition to OBE (Outcomes Based Education). Many of the teachers were not qualified to teach it. One of the problems is that it is more lucrative to enter corporate life in SA versus going into teaching. Sounds familiar. According to one of our hosts, teaching is a “failed” profession. She was counseled by friend to NOT go into education. Interestingly she rationalized herself going into education to fulfill a need for teachers who could learn to teach under the new OBE standards from scratch as opposed to old teachers who were resistant to the new process. This young lady was educated as a teacher, and is now teaching 4th grade.

It was during the time that Mr. Bright was doing his consulting work that he observed the dire needs of the children of Soweto.

-Soweto stands for South Western Township.-

Many of the children were orphaned as a result of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, and they were entangled in a cycle of poverty that seemed to have no end. Mr. Bright sat down and did some budgeting, and decided that he would fund the education of 5 children out of his own pocket. The 5 eventually became 7, and the 7 became 10. In January 2001 the organization officially started with 10 learners from orphaned, vulnerable households. Today they have 230 learners from grade 1 to senior in university, and 2 of the original 10 currently work at the center.

Mr. Bright did not want the organization named after him, so the name Teboho was chosen. Teboho is a name that is given to a child that is seen as a blessing. In 2002, in a bit of a crafty move, the township held a traditional blessing ceremony and gave Jose Bright the name, Teboho. The program is seen as wildly successful. It emphasizes a holistic approach to education utilizing 5 pillars: Social Development, Personal Development, Healthcare, Educational Support, and Economic Development. One of the initiatives that they would like to develop is targeted at the amagogo, the grannies. Due to the number of people dying of AIDS, the amagogo often end up being head of households with the families living off of their social security. They are increasingly in need of support. Tomorrow we will be spending the entire day at Teboho Trust as participants in their Saturday program. This is where much of the learning takes place. As part of our orientation we also learned some Zulu and some do’s and dont’s of body language. Mr. Bright has become a father figure to many of these children at great, but willing personal sacrifice. The stories we heard today indicate that there is a great deal of love and respect in Soweto for Mr. Bright. We are looking forward to seeing it firsthand tomorrow.

Apartheid, Jim Crowm and Education

2009-07-31T14:00:00.001-04:00

There are a number of similarities between the development of public education systems in South Africa and the United States. Apartheid in South Africa bears striking similarities to the Jim Crow era. Not only are there similarities between these two abominable institutions of domination and tyranny, but there is also the presence of a continuing legacy of oppression that is manifest in lack of equality and in attitudes towards those who have been historically victimized by this kind of institutionalized racism. The impact on the culture and identity of a people cannot be underestimated, and the lingering affects of such atrocities cannot be overstated.

Elusive Equality (Vandeyar & Jansen) speaks of the long history of colonialism followed by four decades of Apartheid as having complicated South Africa’s pursuits of a more just system of education. This is easily comparable to a long history of slavery in America followed by nearly 100 years of Jim Crow segregation, which equally complicated African American’s pursuit of equity in education. It is not coincidence that the issues (inadequate political representation, poor schools, few opportunities for employment, and concentrated poverty) brought to roost as a result of both the dismantling of Apartheid and the dismantling of segregation were/are similar and are connected to the systems of education in many ways. Races, biologically speaking, were separated along geographical lines, but perhaps more importantly, they were often separated in their abilities to hope to attain their highest levels of academic achievement. Knowing my history makes that a difficult statement to make because I know full well how many African Americans achieved great success in spite of both Jim Crow and slavery in the US, as there are numbers of blacks from South Africa who could attest to achieving at high levels of success in spite of the difficulties created by these oppressive traditions; nevertheless, the overarching ethos was one that dictated what people were “not” capable of more so that what they could achieve. Blacks on both sides were often convinced that their positions as second class citizens were fixed, and the overwhelming poverty, as well as, the prevailing ideas about inferiority of the black race only served to further that mindset. According to Fisk and Ladd, a black middle class did develop under Apartheid, but the majority of Africans emerged from Apartheid bearing the vestiges of concentrated poverty and isolation. The vestiges included low educational attainment. The same can be said for African Americans as evidenced in Shame of a Nation (Kozol). These vestiges ultimately translate into privilege. In the end, some people had access to a quality education and some did not. This made education a privilege, and not a right. The ultimate crime is that the lack of access to a quality education and the resulting lower academic achievement across the board served to reinforce the myths of inferiority from both inside and outside of black culture. These myths cultivate feelings of white superiority from outside, and promote an identity formation based on stereotypes of inferiority from the inside (black culture).

Just as the South African educational system under Apartheid underinvested in the black Africans, so to did the education system in America under Jim Crow underinvest in the education of African Americans. The problems with both of these systems are still evident today in the continued existence of inequalities. There are persistent problems with under qualified teachers, lack of resources, poor facilities, and poor outlooks in both countries. Even if we begin to look at these issues from the perspective of class, we can still trace them back to the oppressive systems of colonialism/slavery and Apartheid/Jim Crow. Today we see the continued presence of poverty, poor housing, broken families, and poor healthcare haunting black communities in both South Africa and the United States. Both countries have come a long way, but we are not there yet.

Written by Frederick Hanna

South Africa – Day 2, Initial Thoughts

2009-07-30T21:20:00.002-04:00

So, here we are in South Africa. We all cleared customs with no problems and we’re busy exchanging currency, and taking it all in. The airport in Johannesburg is not unlike an airport you would see in any major city. Those working in the airport remind you that this country is nearly 80% black. That’s actually a comforting feeling to someone who has lived their entire life in a country where blacks make up 12.5%. One of the reasons why South Africa was able to address black/white racism so openly post Apartheid is the fact that the oppressors were in the minority. Racism has a power dynamic that sheer numbers can impact. I am still looking to see if those numbers also impact hegemony here. Is a black African ethos dominating and determining the way, or are blacks here slaves to the culture of their former oppressors?

