Leading with Humanity

Life is a series of crossroads where we have the opportunity to grow, learn and make decisions.

At each crossroad, life takes us further depending on the decisions and lessons we have learnt.

This past week has been one of those defining moments in my journey of life.

This journey also has many valley and mountain experiences.

Mine has had a fair share of both.

I have celebrated the mountains and mourned in the valleys.

I have also learnt some of my greatest lessons from the valley moments and I know today I am made up of the sum total of all these moments.

I want to thank each of you for the contribution you made to my life this past week.

My syndicate group for good laughs, honest moments and encouraging me to finish on the last afternoon.

To the team that put this course together, a deep appreciation for the years of wisdom and your own humble walks.

The support team for all fitting as cogs in the wheels that took us on this exciting adventure.

We will all now go our separate ways, but I know that we each carry a piece of this week forever in our minds and souls.

I hope that our paths will cross many times over the years ahead.

I look forward to being there to help, encourage and celebrate as each of you live life filled to overflowing and making a difference in this wonderful country we all call home.

May you be blessed and continue to become all that you were destined to be.

Boomer memories from my childhood

We all have our own Valiant memories- long drives to seaside holidays, nights at the drive-in, four people on the back seat.

But people from large families will tell you all sorts of stories about the politics on a Valiant's back seat!!!

These are words I have just read in a book I have just finished.
It is called: On the back roads
Encounters with people and places.
by Dana Snyman

This is a great book about random places and people around this country.
There is a great mixture of interesting stories, people and history.
A fascinating book and a great book for anyone who likes to navigate this wonderful country.


So what were the politics in your car?
I remember so clearly what they were in our family and hence this blog.
We were 4 children and holidays were at least a 10 to 12 hour drive from home to the sea.
We had the following rules:
One in the front with mom and dad.
One lying on the back seat.
One lying on the floor at the back.
One lying on the top shelf in the back.

Every hour or 100 miles we all moved.

This never stopped the old age question:

Are we almost there Dad.
5 c for the first one who could see the sea.

Would love to hear if anyone else has this random type of memory.


This is a comment from the book that I enjoyed:

By travelling - we discover not only this beautiful, awe inspiring earth, we also discover our humanity and that of others.

Church

Do you go to church or are you the church?

This is a simple question but does not have a simple answer.

To get up each day and follow your heart or the what is right and biblical.
To interact with people and help those daily who see you as the only Jesus they will ever encounter.
To stay dependent on God and not take over and manage my entire life.
To be quiet and make time for God to connect with me.
To develop the fruits of the spirit is not an easy journey.
To not rely on my own strength and wealth but to rather stay humble and focussed on what God wants me to do with my life.
To let go and let God.
To read the bible, pray and focus on what I should be doing.
To be challenged by community and to change when it is necessary and biblical.

My walk with God is not a set of instructions but a relationship.
I keep to the rules because I love HIM and do not want to disappoint HIM.
I want to do what He has destined me to do rather than just earn a living.
I love my church community because they love me unconditionally.


I go to church because I enjoy the celebration.
I hope I am becoming the church to those that never enter a building called church.

Connected Wisdom of Mobile Community for Social change

I have been privileged this past week to attend Mobileactive08 in Johannesburg. This has been a global conference with 370 delegates from 40 countries. Go to www.mobileactive08.org for more details about the conference.

Here are some random thoughts from the conference. My worldview has changed after this week.

Mobiles can be used to pay lobola when you are not in the same country as the parents of the bride.

Mobiles have huge impact and bring about a change at the bottom of the pyramid for rural people.

Only 1% of Burma have cellphones and the government continues to control communication

There is a great product in South Africa called Wizzit that is bringing banking to the unbanked.
11 million in SA with no bank accounts
600 million out of 900 million in Africa have no access to bank accounts
There are 30 million cellphones in South Africa

A whole business has been started in South Africa through the Missed Call or Please call me message.... there are 30 million of these calls EVERYDAY in SA

Adding a message on the bottom of these calls has added change to both commercial and social causes.

Mixit is being used to help children with maths

Mindset and Nokia are working on a program to improve maths and science for girl students through cellphones.

There was a launch of the new portal for SANGOnet last night. go to www.ngopluse.org to join

The challenge after this event is to collaborate and help to bring about change that can make a real difference.

Thank you to all the international and local funders that brought this event to South Africa.

Future-Proof your Child

ISBN 978-0-143-02580-1


I finished reading this book last night. Thank you Nikki and Graeme for following through and completing this great work. I certainly believe that it will help all parents to understand the context of the world their children will live in and has a great framework and hundreds of ideas of how to implement and build a great family model.

Families are a cornerstone of any society. This book helps us build a solid foundation for the future of our children.

Go and buy this book. Give it to new parents, those with teenagers and even grandparents will find it interesting.

