One of the biggest lessons we’ve learned over the last week is how wonderfully small and interconnected the world is. It’s so amazing to discover God’s kingdom this way.
The moment we walked into Pangani Nieu Communities in Pretoria, we immediately met Alycia, a beautiful, gregarious woman from the States. After less than 5 minutes of conversation, we found out that she works with 13th Floor, a performing arts ministry based here in Pretoria that we’re already connected with through Karien Murray.
Similarly, our old friend Amy Wilson connected us with her friend Kevin Thomas about trying to meet while he traveled through South Africa, but we had no idea that we’d cross paths so soon. We met here at Nieu Communities the night we arrived (Tuesday), but we didn’t make put it all together until on Wednesday morning.
Then, Saturday morning, we went with our new friend Dayna to the bus station to pick up her old friend, Bell, who came to Pretoria for a vacation from her job at a Bible College in Jeffery's Bay. It didn’t take us long to make a connection with her, too. She graduated from Gordon College with Natalie Burns—an old friend from First Church of Christ in Wethersfield, who also shared an art class with Hope in high school.
It really is a small world after all… And, believe it or not, we’ve had more experiences of the same nature!
Kevin Thomas spent a week with Greg Oefinger in Paarl (near Cape Town) that we’re already planning to connect with thanks to our friend Brittany, who we met at Ministry of Hope in Malawi.
Our new friend/ministry colleague Hein Reyneke got married at the house of Cois, who we already connected with through Rodney Seals a month ago in Johannesburg and hope to meet with while in the Cape Town area.
A former participant of the Pretoria Nieu Communities, named Betsy, serves with the Turks in Madagascar, and the Turks are PC-USA missionaries that we are hoping to visit thanks to our previous connection through the Dimmocks (missionaries from Montreat Presbyterian, now serving in Lesotho after 15 years in Malawi).
These names may not mean anything to you, but my point is that it's more like 3 degrees of separation within the ministry world.
__________________________
Now we're back in South Africa, a 1st-world country with frequently seen McDonalds & KFCs, more consistent electricity, and Sudafed for my head cold. Cecile, Andries and Anelia Louw graciously opened their home to us again. In our brief visit, we connected with
SAAWE, met new people, reconnected with Mutodi, Leslee, & Mutodi's family, ran much needed errands, made dinner for the Louw's, and Hope even fit in sanding & painting a rocking chair and shelf for their new baby's room. (Marisje is due at the end of August and could come any day. We hope to meet her before we leave the continent.)
Saakie Fourie, with SAAWE, not only gave us a ride to Pretoria but he also made possible a meeting with Hein Reyneke, the coordinator of the southern Africa region for
Kids Games,
SCAS, and "
Ubabalo 2010"… After our meeting over brunch on Tuesday, we spent Thursday afternoon with Hein and got a short orientation on these ministries and to get some guidance on our upcoming visit to Cape Town. Hein reminds me of Shawn Stewart in that he has so much energy and gift of vision for kingdom work with youth. Kids Games is my type of ministry, using games to share the Gospel with youth. I won’t give you a full overview but you can check out the website through the link. I highly recommend anyone who uses recreation in youth work to register with them and use the invaluable, free resources they provide!
I can’t express how thankful I am for the connection to
Nieu Communities through Amy & Johnny Wilson! Definitely check out their website. Anyone who wants to get a taste of missions in the context of an intentional, Christian community would benefit from spending a year at one of the 3 Nieu Communities sights (Pretoria, Vancouver, or Glasgow). We have been blessed to participate in 2 women’s gatherings (dinner & birthday celebration), an incredible fellowship meal, and many wonderful conversations with progressive Christians seeking a different perspective.
On Wednesday we learned about
Tshwane Leadership Foundation, which is the umbrella over the Pretoria Community Ministries who are doing incredible, holistic, urban work. TLF strives to “strengthen the unfolding movement of churches, communities and programmes with capacity, resource development, advocacy and policy work, communication and marketing, and spiritual nurture.” We met with Kathrin --- for over an hour to try to grasp an understanding of this movement and it’s history. We were very thankful for her taking time to meet with us considering the huge, annual project unfolding this next week called “
Festival of the Clowns.” We wish we could stay here to check out all the events and participate in the social justice workshops but alas we are catching a bus down to Pietermaritzburg tomorrow. She arranged a tour of the ministry sites for us with a humorous, outgoing, Malawian staff member, Eric. It was moving to visit the AIDS hospice house, the boarding house for young women trying to get out of prostitution, and free day care and homework club for urban youth who would otherwise be on the streets or alone at home throughout the day.
On Friday we ate lunch with Colin Honiball from
13th Floor and his colleague Ritich. We learned about the unique ministry of 13th Floor, the history, their current work here in South Africa and in the US, and the vision for the UK and Mozambique. 13th Floor has a distinctive way to minister to the youth culture through arts and performance by thinking outside the box, an issue most churches are challenged by.
After lunch we joined Dayna Curtis in a trip to Soshanguve, a township of over 3 million. She introduced us to GoGo’s (grandmother’s) family who Dayna had ministered with during her year participating in Nieu Communities in 2005. Dayna recently facilitated a mission trip with a group of non-Christian’s from Los Angeles… quite a unique adventure.
Our time in the north part of South Africa comes to an end for now. We ended this segment of travel by meeting up with Mark Walkup, an old family friend who has been working in Harare, Zimbabwe but visits Pretoria for a work conference. He has a refreshing perspective and some incredible stories as Zimbabwe is in a state of chaos which is something few can relate to.
