The final weekend and home

Saturday was Diocesan Council day. I was up early to finalise the sermon, which was about the Kingdom and its values, and the intercessions which +Steve had agreed that I might write to fit the theme. The Council was to have two main sessions – one on finances and the other on Safeguarding. The diocese is working very hard to sort the former, but is not helped by parishes failing to send in their monthly Assessments – familiar story!! The Safeguarding session was led by the Professional officer in charge of the issue. There was a very good number of people present and the session was a good one. I stayed for the finances and then went home, ostensibly to pack, but I just could not find the heart to do it!

Sunday, the day of Pentecost, I was back at the Cathedral to preach and preside. Saturday I’d had the Dean by my side as he’d not seen me preside before, but on Sunday he sat back and let me do the service with the two Cathedral deacons. None of the clergy there that day had heard me preside before this weekend and they were amazed how much Setswana I can do. It was good to be in what is my spiritual home in Matlosane, with a congregation that know me. After the service I went for a quick coffee with Ritha Menyatso, who I’d not seen this visit as they are having mega work done on their home, and life has been busy.

The doors - covered in their plastic to 

protect them till they can build a porch

Inside the church: 

note the ceiling and the cornices

Then it was off to Matlwang. Last year I left some money towards new doors for the church and I was going to hand over the keys to the churchwardens. Everyone came outside and then Psalm 24 was read. I used the Thomas Ken prayer about the doors being wide enough to let everyone in and narrow enough to keep evil out, and then opened the doors to let people in. A tearful moment – almost! Once everyone was in there was a thank you speech from them, to which I responded, outlining my links with the church. I was asked to pray over the food and give the final blessing. Such a joy!

Wardens with the new keys

Dean Chris with the father of the two young

people who showed me the church last time, 

and son of the lady in white in the picture above.

She and her husband were the first family I met in Matlwang.

After that it was home, with no escape from the packing this time. +Steve and I left around 08.15 Monday for the airport and I got back to the flat around 11.30 Tuesday. Not a good weather welcome home. The three and a half weeks went so quickly, yet seemed so long. I feel at home the moment I arrive. People now greet me by name, even in the Mall. With the aid of google maps I can get myself around with comparative ease. I even imagined, fleetingly, having my own home there! Thank you to all of you who have read this blog, and for your prayers. I certainly needed them as I worked out what to say on the teaching day and in each sermon, with no books to fall back on! Till next time ……….

Thursday and Friday

Thursday was a work day. When +Steve eventually returned from the physiotherapist in Potch we set off south for Wolmeranstaad. We were paying a pastoral visit to a priest’s wife, Madiphoko Kgotle and her husband because her mother had just died. On the way we stopped to see St Paul’s Church which is in the township of Wolmaransstad, and which was very well looked after.

As we approached the house a tent had been erected on the road to give more cover for people coming to the house. The younger women were out the back cooking for all those who would be coming to the Memorial Service that afternoon: the men were sitting in one room – and I was an honorary man! – and the older women were in the bedroom, making tokens for the children to place on the grave. The custom is that the mattress is placed on the floor and one of the older women stays there to represent the family and receive condolences. It is also customary for various guilds from the Church to turn up and lead worship, with a sermon. While we were there the Christian Fellowship from the older brother’s work place arrived.

Friday +Steve and I set out very early to visit the village where he grew up and which he still calls home – Gaanalagte (sounds like Hanna- lakta). He was not born here, that village is quite some way away. When he was 7 the apartheid government moved black people into settlements. The chiefs were offered big houses and land – nothing like as productive as that from which they were removed, an everyone else was moved in to a small building and a tent. When they could, they built shacks and later brick houses. The Diseko family now have chickens which they sell to locals and in the markets.

We visited the church and saw the new floor, beautifully tiled, a project which Steve drove hoping to get other members of his peer group to help. But as always people thought it was a good idea but weren’t willing to come up with the cash. He also showed me the altar with its beautiful African nativity scene. We prayed together while we were still in the village.

On the way home we passed the road that he used to run down as 7 year old to get to his first school, and the maize storage granaries where his father worked. Before they were moved it was a cycle ride away. Afterwards he only got home once a fortnight on the bus. 

This was a very moving day!






Finally I couldn't resist this photo! This is the Methodist Church in Gaanalagate. Even Steve recognised it as being just like St James' Clayton!