Beyond the airport, Johannesburg has an extensive highway system with amazing amounts of construction still in progress. There is also a great deal of new housing being built around the highways. We arrive at Pretoria’s campus, and again there is nothing that feels strange or out of the ordinary here beyond the accents. We will be staying at the University for a few days. Our first real excursion was a trip to the foreign affairs embassy just 2 hours after checking into our rooms. The people at the foreign affairs commission gave us a rundown on what they do, and talked about the positive relationship that they have developed with America since the Clinton years. They spoke very favorably of the relationship between the Bush administration and South Africa, and expressed excitement over the Obama administration. We were all probably a little tired for a meeting with the employees of the foreign affairs commission, but we managed to get through it. Had a nice walk into town before dinner to pick up some water etc., dinner wasn’t bad, and I had a great talk with Dr. Darren Clarke (the director of the South Africa Initiative) during dinner… time for a little sleep!

South Africa – Day 1, the Journey

2009-07-30T20:17:00.002-04:00

After a fairly uneventful day of packing, no sleep, and wandering expectations, we were finally off. First leg of the journey was a 3am drive to NJ… from NJ, my mom took us into JFK. So far, so good! Everyone made it on time. In fact, most of us arrived early. Take off was on time. South Africa, here we come.

The flight to Johannesburg was 16 hours long, but it was a good 16 hours. The time passed easily. I read 1 ½ books, did a little writing, watched 2 movies, played several games of chess against a computer on the plane’s personal entertainment system, and chatted it up with friends. I didn’t sleep more than 3 hours the whole time. We had a bit of a rough landing, but they say any safe landing is a good one.

Race is A Social Reality

2009-07-29T07:00:00.008-04:00

Race can be defined as, a socially constructed category, which implies that depictions of racial difference are human creations rather than external, essential categories.

A few months ago a classmate of mine, who's opinion I greatly respect made a statement regarding race that kind of threw me. We were discussing racism in urban schools, which is a primary aspect of what we do as educational anthropologists, sociologists, philosophers, historians, and practitioners—we all get a good slice of the race issue—when my colleague said something to the effect of, "I think this whole race as a social construct conversation is overused, and getting too much play." Now this struck me because as practitioners of social science and race theorists, we rely on this definition of race as a cornerstone of our understanding of racial dynamics and discriminatory practices; nevertheless, there was something in his comment that resonated with me. Every time I teach race as a "social construct" which makes complete sense to me and helps me to explain a number of racial dynamics that have played themselves out over a vast history of racism and discrimination in America, I see the image of myself as a black man and I know beyond a shadow of doubt that essentialist characteristics of race (phenotype, skin color, biological characteristics) still matter and still impact me wherever I go. Whatever the term or the logic we use to define race, when I walk into a department store, the stereotypes still apply; when I show any kind of emotional response to anything, the stereotypes still apply; when I walk down the street or drive down the road in a white neighborhood, the stereotypes still apply; even when I demonstrate academic excellence it seems to be posed as a matter of exception to be marveled at—Why?—because when people look at me, they don't see a social construct, they see a black man. Because of that, a big part of my life story involves shaking off those stereotypes.

Race, along with class, gender, etc. Are socially constructed, but they are also a social reality. "This means that after race—or class or gender—is created, it produces real affects on actors racialized as 'black' or 'white.' Although race, as other social structures is unstable, it has a 'changing same' quality at its core” (E. Bonilla-Silva). That is to say that while race does have dynamic elements that change and are reconstructed over time, there are also essentialist categories of race that remain fixed.

To ignore race as a social reality, which seems to be what many Americans want to do as we push towards a post-racial society, is to deny an entire history of racial exploitation which includes the near extermination of the Native American, the victimization of the Mexican, the exploitation of Asian contract laborers, and of course the dehumanization of the African which extended overtly into the Jim Crow era. The vestiges of this racial social order continue to manifest themselves in our country both materially and ideologically. The history of America is based upon a doctrine of white supremacy which gave rise to a racialized social system. This system bestowed privilege upon Europeans, and assigned deficit to non-Europeans. The result was systems of social relations that reinforce white privilege socially, economically, politically, etc. The tendency of actors racialized as white in this system is to actively struggle to maintain, or passively receive the merits of white privilege. Those assigned to the subordinate race have 2 choices: 1) struggle to change and challenge systemic and structural racism, or 2) become resigned to their position. Thus, the social reality of race and racism continues to play itself out regardless of what the "social construct" is doing. One must then conclude that while these social constructs are defined and redefined, inhabited, transformed, and reinvented, there are certain realities that remain fixed. Simply explaining them away as a social construct can’t work. This would only amount to justification of the status quo by pointing out that certain “races” need to “get over it” and move beyond their racial baggage. A justification which does little more than to affirm the social reality that the “get over it” argument attempts to dismiss.

Written by Frederick A Hanna

Who is your Barnabus? - Who has your back when no one else does?

2009-07-28T07:00:00.000-04:00

Who's your Barnabus?

Barnabus was a Levite by birth whose name was originally Joseph. Joseph sold a field he owned and gave the proceeds to the apostles who in turn gave him a name of endearment, Barnabus, which means "Encourager."

It was Barnabus who vouched for Saul’s good character…
Acts 9:26-27 (NIV)

26When he came to Jerusalem, he tried to join the disciples, but they were all afraid of him, not believing that he really was a disciple. 27But Barnabas took him and brought him to the apostles. He told them how Saul on his journey had seen the Lord and that the Lord had spoken to him, and how in Damascus he had preached fearlessly in the name of Jesus.

It was Barnabus who encouraged the church at Antioch…
Acts 11:22-24 (NIV)

22News of this reached the ears of the church at Jerusalem, and they sent Barnabas to Antioch. 23When he arrived and saw the evidence of the grace of God, he was glad and encouraged them all to remain true to the Lord with all their hearts. 24He was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and faith, and a great number of people were brought to the Lord.

It was Barnabus who parted ways with Paul in order to encourage John Mark…
Acts 15:37-39 (NIV)

37Barnabas wanted to take John, also called Mark, with them, 38but Paul did not think it wise to take him, because he had deserted them in Pamphylia and had not continued with them in the work. 39They had such a sharp disagreement that they parted company. Barnabas took Mark and sailed for Cyprus,

Your Barnabus is your encourager. When all the world has turned on you and you feel that there is no one who has your back... your Barnabus steps up and tells you that you still matter... Your Barnabus steps in and says "I believe in you."

