Partner Plan Letter - OCTOBER 2008

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

Dear Friends,

Sorry for the delay in this letter – we wanted to wait until after the students had their Valedictory Service, which was yesterday, so that we could share with you this occasion.

It was as usual a very moving and well attended service. I am sure that we may have explained it before but for those of you who do not know about it, it is a service where we enact Jesus washing the feet of His disciples, but in our case it is the lecturers who wash the feet of the students who have completed and will be going for probation at the beginning of next year. One of those students is Sibusiso Zungu whom many of you will be meeting in December when he comes to Scotland and will be visiting Stirling Presbytery for four weeks. The service was very lively. Professor Masango (one of our church tutors with Graham) celebrated communion and Graham did the foot washing this year. There were about 400 people present and the service was held in St Andrews Church which is the mother church in Pretoria and also the congregation where Graham has been Interim Moderator for most of this year.

We have had a very hectic time with visitors this last week or so. Last Sunday we were invited to the Mamelodi congregation where they wanted to give us a farewell service and gift of thanks for Graham being their Interim Moderator last year up until Wonke Buqa (many of you may remember him from his visit a few years ago?) became their minister at the beginning of this year. Graham also preached at this service. The theme was preparation for the end of year exams. It was a lovely service and the church was packed. We can see that Wonke is doing a great job there and we felt so proud that he was one of Graham’s students. The Sunday school had prepared a musical item for us and a wee boy of about 10 years old stepped forward on his own initiative and said to the congregation he wanted to teach us a chorus and proceeded to do so! He was so full of confidence and spirit and we sang the chorus with him joyfully. Then the congregation presented us with a Kenwood Chef – we have a reputation for hospitality and so they felt that this would assist us to “keep up the good work!”

A friend asked to speak to Sandra after the service but Sandra was asked to address the Manyano and the friend said it was OK she would speak to her after that. We thought this meant at the church but when we got home we found her and her family and guests at the house waiting for us. They were 10 all together and since it was lunch time we felt that we had to offer some lunch. We didn’t have enough of anything for 10 but we managed to put together a selection of pizza, fish, BBQ ribs, lasagne and a variety of vegetables and salads – it was enough to feed all 10 of us! We had a similar experience at the weekend where we had invited 6 people to dinner which became 10 by the Friday of the occasion. Just as we were sitting at the table and about to eat 4 others arrived unexpectedly and we ended up 14 for dinner! It was a bit of a scramble getting the chairs and cutlery and dishes added but we had a lovely evening once everyone was settled. We have learned over the years that you have to be prepared for this in Africa. With black South Africans it is the custom that when people come to visit whether it be unexpectedly or invited you give them a meal because the chances are they have travelled far or for a long time as transport is not all that readily available for them.

We also have one of Graham's PhD students, Rev Kevin King, staying with us from Colorado in the USA. He has just completed his PhD and has come to defend his thesis. It is his first time in SA so we have taken him to see some of the sights of Pretoria and we took him to the Valedictory Service yesterday. As we find with all of our guests he was just overwhelmed by the singing and dancing in the church. He couldn’t get over how people just started singing spontaneously especially if there was any lull or change in the service. He will be around for a few more days so we hope to give him as many African experiences as we can on his short stay.

A few weeks ago we went to a fund raising concert of opera music. Two of the singers had won scholarships for Manchester University and because the scholarships only paid for their fees they need extra money for accommodation, food etc. One of the singers is the niece of a friend of ours and is a wonderful singer. It was held in the cultural museum here in Pretoria and we had some of the best in opera here singing with them to raise funds. It was a wonderful evening and as well as being entertained we got a beautiful 3 course dinner. We are not sure if they made a great deal of money as it seemed to us to be good value for the price we paid for the tickets?

In the midst of all this activity, Graham was appointed to the chair of Church History and Church Polity at the university from 1st August this year. He had already been doing the job for 18 months so his work hasn’t changed a great deal – he just gets busier and busier. The process of preparing new curricula for our under-graduate degrees is well under way. Towards this end he and his colleague Johan van der Merwe will begin a one year Post-Graduate Certificate in Higher Education (which is a teaching qualification for universities) in February. We have deadlines to meet as the new courses will be introduced in 2010 which will only be made busier by South Africa hosting the World Cup. The country is already getting geared up for this and already there is a premium on accommodation this far ahead. There are road works everywhere and new sports stadiums are being built throughout the country.

On the family news, Graham will be in Scotland from the 6th November until the 4th December and hopes to see as many of you as he possibly can in the 4 weeks. Susan and Richard have moved into their new house at last. They have waited so patiently for this as the people who sold it to them kept shifting the date of entry! David was one of the causalities of XL airlines collapse but has managed to get the offer of another job with Thomas Cook we are relieved to say. This has been very traumatic for him as he loved his job with XL and of course the financial implications because all of their staff lost wages and there was no compensation. Michael has settled into the Royal household – couldn’t resist saying that he has been appointed the driver for Prince Andrew who also serves in the British Army and is resides in Windsor Castle for 4 days and Buckingham Palace for the remainder of the week! Our 2 grand children as always bring us great joy and are doing well in school and generally. If I could share a comment from Nicole our grand daughter, she was explaining why her other grandmother could not use her swimming pool because the cover on it was too heavy to shift. She said that it would need 10 strong people to move the cover and she started to list who could all help including her granddad then she said “but not you grandma you are too old!” out of the mouths of babes...

On that note we would like to wish you all a very blessed Christmas and all that you would desire for the New Year.

We send this with lots of love,
Sandra and Graham