Archive for September, 2007

Runaways - If I were God…

Friday, September 28th, 2007

If I were God…

1.5 million kids in the US run away from home every year. 63% of these are girls. 1/3 of these runaways are lured into prostitution or pornography within 48 hours of running away.

Now we’re doing a thing on Runaways for our US school shows using a song by Ludacris called Runaway Love. Here it is:

[Verse 1 - Ludacris]
Now little Lisa is only 9 years old
She’s trying to figure out why the world is so cold
Why she’s all all alone and they never met her family
Mama’s always gone and she never met her daddy
Part of her is missing and nobody will listening
Mama is on drugs getting high up in the kitchen
Bringing home men at different hours of the night
Starting with some laughs — usually ending in a fight
Sneak into her room while her mama’s knocked out
Trying to have his way and little Lisa says ‘ouch’
She tries to resist but then all he does is beat her
Tries to tell her mom but her mama don’t believe her
Lisa is stuck up in the world on her own
Forced to think that hell is a place called home
Nothing else to do but get some clothes and pack
She says she’s ’bout to run away and never come back.

[Verse 2 - Ludacris]
Little Nicole is only 10 years old
She’s steady trying to figure why the world is so cold
Why she’s not pretty and nobody seems to like her
Alcoholic step-dad always wanna strike her
Yells and abuses, leaves her with some bruises
Teachers ask questions she making up excuses
Bleeding on the inside, crying on the out
It’s only one girl really knows what she about
Her name is lil Stacy and they become friends
Promise that they always be tight ’til the end
Until one day lil Stacy gets shot
A drive by bullet went stray up on her block
Now Nicole stuck up in the world on her own
Forced to think that hell is a place called home
Nothing else to do but get some clothes and pack
She says she’s ’bout to run away and never come back.

[Verse 3 - Ludacris]
Little Erica is eleven years old
She’s steady trying to figure why the world is so cold
So she pops x to get rid of all the pain
‘Cause she’s having sex with a boy who’s sixteen
Emotions run deep and she thinks she’s in love
So there’s no protection he’s using no glove
Never thinking ’bout the consequences of her actions
Living for today and not tomorrow’s satisfaction
The days go by and her belly gets big
The father bails out he ain’t ready for a kid
Knowing her mama will blow it all outta proportion
Plus she lives poor so no money for abortion
Erica is stuck up in the world on her own
Forced to think that hell is a place called home
Nothing else to do but get her clothes and pack
She say she’s about to run away and never come back.
Run away Run away love
Don’t keep on runnin’
Run away Run away [2x]
Runnin’ [4x]
Don’t keep on running away [2x]
I know how you feel, I’ve been there
I was runnin’ away too
I will run away with you [2x]

Runaway Runaway Love
Don’t keep running away
I’ll run away with you, if you want me too

Yea, I can only image what you’re going through ladies,
Sometimes I feel like running away myself,
So do me a favor right now and close your eyes,
And picture us running away together,
when we come back everything is gonna be okay,
Open your eyes

I think this is so brilliant… and so sad. The song is fictional but the subject matter isn’t. It presents true stories that many girls carry and hide deep inside.

So many of them run away. It could have been me. But now it isn’t. Why am I so fortunate to be dealt a decent hand?

And then when I turn my eyes away from myself I ask the question, ‘do we understand?’ Do we understand the heart of the broken 14 year old.

I don’t think I do.

How can we…?

I truly believe God has the ability to understand - to touch - to embrace that broken heart. I don’t quite know how He does it. But I do believe He just wants to hold that broken runaway child. And embrace him or her. And love them.

But few run into His embrace. So sad. So sad.

If I were God it would make me so sad.

Posted in New Thoughts, US Stuff - 13th Floor | 3 Comments »

Why I do what I do

Saturday, September 22nd, 2007

Things are going well in our ministry! We recently had a big event called … the ‘BIG EVENT’ - where we performed Gijima at the Performer Theater as a fundraiser for our scholarship program.

Our US team has just finished preparing their first show for their 2008 tour.

13thFLOOR UK is in training for our November UK/Europe tour, which is fully booked after our promotional event in Hungary.

Our 13thFLOOR Africa scouts have been up and about testing the waters for our Mozambique project next year.

13FM’s first Collision Music Festival? happened last week in Secunda.

And our South African Teams are ready to go on their last tour of the year in a weeks time, while our South African staff are finishing up auditions and putting together our teams for next year.

To top all of this our Executive Committee has worked 24/7 to redesign and restructure our ministry’s managerial structures so that we are ready for whatever growth the future might hold for our ministry.