We all need people to encourage us, to believe in us, to speak words of affirmation to us. Someone to "light your candle and keep it lit, and to encourage you when it goes dark" (L Sweet).

A Barnabus' role is to encourage you, not placate you. "Some people will embalm you in flattery. That's not a Barnabus, that's a sycophant" (L Sweet). Sycophant! Now there’s a word you don’t hear everyday! It means “a servile self-seeking flatterer, a parasite.” People who encourage you by enshrining you can be dangerous. They can deceive into self conceit, and pride, which can in turn be the death of you. You need people who inspire the best in you… literally breathe life into you… not fawn you into self delusion. You’ll never grow that way.

Now don’t get your Barnabus confused with your Nathan (see previous blog entry – Who’s Your Nathan). The goal is the same, to move you forward, but the method is a little different. Len Sweet describes two types of hands, a fist and a palm. Your Nathan is a fist! Nathan will take the gloves off with no remorse. Barnabus is a palm. Barnabus will pat you on the back, touch you, feel your pain.

Just like we all need a Barnabus, we also need to be a Barnabus to others. The law of reciprocity really works. You reap what you sow. If you sow seeds of compassion and encouragement, you will reap the same in due season. When seeds of encouragement and compassion are sown into you, you should be careful to sow them back into others.

Exercise: Pick one day out of each week and make it your "Barnabus Day." Make it your business to encourage everyone you meet that day.
Speak a word of comfort!
Pay someone a compliment!
Tell someone “Thank you!”
Tell someone how wonderful you think they are!
Encourage someone!

“The word encouragement is from the French coeur: It means to put “heart” into someone.”

Who "hearts" you?

Written by Frederick A. Hanna

Not Imitation, BUT Impartation

2009-07-24T13:38:00.000-04:00

1 Corinthians 1:

30He is the source of your life in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification and redemption,...

"The most wonderful secret of living a holy life does not lie in imitating Jesus, but in letting the perfect qualities of Jesus exhibit themselves in my human flesh"
Oswald Chambers

Great quote from Chambers! Do I believe it? Well... not wholeheartedly. I think he's talking about sanctification, and my understanding of sanctification is that it is a process that takes place in our lives over the course of time. Its part of the process of BECOMING more and more like Jesus.

Do I think that Chambers is saying something different? Yes and No. I think he makes it sound as if the text says that we are wholly sanctified when we accept Christ as Lord and Savior, but I'm pretty certain based on his other writings that he doesn't believe that. I think that he is trying to tell us that in spite of the sinfulness of our lives, the atonement of Christ is in no way insufficient to cleanse us of our sins, and to impart to us what we need to live a life that is holy, acceptable, and pleasing unto God.

A butterfly isn't a caterpillar secretly trying to imitate a butterfly. A butterfly is a creature that once was a caterpillar, but has transformed into a butterfly... a NEW CREATURE!

So, let yourself off the hook a little. Stop living with the anxiety that you have to earn that which has been freely given. You're not an imitation... you're the product of an impartation.

Written by Frederick A Hanna

No seeking... No finding...

2009-07-23T12:47:00.000-04:00

Ask, Search, Knock!!!

Matthew 7:

7 ‘Ask, and it will be given to you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you. 8For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened. 9Is there anyone among you who, if your child asks for bread, will give a stone? 10Or if the child asks for a fish, will give a snake? 11If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good things to those who ask him

While the majority of the New Testament does not support the carte blanche, blank check petitionary prayer advocated by many Word of Faith teachers today, these verses are very explicit in that we should seek the generosity of God in all "good things."

While I don't like to throw around grammatical terminology too often, this is an occasion where it bears illumination... In verses 7-8 of this text, we have what is called a triple imperative (3 charges or direct commands) followed by a triple assurance... "3 that's the magic number!"

ASK! SEEK! KNOCK! - GIVEN! FOUND! OPENED!

Its also worth noting that the triple imperative is in the present tense, which could be interpreted in an extreme way as,

"Keep on asking" "Keep on seeking" "Keep on knocking"

While that may be a slight overstatement, this text indicates that God does respond to those who seek Him with all their hearts. The text is an invitation to "ask." Whenever I teach, I like to state that "the only stupid question is the one not asked" as a way to encourage questions. If you don't ask, you may never get an answer. The premise is repeated thrice here... if you don't seek, you may never find... if you don't knock, you might be left outside in the rain...

One of the key phrases here is "good things" v11. This picks up on previous verses in Matthew 6:25-34, which indicate that while God may not supply all of our wants, He is infinitely concerned about our needs.

Written by Frederick A Hanna

http://troublethewaters.blogspot.com/

Who's Your Timothy? - Do you pour the richness of your life's journeys into another?

2009-07-22T10:00:00.000-04:00

Who Is Your Timothy?

This next relationship is a little different than the last few because this is not a relationship that has as much of an inward focus as the others. This relationship is directed outward. Timothy was Paul’s mentee. This was the kid that Paul took under his wing. The one to whom Paul taught all he knew.

Len Sweet tells of an old African proverb about a band of elephants that come upon a raging river. The big elephants don’t even hesitate. They just step right on through the rough waters, but the small elephants freeze. They are afraid to take the first step into the raging waters. “Elephants are known for never forgetting.” As the big elephants are crossing, one of them looks back at the smaller elephants standing on the banks and shouts to the elephants in the front, “Brother, we have some folks who haven’t made it into the water.” The bigger elephants don’t hesitate at all; they get back into the water and stand shoulder to shoulder until their bodies create a dam that slows the water enough for the smaller elephants to cross over.

“How many people who make it in life, who get to the other side, forget to remember?”

How many people who have experienced all of the ups and downs, the pitfalls and valleys, the strange twists that life can take, refuse to turn back and help those who are following those same paths?

