God, AIDS, Africa & HOPE

Reflections / Gedanken

04.11.2009 Farewell thoughts

Sitting at Frankfurt airport I can feel the how tired I am and how much I am looking forward to sleep while flying back to Cape Town. I will be happy to be back home again.

For 16 days I toured through Germany with a detour to Rome, I have had meetings, planing workshop, planing meeting, one2one meetings, telephone meetings, talks – I saw round about a 1000 people in those days – statistics can be interesting. Plans are made until 2013 – I feel the manager syndrome arriving on my doorsteps, but I guess many people are telling me that since years. The Ecumenical church day, the world aids conference, the Bundespositivenkonferenz, the world awareness campaign part two, the exhibition at the Charite Museum, a film project, quite some invitations, amongst them to speak also about economy and ethics as well as how to achieve a value system for one’s own life, motivational talks – the visit of bishops to bring the idea of the pastoral care for positive clergy via bishops conferences to Rome – I am this evening indeed sure that there will be no dull moment in my life for the next years to come. And I thought it will take time to find enough work in my new working environment

HOPE Cape Town will be re-structured a bit – new offices, partly changed job descriptions – the Catholic Aids Networks registration as a NPO and PBO and I guess also there is some restructuring necessary – I still have to write a contribution to a book published by the University of Trier – writing down for me all the “still have to do” list is frightening and challenging at the same time. But I am in a good spirit that all can be done, seeing all the marvellous colleagues giving a hand and taking a lead with me.

Next week we will have our management and planing meeting from HOPE Cape Town and then I will report back in detail and we will plan for the new year ahead. Despite my tiredness I can feel the dynamics of networking – the possibilities lying ahead and I once again don’t understand the stand of many NGO’s which are so protective of their work and see most others as competition rather than a completion to their own work. This year I have seen some naughty incidents were other NGO’s were not afraid to try to lure away sponsors on our very own events. There are still so many feathers to earn in South Africa – and there are also so many willing sponsors if you have a good programme – there is no need to fight each other for anything.

 

Filed under: General, HOPE Cape Town Association & Trust, Networking, Reflection, , , , , , , , , , , , ,

04.11.2009 last day…

Today I will leave Germany and fly back to Cape Town via Frankfurt. As always I have the feeling it is really time to see “my” Table Mountain again and sleep in my own bed. Two more meetings are on the agenda for today before leaving for the airport. And even as it looks rainy and cloudy, it does not look foggy – Munich is known for awful fog and delayed flights in this time of the year.

As always I will sit at the airport and reflecting on the journey and ask myself where I am heading with my life and my work. When I am now home again, the reality of not having the German-speaking communities will kick in with full force. I have to focus on my new life and try to get a sort of rhythm into it. I would lie if I would not admit that I miss the people a bit, the usual Sunday service, the chat afterwards. But as it is with human beings, this will fade away and memories will replace it – fond memories of my time as a chaplain.

Filed under: Reflection, Uncategorized, , , ,

03.11.2009 prevision

Sitting in my hotel room in Munich this morning, I ponder the idea of prevision. Looking back on the last days and weeks it seems that all is coming together, people, I have never thought of have been met, networked, connected – time seems to be due for synergies of incredible force. Be it the extreme sports person Joachim Franz and his team, the energetic business woman Viola Klein, Prof Juergen Beckmann from sports sciences of the TU Munich, Ulrich Heide from the German AIDS Foundation – Isa from the Charite Museum in Berlin – it is indeed for me unbelievable that all these persons are now interconnected and willing and able and looking forward to join hands for the good cause. And there are more: the lady from St. Wendel looking to do something good, the business man from Russia, I met in Dresden, Michael Eisenmenger and all the Rotarians who, with the help of Rotary from 3 different countries looking for a matching grant…

I am counting my blessings and I am stunned – I am counting the people who are willing to go the extra mile and I am amazed to see how many are willing to do so. For me, all this is a miracle. And I am counting the blessings of my family, my dear friends and colleagues. And I know that despite all the obstacles and cliffs there is one truth: the world can be a good place for all – there is so much positive energy available waiting to be used for the good of humanity.  Our religion is right as written down in Genesis: God saw that it was good.

I have had a tough year behind me – and i almost thought I will lose my vocation – but now I can sense that all this might have helped me to count my blessings and to live my life every day to the fullest, to follow my charisma to connect people and see them working together in a way that can move the world. I am grateful this morning.