Another lazy day. I started in the Office getting some thank you letters sorted for those who gave me money for shoes. During the day I walk around with a summer top on because the sun is shining and I am warm enough. It’s a different matter when the sun goes down around 5.30. Then it can get a tad chilly. But everyone here thinks I am mad because they are all very cold. I walked into the office today to see Sophie wearing a woollen scarf around her head and wrapped in one of the very warm African blankets. In the UK we concentrate on getting our buildings warm and not so much on cooling them down: here it is the reverse.

+Steve and I left the office and made for Bona Bona, a game Lodge about 50kms south on the N12. We went into their Jakkals restaurant, sitting outside on the veranda under the lapa – a thatched roof over an open space. It looks out over a watering hole and we spent our whole meal watching 5 giraffes come one by one to the water and drink. I have seen them in the reserve before but never at the hole. 

We were the only diners there; so I asked them to switch off the background music so that we could enjoy the silence and the sound of birds and insects. It was wonderful. It was good for +Steve too, to get out of the office and relax for a while. He loves the wilderness and told me today that he has a dream to get three 4x4s and go into the Kalahari Desert and get lost! He would be quite safe, he thinks, because there would be three vehicles and if one broke down, they could all pile into the other two! Now, I like an adventure, but that would be a step too far methinks.

Monday

It’s been a lazy day today, finishing bits and pieces from the weekend and trying to clear my mind to think about next weekend. Saturday is the Diocesan Council. I have to preach and preside at the opening Eucharist. The main item on the agenda is Safeguarding, an issue which the Province is beginning to take seriously. The Provincial Officer is coming to lead a workshop on the subject. So the sermon has to be relevant to that and to financial business.

This afternoon Steve was stuck in Potch and so I took Ngata to the orthodontist. When we arrived I explained to the staff what this unknown white woman was doing bringing a black girl to the dentist – I must have safeguarding on the brain! The receptionist’s reply was that she had noted that Ngata seemed very at ease with me, so she was obviously on the same wave length. The surgery itself was open plan, no small rooms, just high backed couches for such as me to sit on while the patient was having treatment. Quite pleasant, as long as one of the other patients isn’t throwing a hairy fit.

On Sunday I am at the Cathedral first and then out to Matlwang, where they have done more work on their building which they want to show me. I am excited to see it.

I thought you might like these two pictures of supper time with the Diseko family – with Ngata in her mob cap!!

Friday to Sunday

Well, what a weekend! Friday was pretty straight forward and I arrived safely with my host.

Saturday, I got to Boikhutso church in plenty of time and setup the necessary for the PowerPoint presentations - not logistically easy when there is one extension lead, very few power points and the ladies doing the catering need it for the urn! However, we got there. And then the Lay Ministers began to arrive, and arrive, and arrive. I also discovered that there was a Women’s Desk meeting of 40 women at the same time in the small room at the back of the church. And then more Lay Ministers arrived. In all there were 120 of them. This made it almost impossible for the catering ladies to cope, and they had to rush out to the shops and get more food. They had been told our numbers would be around 50. Communication, organisation and returning forms on time is not one of the strengths of this Diocese, or possibly any African Diocese. The Archdeacon, parish priest and churchwarden all let their displeasure be known! The silver lining to this big black cloud was that 120 Ministers wanted to come to be trained.

I was worried that people would not be able to sustain concentration for the four hours in which there was no decent break – I was following orders, not using my instincts on this! I was told that if I gave them a break they would not come back. But I needed a break, let alone them. So, I gave them a (stretchy!) 10-minute break, and they all came back! They really did engage well with what I offered, and in the 2 sections after the break in particular it was evident that the Spirit was moving. I was shattered at the end of it, but hugely satisfied, fulfilled and grateful for all the prayer support.

And then it was Sunday, and even more chaotic. I was up at 6 to write my sermon – having stayed up to watch Liverpool win whichever European Cup it was. I arrived at the church at 7.30 for the 8.00 service so that as usual I could get myself organised. By 7.50 there were 3 of us and 2 servers. A few people began to arrive, but the incense could not be found. But by 8.15 I’d had enough and, as President, insisted we start the service without the incense. We were also minus an Archdeacon who was coming to admit Church Councils to Office. Before I began the service, I explained that the lack of incense was not some strange English aberration, but a practical matter and the roof would not fall in and we could still sing heartily! The Archdeacon did eventually arrive, announcing that he had asked for the service to be at 9 because of the distances involved for some in travel!