One thing I’ve noticed today is that many of us tend to see people following in our footsteps as threats to our positions as opposed to necessary helpers, and perhaps mediators, and harbingers of change. A wise boss once told me, “Fred, I want to teach you everything I know. I want you to be able to do my job at least as good as I can. That way, if a position opens up that I want to bid on, there will be no reason to hold me here because you’ll be ready to step in.” Now don’t read too much into that statement and think that my old boss, Mike, was being selfish. Mike, knew that in order for him to move forward, he needed to train up someone to be able to at least fill his shoes. In fact, Mike always told me that I was smarter than him and could do more than he could ever do. So he made me his protégé.

Timothy was Paul’s protégé. He was a younger, less mature version of Paul. He was a single-parent child who Paul called “son.” Paul was duplicating a relationship that he had in his own life... In Paul’s life, before he had a Timothy, he had to be a Timothy. His mentor was Gamaliel. Did you have a mentor? Someone who showed you the way? Someone who schooled you on the tricks of the trade? Someone who could position your mistakes as teaching moments to move you further along your path?

Maybe its time for you to pass that wealth of experience and wisdom you have developed onto another. It will enrich your life.

Here’s a note for Timothy’s and Paul’s alike… Your Timothy doesn’t need to be—should not be, your clone. Natural reproduction does not produce clones. Natural reproduction produces something that is unique, different, perfectly imperfect… So why should your Timothy be any different. How boring would life be if we were all alike? More importantly, how stagnant would our worlds be if we lived in a system full of clones?

Allow your Timothy to be different, remembering that different doesn’t mean better, or worse for that matter… different doesn’t mean wrong… different just means different. Some of the people I love most in this world are the ones who embrace the fact that I am different… that I don’t fit into anyone’s mold and don’t want to… that allow me to be me with no regrets. Those differences can breed innovation… change… transformation… They can enrich your life if you would only embrace them. So, as your Timothy grows, allow her/him to be themselves and to embrace the fullness of all that they are called to be.

Written by Frederick A. Hanna

Be Humble or Be Humbled

2009-07-21T06:30:00.000-04:00

To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everyone else, Jesus told this parable: 'Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed: 'God, I thank you that I am not like other people--robbers, evildoers, adulterers--or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.' 'But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, 'God, have mercy on me, a sinner.' 'I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.' Luke 18:9-14 TNIV

I remember Bishop Hilliard preaching this text to the church many years ago, and I think many of us saw ourselves in the Pharisee, then again, perhaps I am just revealing the conviction I felt in my own heart at the words of his sermon. Religion isn't all about rites and rituals, following patterns cut from a cloth, speaking words without knowledge... or maybe "religion" is about such things, BUT faith is about reliance on a power greater than thine own and humbling oneself beneath that power. Faith doesn't make you better than other people, but hopefully it makes you a better person.

Written by Frederick A. Hanna

Not By Eloquence of Speech, BUT By Power

2009-07-18T06:28:00.001-04:00

1 Corinthians 2:4 My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit's power, 5 so that your faith might not rest on men's wisdom, but on God's power.

Paul said that his message and his preaching had nothing to do with his own wisdom, or his own eloquence... nothing to do with his personality, or his own charisma... nothing to do with his looks, or his fashion statement... nothing to do with his cleverness, or his intellect... nothing to do with his educational biography, or his pedigree...

Real effective preaching has to do with one thing, the demonstration of the power of the Spirit. That is, the Holy Spirit demonstrating the power of God through a human being. A human being who serves as little more than the conduit between God and God's people. A good preacher knows that he/she is merely the bearer of the message, not the source.

On one occasion when Bishop John Bryant came to preach at the Cathedral International, he used the Triumphant Entry (Mark 11:1-11) from which we derive our Palm Sunday celebrations to demonstrate this case. Bishop Bryant considered what the "donkey" may have been thinking as Jesus rode his back into the city of Jerusalem (8-10).

8Many people spread their cloaks on the road, while others spread branches they had cut in the fields. 9Those who went ahead and those who followed shouted,
"Hosanna!"
"Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!"
10"Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David!"
"Hosanna in the highest!"

As the crowds were shouting Hosanna and waving palm branches, Bishop Bryant suggests that the donkey was probably thinking, "Look at how these people are praising me." The people were not in fact praising the donkey of course, but the one the donkey was carrying. "What a jackass," Bishop Bryant proclaimed, "to think that he, a donkey, was being praised by all these people." According to Bishop Bryant, "There are a whole lot of jackass preachers" (seriously, I couldn't possibly make this up). Point being, some preachers seem to think that they are the ones who should be recieving praise from people, but a preacher simply carries the message of salvation to the people who need it. The message is in fact riding in on the back of the preacher, as Jesus rode in on the back of the donkey. Paul was saying that the excellency of God would be veiled if all people saw was him as he carried the message. It is God who redeems and saves by the power of the Spirit! It is God's redemption that yields the fruit of salvation.

Written by Frederick A. Hanna

Sessions at Sotomayor of the "Latina Woman" Experience

2009-07-14T13:07:00.001-04:00

Sessions doesn't know his history. Minorities have always understood America’s history as predicated upon a value system that was more often expressed in word than deed, but was nevertheless shared by both the oppressed and the oppressors. The history of suffering, that has been the minority experience, often allowed for an infusion of a moral and spiritual character otherwise absent in America’s history. Thus, Mr. Sessions, the voice of the Latina woman, the perspective of the Latina woman, the experience of the Latina woman, is inseparable from the American experience, and necessary in the American judicial system. We need the Latina woman on the Supreme Court. Only when every voice is heard, can the scales of justice begin to be balanced not in favor of any one group, but in favor of justice and truth.

