Letter to Nelson Mandela

 Tata Mandela!

We come humbly before you as two young South Africans who have grown up in the wake of your vision, and have endeavored with all our courage and faith to live up to the standards you set as an example to your people.

We approach 2010 with hope and enthusiasm to share our country with the world, but also trepidation. The muttering has increased and is becoming a roar. 

Your people long for your voice of reason and truth in a treacherous time while our current leaders bicker about old family feuds, or retreat into their ivory towers and remain silent.

You can no longer remain silent, dear Tata. You are our elder, our father, our leader and the anointed one put on this earth by God himself to give this country a hope for a future.

While God has been gracious and has given you a much needed respite, while you are still in this life, your mandate is not complete. You have fathered a nation and now your children come before you to request your blessing! We need your final words to guide us going forward.

Thank you for your divine message of forgiveness. Thank you for initiating the difficult process of reconciliation.  Thank you for believing in us. We continue to believe in you.

We cry out for your word of encouragement, Tata. We need to know we are doing okay. We need to be re-assured that we have not surrendered to this almighty experiment as a nation without bringing forth any fruit.

Tata, we invite you accompany us, Kristi and Tammy for a visit to Emmarentia Dam, a popular natural spot in Jo’burg, our very own “Central Park”, where we believe you will be able to comment on the miracle of a rainbow nation as it lives and breathes today. 

The vision you had for us is alive and well and evident in the joyful playing of children, in the strange hybrid accents that abound, in the neighborliness that exists in neighborhoods that are now very much cosmopolitan.

The truth, Tata, is that ordinary people have accepted racial integration and have adapted well to it. White people have endeavored to throw out the brain-washing their parents would have had them cling to, and the astonishing majority of blacks, coloureds and Indians have graciously forgiven their previous oppressors in their hearts and followed the divine standard you set.

May God be glorified for the truth and the future that lies in a path of forgiveness. In schools around the country our children are playing together.

We keep reminding ourselves that it will take time for real healing to occur, but now, at the end of 2009, we ask you and the nation to take a fresh look around. It is happening! For many, it has happened!

 As children of the new South Africa, we have surely had to show the way to our parents, but even our parents are trying everyday to free their own minds from the bitterness of the past. As for the youth, we are crying out for a reason to celebrate and feel proud of ourselves. Only you can give us this chance.

Please, Tata, we beseech you, deliver a Christmas message to the people, a message of goodwill, of hope and encouragement. 

On the ground, ordinary people are doing their very best to live up to your miraculous vision and are devastated that this vision might be threatened by the ignorance and stupidity of some, even by those with a voice and influence.

You need not prepare a long speech, just accompany us to Emmarentia Dam for an afternoon’s outing to meet the children that happen to be there, and the families, co-existing and enjoying public space together in exactly the manner you hoped and prayed for.

We wait anxiously for your word on how we are doing. Your people will delight in having you to wish them well. We know we are human, that we fail, but yet, we so need you to give us a thumbs up.

With love in our hearts and a prayer on our lips,

Two of your children.

Kristi and Tammy.

Below is the scripture we were given as we were sitting atop a koppie overlooking the northern suburbs of Johannesburg (Lonehill Koppie). This scripture came shortly after the idea was born for “A Christmas message from Madiba”.

(PS. May we You Tube it? Your people both in South Africa and abroad need to hear this. It should also be broadcast across the nation.)

Call Kristi 0825288322 or email kristisecret@gmail.com.

I work for a PR agency and would be happy to help to film and distribute the “Christmas Message from Madiba” but hold no bones if it has to be done another way.

Isaiah 61

A prophesy over Mandela, South Africa and 2010

The Year of the LORD's Favor

 ¹ The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me,
       because the LORD has anointed me
       to preach good news to the poor.
       He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
       to proclaim freedom for the captives
       and release from darkness for the prisoners, ^[a]

 ² to proclaim the year of the LORD's favor
       and the day of vengeance of our God,
       to comfort all who mourn,
 ³ and provide for those who grieve in Zion—
       to bestow on them a crown of beauty
       instead of ashes,
       the oil of gladness
       instead of mourning,
       and a garment of praise
       instead of a spirit of despair.
       They will be called oaks of righteousness,
       a planting of the LORD
       for the display of his splendor.
 ⁴ They will rebuild the ancient ruins
       and restore the places long devastated;
       they will renew the ruined cities
       that have been devastated for generations.
 ⁵ Aliens will shepherd your flocks;
       foreigners will work your fields and vineyards.
 ⁶ And you will be called priests of the LORD,
       you will be named ministers of our God.
       You will feed on the wealth of nations,
       and in their riches you will boast.
 ⁷ Instead of their shame
       my people will receive a double portion,
       and instead of disgrace
       they will rejoice in their inheritance;
       and so they will inherit a double portion in their land,
       and everlasting joy will be theirs.
 ⁸ "For I, the LORD, love justice;
       I hate robbery and iniquity.
       In my faithfulness I will reward them
       and make an everlasting covenant with them.
 ⁹ Their descendants will be known among the nations
       and their offspring among the peoples.
       All who see them will acknowledge
       that they are a people the LORD has blessed."
 ¹⁰ I delight greatly in the LORD;
       my soul rejoices in my God.
       For he has clothed me with garments of salvation
       and arrayed me in a robe of righteousness,
       as a bridegroom adorns his head like a priest,
       and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.
 ¹¹ For as the soil makes the sprout come up
       and a garden causes seeds to grow,
       so the Sovereign LORD will make righteousness and praise
       spring up before all nations.