God, AIDS, Africa & HOPE

The reader will note that I have changed the blog title slightly. Naturally one has some thoughts about it, but I feel that all the words, this blog title includes make out big parts of my life.

GOD – having chosen the priesthood I guess everybody can assume that there is a connection and that I indeed believe that there is more to this world than we can see or hear or feel. Whether we get it always right in the church how we see, proclaim this last point of reference of our whole universe is another question. I am sure we can do much better and I am willing to try very hard to contribute to this.

AIDS – well, out of the blue this pandemic jumped into my life while visiting Tygerberg Children’s Hospital in 1998 and since then my name is associated with Aids activism here in Cape Town, but also within parts of the church.

AFRICA – a continent I heard about conscientiously when we were told not to buy goods from South Africa. “Don’t buy fruits from South Africa” was the slogan I also chanted as a youngster. Apartheid was a funny concept to me; growing up in a town where black people where rich people. Why? Because I lived close to one of the biggest US American Airbases in Germany and the “dollar” was still worth its money. During school and study I never could have imagined to live on this continent, let alone at the very bottom far away from home. Times have changed and Africa is in my heart and in my blood.

HOPE – well, not only HOPE Cape Town is part of my fabric of life, the meaning of the word was always important for me. I could not live without this feeling and longing for the better. I refuse to give up hope – and for me it is more than a feeling. I know that you have to reach out to the stars to get the utmost out of your life. Hope means always thinking outside the box with the certainty that there is always that “little more” to achieve and to get done.

Our lives have become so divers and blogging is a way of communicating this diversity and to connect and reach out without the limitation of national borders. Social media are indeed a force to recon with, but I am aware that we have still to learn as people how to make the best use of it. It’s like with all new inventions and developments; one has to learn to master them in a way beneficial to all.

Related articles

• Responsibility, Fundrasing and Rotary (stefanhippler.wordpress.com)
• A bit of spring cleaning… (stefanhippler.wordpress.com)
• Only Southern Africa? (stefanhippler.wordpress.com)

Filed under: General, Networking, Politics and Society, Reflection, Uncategorized, Africa, Aids, aids activism, blog, blog title, capetown, Germany, God, s hospital, south africa, stefan hippler, western cape