Into Africa :: Day XVIII

Sorry I haven’t quite kept up with the blogs over the past couple of days. I’ll write one about our time at Church on the Ridge soon.

We are now sitting at the airport waiting to get on a plane to fly home. It’ll be sad leaving the people here (and the sun!) but hopefully we’ll be back soon.

It’s been a good trip – we’ve learned lots, been encouraged, challenged and have lots to think over and talk to our church about. No doubt blogs will follow along those lines…

Into Africa :: Day XV

I’ve just finished eating a Braai and giving a presentation on our Crowded House values. It’s been a good time. The church here at ‘Church on the Ridge’ is very similar to TCH Sharrow Vale, agreement on our values and trying to think how to effectively plant from a larger church setting with the issue of leaders a familiar refrain.

What was exciting was not so much my presentation (not a surprise!) but the discussions after, people trying to think through the issues, the problems, the dangers, their own setting and work out what it is to be the people of God.

I won’t write too much more about it as it’s hard to relate a conversation that lasted a good hour or two (plus the conversations we’ve been having with Sam Groves in the day), but it has been great to work through these things with this church and I do pray there will be great gospel growth as this church looks to how it can grow and reach those in Maritzburg.

Into Africa :: Day XIII

Today we headed down to the big shopping centre near Durban called the Pavilion. There we met Grant Retief, who leads a church in Durban at Glenwood. Grant was extremely blunt and helpful (the two can happen at the same time!) with regards to possible future work in South Africa that we might be able to be involved in.
We explained to Grant our desire to be somehow involved with church planting and training of leaders cross-culturally in South Africa. Grant was honest in saying that he was sceptical about how useful we could be in this area. Putting aside issues of colonialism, there are huge issues with regard to culture, he explained. Grant feels that it would take someone coming from the outside around 15 years to truly get to grips with what’s going on in South Africa and understand the cultures. He himself is fluent in Xhosa and yet feels he only has a minimal impact cross-culturally.

Into Africa :: Day XII

Today Jo took a bit of a rest and I headed off to ‘Spioen Kop’ – the scene of a bizarre battle in the Anglo-Boer war of 1899-1901 which saw both Winston Churchill and Gandhi on the same battle field. Basically, what happened was that the British were trying to relieve their besieged forces in Ladysmith. They had already failed at one river crossing and so headed further south to try again. They succeeded in crossing the river, but then came across the obsticle of ‘Spioen Kop’ a series of hills upon which the Boer forces had guns.

Into Africa :: Day XI

Today we flew from Cape Town to Durban. We’d like to say a huge thank you to Christiaan and Karen for looking after us while we were in Cape Town. They were so hospitable and we really enjoyed our time with them. Our flight to Durban was uneventful, and we felt the change in heat immediately as we stepped off the plane. Although we have since been told that they are going through a cold patch here in Durban! Durban is very green and beautiful, a tropical climate, and even has a beach named after our beloved city, Sheffield! North of Durban are also many interesting battlefields, ranging from the Zulu wars, to the Boer wars.

We took the longish drive up to Pietermaritzburg with Ant Carr, who we’ll be seeing more of on Friday night when he has us round for a Braai with some of his friends. We had a great chat about what’s going on these parts, what could be happening and the general church situation. It was an encouraging time getting excited about what church could be here in South Africa.

One of the striking things that Ant said was that fear is at the heart of this country, especially among whites. There is fear about crime and safety, jobs and the future. If a middle-aged white man loses his job he is very unlikely to get another one. Many people are emigrating and the recent powercuts have not helped dispell this feeling of doom and gloom. But of course this is exactly what the gospel so powerfully speaks into. Perfect love drives out fear and we know what love truly is! As Ant was saying, there’s a lot of answers being banded around here about how to deal with the issues being faced. But Christians have the answer! Ant wants to see Christians realising this and living it out.

We heard later in the evening of a story of white Christian business men deciding to stay in a much more desperate situation up in Zimbabwe. They have also decided to be distinctly Christian in their approach to business. There is less crime in Zimbabwe, but there is essentially organised crime from the government. So when the government say they’ll tax the businesses 35%, which can be got round by a nicely timed bribe, the business men say they’ll pay the 35% tax. How can they do this? They are trying to survive, but they’ve said if they don’t and they die, well, they’ll be in heaven! They’ve taken seriously what Paul says when he writes that to live is Christ and to die is gain. This has been a challenge to a few of the guys here about the importance of Christians staying in this country and standing firm.

What has been encouraging is to hear about some of the South Africans who are being converted down in London, mainly down at Dundonald in Wimbledon, coming back to South Africa to be involved in the work here. Johan and Tobie, who I wrote about yesterday are two such men. Ant is involved with a smaller group of students whom he is trying to encourage to live out what it means to be God’s people in front of their non-Christian friends.

When we got to Martizburg we met up with Sam Groves. I’ve been talking with Sam for quite a while now, so it was good to finally meet him face to face. Sam filled us in on the situation here a little more. What was interesting while we talked was the similarity between our class-divides in the UK and the race divides here. I was describing how sometimes I feel the fact that I have a degree is a barrier to me reaching people who don’t have a degree as some view me differently as a result. One security guard I was talking to once, just trying to make conversation by asking him about his days in the RAF, deduced that I must be at university because I asked so many questions! Sam pointed out that the way I feel about that divide is exactly how many white South Africans feel in SA. The fact that they are white means that some don’t take them at face value. The answer? It’s got to be long-term and relational, we decided. It needs people committing for the long-haul here, building the relationships, exposing people to relationships that overturn these prejudices. The gospel community, that is radically changed by the barrier defeating death of Jesus has got to be the thing that is displayed for the people here. But to do that churches have got to work hard at putting relationships, built on God’s word, under the Lordship of Christ, at the heart of what it is to be church. I’m sure we’ll be having many more discussions along these lines.

Into Africa :: Day X

Today we headed down to George Whitfield College, which is the official CESA training college based in Muizenburg, Cape Town.

First of all, we met with the principal, David Seccombe, to get some idea of what he knew of that was happening church planting-wise around South Africa.  There were encouragements, but what was clear, as David said, was that there was less happening than there should be.  David was concerned that there was more talk about church-planting than reality.  Evangelism is so central to who we are convictionally, but the reality is we’re not so good at doing it.