HELLO & WELCOME
…to Thislife Online magazine!
AND WELCOME to Cape Town, South Africa (woohoo, voted best city in the world by London’s Daily Telegraph and best value long-haul destination by the stalwart British Post Office!)
We’re thrilled you’ve landed on our stories of hope. We get so encouraged writing them down – and we hope you’ll get just as invigorated reading them.
Eek, how stressy life can be, even in this glorious city! Take the daily slog, add some tough relationships, health issues and a few curve balls, drizzle with a few global angsts of your choice (terrorism? corruption? global warming?), and voilà! Your very own recipe for never getting out of bed again.
But (hallelujah) there’s a flip side. The good news, friends, is that instead of lying down and taking it, so many of you are rising up from your ashes and soaring (ok, there’s some intermittent staggering too, but forward you still go). Down here in Africa wonderful things are happening daily, and we’ve got some diverse and lovely examples right here to inspire every one of you, whichever part of the globe you’re stashed in. Our list of people overcoming life’s challenges is as long as your arm, and we’ve just as many stories of everyday heroes making a difference to those around them. All the individuals on these pages say God pulls them through and pushes them on. Read on if you’d like to hear their stories and send us yours: we’ve just taken a decision to look for stories of hope from all around the world.
Finished them all already? Try our humour: Grant Clark’s mountain biking whinge proves a nice little grumble does the psyche wonders. Then there’s sport, food (thank you, Lord, for making our breakfast bakes possible in addition to creating the universe), and shopping. Or how about… healthy life, parenting, work life, competitions? This, people, is a smorgasbord of digital delights.
Finally, whet your appetite for Cape Town life and if you’re not from these parts, why not come on down and see what all the fuss is about?
Katy Macdonald
Ed
‘So often in this land of contradictions, even in its darkest corners, there are inspiring rays of light’ – Allister Sparks, veteran South African journalist and Harvard Nieman Fellow
Our Team
EDITOR Katy Macdonald – editor@thislifeonline.co.za
ADVERTISING Rebecca Parry – ads@thislifeonline.co.za – Check out our great advertising rates here
SOCIAL MEDIA AND EDITORIAL SUPPORT Kristan Wood
WRITERS Pam Bailie, Susan Bentley, Bronwen Bowmer, Grant Clark, Shirley Fairall, Susan Segar, Roger Wood
PHOTOGRAPHIC AND VIDEO INTERN Salem Etaka
ADMIN Di van der Venter
VISUALS/LAYOUT Simone Potter
MARKETING/ADDITIONAL EDITORIAL Mumtaaz Ebrahim (Olive Media)
PRAYER SUPPORT Mary Holgate
BOARD Brian Burnett, Katy Macdonald, Duncan McLea, Angie Tate
CONTACT US
We love hearing from you. Let us know what you have to say – gripes included! Mail our editor Katy or the whole team on editor@thislifeonline.co.za
ADVERTISE WITH US
To advertise with us, please contact Rebecca on 082 540 5166 or ads@thislifeonline.co.za
Check out our great advertising rates here
Thislife and its stories of hope are not for profit and have evolved out of a group of churches which make up St John’s Parish, Wynberg, Cape Town (www.stjohnsparish.org.za)
