Monday, September 27, 2010

Why Problems Emerge?

Why do problems emerge?
By Stanley Maphosa
Text: John 2: 1-12
Problems in any set up emerge because of the following reasons among other:
1. Lack of Leadership
In all areas, home country, business and organizations, problems arise when there is lack of leadership. We all lead in one way or another. Leadership is physical and spiritual, abstract and tangible. It is both wine and wine skin. Both the spiritual and the physical should grow in order for leadership to grow. Leadership is also dimensional. If you look at where you are going it is big and where you are coming from looks small. If the place you have been is still overwhelming you, then you are not growing in Leadership. You have to constantly move to the next dimension
-By your decision
-Others decide it for you. People, God and circumstances can challenge you to go to the next level. Job was challenged by problems and David by Goliath
Leadership is situational. The situation can demand that a leader emerge
In John Chapter 2. The situation on the absence of wine, the mother and the governor put pressure on Jesus’ leadership to perform
Leadership is critical in any sector. If a man does not show leadership in his house, by default, the wife or the eldest son will show it. At least someone will show leadership.
2. Lack of vision
Vision is insight, foresight and prophetic. Vision for the individual is introspection or examining yourself. Insight is looking inside your business, your organization and has an honest and realistic view, Have some people who will be realistic about yourself and not on the basis of your background or exposure. Foresight is not saying what is coming but the understanding that change is the only thing that is constant. We lack foresight vision when we do crisis management. Problems emerge because of the lack of a plan for what is coming in future. We have to pay the price now if we have to succeed tomorrow. Vision is therefore a choice. Vision is prophetic-see what is coming and see what is coming. Vision is virtual and actual
3. Lack of Financial understanding
Money does grow in trees. It is like a tree. Psalms 1. In the bank world people open u branches. Any major company opens up branches. You cut of branches you cut the flow of money. The tree is supporting the branches and every branch produces like the tree. Genesis 39 says Joseph is a tree. If you do not understand how money works, you will have problems .Where the tree starts determines where the branches go.
4. Lack of order
Any time you see problems; there is a lack of order. Someone should have dropped the ball, defaulted or faltered. We have to learn to deal with our abnormalities and dysfunctions.
5. Lack of competence
If you put people in a position and they are not gifted or competent, in it will cost you a lot. Family businesses are killed by employing relatives who know nothing. Government performance is affected by people who are deployed because they sing the loudest in political rallies. Lack of gifts or competence causes problems. Any organization is only as strong as its gifted people. This is true for a family, a church or any organization. When you fall in love, do not just fall in love with a face or what walks out of a house. Fall in love with someone who is very gifted. If the person is not gifted, very early in the marriage problems will start to emerge. They will sit in the couch and watch TV and that will be all. Skills levels that we bring to the table are very critical. Daniel Chapter 1 says Daniel was very skilled and intelligent. Nebuchadnezzar got the best men who did not have dual interest (eunuchs) into Babylon. He wanted people that would make the empire (company) stronger and better than what it was. If you have a problem, do not go to someone less gifted than you are to resolve the problem.

Lessons from John Chapter 2:
Jesus’ mother was already there. Maybe she was a relative or to dress the bride or to cook whatever. Jesus arrived and walked through the crowd he was invited with his disciples.
The mother came and said there was no wine
-Leadership problem.
-Vision problem: over invited everybody in the country
-Did not understand how money works. They had wine for the selected few people or bought cheap wine that gets finished quickly like water
-There was no order. Mary did not go and tell the governor but ran to Jesus. She did not understand protocol and procedure, she jumped the gun. Jesus was an invited guest .If there was no wine, the governor of the feast should have known that there was no wine
-There was a lack of competence. The pots were for the Jewish purification and not the drinking of water. There were wrong pots at the wrong place-wrong service
-There was lack of gift. The people who were supposed to serve wine did not know much about wine-busy at work but doing nothing in line with what wine serving about.
-Mary challenged Jesus to make wine-to show leadership. She was expecting the son to buy the wine; she was not expecting this kind of miracle
-They filled in the pots (showing how empty mankind is and that he/she needs to be filled)

