Nyiko Speaks...

The Mighty Baobab has fallen.  I can say with a great degree of certainty that I speak for most South Africans when I say what a blessing it has been to have had a giant walk amongst us. The giant, the mighty Baobab: Nelson Mandela. I can think of no other man who has had such a profound impact on, not only South Africans, but humanity as a whole.  This mighty Baobab, lived to the ripe mold age of 95! I always say that somehow after spending all those years in prison, God had to make it up him by ensuring that he lives past the age of 80! However, even though He was old and had fulfilled his God-given mandate it was still a shock when I was told, on the morning of the 6th of December that the great hero had gone gently into the eternity the night before. A sense of numbness and bewilderment and perhaps even disorientation overcame me. As I flipped through the various tv channels, both national and international, all I saw was Madiba coverage. As I drove to work that Friday morning,

In Christ, there is restoration. As people, we are on a journey. We may not be of the world, but yet we live in the world. The world can be a pretty hostile place to find yourself in, especially if you are not of it. The Bible tells us that although we live in the world, we ought not to live as people of the world. We are children of the light, citizens of heaven, and ambassadors of heaven on earth. Despite, this truth that I have just mentioned above, at times we may find ourselves – even the most vigilant people- having temporarily blurred the line between ‘citizens of the world’ and ‘citizens of heaven’. But the good thing is that that internal compass that always points to our eternal home is forever on. That internal compass will forever and continually point us in the direction of home. So no matter how much or how long we may lived between the blurred lines, that compass will always speak to us to remind us of our actual citizenship in the Kingdom of God.  Okay, I think I’m s

It was just over a year ago, when Gugu and I launched MFP (Mega Faith Project). It was on a Tuesday after cell group and we were just having a wild conversations about some of our aspirations and dreams that would be fueled by mega faith and work! Well, God being God has surely delivered, a few short months after the launch of MFP, Gugu was proposed to and that was the beginning of the manifestation of what we were were ( and still are) believing God for!! The year has flown by at great speed and in just five short days, 7 December 2013, Gugu will walk down the aisle and marry her man, Mzwandile. My MFP partner, I wish you all of the very best as you prepare for your wedding day and your marriage!! I pray that God will bless you and Mzwandile as you build your home on the foundation and Rock that is Christ Jesus! May you both continue to prosper! I look forward to Saturday, and am speechless at your request for me to co-MC your wedding!Screaming inside with utter excitement!!! But

Every time I do my job, I thank God for my job!!  Truly, it feels like its more than an 8-16:30 kind of thing. Of course it has it's challenges like any other job/career I guess, but for the most part this is what I was born to do. This career is absolutely me!! For as long as I can remember I have had this deep interest in all things that are to do with my continent, I am proud to have been born on this continent! I am passionate about Africa, about her advancement, about her development. The diverse people, the cultures, the way of life....all of it just grips me! For as long as I can remember I have wanted to travel, to travel within in Africa specifically! And man I feel blessed because my job entails exactly that! I work on issues that speak directly to Africa's development and as such I get to couple two of my passions : AFRICA and traveling. Each time I touch down in a different African city- Addis Ababa, Nairobi, Johannesburg, Lagos, Accra, Monrovia, Dakar - in ca

What a strange thing it is when two souls collide. Okay, thats a bit of an exaggeration, but that is  how I feel anyway. Let me start at the beginning.  So, it's the morning of 4 October 2013 and I'm at Roberts International Airport in Liberia. I've checked in, the flight is delayed and so we I am sitting at the Protocol Lounge. The flight eventually arrives and I'm led to the the waiting area. As I'm sitting in the lounge, there's this captivating lady that I just can't stop staring at. Theres just something that draws me to her. I decide to stop staring In case she thinks I'm some kind of stalker.  So we leave the lounge and I make peace with the fact that I did not have an opportunity to strike up conversation. She heads out gets on the bus to the flight and I get on a different car to the plane.  By the time I get on the flight, it's full and so I make my way to my seat, 16 C. But when I get to my designated seat, there's a huge guy who lo