A Great Physician Only Cuts So That You Can Be Healed…

2009-07-13T20:55:00.000-04:00

I had minor dental surgery today, and I am intrigued as I sit here reflecting on the surgery and the weekend preceding it. I started experiencing pain in a wisdom tooth at the end of May. Since our Alaskan cruise was quickly approaching, I was torn between seeing a dentist and leaving for Alaska with stitches in my mouth, or risking that it wouldn’t get any worse over the course of the vacation. I opted for a compromise. I went to the local pharmacy and picked up a temporary filling kit. I took the little do-it-yourself dental kit home, followed the instructions, filled the hole in the broken tooth, and… Guess what? No more pain. I tucked the kit into my shaving bag the next day as I packed for vacation in case I needed a second treatment. Turns out the filling held up throughout the entire vacation. Not even a Dungeness crab feast was able to crack that filling. Though I was aware that the packaging on the do-it-yourself kit said “temporary filling” and asserted that this was only a short term fix, I felt confident that it would be a long time before I needed to actually see a dentist. Every time the pain returned, I would treat it with another dose of temporary filling and it worked and worked and worked… until it stopped working last week. One and a half months later, it stopped working. Now the pain was getting worse, and funny thing, when I tried to refill the hole, the filling material actually made the pain more intense. That was last Thursday. I called the dentist and left a message… no one returned my call… tomorrow the weekend starts… the pain is getting worse… what will I do? The next thing you know, its Friday night, and the pain is increasing. I took 2 ibuprofen, and an hour later the pain clicked off like a light switch. Ahh! I’ll make it through the weekend with my new friend ibuprofen. Saturday, and the pain is getting worse again… 2 ibuprofen, and the pain was gone. One difference this time, the pain was back in a few hours. This time it kept me up all night, and bothered me all through church Sunday. After church I got some Orajel. That worked to ease the pain and got me through an afternoon of laughing and joking with my in-laws, but it only worked as long as it was in contact with the tooth. As for the rest of the evening, let’s just say that Sunday night was the worst. The pain was so bad that my wife ended up giving me something a little stronger which eased the pain and knocked me out at about 5 a.m. Monday morning.

OK, let me cut to the chase. I had surgery today, Monday. They pulled the tooth, and I was RELIEVED. Here’s the interesting part. The pain and discomfort of the surgery was a great improvement over the pain and discomfort of the toothache. AND guess what? The pain from the surgery will go away in a few days as my mouth heals.

Funny how we put off things that will truly heal us in favor of temporary fixes that give us only an illusion of healing. We go through life trying this and that, getting temporary relief, but never finding the healing… the peace… the WHOLENESS we desire. So many things in life cut us to the very core. So many things create wounds that we carry with us throughout our lives. Some of us have open wounds that bleed on people we meet and soil relationships because we’ve never been truly healed. The wonder of a GREAT PHYSICIAN is the cutting that heals. A great physician only cuts so that you can be healed… made whole. Stop running today, and get some surgery.

Frederick A. Hanna

Who’s Your Jethro? – You Need Someone Who Can Bless You Forward.

2009-07-13T17:26:00.001-04:00

So who was Jethro? Jethro was a Midianite high priest who happened to be Moses’ father-in-law. It was there beyond the wilderness where Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law that he encountered the presence of God. This was an authentic God moment. Its one of those rare Old Testament encounters where a mere mortal gets to behold the glory of God. In this encounter Moses was informed of his destiny, and of the source of his power and purpose…

Exodus 3:14 (New King James Version)

14 And God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.” And He said, “Thus you shall say to the children of Israel, ‘I AM has sent me to you.’”

In the midst of this encounter, Moses also expressed doubt about his own abilities to accomplish what God had proclaimed...

Exodus 4:1 (NKJV)

1 Then Moses answered and said, “But suppose they will not believe me or listen to my voice; suppose they say, ‘The LORD has not appeared to you.’”

Exodus 4:10 (NKJV)

10 Then Moses said to the LORD, “O my Lord, I am not eloquent, neither before nor since You have spoken to Your servant; but I am slow of speech and slow of tongue.”

BUT God assured Moses that ample resources would be in place to overcome his shortcomings…

Exodus 4:2 (NKJV)

2 So the LORD said to him, “What is that in your hand?”
He said, “A rod.”

Exodus 4:11 (NKJV)

11 So the LORD said to him, “Who has made man’s mouth? Or who makes the mute, the deaf, the seeing, or the blind? Have not I, the LORD?

Now you would think that after all of this, Moses would have just launched out and done as God had instructed, BUT he didn’t. AND this is where Jethro reenters the narrative! He went into the tent of his father-in-law, and asked “Ummm, Ummm, Ummm, can I go check on my peeps?”

Exodus 4:18 (NKJV)18

So Moses went and returned to Jethro his father-in-law, and said to him, “Please let me go and return to my brethren who are in Egypt, and see whether they are still alive.” And Jethro said to Moses, “Go in peace.”

Now, I’m making a big exegetical assumption which might preach well but may not be entirely true, BUT what I am seeing here based on Moses idiosyncrasies and character flaws, is a moment of doubt…

…Well, Jethro had the power right there to stop Moses in his tracks and say “No”… “No, Moses, you cannot go.” AND what would Moses have done then? I’m not sure what he would have done, but I can tell you that I have been in situations where the word of God had been declared over my life and I needed someone with some maturity, some experience, some foresight, to get behind me and give me a good push, or a swift kick and say “Go.” Very rarely did they say “go” to me, in fact they often said nothing at all. So I either sat confused and wondering… stayed in a holding pattern unable to advance… OR I was placed in a position of having to chose between severing a meaningful relationship and moving forward, or sitting still and slowly wasting away…

Well for all you would be Jethro’s out there, let’s look at what Jethro says in this situation… Jethro says lech l’shalom, which literally means, “go to peace.” Most of the time this phrase is translated as “go in peace” which is a slightly different Hebrew phrase, lech b’shalom. See the difference? In this case, there is a big difference between “to” and “in.” The phrase “go in peace” is a typical farewell blessing which can indicate “resting in wholeness or perfection” (L. Sweet), whereas “go to peace” symbolizes a forward blessing. Its more like ”go forward and get all that your destiny holds!”

According to Len Sweet: “’Go to Peace!’ has the peacemaking sense of shalom, and the channeling of energy that brings wholeness and wellness to the world.”

Sweet also notes that one of the most powerful acts you can do to another human being is to bless them forward…

Rabbi Jonathan Magonet says, (paraphrasing) You can’t be “at peace” until you go “to peace” so that one day you can rest “in peace.”