Jesus in Chapter 2 of John
1. Showed leadership by telling the servants what to do
2. Showed vision about what should be done
3. Shows that you do not need money for everything. You can get the best from the branch of the vine
4. Showed order. He did not take the wine to his mother but to the Governor of the feast
5. Showed gift-miracle. Each time we need miracles we need Leadership- Moses go as Leader, David go as a Leader, and Samuel go as a leader.
If we need miracles in this season and time, we need leadership and vision, understanding of finance

Then his disciples believed in him. They just walked with him but believed him when he showed leadership, vision, order, gift, and a generational plan. He invested his life because he was showing himself through the marriage as a picture of the church and himself. He was also fulfilling the law. If you build, count the cost. The women and the men were carrying what they did not know-maybe presidents. Jesus was feeding the future. What you are carrying is greater than you are. Jesus was investing into the bride and the groom.

This beginning…….

If you start one miracle, then others are following. We need to begin. The first is important but it will never be the same as the others that will follow. There are many beginnings but let this be a definite beginning for solutions rather than problems.

Human Trafficking

Human trafficking. Is it a new phenomenon?
By Stanley Maphosa
This phenomenon, as far back as I remember, started with Joseph in the Bible. His bothers trafficked him to the Ishmeelites who later auctioned him in Egypt where he was bought by Potiphar. In this incident, trafficking happened to Joseph because of two things. Firstly, he was young and therefore vulnerable. The strong and older brothers who have taken him into the pit got hold of him again and shoved him into the Ishmaelite caravan. He was just like a sheep going to the slaughter, I trust all he did was cry and that did not help him in that place and the time when the trafficking happened. Secondly. Joseph was traffic ked because he had favor with God and his parents. He was a dreamer with a predicted future to lead his brothers and even his parents. His parents loved and favored him maybe because he was the last born and gave him a coat of many colors. This favor caused anger and bitterness on his brothers who ended up selling him. The buyers benefitted from Egypt and the brother who sold Joseph got some money in the process.

The slave trade of old was another form of human trafficking. People from Africa were bought from chiefs and kings for small items like alcohol, beverages, guns, ornaments and spices. They were vulnerable in the sense that the king’s word was not opposed and they were handed over to the slave traders who transported them under very cruel conditions across the seas and oceans to Europe and the Americas. The traders sold them to the plantation owners, factory owners and individuals where they worked very hard in extreme conditions for no payment. The kings who sold them, the traders and the buyers benefitted and the victims did not get anything out of the deal. This was the second worst form of oppression and exploitation in human history after that of the Israelites who had gone to Egypt as a result of Joseph being sold by his brothers. The slave trade though abolished by William Wilberforce and others gave birth to some forms of oppression like colonialism, imperialism, capitalism and apartheid among others that made the poor poorer and the richer rich until this day. Our brothers in the Americas, Jamaica and the Diaspora are now unable to come back home to Africa and live with us in Soweto or Mdantsane their original home. Africa has been used, through cheap labor or manpower to develop Europe and America

The Human and child trafficking we are taking about today is a modern day slavery. It is subtle but still strives on vulnerability, gain for the rich and loss for the poor and manipulation. The traffickers today claim that they will give you a dream job in another place, they promise bursaries and all green pastures. The vulnerable believe their lies and at the end of the journey find there is nothing like that. They find themselves sold to prostitution for both males and females, selling drugs and or working for no payment in environments not fit for human settlement. Human trafficking is a big business which has systems and structures as well as coordinated syndicates around the world. It is the second largest business after drugs. While drugs are sold and used once and for all, human beings can be resold and in the process make a lot of money for those in the deal. There are cases where parents or guardians are driven by poverty, greed or any other motive to sell their own children. In the face of HIV and AIDS and the growing numbers of orphans and vulnerable children are susceptible to human trafficking. With false promises and or coercion, the victims are tricked and transported to what is called “better life.” In that better life place, they are isolated from help and kept in fear, debt, drugs, threats and violence. They enabling documents like the passports, identity cards and drivers license are taken away from them. Exploitation begins to take its toll as the victims are forced into prostitution, domestic slavery, forced labor or even mutilated for body organs.

Children should watch who they talk or chat to in the social networking sites. They should be aware of agents that advertise opportunities in the newspapers and report any suspicious actions of human trafficking

Stanley Maphosa is the Regional Operations Manager for World Vision South Africa and he is writing in his personal capacity