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!

Saturday

I think everyone here got up later than intended, except Ngata. She had to be at the collection point for her Drummies competition at 6.30!

After the Diseko traditional Saturday cooked breakfast, Brenda and I set out for the Diocesan Centre where the Diocesan Youth Fellowship were holding a Mothers’ Day celebration for all the ladies in the Diocese. The Church keeps Mothering Sunday on the traditional Sunday in Lent, but the secular event was on 12^th May. So this was a bit delayed. I was the only white person there and it was all in Setswana. But as it started with a Eucharist I had a fair idea what was going on. It was the first time I have ever been beside Brenda to receive Communion, and it was very special for that. I was greeted by name by so many people that I really did feel a part of what was going on. After a breakfast of banana, orange and African porridge I decided to leave and try to find Ngata’s competition.

Ngata’s large group was on last, so I came home first and returned to see a few groups before hers. Flags and batons were flying everywhere, most were caught but not all. The girls marched, moved and threw in time to very loud music and the cheers of their supporters in the crowd, each group of supporters moving out when their job was done to let the next group in. All this took place in the open air, to the back drop of a rapidly setting sun. The prizegiving followed, no doubt in the dark!

Tomorrow I'm in Alabama, which was originally the coloured township for Klerksdorp, so the language is English. That will be a nice change! It's on the other side of the N12 to Jouberton, so easy to find. Today has been Africa Day, not that you would have noticed, and tomorrow is Anglican Communion Sunday, so fitting that I am here.

Tuesday - Friday

Ruth at work in the office and dressed for the cold 

Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday were working days ie I was hard at work on my computer working out what to do on the day for Lay Ministers. Wednesday afternoon I went into Klerksdorp town to visit Archdeacon Pooe, and as always, found myself going the wrong way up one of the many one way streets. I get very confused in the centre of town!!  The Archdeacon is in charge of Lay Ministers Training so it was good to talk with him. But this is the first of such trainings and his expectations of the day were that “the visiting Canon would decide what to do”!! Not a lot of help. So I explained what I was thinking and he was very happy, as was +Steve when I eventually got to tell him on Thursday.

Friday was a day out to Christiana in the very south of the Diocese. There used to be a small congregation here, but when one couple, Christine and Dirk de Beer, moved away it became unviable. However there is still the church building to be considered, and it is currently rented out to another denomination with a small congregation. The building is in reasonably good order  and a small amount of work will see it right. It is well maintained inside too. Recently the Diocese discovered that there is another building which was the rectory, and is now rented out and run as a restaurant. Linda, the elderly lady and very capable lady who represents the church there, needed help and advice. So + Steve, Ruth, Rob Trautman – a business man and Diocesan registrar – and I all went down. This personal contact was very important. The discussion was at times very heated, but ended in better understanding between everyone and Linda knowing that she has support from people she has met. Our time together ended with a very good meal at Lilly's.

Friday ended with a Braai in honour of Ngata’s 15^th birthday on Saturday. When I first came she had just been born and was a very sick little girl. Now she is a fine young woman, who will spend her birthday at a Drummies competition. Pictures of that, I hope, will follow.

Sunday 19th and Monday 20th

Sunday

Thanks to the satellite version of Google maps I made Khuma safely and easily. I met Solly Mbele, the Rector, for the first time. (The front of his chasuble has a picture of a woman!)  He spent most of last year in hospital, but seems to be well now. There was a good number in church, and I would guess about a third of them were young people. It was good to be able to sing the hymns too – Setswana hymns with well known Easter tunes. Afterwards there was a meal in the Mission House with Solly and his family. Also there, was a lady whose husband had worked for the local gold mine and lived in one of their houses. When the mine closed they lost their home. However they managed to get a plot of land in Khuma on which to build a shack. Now they have built a lovely brick built home on that land and she have bought another and built a centre for children. Now she wants to change its use and make it a place for elderly people. A formidable lady who has eyes for what her community needs.

Later, I handed over the few jumpers I've brought this time - few not because the knitters were less generous, but because Emirates have cut their baggage allowance by 5 kg! The jumpers I brought had already been knitted and been in store for a while.

Monday

After a short time in the office this morning, +Steve and I set off for Koster to visit a retired priest, John Montsho, and his wife Bertha who is in hospital. One of the big changes that +Steve has made happen is health insurance for the stipendiary clergy, where there was none before. This currently costs the Diocese R100,000.00 a month. But once they retire so does the insurance. So Bertha is in a government hospital. Here treatment and food is free, but only the essentials are given. So if it’s cold – as it is at the moment, especially on these winter nights – extra blankets etc have to come from home. Having spent years as a relief Chaplain in UK hospitals I couldn’t help but notice the difference – in cleanliness, decoration, space, security. We had to sign in to the hospital, the walls needed a coat of paint, curtains needed repair and washing. But Bertha has recovered from the condition that took her in there and hopes to be out on Wednesday. +Steve invited me to pray for her and John, which I willingly did. But what an eye opener. How fortunate we are in the UK.

2019 Visit

It’s Saturday lunchtime and I’m having a quiet day at the Bishop’s House. He and Brenda have gone to part of a funeral for friends of theirs some three hour drive away and Ngata is out at Drummies. So Leruo and I have the house to ourselves and I am making the most of the quiet to get ready for tomorrow.

I arrived safely on Thursday after a journey marred by screaming babies on the first plane, and by my first ever check by customs at OR Tambo airport. I did however discover how to get alcohol bought at a Duty Free shop in England through the security check in Dubai. Knowing how much Brenda likes Amarula, a South African form of cream liquer, I couldn’t resist buying her a bottle of Strawberries and Cream Baileys, especially after I tasted a sample. English summer in a bottle which is only being made until the end of June.

Friday I was here alone too, having had a long sleep. I sewed up a jumper that I’d knitted for a child and sorted out readings for services I shall be doing, especially for the Diocesan Council on June 8^th. The Council is similar to our Diocesan Synod, but made up of all clergy and church wardens. It always begins with a Eucharist at which there is a homily. I am to preach and preside on this occasion. The Province is beginning to take Safeguarding seriously, and +Steve has invited the Provincial Safeguarding Officer to come and address the Council. So I wanted to find readings to fit the theme of the day, which of course meant thinking about the content of the homily.

Sunday, tomorrow, I am to preach and preside at Khuma, which is a township not far from Klerksdorp. I know which roads lead to Khuma, but finding the church might be another matter! I did a day training for those in the early years of ordination some years ago and know what it looks like, and that it is on a corner. But there are quite a few of those!

Plans for my time here include a day training for Lay Ministers at Boikhutso and the Sunday service there. My final Sunday will be at the Cathedral and then Matlwang. Not quite sure about the other Sunday. There is also work to be done in the Office on the Diocesan website. I shan’t be bored!

I am told that driving has become less safe here. So methinks I need to take extra care as I drive around, trying to change gear in the automatic car and putting the wipers on to turn right or left!!