We all need Jethro’s, not to cosign our foolishness… not to flatter us and toot our horns… not to patronize and ingratiate us… not to “kiss our butts” and coddle us… BUT

… to encourage us to go forward!
… to not let us cease in well doing!
… to tell us not to lose heart when we go through seasons of doubt!
… to break us, or better yet kick us out of our holding patterns!
… to tell us to “use whatcha’ got!”
… to affirm what God has already confirmed!

TO TELL US, “You can win,” “You can succeed,” “You have purpose,” God has plans for you. Plans of good and not of evil. Plans to give you a future and a hope!

Are you a Jethro? Is there someone you need to call, set up a meeting with, write a letter to? Someone who needed and needs you to bless them forward? I want to encourage you to reach out to that person today. Withholding a blessing can be as detrimental as not receiving one.

We all need people who directly or indirectly give us permission to make progress. Of course your destiny doesn’t ultimately depend on this permission, but it might just be the catalyst you need.

Written by Frederick A. Hanna

Who's Your Jonathan? - Your TRUE FRIEND

2009-07-08T17:59:00.001-04:00

There was one person who David could always count on. This person would never let him down, always had his back, always put him in position to win, was always willing to dim his own light that David's light might shine more brightly. That one person was Jonathan.

1 Samuel 18:1-4 (New King James Version)

1 Now when he had finished speaking to Saul, the soul of Jonathan was knit to the soul of David, and Jonathan loved him as his own soul. 2 Saul took him that day, and would not let him go home to his father’s house anymore. 3 Then Jonathan and David made a covenant, because he loved him as his own soul. 4 And Jonathan took off the robe that was on him and gave it to David, with his armor, even to his sword and his bow and his belt.

Jonathan was a true friend, not a best friend but a true friend, not a BFF but a true friend. The Message version of the Bible translates Proverbs 18:24 as,

"Friends come and friends go,
but a true friend sticks by you like family."

Now I realize that many of us have family members who aren't very close and never will be, but in the biblical sense, this verse can be likened to the old adage, "blood is thicker than water," indicating the closeness of blood kinship. In this case, this true friend is thicker than blood!

1 Samuel 18:1 says that Jonathan loved David as his own soul.-- A soul friend is the epitome of a true friend and sees you as a kind of SECOND SELF.

"The true friend is, so to speak, a second self."
Cicero

According to Leonard Sweet:

A Jonathan believes in you when no one else does.
A Jonathan is loyal even when you make it hard to be loyal.
A Jonathan is the first to call in good times or bad.
A Jonathan gives and gives and wants nothing in return.
A Jonathan walks with you through every season of your life.

I have to say this because I have debated with more than a few folk about the meaning of "friend." I don't call many people "friend." Friend is a deeply intimate term for me. I have a number of acquaintances, many of them very dear. In my youth a had a "crew" that I hung out with... my homeboys. I had guys I played ball with, women I talked on the telephone and went to the movies with, people I partied with, even people I worshiped with at church... people I loved, but how many of them were true friends? To quote the hip hop group Whodini, "The dictionary doesn't know the meaning of friend." I'll just say that for me, a friend is a very special individual, and a true friend is priceless.

A Jonathan has at least 3 characteristics

1) A "What's in it for YOU attitude"

Be careful of people who only want to be close to you because of what you can do for them. Some people can make you feel great about yourself for all the wrong reasons. They put you up on a pedestal and anoint you king or queen. This is when you need your Nathan to come in and straighten you out! (see my previous blog entry)... The point I'm trying to make is that some people will get close to you with a "What's in it for me" attitude. They know that they stand to gain something from their relationship with you and that's the sole reason why they are in the relationship. A Jonathan on the other hand has a "What's in it for YOU attitude." They can put their own ambitions on the back burner and champion you, just because they love you.

2) Establishes a level of intimacy with you.

Relationships exist at many levels. I have heard it said that people come into your life for a "reason, a season, or a lifetime" and different levels of truth and trust are required to sustain different types of relationships. Jonathan's have established intimacy with you. You can share your dark side, your secret sins, your private pains, your old unhealed wounds, and your Jonathan will love you anyway.

3)Pay the cost.

I have heard it said that anything worth having will cost you something. A Jonathan knows that there is a cost associated with true friendship. To be a true friend requires great sacrifice and a Jonathan is willing to "Pay The Cost."

Who's your Jonathan? The person who would give their very last that you might live... the one who is willing to fall back, so that you can move forward... the one who feels your pain as though it were their own and rejoices in your triumph as though it were their own victory?

We all need a Jonathan. Someone who will allow us to be ourselves with no shame or regret. Someone who loves us, not because of, but in spite of who we really are.

Written by Frederick A. Hanna

Who's Your Nathan?

2009-07-08T16:58:00.000-04:00

Those of you who are familiar with the narrative of biblical writ in the life of King David may also be acquainted with the ministry of the prophet Nathan. It was Nathan who had the "gonads" to go to King David after he had looked upon, defiled and impregnated the wife (Bathsheba) of Uriah, and then sent Uriah to face certain death on the front lines. Lust, Adultery, and Murder all in one fell swoop. What a trifecta! You go David! When you sin, you do it BIG boy! David would have been content to keep this little triple play of debauchery to himself, if it were not for the prophet's willingness to point out the err of his ways.

2 Samuel 12:7

7 Then Nathan said to David, "You are the man! This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: 'I anointed you king over Israel, and I delivered you from the hand of Saul.

Nathan said, "David, you da man!" Oh wait a minute, before that line gets caught up in modern day colloquialisms, and you think that Nathan was saying something like, "You go boy"; "Get your swag right player"; "You da OG, original playa playa pimp don dadda."... we should read a few more verses...

Let's try 8-10

8 I gave your master's house to you, and your master's wives into your arms. I gave you the house of Israel and Judah. And if all this had been too little, I would have given you even more. 9 Why did you despise the word of the LORD by doing what is evil in his eyes? You struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword and took his wife to be your own. You killed him with the sword of the Ammonites. 10 Now, therefore, the sword will never depart from your house, because you despised me and took the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your own.'

This "You're the man" was more like "You're the fool." Is there anyone in your life who is allowed to point their finger in your face and tell you "you are really screwing things up, and if you don't make some changes, you're on a collision course with calamity." We all need editing from time to time, and some of us need editing all the time! But I'm not writing a book here, I'm only blogging!