Filed under: Networking, Reflection, Uncategorized, , ,

01.11.2009 HOPE Gala Dresden afterthoughts

After some hours of sleep and a long brunch with people it this now time to reflect on the HOPE Gala Dresden again. It was a marvellous event, the first “red carpet” charity event in Dresden.  With the Federal Minister of Interior, Thomas de Mezier and wife, many stars and starlets, security and media attention have been marvellous. And the announcement of the cancellation of the announced laudators presence at the gala during the press conference before created also interest, it comes seldom that one hears of a cancelation of a star a week before the event.

The diversity in this programme, singers, pianists, artists contributed to the success and the aftershow- party was great. Lots of good food, music and interesting people. I had lots of good talks and networking was like always a priority. We also had guests coming from St. Wendel and even from Russia to attend the gala. Global village. From all it is clear that the connection Dresden – HOPE Cape Town is a good and developing one – and I do hope that we can develop even a sort of partnership between Dresden and Cape Town. During my next stay in Dresden in will see the mayor of Dresden to discuss possible further connections.

I am grateful to Saxonia Systems and Viola Klein and all those marvellous people who made this evening possible. And as I said at the press conference last Thursday: The love of two people, which lead them to come to Cape Town and being married with my assistance as marriage officer was the beginning of a connection bringing people from Dresden and Cape Town close together. It shows for me clearly that love can move the world, two people, one love, one committment and now hundreds are meanwhile joining to make this connection stronger and stronger every year. It is a fantastic story as only real life can write it.

Another highlight of my stay in Dresden was the possibility to bring people together, I work with and now there is emerging a network so powerful that we will be able to move the world even a bit further. Watch the space – if only half of what is planed will be realised, my life will not be the same again – and that of many other people as well.  And for HOPE Cape Town it means to find even more partner and friends – for our clients it means more hope and a greater future.

Filed under: General, HOPE Cape Town Association & Trust, Networking, , , , , , , , , ,

22.10.2009 Berlin ice-cold…

It is freezing cold when I arrive in Berlin, thanks the “Deutsche Bundesbahn” with a delay. A Korean taxi driver with a typical “Berlin accent” is driving me to the hotel, through all the construction sides – I feel like Cape Town or Johannesburg…

A first “hello” at the hotel by a friend of mine who happens to be the HR manager of this hotel. In the afternoon then a first meeting with an employee of the German Bundestag. I know her since a long time and we have to catch up a lot as we have not seen us for a while. But also we explore possibilities how to engage with the new government, specially in the health sector and I am confident that I am able to meet the right people next time I am in Berlin.

A talk with a representative of the Lutheran Chuch in the representation of the EKD for the German Government  – also here a briefing and some discussions on future cooperation in some fields.  Back to the hotel and then meeting a journalist: preparation for a trip to Cape Town, a visit to HOPE Cape Town and a report for radio about our work.

This evening I will meet a MP for dinner – also here it will be an exchange of ideas and possible cooperation. But at the same time I can say that all people I met today are people I know since a longer time. There is trust and the will to assist – and after such long time, there is this feeling of a growing friendship, which I appreciate a lot. One knows each other, one trusts each other – a fine way of working together in an appreciative surrounding.

It will be late before I will be back at the hotel, a short night, as I have a breakfast meeting tomorrow morning with some people – again planing on quite a substantive level to bridge the realities of South Africa with Germany, but even more:  to bridge realities on several continents, amongst them one reality,in which more than 30 mil people can tell a separate tale, where thousands of people are called to higher services every day and end their life premature, where hope and future are theoretical terms with no real value.

Last but not least: a feedback from Rome and the papal council shows me that our visit at the beginning of the week was appreciated.

Filed under: HIV and AIDS, HIV Prevention, HOPE Cape Town Association & Trust, Networking, Politics and Society, , , , , , , , , , ,

Blog Categories

Follow God, AIDS, Africa & HOPE on WordPress.com

You can share this blog in many ways..

Bookmark and Share

Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 2,711 other subscribers

Translation – Deutsch? Française? Espanol? …

The translation button is located on each single blog page, Copy the text, click the button and paste it for instant translation:
Website Translation Widget

or for the translation of the front page:

* Click for Translation

Copyright

© Rev Fr Stefan Hippler and HIV, AIDS and HOPE.
Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Rev Fr Stefan Hippler and HIV, AIDS and HOPE with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

This not withstanding the following applies:
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.