Archdeacon Mafisa and a Church Council

Canon Ngidi and members of the Women's Desk

Just (well, in the preceding ¾ hour!) before the Peace two women were admitted as Members of the Boikhutso Women’s Desk and the Church Councils were admitted to Office. One priest was very embarrassed when her Council was called forward and no-one came!

After the Peace all proceeded as usual. We eventually got safely to the end of the service, but only after I’d dragged the Parish Priest to the front. “Do you want me to translate?” he asked. “No” I replied. “We are going to sing ‘Happy Birthday’ to you!!”

The Assistant Priest at Boikhutso is Fr Edward Leboe, one of the younger priests here. If memory serves me right, he is one of the priest’s whose theological training was paid for by Lichfield Diocese. He had a major operation in April to remove a brain tumour, and there has also been bleeding on the brain. He is up and about but very obviously not well. I suppose it is early days, but prayers for him would be good.

Outside the Church Office after the service on Sunday

I eventually got back to Klerksdorp around 4pm, tired but very satisfied with my weekend’s work.

Tuesday to Ascension Day

Sorry everyone – still no new photos.

These have been busy days, but at last +Steve’s Master’s Dissertation has been submitted - he needed help with formatting, checking and various other things. It all got frustrating and frightening at times, as numbering kept changing or disappearing, and on one occasion I thought I had lost half of it! But all’s well that ends well.

I have managed to complete what I need for the training day for Lay Ministers on Saturday. Some preach and do home communions, some do not. They can all lead ‘Divine Worship’, which for most is the Ministry of the Word, though in outstations it may be Morning Prayer. This is the first training they have had, so we are doing three sessions –

1.    What IS a Lay Minister? (not what do they do!). Baptismal vocation.

2.    The Cross and me

3.    Worship and the renewal of commitment to Lay Ministry.

I would really value your prayers for that day. It is in a township near Lichtenburg, just over an hour’s drive from here. I drive there tomorrow, Friday, and stay for two nights. This morning there were 65 coming, which had risen to 75 by the end of the day, and not all the parishes have responded. So goodness knows how many will actually turn up.

Sunday I am presiding and preaching in the township. +Steve just happened to mention in passing that the Archdeacon has moved the swearing-in of Church Council members for several Churches to that service and it could be a large congregation. Oh the joys of African communication!!

Today being Ascension Day I thought we might be going to church tonight, but there is another visitor here, Ngata and Leruo are doing exams and Brenda has not been well. So it was agreed we= would stay at home. The Lectionary does give the option to celebrate it on Sunday. So I was very surprised when +Steve turned up for our normal Morning Prayer time in cassock alb and stole and set up his communion set for a Eucharist. It was the first time we have done that, and very special.

Because I shall be away from home, and very possibly out of Wifi access, there are not likely to be any new posts till Monday. But if there is access I'll try Saturday evening.

Sunday and Monday

Sunday morning saw me up not too early to go to Alabama, the coloured township for Klerksdorp.  As English is the language of the worship it was good to be able to sing the hymns and know exactly what was happening. As it was Anglican Communion Sunday, it was appropriate that I was representing the Church in Wales as well as Lichfield Diocese in the Church of England to the Church of Southern Africa! In some ways though, it was strange as they use Sounds of Living Waters as their hymn books. Took me back to the 1970s!!

Today, Monday, I met up with Magda Brits, the former priest in charge of St Mary’s, Potch. I’ve known her since I did her ordination retreat some years ago. She was the only white priest in the Diocese, tho’ there is one at college now. A year ago her husband died suddenly in the UK. Fortunately she had just arrived to spend some time with him, but then he had a massive heart attack. One year on, and she is still struggling to sort things out and come to terms with what has happened. She has resigned from her post here, and is going to live for now in Pretoria, where most of her family are. However, she also thinks that the UK may be a better place for her, as she has some good friends there, and one of her sons is there. I listened as she poured her heart out and made sure she had my contact details. Do pray for her, for wisdom in the decision making and healing for her in the second year of her bereavement which has only just started. A special prayer on June 1^st would be good – the first anniversary of the funeral.

No photos this time – I will try to do better next post!