The name Nathan means gift. Nathan was a gift to David, because he had the wisdom and courage to step to David and EDIT him before it was too late. AND David, despite all of his mistakes, had the wisdom to give Nathan permission to speak to him... to "keep it real" with him.

Your Nathan will "help you get under your own skin," "ask you tough, intrusive questions," "help you to see the truth about who you are." Nathan's can be hard to take sometimes, but Nathan's Edit you because they love you, and they are concerned for your future. They want to see you reach your destiny. Don't shun the "Nathan" in your life, embrace her/him because they only want what's best for you.

Who's your Nathan? Did you hang up on him yesterday and tell him to never call back? Did you tell her that her advice was unsolicited and unwanted? Did you curse the day you ever met?

Your Nathan is a gift! Your future may hinge upon your willingness to hear your Nathan.

(Heavily influenced by the writing of Len Sweet)

Written by Frederick A. Hanna

Michael Jackson - The Little Brown Boy

2009-06-27T00:13:00.000-04:00

June 25, 2009, Michael Jackson dies at the age of 50. I'm personally conflicted about Michael Jackson. I grew up loving him. I loved him because of his marvelous talent, but probably more so because he was a little brown boy like me.

There weren't too many little brown boys in the public eye when I was growing up who weren't caricatures. As I think back, the only other black boys that I remember seeing regularly on television when I was very young were Buckwheat, Stymie, Rodney Allen Rippey, and the Jacksons.

The Jacksons weren't dark, nappy headed, funny talking boys. They were just brown boys like me, except they had great talent. I loved Michael's music and his ability to captivate an audience, but there was a point where I became conflicted about Michael. Around the time of the Thriller album, I began to get a little confused.

He started to seem a little strange to me. His high pitched voice and strange mannerisms actually made it hard for me to appreciate the Thriller album at that time. Perhaps it was because I was on the verge of teen hood, and Michael no longer met the standard for my ideas about masculinity. I can't be sure right now. What I am sure of is that by the time the Bad album came out, I could no longer relate to Michael.

He was no longer that little brown boy. People like to joke that he metamorphosized from a black boy into a white woman. I don't know about that, but there is no denying that he took on a strange transgendered look. Who knows if he had a skin disease that caused his skin color to change, or if he bleached his skin. One thing is for sure, he mutilated the beautiful face of that little brown boy that I had grown to love.

Over the years, I learned to love Michael again. His performance at halftime of Super Bowl XXVII was hands down the best halftime show of all time. It made me see that beneath all of the surgeries, the little brown boy who was simply the greatest entertainer of all time was still there.

Behind all of the court cases, the accusations, the rumors and speculations, Never Never Land... was a tragic character. Most of us will probably never know all of the things that culminated in him becoming the 50 year old man that died on June 25th, but we do know that he changed the music industry, influenced countless entertainers who came after him, and literally made the music video industry.

I do find it interesting that a man who meant so much to black music seemed to have such an ambivilance about his own racial identity. Well, I will always remember him as that little brown boy. You know, the one with the wide nose, full lips, coarse curly hair, and brown skin... like me.

Africanisms in the Black Church

2009-06-22T16:39:00.000-04:00

W.E.B. Dubois notes that the church was the only African institution that made its way from the African forest and survived slavery.

I have always contended that the flavor of the Black Church has been salted by our African roots and the Africanisms that express themselves through the lineage of our ancestors; however, I heard something recently that gave me a moment of pause. We are heading to South Africa soon for an initiative sponsored by the graduate school of education at Rutgers, and I want to examine the role of the church as a source of emancipatory education for South Africans pre and post Apartheid. I want to compare this to the role of the Black Church in the U.S. pre and post Emancipation. It was with this in mind that Dr. Godonoo

told me to pay attention to the ways that African Christians acknowledge and practice Christianity in their churches, and acknowledge and practice African religious rituals in their homes. “They go home from church and pour libations and practice other African religious rites,” he instructed.

This made sense as I read E. Franklin Frazier’s, The Negro Church in America.

Frazier said that although remnants of African religious culture were preserved in the African American experience, the breaking up of tribes and clans and the loss of language rendered African religious myth and cults devoid of traditional meaning and significance. Being kept in baracoons,...

...enduring middle passage,...

...and being dehumanized in every possible way before being acculturated to plantation regime served to strip the African of his/her cultural heritage. Couple this with the fact that whites were frequently on guard for African religious practices, as they feared they would contribute to slave revolt, and that these practices were weeded out and often outlawed; and one can begin to see how the Christian religion of the new world, in terms of the Black Church, evolved into a unique entity all its own. It became the basis of social cohesion, political enlightenment, educational advancement, social activism, and protonationalism (in some cases) for African Americans.

So much more to say on this topic, which I will reserve for later musings in an article...

It will be interesting to see what Africa reveals to me, but one thing is for sure... As Africans, we brought a strong “sense of” and “sensitivity to” the activity of the spirit world... the shout, the dance, the fervor of religious spirit, and the other worldliness that helped African Americans to escape from slavery if only in spirit, were the remnants of our African past, and are made manifest in our African American present. It is part of what makes The Black Church in America unique.

This Whole "Swag" Thing

2009-06-16T23:40:00.001-04:00

“Swagger: prideful, arrogant walk or stride…”

“Swagger: poised, sassiness that can't be touched. It may be in the walk or it may be in the talk, but there is no doubt it means you own the room and you have that natural charisma. Basically, one with swagger dominates at life…”

“Swagger is the confidence exuded as a reflection of ones dress, shoe game, attitude, and how one handles a situation.”

Urban Dictionary

You can learn how to dress just by jocking my fresh
Jocking jocking my fresh
Jocking jocking my fresh
Follow my steps, it's the road to success
Where the niggas know you thorough
And the girls say yes
But I can't teach you my swag
You can pay for school but you can't buy class
School of hard knocks
I'm a grad
And that all-blue Yankee is my graduation cap

--Jay Z////Swagger Like Us

I’m not feeling the whole “swag” thing. When I was younger, long before the term "swag" became popular slang, I used to laud my own swagger. I would walk around with an attitude... sometimes it was a nasty attitude... sometimes it was just arrogance... I told people about it, and explained that it was my "edge." It was what allowed me to have the self confidence I needed to succeed. When people told me it was arrogance, I explained to them that it was just self esteem. Some of it was a carryover of having to carry yourself in a certain way because you lived in a hostile environment... an environment where being soft could make you a casualty. I understood that being a member of a marginalized group meant that I needed to believe in myself, to be able to hold my head up, to be "black and proud."

