Failure Isn't Final. Harold Mawela

The Ecology of Relationships: A Garden Under Siege By Harold Mawela, from my study in Akasia, Pretoria I am writing to you from my study in Akasia, just north of Pretoria, where the Jacarandas are blooming against a Highveld sky that seems perpetually at war with itself half brilliant blue, half bruised purple with thunder. The rains have been unpredictable this year. Some gardens in my neighbourhood are lush with life; others are cracked earth, barren and begging. As I sit here, I think about the body of Christ. The Scripture declares unequivocally: “The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts” (1 Corinthians 12:12). Yet I wonder looking at the Church in South Africa today have we become a field of identical maize, or are we a forest? A single type of plant makes a field. Many types make a forest that can weather any storm. Imagine, if you will, two gardens side by side in Soshanguve. One is a monoculture rows upon rows of the same crop, identical, uniform, predictable. Whe...

 The Storm That Sanctifies By Harold Mawela | Akasia, Pretoria Scripture: "When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you cross the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze." Isaiah 43:2 I. The Morning the Storm Came to Akasia I remember the Tuesday like it was yesterday. The winter wind had clawed its way across the Highveld, rattling my corrugated roof like a drunkard hammering on a gate. I stood on my stoep in Akasia, coffee in hand that familiar bitter warmth that Pretoria mornings demand watching the sky turn from bruised purple to sickly yellow. The minibus taxis on the R101 were still hustling, conductors hanging out windows with that famous South African urgency: "Kasi to town! Kasi to town!" But even they knew something was coming. Then it hit. Not just rain, rain is what falls on your garden when you've forgotten to bring the washing in. This was...

 The Law of the Open Hand: Why Hoarding Is Starving and Giving Is Growing By Harold Mawela | Akasia, Pretoria I am writing to you from my home in Akasia, on the northern edge of Pretoria, where the Highveld winter has stripped the jacarandas bare and the morning mist hangs over our township like a question mark. The year is 2026. Just last week, I sat on my stoep watching the evening news. The headlines were a battlefield: unemployment had climbed to 32.7%, with young people aged 15 to 24 facing a staggering 60.9% jobless rate. Inflation had hit 5.0%, eroding whatever meagre salary gains workers had managed to scrape together. The cost of living was rising faster than wages, leaving ordinary South Africans with the weakest purchasing power in two years. And in the streets of Johannesburg, anti-immigration protests had become a weekly ritual—not because migrants are the enemy, but because desperate people need someone to blame. As the news droned on, my daughter walked onto the stoe...

The Conservation of Momentum Scripture: "Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters." (Colossians 3:23) Let us define our terms clearly. In physics, momentum is the product of mass and velocity a body in motion possesses a force that cannot be destroyed, only transferred. The Scripture declares unequivocally that this is not merely a law of matter but a law of the Spirit. What God sets in motion, no force of hell can annihilate. It can be redirected, it can be resisted, but it cannot be erased. I remember a Tuesday morning in Akasia, not so long ago. The municipality had cut our water again third time that month. I stood in my yard, bucket in hand, watching the dust swirl where my vegetable garden used to be. The tomatoes were wilting. The spinach had given up. And I felt that familiar heat rising in my chest the heat of complaint, the heat of frustration, the heat that wants to curse the councillor, the government, the who...

The Archaeology of Conversation Scripture: “Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt.” (Colossians 4:6) I write these words from my study in Akasia, Pretoria. The night is quiet, but my mind is not. Outside these walls, South Africa is a nation in convulsion weekly anti-immigration protests erupting across our cities, youth unemployment stagnating at 45.8 percent, crime operations arresting over 23,000 suspects in a single week. We are a people drowning in noise, yet starving for meaning. Just this past week, as I drove through the streets of Pretoria North, I passed a group of young men standing at a robot. Their eyes were hollow. Their mouths moved talking, laughing, cursing but their souls were silent. I rolled down my window and asked one of them: “Kunjani, mfethu? How are you really?” He looked at me like I had asked him to translate ancient Greek. His answer was automatic: “Sharp, sharp.” But his eyes told a different story. They told of a father who left...

 The Foundation Unseen "Everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock." Matthew 7:24 I live in Akasia, Pretoria a place where the earth shifts beneath your feet if you don't anchor well. Our national soil is famously unstable; sinkholes swallow houses without warning. One morning you wake up in your four-bedroom dream home; the next morning, a gaping chasm has claimed your kitchen, your bedroom, your legacy. The foundation you cannot see determines everything you can. This is the parable of our lives. The Termite Tower Picture, if you will, the African termite mound that towering monument of clay rising defiantly above the savannah grass. Tourists photograph it. Children play near it. From a distance, it is magnificent. But beneath that visible tower lies a dark, sprawling, complex subterranean city that no human eye has ever fully mapped. Tunnels, chambers, nurseries, fungal gardens a civilisation of...

 The Axis of Anointing By Harold Mawela | From my study in Akasia, Pretoria The Scripture declares unequivocally: “My yoke is easy and my burden is light” (Matthew 11:30). Yet look around you, beloved. Look at the faces in the taxi queues of Pretoria at 5 AM drawn, tired, burdened. Look at the shopkeepers in Mamelodi locking their doors earlier each night, fearful. Look at the news: the Reserve Bank holding rates while inflation rises, over 160,000 migrants fleeing our borders amid violence, reform momentum turning negative. We are a nation gasping under heavy loads. And I know this burden personally. A Night in Akasia: The Yoke That Nearly Broke Me I write these words from my study in Akasia. The night is quiet, but my memory is not. I remember a season not long ago when I was doing everything for God and nothing was working. I was pastoring, preaching, counselling, writing, leading yet inside I was crumbling. I was yoked to a burden I never asked for: the burden of proving myself...