Partner Plan Letter - March 2007

56 Daphne Road, Maroelana, Pretoria 0081, South Africa
email: sedibenghouse [at] telkomsa.net

Dear Friends,

They say "the road to hell is paved with good intentions" and we must say this is the story of our lives. We had intended to have a letter to you for Christmas but, before we knew where we were, Christmas was past and it is now almost Easter!

We had a very quiet Christmas; in fact for about a week we only saw each other! Christmas is the annual holidays here and everyone from Pretoria apparently goes to the beach for this holiday. It certainly seemed to us as though the whole of Pretoria had gone to the beach including our family, Susan , Richard and Nicole . So we stayed at home to look after our homes as it is a bad time of the year for break-ins.

On the 29th December we went to the airport to meet our three students on their return from Scotland and what an exciting reunion that was! They all had such a wonderful time and wanted to share their experiences with us, all three talking at the same time – they were so excited and full of their time in Scotland. We would like to take this opportunity to thank all of you who made this possible; you will never know what a wonderful gift this was that you have given our students. All of them have grown so much and have so much more confidence and self appreciation.

The New Year started with a bang here at Sedibeng. We give accommodation priority to our own students then take in from other churches until the house is full. This year there are so many students requiring accommodation and Sandra could have filled the house 3 times over! We are gaining a good reputation because we live as a Christian Community and people have started to hear about us, and parents in particular want their children to study in a secure Christian atmosphere. The maximum number we can take is 20 students sharing and we are so full up! Some have even come to Sandra to say they are quite prepared to take a third student into their room and still pay the same rent which is tempting when we are running on quite a tight budget...?

We made history in our presbytery this year! For the first time we have licensed 3 black students all of whom will be doing their probation in historically white congregations. This has been an exciting change within the presbytery and a indication that transformation is happening even though it is slow, and sometimes we feel that for every 2 steps forward we are taking 4 steps back. It is interesting to note that the 3 students have all spent time in Scotland; they are Wonke Buqa, who was in Falkirk Presbytery 3 years ago, and more recently Lentikile Mashoko and Sisanda Mpafi both of whom were in Scotland at the end of last year. Why we say this is interesting is because we believe that the experience which they all had in Scotland has enabled all of them to be much better prepared for this kind of ministry where they will now be a key factor in the transformation in these historically white congregations.

The experience in Scotland has given all of them the confidence to stand side by side with whites and know that they are not inferior but truly equal; it has given them the knowledge that white people are not all like South Africans and that once you take away the baggage of Apartheid you come face to face with a race that has similar problems and needs not so very different from their black brothers and sisters. All of them believe that God gave them this opportunity so that they can assist their church to move forward and to become a truly transformed and non-racial church.

There have been the usual rounds of presbytery meetings, conferences and academic commitments for Graham - he has spent more time away from home than he has at home these last few months? He is progressing at a rapid rate with his thesis and hopes to complete it very soon which will mean he will graduate in September with his second PhD. He is also Acting Head of Dept. at the moment since his boss Prof Hoffie Hofmeyr has decided to take early retirement and this may become permanent, unfortunately. In the midst of this the university is about to undergo its institutional audit by the government and this makes for a great deal more work in preparation for this in-depth evaluation of its work.

Susan has also completed her studies and she will graduate with Honours in April. She was asked to and registered for a Masters degree in Gender Studies but has decided to withdraw. They would like to have another child but feel that their lives are both too full and busy at the moment, so they have taken stock and decided to cut back on some of their commitments to make more time for family life. We are happy about this as we found from our own experience that this time when your children are small is so precious and you can never relive it again. We have some regrets about being too busy and not being able to remember some of the magic moments of this period in our lives. David is planning to come and visit us in July for a couple of weeks. He generally comes in November but decided to go with some of his friends to New York for a change and we have not half missed his visit to us. We are delighted that he has been able to make it earlier this year.

We would like to take this opportunity to wish you all a very happy Easter; whilst writing this we remember last Easter with Caroline and Joyce when we took them to the former Transkei and all had a wonderfully spiritual experience despite the lack of amenities and home comforts. We are not yet sure where we shall be spending Easter this year – to be honest, a wee break would go down well as we have both been working very hard this first quarter of the year and feel tired.

May we all take this time to remember and reflect what God did for us by giving His Son so that we may all be freed from sin?

We hope you have many blessings this Easter time.

With lots of love,
Sandra and Graham