Catching up

It's hard to believe the World Cup is nearly over... which means my time in South Africa is nearly over as well. Here are some pictures of what I've been up to over the past few weeks.

World Cup Opening Match
I went with some friends to a public viewing area at Giants Stadium in Soshanguve to take in the Opening Ceremonies and the opening game against Mexico.

It was amazing to be in the midst of tens of thousands of loyal fans to watch the first goal of the Cup scored by Bafana Bafana... even though the game ended up being a draw.

Paraguay vs. New Zealand
Sarah and I got tickets for one of the World Cup group matches and took several of our friends from Soshanguve on a road trip to see Paraguay play against New Zealand. It was a no-scoring draw, sadly, but we still had a blast watching World Cup soccer live and in person!

Me, Pretty, Lucky, Emily, Alex and Solomon

Kids' Photo Class Field Trip
Sarah took her photography class kids on a field trip to Joburg, to visit the Market Photo Workshop and the Joburg Art Gallery. She needed another driver, so I got to tag along for the day!

Sarah and me with the moms who came along for the day, and Sarah's translator for her photo class (also big sister to one of the kids). We took this picture with all the adults, and realized it doubles as a picture of our women's prayer/Bible study group. :)

Goodbye at Granny's
On Sunday, I had to say goodbye to many good friends in Soshanguve. Sarah and I had a goodbye party at Granny's home with the family as well as some other friends from Sosh. It was a great time of being together, sharing gifts and memories, and letting the family know how much they have meant to me during the past 3 1/2 years. I will miss all of them so much!

Me and Precious, Emily's middle daughter. Since I first met her in February 2007, Precious has been the little girl who singles me out whenever I'm in Sosh--to play ball, to dance, to do my hair. I'll really miss her.

Sarah and me with the women of Granny's family: Granny, her daughters, and granddaughters (and a great-grandson)

In between the above, I've been finishing up my weekly prayer & Bible study with women in Soshanguve and Art of Soul every couple weeks (we had a goodbye Monday night but I forgot to take pictures)... and now I'm in the midst of taking care of final details, thank you notes & goodbye gifts, and the packing will happen all too soon. I'm gonna miss this place.

Baking and ministry and life

I headed out to Soshanguve yesterday to visit my friend Emily—one of Granny’s daughters. Emily has a very entrepreneurial spirit and has dreamed for a long time of starting her own business—to provide for her family and to bring jobs and opportunities to others in her community. For the past six weeks, Rob & Laura Sturgess (from London) have been staying at Pangani, while looking into many different business opportunities around Pretoria for Enterprise International. EI is another division of CRM—they start up and manage for-profit businesses that help fund ministries as well as offer job opportunities for people in the community. An opportunity that is now becoming a reality is the just-about-to-be-opened “Wholesome Bakery” in Soshanguve. This bakery is at Emily’s house. I can’t even express how exciting this is for her! Today, Emily and the other women will receive their certificates for completing their training as baking students. The bakery will officially open next week—in its own new tin shack at the front of Emily’s yard—but neighbors are already stopping by Emily’s house to buy bread, scones, Chelsea buns, and other yummy baked goods.

Yvonne, Christinah, Rob, me, Emily, and Laura

















When I visited yesterday, the Sturgesses were finishing up a meeting with Victor, who’s been training Emily and several local women. They also held job interviews with several of the women while I hung out with the family. Emily talked through more details with Rob and Laura, and I watched a couple Olympic events with Christinah (Emily’s sister) and Pretty (Emily’s oldest daughter).

A little later, I gave Christinah a lift home to Granny’s house, with Pretty coming along so she could pick up her two younger sisters. I told Emily I’d be back to say goodbye and to buy some of her bread and cakes. I visited a bit with Granny and the family, before heading back to Emily’s to buy some baked goods. I said I was the bakery taxi, and in true taxi fashion, we crammed as many people into the car as possible. Annah, her niece Winnie, Winnie’s baby Matseho, and Pretty and her two sisters. Two of the kids looked at us forlornly as I turned the car around in the dirt road in front of Granny’s… so Annah called them over and in climbed Tshegofatso and Nthabiseng, bringing the total number of people in the car up to 9. Four adults, four kids, and one baby. I am constantly amazed at how many people can and will cram into my car when we’re driving across Sosh. It’s really kind of awesome.

Just one of the 50kg sacks of flour currently in Emily's living room

















After dropping everyone off at their respective homes once again, I was off to my own home, carrying baked goods in the back seat and watching another amazing African sunset out my window.

Sometimes it’s hard to describe ministry here. Life and work and ministry are categories that blur together. Am I doing ministry when I visit Granny’s family and hang out? Or am I visiting friends? When I have a conversation with my roommate about our common struggles in our new roles as NC staff, is that ministry? Is it ministry when one of the apprentices comes over to my house for tea? Or am I just being a friend? I was thinking about this on my ride home last night, and was reminded of a quote from John Hayes’ book Submerge: “Your ministry is not your life; your life should be your ministry.” There’s more context to it, but that distinction has been very helpful. When I start seeing life as ministry, the categories may blur a bit more, but it helps me to stop analyzing whether what I’m doing is ministry or not—and instead let the ministry flow through all of life, through who I am.