The moment we walked into Pangani Nieu Communities in Pretoria, we immediately met Alycia, a beautiful, gregarious woman from the States. After less than 5 minutes of conversation, we found out that she works with 13th Floor, a performing arts ministry based here in Pretoria that we’re already connected with through Karien Murray.
Similarly, our old friend Amy Wilson connected us with her friend Kevin Thomas about trying to meet while he traveled through South Africa, but we had no idea that we’d cross paths so soon. We met here at Nieu Communities the night we arrived (Tuesday), but we didn’t make put it all together until on Wednesday morning.
Then, Saturday morning, we went with our new friend Dayna to the bus station to pick up her old friend, Bell, who came to Pretoria for a vacation from her job at a Bible College in Jeffery's Bay. It didn’t take us long to make a connection with her, too. She graduated from Gordon College with Natalie Burns—an old friend from First Church of Christ in Wethersfield, who also shared an art class with Hope in high school.
It really is a small world after all… And, believe it or not, we’ve had more experiences of the same nature!
Kevin Thomas spent a week with Greg Oefinger in Paarl (near Cape Town) that we’re already planning to connect with thanks to our friend Brittany, who we met at Ministry of Hope in Malawi.
Our new friend/ministry colleague Hein Reyneke got married at the house of Cois, who we already connected with through Rodney Seals a month ago in Johannesburg and hope to meet with while in the Cape Town area.
A former participant of the Pretoria Nieu Communities, named Betsy, serves with the Turks in Madagascar, and the Turks are PC-USA missionaries that we are hoping to visit thanks to our previous connection through the Dimmocks (missionaries from Montreat Presbyterian, now serving in Lesotho after 15 years in Malawi).
These names may not mean anything to you, but my point is that it's more like 3 degrees of separation within the ministry world.
__________________________
Now we're back in South Africa, a 1st-world country with frequently seen McDonalds & KFCs, more consistent electricity, and Sudafed for my head cold. Cecile, Andries and Anelia Louw graciously opened their home to us again. In our brief visit, we connected with SAAWE, met new people, reconnected with Mutodi, Leslee, & Mutodi's family, ran much needed errands, made dinner for the Louw's, and Hope even fit in sanding & painting a rocking chair and shelf for their new baby's room. (Marisje is due at the end of August and could come any day. We hope to meet her before we leave the continent.)
Saakie Fourie, with SAAWE, not only gave us a ride to Pretoria but he also made possible a meeting with Hein Reyneke, the coordinator of the southern Africa region for Kids Games, SCAS, and "Ubabalo 2010"… After our meeting over brunch on Tuesday, we spent Thursday afternoon with Hein and got a short orientation on these ministries and to get some guidance on our upcoming visit to Cape Town. Hein reminds me of Shawn Stewart in that he has so much energy and gift of vision for kingdom work with youth. Kids Games is my type of ministry, using games to share the Gospel with youth. I won’t give you a full overview but you can check out the website through the link. I highly recommend anyone who uses recreation in youth work to register with them and use the invaluable, free resources they provide!
I can’t express how thankful I am for the connection to Nieu Communities through Amy & Johnny Wilson! Definitely check out their website. Anyone who wants to get a taste of missions in the context of an intentional, Christian community would benefit from spending a year at one of the 3 Nieu Communities sights (Pretoria, Vancouver, or Glasgow). We have been blessed to participate in 2 women’s gatherings (dinner & birthday celebration), an incredible fellowship meal, and many wonderful conversations with progressive Christians seeking a different perspective.
On Wednesday we learned about Tshwane Leadership Foundation, which is the umbrella over the Pretoria Community Ministries who are doing incredible, holistic, urban work. TLF strives to “strengthen the unfolding movement of churches, communities and programmes with capacity, resource development, advocacy and policy work, communication and marketing, and spiritual nurture.” We met with Kathrin --- for over an hour to try to grasp an understanding of this movement and it’s history. We were very thankful for her taking time to meet with us considering the huge, annual project unfolding this next week called “Festival of the Clowns.” We wish we could stay here to check out all the events and participate in the social justice workshops but alas we are catching a bus down to Pietermaritzburg tomorrow. She arranged a tour of the ministry sites for us with a humorous, outgoing, Malawian staff member, Eric. It was moving to visit the AIDS hospice house, the boarding house for young women trying to get out of prostitution, and free day care and homework club for urban youth who would otherwise be on the streets or alone at home throughout the day.
On Friday we ate lunch with Colin Honiball from 13th Floor and his colleague Ritich. We learned about the unique ministry of 13th Floor, the history, their current work here in South Africa and in the US, and the vision for the UK and Mozambique. 13th Floor has a distinctive way to minister to the youth culture through arts and performance by thinking outside the box, an issue most churches are challenged by.
After lunch we joined Dayna Curtis in a trip to Soshanguve, a township of over 3 million. She introduced us to GoGo’s (grandmother’s) family who Dayna had ministered with during her year participating in Nieu Communities in 2005. Dayna recently facilitated a mission trip with a group of non-Christian’s from Los Angeles… quite a unique adventure.
Our time in the north part of South Africa comes to an end for now. We ended this segment of travel by meeting up with Mark Walkup, an old family friend who has been working in Harare, Zimbabwe but visits Pretoria for a work conference. He has a refreshing perspective and some incredible stories as Zimbabwe is in a state of chaos which is something few can relate to.
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