Taking to new hights.

The most humbling but satisfying experience all  in the process of  giving back and doing good.
 I was totally taken out off my comfort zone when I was ask to do the presentations for the Social Media training at Silulo Ulutho Technologie and Rlabs.      

The people at Silulo in Litha Park, Khayelitsha was so willing to learn and hungry  for knowledge. We were running two hour  sessions from 08h00-20h00 and with me I had Ricardo Little and Neil Moses.

The 1st group of students 

Monday morning started out very early for most of us "oh I speak for myself ". The excitement was tangible in  all the six sessions  as the students enjoyed the introduction to the world of Social Media. Every different group had their own experience with a Social Media tool. The feed back to my surprise... "We like Blogger, YouTube and Facebook." The lives of many young and old has been touch and change. We are

auspicious to be part of this priceless evolution. I'm glad I had the chance of meeting all this awesome folks and will take the memories with me forever...Siluo students you rock I had some good laughs with !!!       

Hosting events in South Africa

South African people have this warm friendly hospitality about them, thus making it easy for us to welcome others.Our diverse culture comes with exceptionally good food and wine.

We have the infrastructure to host events all round inland and along the coast.
As a developing country we learning as we going along, with that discovering how much uniqueness we have to offer.

South Africa on the whole has so much to offer but most of it is still untapped! The FIFA World Cup is a brilliant example of what this country and its people can achieve when working together. We now have the infrastructure to host other major sporting events - so let the bidding continue! We can now host more international music concerts or even rallies because we have the stadiums that can be used and generate revenue - what's stopping us from hosting Live Aid for example. We have the facilities to arrange an intimate wedding on a secluded beach or a mind blowing bush safari for international dignitaries.

#Nicole Parsons-Vermaak

Climb Every Mountain

Born and bred at the foot of Table Mountain in Garden Village, and only at the age of 59 Sheila Dawn Barties King De Bruin had her first experience on top of Table Mountain, but she was faced with many mountains of her own and now I can report with much joy of how the Lord kept her.

 At the age of 36 ten years after having me she was with child and had another baby boy called Antonio.He was with us for tree months and then died in a tragic gas accident in our house. The accident also left my mom in a coma for a month and the day she walked out the hospital the doctors called her the walking miracle.  

 Not long after that she was faced with divorce as my then alcoholic father totally let go and lost control of  himself. This was hard on all of us. A year or two after, I was in my teens and broke the news to her that I am gay and want to live my life as a woman...I know that the news hit her hard but she took it and never gave up on me. Years later she had to face another mountain saving me from a ten year drug addiction that broke us both as she had to implement tough love to save her son. She is a real life testimony of a praying mother...today I'm not only free from drugs but I found my true identity in Christ, and this all because she climbed ever mountain praying and trusting!!!   
#Thanks to the Vote 4 Table Mountain Campaign for making it possible !!!

Wedding Bells & Creativity

Wedding Bells & Creativity

"I had so much creative fun with my hobby, doing hair and make up......"




The day might have started off wet and freezing cold with Winter fast approaching, but the day Bianca and Francois said their I do’s – a day they have both been waiting for and planning for a long time, the Cape Town chills certainly had nothing on them!! In fact, this must be the day the saying ‘showers of blessings’ was created for!
Not allowing the heavy clouds to dampen this glamorous occasion, all those near and dear arrived in beautiful style- tho not out shining the bride & groom who did splendid in wowing everyone who attended!
The pair was joint in a breathtaking cathedral in the city central- St Mary, followed by a warm & welcoming reception at Suikerbossie in Houtbay – one of the most beautiful fisherman towns in South Africa!
Besides the fireplace doing a good job at keeping the place nice and cozy, DJ CAT also fired away with some great tunes, making sure everyone, even those least expected, ended up on the dance floor!
The highlight of the evening must have been the fine menu! man, was the food good! Definitely to be tried again…
The fairy tale wedding ended on a fun note as guests formed an arch for the happy couple to walk through as each one wished them every happiness and bid them a farewell as they headed on their honeymoon to exotic Thailand xxx

#Photofuzion Photography

Men of Valor

Every man must be persuaded, even if he is in rags,that he is immensely,immensely important.Everyone must respect him and make him respect himself, too...give him great,great hopes.He needs them,especially if he is young.Spoil him.Yes,make him grow proud.... as only a father can do.