When I think about all of this, I keep reminding myself that none of this makes sense if God is not building this house.? And I sigh and ask Him to keep me close to His heart.? This week some of our teams did some productions which was some of their own work produced as a practical task given as part of their annual assignments.? When I was again confronted with the spiritual and emotional growth of some of these young people, I just swallowed a few humble tears, and reminded myself that THIS is why I do what I do - and will never stop.

Posted in Local 13thFLOOR stuff (South Africa), The UK plant, US Stuff - 13th Floor | 4 Comments »

Jake White

Friday, September 14th, 2007

I am and always have been an outspoken Jake White fan - A couple of months ago every second rugby follower wanted to fire him - because the grass is always greener… and the untested coach (and the beer belly idiot on the couch) always knows better.

I’ve always said he knows what he’s doing and I still do.? One of the things Jake says is that world cups are won by men and not boys.? Thank you Os, Percy, Victor, Bakkies, Bob Skinstad etc.? Yet he has one or two spots open for boys…Francois Steyn, Ruan Pienaar…

Then Jake has also created depth in the squad - I honestly feel we can lose half our team through injury and we’re still strong enough to beat the All Blacks and the Aussies.

Tonight we will thrash England and a couple of weeks from now we will win the world cup.? And all the beer bellies will praise Jake as if they have been standing behind him the whole time.? And not have the decency to say they have erred!

I say we win tonight with more than 25 points.

Posted in Cricket, Rugby, Golf... | 3 Comments »

My high school reunion - part 2

Thursday, September 13th, 2007

So I warned you that I had to do the reunion thing … Well most people did not recognise me - But I have to say we had a blast! Amazing to think I spent 5 years of my life with many of those people - And life just goes on. Many of them are gray now - this freaked me out a bit! And this week I found a gray hair in my beard!

Anyway, those who did recognise me wanted to know what happened as I was such a nerd at school. I tried to explain that this was a wrong perception of me, but to no avail.

Their next surprise was that I run a Christian ministry - which they found strange after evaluating me not to be a nerd anymore based on my physical appearance.

After stomaching that surprise, the next would be that I write and produce shows that are performed all across the world. (Which actually surprises me too!) The closest I got to that was doing magic tricks with Christof in the body of Tina, the beautiful assistant of Russian magician ‘ CutJOkopOF’ - no pics - I’m sorry!

After all these surprises they cut the questions and tell me I have a beautiful wife - which is true.

I also played a trick on some girls that I could not recognise at all - and vice versa - and told them that we had dated for 6 months… really strange reaction!!

And this week quite a few newfound reunion buddies are visiting our Big Event at the Performer Theater!

Reunions! Great marketing ploy!

Ok - enjoy the laugh! (click to enlarge)n739067182_162121_1689.jpg

Posted in Trivial scraps of info that u might as well not read | 2 Comments »

Living on support

Friday, September 7th, 2007

In 13thFLOOR we have over 50 full time staff (and about 120 full time students) that don’t get paid. (Including myself!) Floyd McClung hung out with our staff yesterday and spoke about ‘living on support’.

Now I’ve been doing the math. If we had to pay each staff member a tip of R1 000 a month. That would cost the ministry R50 000 per month - or R600 000/year. If we would pay them an average of R10 000/month (which is still not much), it would cost us R500 000/month - which is R6million rand per year. If we would pay them what they could earn in their relevant industries, (lawyers/ teachers/ designers/ directors/ quantity surveyors/ video producers /pastors),? it would cost us over R20 million/year. (Honestly - it’s probably more - some of them could walk away with 50 grand a month and more)

Which makes their voluntary service a R20 million miracle every year.

But we don’t seem to have that amount of money.

So now Floyd has again encouraged us to embrace the life of ‘living on support’ as a Bible based way of living. (amongst others - wages, miraculous provision etc). And our ministry is again embracing this as our way of living.

When I think of it, it is such a blessing to have people who invest in our lives and believe in what we do. People who are involved in our lives and form part of what we do. And our ministry just becomes so much larger. And so much more a global ‘we’ thing.

I also think it is a good thing for any person not to be so comfortable that they don’t ‘need’ God. I like having to need God.

I like having relationship with the team of people who form part of our team.

Floyd has been living like this for 40 years (with the exception of 6 yrs as a paid pastor). Amanda and I have been living like this for 13 yrs. We’re raising kids.

We have more than many people in this world. Thank you God!

Posted in New Thoughts | No Comments »