In this land of contrasts today was a good blend of much of the variety of life in South Africa. After a good breakfast with Revd Sydney Magobotla in Promosa, we set out for the university town of Potchefstroom- home to the University of the North West (UNW)
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| Part of the University of the North West, Potchefstroom |
The wide boulevards and excellent sports facilities of the university itself give the town a feel like a US college. This is the place where the Spanish Football Team stayed in during their World Cup winning visit in 2010; and it’s easy to see why. The place oozes sport, and is full of healthy, young, athletic white students. (There are students from the black community, but not that many a present). Sydney & I visited a science exhibition, and later the Univerity Botanical Gardens (narrowly missing a heavy shower in the rain forest greenhouse!). The young male receptionist at the science exhibition was keen to shake my hand as a “real English person” ( him having seen a premiership football match the night before). I assured him I wasn’t Steve Gerrard!
We headed for the new shopping Mall and printed out photos for church members we had visited on Monday. Over lunch, we compared issues in our two countries and the churches within them. We ended up agreeing that in both settings, church members should consider giving (a tenth of income) rather than relying on fundraising and that a pressing need was to help those who attend church move on in their faith to become committed disciples of Jesus.
Also drawing young people into a real faith was a need in both our churches.
Also drawing young people into a real faith was a need in both our churches.
The theory is easy: the practical is less simple to roll out!
We headed for the place which Sydney had talked about yesterday, from which he and his family had been forcibly moved. It had been a community of self-built homes of black, coloured and Indian people- living in a mixed and supportive community. But when a “X” was painted on the wall or door of the house, you had a week to move your furniture, before the walls were knocked in. The new “locations” were separate for the different racial groups- and the houses smaller, regardless of the size of the family.
We pulled in to visit Ikageng, the township built for the black community… with over 500,000 residents and met his assistant priest, Joel (or Opa as he is more generally called)
I thanked Sydney for taking me round an area that is so rich and painful in memories for him. Back at his home, over a glass of home made ginger beer [courtesy of his wife Trudi] he told me, with some emotion, about the other things that he and his family, and countless others had put up with under apartheid. I asked a stupid but pressing question… “How did you keep going?” He replied, “We just knew that one day we would overcome.”
We pulled in to visit Ikageng, the township built for the black community… with over 500,000 residents and met his assistant priest, Joel (or Opa as he is more generally called)
I thanked Sydney for taking me round an area that is so rich and painful in memories for him. Back at his home, over a glass of home made ginger beer [courtesy of his wife Trudi] he told me, with some emotion, about the other things that he and his family, and countless others had put up with under apartheid. I asked a stupid but pressing question… “How did you keep going?” He replied, “We just knew that one day we would overcome.”
Throughout the day Sydney was wearing his Diocese of Matlosane T shirt. On the back read the words… “Live together in peace” Somehow, this did not seem a bland strapline- but something that Father Sydney, as leader of the church was walking as an example of.
Often we say, “forgive and forget.” But some things have been so life changing that we cannot forget, and we shouldn’t. However, Sydney is showing me, that it is possible to forgive, even when we do not forget. He told me of how the way in which Nelson Mandela handled his release from prison set the tone for the manner of so many in the nation. As if to say, “there is another way.” The church here of all denominations, is in small ways and big, seeking to live out the peace which Christ offers us and played a major roll in steering a peaceful way through the changes of the 1990s. It still has that roll to play in the reshaping of this nation in the years to come.
I heard how many of the premium high schools in Potchefstroom now have good numbers of children from the townships. In time, they will perhaps become the university students of the future, and maybe there will be more equality in the educated sector of society here.
In the meantime, Father Sydney and the church he serves, live out the hope, peace and patience for a better future. I admire him and those like him, for this. They choose to live out what they believe… that it will be better one day, and that gives them enough for today.
Often we say, “forgive and forget.” But some things have been so life changing that we cannot forget, and we shouldn’t. However, Sydney is showing me, that it is possible to forgive, even when we do not forget. He told me of how the way in which Nelson Mandela handled his release from prison set the tone for the manner of so many in the nation. As if to say, “there is another way.” The church here of all denominations, is in small ways and big, seeking to live out the peace which Christ offers us and played a major roll in steering a peaceful way through the changes of the 1990s. It still has that roll to play in the reshaping of this nation in the years to come.
I heard how many of the premium high schools in Potchefstroom now have good numbers of children from the townships. In time, they will perhaps become the university students of the future, and maybe there will be more equality in the educated sector of society here.
In the meantime, Father Sydney and the church he serves, live out the hope, peace and patience for a better future. I admire him and those like him, for this. They choose to live out what they believe… that it will be better one day, and that gives them enough for today.
Lord give (them and) us today our daily bread- and help us to share what we have with those in greater need.
Richard
......we just knew that one day we would overcome.....
ReplyDeleteThanks Richard for taking us into this world through Father Sydney.
I want to see the T shirt!