Growing up with no father child relationship has affected my live in many ways, and the day my dad past on it was like nothing... to me he was never alive.Yes not even a childhood memory of him playing with or fathering me...oh how i long for that embrace.It was to late I will never know I missed out on the blessing of having a earthly father and no one can replace him.I find it hard sometimes not knowing what it's like,I see others with their dad's and I wonder.........................

Yesterday as we honored the senior fathers in our church it came to me, that I can choose to forgive my father and not to miss out on the blessing of my Heavenly Father.He who called me by my name...and to all the fathers at Cape Town Christian Fellowship, I can look to you to teach me the way to live a live of honor,conviction and character.

Being a man of valor is both a gift and a discipline, It's a gift in the sense that God has given every man the capacity for greatness. It is a discipline in the sense that, although God will empower you,it is up to you to exercise the spiritual disciplines that will enable you to become the man God intends you to be a man of valor!

#Men of Valor :By Richard Exley
#Ugo Betti

My 1st video

Dancing with the Saxophone

It was an evening of Holy Ghost harmony and melody as anointed artist took to the stage in dance and song at the...
Stanley George Benefit Concert, hosted by-
Cape Town Christian Fellowship (CTCF).

Artist from all over the Western Cape joined in to support the event at Eros Center Athlone, and what was to be a concert tuned out to be an evening of pure worship.The CTCF worship team set the pace as they ushered in the
Holy Spirit,with Jason Mitioj Martin , Mark Peters and Donovan Petersen doing a trio with
It's me and You by Brian McNight.Every performance was a genuine expression of worship as The Allou April Band, Wayne Bosch, Heinrich Isaacs Ensembele, Belhar Singers and Many more ministered over us with their God given talent.

A change took place in the atmosphere as Larry-George SaxBomb Johnson and his band got the church to their feet with a heartfelt...passionate way of playing music. The young group from Mamre and Atlantis stirred up a powerful presents and anointing as Saxophonist Larry jumped of stage and ministered over individual people and just blew us away with his amazing way he dances as he plays his saxophone...these moments will resonate in many of our hearts...Sarge, Paul, Ralph, Faber, Alister and Larry "TWO THUMBS WAY UP" this is only the beginning, there is so much more God has in store for you...keep on playing God's tunes,Hallelujah!

Social Media Boot Camp

Semantic web is the word that is on everyone's lips these days and this was the first words spoken at the Social Media Boot Camp hosted by Rlabs.
Mike Santer Director at Rogarem presented a talk on the future internet.

Examples: If information about shops,restaurants,cars,music,movie tickets etc. were stored in RDF files, Intelligent Web could collect info form many different sources combine info and present it to users in meaningful ways...that in itself had all our attention. Our very own Clinton Liederman took us on a journey with the Geosocial Universe, saying that 55% of journalist say that Social Media is important or somewhat important for reporting and producing story's, and how companies who still don't make use of an online presents is missing out big time as Google is better then the yellow pages.
The founder of RLabs Marlon Parker just came back for spending time in the Silicone Valley, came with a total new mind shift on how things are being done, inspired us with his talk on Local,Social and Mobile, and the future of Social Media and Mobile Phones. We ended the day of with a brainstorming session planing our online fund raising & campaigning with the help of Collin Habberton from givengain South Africa and now we running our Do Good, Give Hope winter campaign.

I'm a Survivor

Last week was Child Protection week and my heart goes out to all having to face the evil of child sexual abuse.

As a survivor of child sexual abuse, I myself no what it is, the confusion, victimization, emotional and physical pain a child suffers when facing this kind of exploitation... and yes it not only endangers or impairs but destroys a child's physical and emotional health, well being and development.I ended up living a promiscuous lifestyle of sexual and gender confusion for 20 years and believed that i was meant to be a woman and not a man...affecting my hole family's life. At the age of 14 dropped out of school, could not focus felt like a loser always being mocked and rejected, my molestation was following me with out me knowing and i grew up thinking that this is the way it was meant to be...yes even believing God crated me to be this way.