Leading a conversation in Church Square during the recent Road Trip

















Some exciting things that have been going on around here over the past couple months:
-We planned for and hosted a group of 8 for a 2-week Road Trip
-We attended the Institute for Urban Ministry’s conference on bringing hope in the city
-Throughout July, we practiced a “Simplicity Month” in which we were challenged to live on half our disposable income
-We’re in the process of discerning how to use the money we saved during July
-We’ve grown more connected to and burdened for the Zimbabwean refugees living in a local shelter, which is soon to be closed down (please pray for housing for our friends!)
-I’ve started helping to rework some of our curriculum & helping coordinate assignments for the Reeds, interns this year
-Sarah and I finally got a kitchen table & chairs, so when we have people over for a meal, we don’t have to sit on the floor (not that most people mind)
-Our community hosted many guests throughout July, from the Sturgess family with EI, to a Zimbabwean pastor named Xoli who’s on CRM Africa’s board. There was one Friday evening (our usual community dinner and worship night) where we had people visiting from four different divisions of CRM, as well as the Road Trip group, our local friends, and our core NC community. God is beginning and building all kinds of new work here in South Africa, and it’s exciting to be here in the midst of it!

Things coming up:
- We start our Imagining Posture on Monday, and these next seven weeks will be an exciting time for our apprentices as they dream and imagine with God about what might be next for them. The heart of the Imagining Posture is the Life Compass curriculum, which is a pretty intense three weeks of looking back at what has brought us to where we are, and made us who we are; looking more deeply at our values, talents, and gifts; and looking ahead to what all those things might add up to for our future vision. This was a very powerful time for me last year—I’m excited to see this year’s group of apprentices engage the material and begin to move into a deeper vision and calling. Please be in prayer for both apprentices and staff over the next few weeks during this exciting process!
-Next weekend, I’ll be attending a 2-day training and learning more about the teaching philosophy/method that NC uses in our curriculum
-I’ll be leading an evening book discussion group again this posture—please pray for those who will attend, that we’ll have good conversation and connection through reading Alan Hirsch’s book, The Forgotten Ways.

Busy

My problem with writing updates during my first month back in South Africa was that I was doing a lot of reconnecting, readjusting, and getting to know new people. As such, there wasn't a whole lot to talk about, and I was often out of energy and words by the time I got to the blog. Now that I've been back for six weeks, suddenly I find myself with lots to talk about, but little time in which to say it.

I feel like I've been just as bad about communicating directly with people. Today I was reminded of a friend back home and thought how I need to write them a postcard. I now realize that if I'd sent a postcard for every time I'd thought of and missed someone, just about all of you would have multiple postcards by now. I'm still trying to figure out some sort of a rhythm for communicating with friends outside of South Africa. So in the interests of doing something productive along this line, I'm attempting a scattered and completely non-comprehensive update in addition to the short glimpses through pictures that are below.

A New Place

I'm moving on Thursday! Sarah arrived on May 31st, and in the intervening time I've dragged her around in search of necessary things like beds and sheets and pillows and towels. (You wouldn't think it would take as long as it has.) This afternoon, we spent too many hours in a huge "Mr. Price Home" store. In spite of the fact that I like to think of the local Mr. Price clothing store as my South African Old Navy, this afternoon I came to the unfortunate realization that not everything is cheaper in South Africa. At least it didn't feel that way as I was contemplating duvet covers and sorely missing a local Target.

Book Discussions

Last week, I had my first evening book discussion. Arthur asked me to put together an evening reading group to discuss some of the books we're reading together as a community this year. Our community book discussions are on Friday mornings... which isn't the best time for people who have "real" jobs to join us. =) Arthur gave me a whole list of people who were interested in reading the current book, N.T. Wright's Simply Christian, but I haven't had a lot of responses. It was just two of us last week, but this Wednesday, there should be three. I enjoyed last week, and I'm looking forward to these times to have some good talks about important things, and in the process to get better acquainted with others in our broader Pretoria North community.

Staff Retreat

Over the weekend, the seven NCSA staff headed out of town for a retreat. I posted some pictures below, but I'll say a bit more here. This weekend felt like home for me, and I think that's primarily because of the team that I'm journeying with. It was wonderful to get to know the staff last year during my apprenticeship, and it's an even greater privilege to grow deeper in my friendships with each of them now that I'm on the staff side of things. The weekend was spent just hanging out together, making a ton of pottery and relaxing and enjoying being together. There weren't hugely deep and life-changing conversations over our three days away, but for me it was a rich time of being with friends. We had a good conversation with our hosts over breakfast on Sunday, when they asked a little more about what we do and what NieuCommunities is about. As various others on the team talked about why we do what we do, it was an awesome reminder of how excited I am to be part of this team and to play a small part in what NieuCommunities is doing here in South Africa.

Salvation and Help

During this morning's conversation, we talked about salvation. We were asked to create a picture of salvation--an image that captures the idea for us. I think I expended all my creative energies making pottery over the weekend, because I just didn't have it in me to attempt a mediocre drawing given my limited art skills. As I thought about what to draw (and how to create an image that I would be happy with), I reflected on the weekend just past and some of my frustration with the pottery-making.

See, I don't like not being able to do things right. I also don't like to ask for help. But when I finally do accept help (offering me help can sometimes be a perilous undertaking in itself), there is nothing more frustrating to me than when others just take over and do it for me. Because I want to do it myself. All of these traits are problematic when it comes to salvation. I can't do it right. I do need help. And, I need someone to do it for me. So somehow I found it very appropriate to share my image with the group by explaining this while holding up the blank piece of paper upon which I was unable to draw the image I wanted to convey: a hand extended, offering the help I need. If only I would swallow my pride, acknowledge my mediocre efforts, and take hold of the hand that will accomplish what I need. What's completes this image for me is that the capable hand of God still lets me be a part of things.