Nikki and Graeme- May you both be blessed by sharing your heart and helping to tell the story of a subject so dear to many of us.

Smile- The end of an era

On the 1st October 1992, Smile Direct Selling was born. On the 30 September2008, exactly 16 years later this business unit will close.

This 16 year journey holds so many memories. I want to record my part of that journey here and thank each and everyone of you who played a part in the history of this great company.

To Tom and Doreen for the courage to bring about the change in 1992
For Doreen's great creative mind and Tom's wonderful leadership style.
To Eleanor for all the lessons in leadership and leading us through those great years.
To David, Les and Andrew who made up the rest of the Directorship team that made this a TOP 20 non listed company in 1998 and 1999. We certainly made some great memories.
To Nina for the role you played in school business and the 1999 tender.
To each and every person in the factory from the packers , printers and machine operators- Thank you for being part of a winning Godly team.
To the internal staff like Roberta, Fiona, Kate, Berenjean, C, Desmond, Kathy, Doreen, Vernon, and many more that I have not mentioned..... we will forever be grateful for your dedication and work late at night behind the scenes.
To the Regionals who have loyally led the sales force for all these years. You are to be saluted for the many lives you have touched both in the sales team and in education in this nation.
To the Business Leaders , you have been the solid base that have held the many sales people together.
To all the thousands of sales consultants who have been touched by Smile over the years, thank you for the role you have played.
To Nikki Bush, the editor of Smile Family Club News, I thank you for the role you played in helping to take us to a new level with the Smile Family Club.
To the children who were our special shining stars. Educating the Nation was our goal and I do believe we have touched many children in this nation over this period.


On a personal note, I am grateful for all the lessons I have learnt. The wonderful realtionships that I have made and treasure in my life. For the opportunity to work in an environment where we could make a difference and really understand what it is like to work with passion and purpose. For the wonderful travel opportunities and conferences. There are still times that I hear a song and it takes me right back into the room where that event happened.


Each of us are now in a new season. We have learnt many skills and still have much to do. Take what you have, help others, make a difference and be the best you that you can be.

May you all be blessed in this next season and may the God we serve go with you always.

Hansie- The Movie

I went to see the movie about the life of Hansie Cronje today. It brought back so many memories, discussions and lessons about life in our home.

Justin was and still is a cricket addict. He loves the game and Hansie was his hero as a teenager.
We watched the return of South Africa into international cricket through the night, he and his friends played cricket outside our house for more years than I can remember and Justin and his Gran share a very special bond after watching many cricket matches together in our home.

The lesson and discussion we had at the time was:

Never cross the line. NOT EVER. You need to live with yourself and it does not matter if no-one knows, it still is not ok.

The lesson Hansie learnt was that The Truth would set him free and that he had a Father in heaven and on earth who loved and forgave him.

Thank you to the Cronje family for sharing the Truth with all South Africans.

We salute and honour the memory of your son and thank you for the leadership lessons he taught my son.

Gideon's Dream- Nation Building

Well known media personality, John Perlman has just launched his DreamFields website.

This site helps bring dreams to life for many young soccer fans. Please take a look at this site. The system in use here makes it very easy for anyone to help support a great nation building project. With Soccer 2010 on our doorstep this site opens many opportunities for ordinary people around the world to support a project by adding their credit card details online and watching the dream funds mount.

Gideon is a great young man in our church who is helping to bring many of the young people off the streets and onto our grounds at the church. Here they play soccer, do homework and help to bring about the change we need. Our church works in all the schools in the area and I would love to see this dream growing till we have built a new soccer pitch for these kids at our church.

Thanks for looking at this site.

Here is the link: http://www.dreamfieldsproject.org/dream.aspx?dreamid=8

Please feel free to send this on to friends and family around the world that may want to add to this cause.

Devastation on our borders

At church this past Sunday, I listened to two people sharing about their experiences this past week.

Mozambique- Our church was part of a team that went to central Mozambique last week on a project called Farming God's Way. They shared about the destruction of the forests due to the lack of fuel and also the animals that used to share this beautiful land that have been hunted due to the lack of food. The people now hunt rats as these are all that are left. The soil is arid and the people are in desperate situations.

Zimbabwe- next a pastor from Zim shared about the current food crisis in his city. He shared that he had been into two supermarkets and found only light bulbs in the one and in Checkers Shoprite only oranges. No other products or produce.... the shelves are empty. These people are also in a desperate situation.

I have also just finished reading a life changing book called Dangerous Surrender by Kay Warren. Kay is Rick Warren's wife. In this book she talks about 21 st century Christians who "CHANGE THE CHANNAL" when we see or expereince a situation that we don't want to deal with or become involved with.

I have been convicted in both these situations right here close to our border?
What can we do to help change our world?........... or will we switch to another channal.