I am one of the lucky no blessed ones who made it out off that dark world and knows That God's love and redemption are bigger than my messiness, setbacks, and sufferings; therefore, i run to Him and not from Him.
We need to take care of our children, they don't have to suffer at the hand of sexual perpetrators inflicting harm and and molesting the God's blessing to us...Educate your children, responsible stewardship...your mind, body, and private parts, all made to serve God's healthy...does your children know they can come to you and talk about this...do you know how to recognize the symptoms of molestation?

I know it not easy to talk about this, but it's happening right under our noise and children don't know how to deal with it and end up messed up. We need to take a stand for them.

God shall wipe away all tears Rev.21:4
#Sy Rogers

The Dance Of Honor

I dedicate this blog post to my cousin and his new wife Francois and Bianca Rousseau

It is at their wedding reception where at the age of 34 I had my first dance of honor with my mom.
Dew to the rebellious lifestyle I use to live i missed out and never really had the opportunity to do this kind of things at family gatherings...now I thank the Lord for my salvation and I'm amazed at how God is restoring my family life, all that was lost and more. In my self-centered rebellious state I never new what it was to spend time with family and love ones, now God is not only teaching, but allowing me to experience the true meaning of family life...It is never to late and as for the the experience on Saturday past when I had my first ever dance with my mom...I never felt like this before, the dance of honor mother and son...Priceless.

To the newly weds I hope you have a fruitful and prosperous marriage with love and blessing!

Collaboration

Yesterday Cape Town was under a dark winter cloud and Table mountain was almost not in sight,but strong winds did not put a stop to the collaboration of Rlabs, Vote for Table mountain and GivenGain Foundation

We were embarking on our journey to get people signed up as activists for the Vote for Table Mountain Campaign. Fiona Furey who managers the campaign had us all amazed as she presented to us the the riches and splendor of our beloved mountain. She quote that An independent impact report has predicted a R1.4-billion annual tourism bonanza for South Africa if Table Mountain is named one of the New7Wonders of Nature.Then the press had their share in the moment raising random questions about how the rest of South Africa can play their part in the campaign. Collin Habberton from GivenGain and Fiona handled that well.

The Rlabs team was there in full force signing people on the the GivenGain activist platform, and was proud to have The Legacy Program students Genevieve Davids, Megan Trican, Nadien
Bean, Rabia Adamson working with us. They were hands on and got the swing of social media surgery...and not forgetting entertaining the crowd with their vibrant personality's.

We were disappointed that we could not go up the cable car, but still all went well and with much hope we all planing to get the masses to vote for Table Mountain!

Boy's must be boy's: The Mother City's Own Wonder

Boy's must be boy's: The Mother City's Own Wonder: "The buzz was on as people got down to the voting poles all round South Africa on Wednesday 18 May 2011. I on the other hand woke up with mu..."

The Mother City's Own Wonder

The buzz was on as people got down to the voting poles all round South Africa on Wednesday 18 May 2011. I on the other hand woke up with much excitement, as myself and my RLabs teammates where hosting our very own voting poles at the V&A Waterfront...Vote For Table Mountain to be one of the New 7 Wonders of Nature.


The morning stared out quite, but soon we where joined by the Vote for Table Mountain Celebrity Ambassadors Guy McDonald and the lovely Liezel van der Westhuizen, who drew the attention of the shoppers and visitors form all ages. The Rlabs team were at their best as always assisting the enthusiastic voters by setting up email accounts to those who needed . By midday word was out and the support was overwhelming... the best part of making history was when local band Freshly Ground showed up to make cast their vote, the atmosphere at that time was priceless.

We got +- 200 votes that is excluding the sms votes and we still busy campaigning.Come let's put our "Wonder" Table Mountain where it's meant to be...One of the 7 Wonders of Nature.