If someone were to ask me what song would best serve as the soundtrack of my life at this point, it would have to be ‘Joy’ by the group, The Soil. This is because inexpressible joy seems to be oozing out of every part of my being! There is this “feeling” deep inside my soul, inside my being, that I cannot not even begin to describe because I think that I would not do justice to it! The best I can do is to call it what it is, and that is J-O-Y! I am very deliberate in the choice of word I am deciding to call this state of being that I am in. I do not refer to it as a feeling, because feelings are fleeting, but a state of being is more solid, it more fixed, it is more permanent. I am not referring to it as happiness, because in my view happiness is more often than not linked to a set of circumstances whereas joy is something that you can possess regardless of your circumstances, whether they be good or bad! Joy may have an element of happiness but the two terms are not, well in my vi

Finally we did it, Musa and Rhulani!! (I just hope we can sustain it) For some unexplainable reason we always seem to find ourselves dwindling our fingers during the festive season, wondering why on earth we did not plan to do something exciting like get out of Joburg and go on holiday! I recall countless post-December 25 occasions when it has suddenly dawned on us that “hang on we have made no plans for New Years Eve and New Years Day”!! You know, when we were younger and had no choice but to go where our parents go during the festive season that was fine, it was acceptable because hey a) we had no money, b) we had no cars and whatever else is needed to go on vacation! So back in the day our festive season comprised of being at an uncle/aunts home, chill with the other kids – our cousins- who might I add are at least ten years our juniors. We also knew that our responsibility was to wash the dishes after the Christmas meal, the New Years Eve braai and the New Years Day lunch. Musa

This God I can barely contain myself. I can barely sit still. I can barely stop myself from being in awe of this Amazing God!! He is worthy. He deserves the praise. He deserves the glory. There is no other like Him! He is Jehova!! Wow, how amazed I am at this God of Abraham, this God of Sarah, this God of Noah, this God of Moses, this God of Joshua, this God of David, this God of Joseph, this God of Esther, this God of Job, this God of Daniel, this God of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. This God is forever faithful, He does not cast dark shadows by changing, He is the same yesterday today and forever more, He is the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end, He is my everlasting light, He is the God who first loved me!!!! This God that I serve must really love me. I have always known this, but He never ceases to amaze! To date, 2013 has been a good year. I have seen and experienced the divine favour of the Lord, and I want to use this platform to express my gratitude to this

What a wonderful moment! Indeed it is true that sometimes we must just take a moment, stop and smell the roses. This evening, I did just that, figuratively speaking that is. What would otherwise be a normal evening, turned out to be an evening that made my heart smile. I came home to find my father in the kitchen preparing supper for the family (since my mom was still at work). And since two heads are better than one, I joined him in preparing dinner. Now, this seems like such a mundane task, but the extraordinary nature of it came not from cooking and peeling vegetables but rather from the conversation that filled the space in the kitchen. In between chopping onions, slicing tomatoes, placing pots on the stove my dad and I started talking about the outcome of the Kenyan election in which Uhuru Kenyatta, the son of the founding father of the east African nation, Jomo Kenyatta, was elected as President. Our robust conversation touched on issues such as: what are the possible impli

Dear Society I write this letter to you, not to complain per se, but rather in a concerted effort to set the record straight ( or to set you straight). I feel that I owe it not only to myself, but to thousands of other people out there that I honestly believe feel slighted by you Society, they feel the heavy pressure which you Society have, in your lack of wisdom have placed on their shoulders!  This letter is therefore written in the public interest, to voice the inner thoughts of the voiceless.  Society, I would like to know who bestowed upon you, the divine right to decide that at a certain age, say 25/26 one ought to put on that white dress and walk down the aisle towards the so-called knight in shining armor.  ( I must say never in my life have I found the thought of a man on a horse in silver armor to be appealing at all- if anything I would run in the opposite direction).   It is as though if you happen to be 27 (like i am) and not married ( or not in the process-

To be sure of the things you hope for. Certain of the things you cannot see. Now what exactly does that mean? I have read Hebrews 11:1 so many times. Infact that whole chapter which speaks of the things that people of old have achieved through or by faith. By faith Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in holy fear built an ark to save his family. By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. And by faith even Sarah, who was past childbearing age, was enabled to bear children because she considered him faithful who had made the promise.   Hebrews 11 is sure to leave even the biggest skeptic or pessimist full of hope and an immeasurable  confidence! I know it leaves me feeling like I can conquer the world if not the entire universe! I have found though, that at times we often read Heb 11:1, can recite it by heart but we don't really know the power that lies t