19-01-2010
A locally supported partnership of churches and individuals in Scotland
with those involved in ministry and mission in South Africa
with those involved in ministry and mission in South Africa
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Dear Friends,
As usual we are once again late with our letter to you!
We got back to South Africa near the end of February this year and, before we knew where we were, Easter was upon us! We actually spent Easter in Zimbabwe as Graham had to do a tour of the Presbytery of Zimbabwe as part of his Moderatorial duties.
We travelled to Zimbabwe on 1st April and toured the country for almost 3 weeks.
It was a wonderful experience for us; we met all sorts of people, were treated with so much care and generosity and received the most generous hospitality from a people who have so little for themselves. It was a humbling experience for us and a time where we felt we continually came face-to-face with God in so many of the situations we found ourselves in.
In some of the areas we visited, the congregations had never had a visit from a Moderator and people were so grateful that we had come to be with them in this time of crisis in their country.
One of the most memorable and funny experiences we had was when we went to Mutare and were told that we would visit the white congregation in town and that there were 4 small black congregations out of town and “would we visit all 4 of them?” Of course we agreed and were told it would be informal; there would be no services and we would just have a chat with people.
So, when we arrived at the first black congregation at 10am, we found hundreds of people waiting for us inside the church. After some investigation it appeared that all the 4 congregations had got together in one place for worship!
Many people wanted their children to be baptised by the Moderator, new Communicants wanted to be admitted by the Moderator and the whole congregation wanted Communion celebrated by the Moderator after he had preached to them! So Graham baptised over 50 babies, admitted and baptised 72 adults, preached and celebrated Holy Communion – and all without his service book or notes! (His students would never have got away with this!) He was never more grateful for his long experience working in black congregations.
Most of the services he conducted included baptisms and, by the end the 3 weeks, he felt as though he had baptised most of the baby population of Zimbabwe!
We returned to South Africa very elated but also very tired.
There were, and still are, many commitments awaiting our return from Zimbabwe. Graham has hardly been at home for the whole of this month. He has twice been to the Transkei, once to bury a friend who was a retired minister of our church, Rev. Ntsikelelo Katiya.
He has had to spend a great deal of the week in Johannesburg attending meetings of the various committees that the Moderator serves on.
Sandra has also had her share of the work as well. She has to attend all the functions with Graham and this has meant that we have not had a free weekend this year so far, nor do we have time off during the week. She has also been to several HIV/AIDS meetings that were postponed until her return from the UK.
The results of this have been exciting because we now have an AIDS office in one of our churches in the centre of Pretoria. This means that anyone can drop in at any time for help, material, advice about where to go for counselling and any other AIDS-related query. We have volunteers who will staff the office daily from our local congregations.
She also completed a Pastoral Counselling training course which enables her to counsel people with, or who may have, AIDS. She has also been involved in a couple of 'awareness workshops' which have taken place within the church.
Perhaps the most exciting news of all is that 2 nurses, one of whom has experience of working in an AIDS hospice in Scotland, from one of our partner congregations in Alva, have offered to come to South Africa for the month of September to do home-based care training with people in our congregations. The people of Alva said that they were so inspired by our deputation meeting with them, they just got together and raised the funds for this project.
When I told our local Women's Fellowship, they were so moved to know that people in Scotland care so much for their problems here in South Africa. We are so excited about this, because we believe that this is the meaning of mission: people getting together alongside each other and sharing their gifts and faith in a very practical way.
Soon we are off to Cape Town for 4 days. We have been invited to participate in the 175th-year celebrations of the denomination's oldest church, St. Andrew's, where Graham will give a lecture and preach. This will also give us an opportunity to meet with some of our students who are studying at Stellenbosch University and some members of the faculty. We are hoping that the programme is not too hectic as we also have friends that live in Cape Town and Stellenbosch and would love to spend some time with them.
When we get back, Graham only has a few days before he sets off for Kenya for an All-Africa Council of Churches heads of churches meeting to discuss strategies for dealing with the HIV/AIDS crisis. This will last until 11th June, and then on the 12th June we both set off for another Presbytery tour of the church's two presbyteries in Zambia. This will be for two and a half weeks.
When Graham is in Kenya, Sandra will be completing another training course on Community Care for children orphaned by HIV/AIDS. Sometimes we feel that we are drowning a bit with all the extra commitments and trying to get through our normal workload as well.
We are longing for September when the General Assembly meets and we will be relieved of the Moderatorship. We feel certain that, when we get the time to reflect on this term of office, we will appreciate it for the privilege and wonderful experience we have had. At the moment, though, we just feel weary for a lot of the time, yet excited as each new event approaches.
The other exciting news we have is that the Ministry Committee has found a house to purchase for a 'House of Studies' for our students. This was one of the projects that Sandra was given to drive by the Ministry Committee and we are all very excited by the prospect of purchasing this property. It has accommodation for 20 people as well as a dining room, sitting room and a TV room. There are 2 offices, and most of the bedrooms have en-suite bathrooms.
The house was formerly a guest house not far from the university and the people who own it are very deeply committed Christians and have offered it to the Church at a very reasonable cost. They have included all the furnishings, linen, crockery, etc. which means that we can move our students in after the winter holidays in July. This will save the Ministry Committee quite a lot on accommodation expenses as the university residences were very nice but very costly.
Thanks to the trustees of the estate of someone in Scotland (who had spent some time at the Federal Theological Seminary in SA in the 1960's) who left money to be used for education in Africa. This has made it possible for the church to take this step towards improving the preparation of those in training for the ministry.
On our family front we also have wonderful news; our daughter Susan got engaged on her birthday last month, and she and Richard plan to marry at Easter next year.
We are delighted about this and she is marrying a very nice South African young man. His father is also a minister and his parents are also involved in mission. We will be sorry that Nicole, our granddaughter, will be moving out of our home, but she will continue to live in South Africa so we will still enjoy the pleasure of seeing her grow.
We are sorry that this not reached you in time for Easter but hope that you nevertheless enjoy reading about our work and experiences.
We were able to assist many projects in Zimbabwe, such as being able to send seeds from South Africa because none were available there and there is very little fruit and vegetables in the country, thanks to the many generous donations given to us from our partner congregations. For this we would like to thank you all very much on behalf of those who have received some very practical help, and from us for enabling us to be even more effective in our work.
We also wish to thank you for all the prayer support; without this we would be unable to continue, and we ask that you continue to pray for us.
We wish that you may have a good summer with lots of sunshine.
With lots of love
Sandra and Graham
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