While I would still argue that this is a truism, and that it is important that certain groups have this sense of self affirmation, I must also admit that there is a fine line between arrogance and self confidence. One displays a humble assuredness, the other reeks of pride. Pride is an ugly image to see when the man in the mirror is wearing it.

Sociologiaclly, "swag" is related to a fragmented gender identity among marginalized males that frequently renders them (us) invisible to mainstream society. The result is an exagerrated masculinity that masks an inner struggle with the feeling that one’s talents, abilities, personality, and worth are not valued or even recognized
because of structural prejudice and racism in society (Franklin, A. J. (1999). Invisibility syndrome and racial identity development in psychotherapy
and counseling African American men. The Counseling Psychologist, 27, 761-793.).

I don’t care how you try to dress up and recreate the term to mean confidence, manners, and style… When I hear the term “swag,” I hear arrogance, conceit, self-righteousness, pride, and vanity. I see the seeds of chauvinism, misogyny, and megalomania. Do me a favor; trade in your “swag” for some self respect, integrity, accountability, character, and humility…

In the words of Gang Starr's The Guru Keith E., "If you don't like it kid, take it personal."

Peace

Vancouver's Other Side

2009-06-06T01:04:00.000-04:00

Had an amazing day in Vancouver today. We arrived via cruise ship, disembarking in downtown Vancouver. The city was beautiful as we cruised into the harbor. We arrived at our hotel, and ran off to have coffee before going to our magnificent hotel room. Downtown Vancouver is trendy and chic. It reminded me of New York City. All of the famous designers have shops there, there are tons of great restaurants, and the people dress with a European style. I was surprised at the number of Chinese people on the streets, even though I had read that Vancouver’s largest ethnic minority was Chinese. After walking through the downtown area, we took the ferry over to Grandview Island. Great place. Lots of great ethnic food, fresh fruits and veggies, art, musicians, culture... Lots of funky dressing people… I felt like I was in Soho. I was definitely digging the fashion forward clothing. We grabbed lunch and headed out for our whale watching tour which was fabulous. During our tour we learned about marine mammals and birds, but we also learned about the University of British Columbia, Stanley Park, and the Museum of Anthropology. Vancouver also boasts Broadway style plays along with other rich cultural experiences.

BUT… Some of you know that I can never visit a city and just see what the powers that be want you to see. I always have to investigate the seediest parts of the city. So after an incredible Thai dinner with my wife. I put on my walking shoes and decided to head 2 miles east to Vancouver’s notorious East Hastings Avenue. Our hotel happened to be on West Hastings in the beautiful downtown waterfront area, so finding East Hastings was no big deal. Take a right outside the hotel doors and proceed. The first mile was typical of what I had seen all day. Lots of renovation and restoration. Nightclubs bustling with scantily clad young middle class kids, etc. THEN ALL OF THE SUDDEN, it changed. I mean one corner was beautiful downtown, and the next corner was something completely different. The first signal of change I got was a cannabis shop. Is marijuana sale legal in Vancouver? I guess so, but I haven’t investigated it as of yet. The next sign was a series of seedy motels. The kind that either rent rooms by the hour, or house welfare families. Then all of the sudden there were hoards of people. There was a check cashing store, several run down bars, liquor stores, and convenience stores Homeless people everywhere. People covered in dirt and filth, walking around in circles in drug induced dazes, crackhead prostitutes with bodies like skeletons, people blurting out vulgarities and phrases that didn’t make sense, and hand to hand drug transactions. I saw a man sitting in a wheelchair shooting heroin right in front of a hotel in clear view. Then I saw a lady with 3 crack rocks (could have been crytal meth) on her knee as she readied the glass pipe to cook up the rocks. Next I walked through a haze of what I knew to be fumes from a crack pipe. I once watched a friend cook up and smoke crack in front of me, and you never forget that smell. I saw at least two more people shooting up on the sidewalk and countless others smoking crack up and down the sidewalk. This must have covered at least a mile of city streets on both sides of East Hastings. I saw a few police cars, but they seemed to be managing the chaos, not curtailing it. In all my time in New York, New Jersey, Philly, DC, and Baltimore, I have never seen anything like this. Homeless people lined the streets, people offered to sell me hot clothes, appliances, and sex, as one man stood on the corner feeding a huge pet rat. I never felt threatened though. I always feel a kind of kinship to disenfranchised people. They’re just people… People who need help.

Written by Frederick A. Hanna

McCain, Joe the Plumber TV Ad

2008-10-25T16:45:00.000-04:00

Has anyone seen this new TV ad from the McCain campaign? It makes a simple point and makes it clearly. Several people in the ad say, "I'm Joe the Plumber," and every one of them look the same (they are all white Americans). Now this is not about racism to me at all. This is about a failure to understand the makeup of America today, which is crucial to understanding the issues that challenge ALL Americans. America is White, Black, Asian, Latino, African, and all of these categories break down 20 times or more... including Arab... America is also Christian, Jew, Muslim, Hindu, etc.

A fundamental problem with "McPalin" is that they don't speak to all Americans. Palin makes this clear when she differentiates true Americans from other Americans. Even if they acknowledged this only superficially as a strategic trajectory, at least they would be demonstrating intelligence and awareness. Perhaps "Tito the Builder" is a perfunctory attempt to do this?

I'm reading "Dreams of My Father" this week, and I have a greater sense of Obama's perspective. As a transnational, biracial, socio economic status straddling, class climbing, spiritual journeyman, American who has lived in places where his national origin and ethnic ambiguity has always been a cause for deep personal reflection on issues that many Americans are afraid and often don't know how to talk about, he is in many ways the very epitome of America.