some images of the conference

From Moses

to Jesus, the pictures Catherine painted were a constant reminder of God's big picture

And all those puppets should enable some good visual story telling to take place all round the diocese!!

Much of the conference took place in small groups and the team were just regretful they couldn't go round and collect ideas too!!

But seeing the delegates get stuck in to preparing and running the Family Celebration was just great.

And the children thought so too!!

The atmosphere of worship that evening was so special despite the power cut. Who needs electricity when God is present!!

And all too soon the end and the presentation of certificates and distribution of resources

Time to go home

We leave today after a very enjoyable and successful trip. By God's grace a group of individual childrens workers, teachers, clergy and clergy wives (plus administrator) have become a wonderfully supportive and effective team demonstrated on Sunday morning when, at short notice, we replaced the sermon at St Mary's Koster with a mix of singing, sharing bible stories and presenting the timeline of the Bible and how it continues in our lives.Everyone contributed. Jo assisted Father Tom with the communion and it was a good act of worship lasting three and a half hours in total. We were provided with a lovely meal afterwards before returning to Mogro Lodge mid afternoon for some relaxation in a lovely setting near Rustenburg. We had our own version of the feeding of the 5000 as we gathered together the food and drink we had left - and there was still some left over. As we talked, we realised the benefit of sharing as childrens workers too.

On Saturday, the team enjoyed two game drives, one self guided and enjoyed seeing zebra, wildebeest, giraffe, warthogs, rhino and elephant amongst others. With lots of birds too! Lunch in the game reserve and two visits to craft stalls to use the space vacated by resources. Father Tom came to meet us at Rustenburg and escort us to the Lodge and his family and friends brought us alovely meal to eat.

As I write, there is a lovely dawn chorus outside my window. We drive to the Apartheid museum and then the airport today where we will say goodbye to Bishop Steve who has done so much to look after us and make the trip an enjoyable one.

School visits

Since the conference, we have been busy. We went shopping at the new Matlosana mall on Thursday and relaxed with Bishop Steve and our other hosts. Early start on Friday to attend an assembly at 8am in Jouberton township. Over 1000 pupils gathered in thir courtyard praying, singing and dancing in traditional African dress. Even their staff danced for us. We sang and talked to them but spared them our dancing. Sarah W played them a recording from her school and there was an exchange of pupil letters. Every promise of an ongoing relationship. Similarly having driven to Itotsing, and visited a Special School where we gave them puppets to use, Cheryl and the School Head have exchanged email addresses for future contacts.

Thank you Rose, Philip, Brenda and Nita for helping to make this possible. And to the two School Heads, Lydia and Josephine.

Father Sam and Loretta from St Peter's Itotsing richly entertained us with cake and drinks before we left and Father Sam appeared like an angel when after 20 km driving, we were abot to take a wrong turning. Our GPS having stopped working, we received the alternative God Protection Service. As we did later when stopped by traffic police for exceeding the speed limit.

Long drive up to Pilanesburg arriving just in time to get some fish and chips before the shops and takeaways shut. Although, only by taking a wrong turn!

Early to bed to be ready for Game drive the next day.

Conference finished

Thank you, oh thank you, that all through history you are faithful! The words of our theme song are so appropriate. God has been faithful to us as we have served him and given us strength for each long day. The 65 delegates have blessed us as we bless them. The team will never forget this experience. Speaking of the team, I could not imagine that we could have a team to match the one 3 years ago. But they have been equally good and supportive. We are so grateful to Nita and her team for laying the foundations which we have built on. This time, the delegates only needed some prompts to plan a whole family celebration for 30 children incorporating drama, music, craft, games and prayer. It was wonderful to see them grow in confidence.

We have learnt together about Daniel, the woman at the well and Jesus (from Acts 2). Thanks to our fundraising, we have been able to give lots of resources to help each parish. Incidentally,  we understated the number of churches - it was actually 34 churches represented.

We have taken lots of photos and videos and sound recordings to share but it is too difficult at present to load them so they will be added when we are back in  the UK.

We are now tidying up after delegates leave and will go for some retail therapy! On Friday we hope to visit two schools and then drive north to Pilanesberg game reserve. Over the weekend we hope to do some game drives, visit craft fairs and go to church at Koster which is not a coffee shop!

Thank you to everyone who supported us with your interest, gifts and prayers. You have helped us to make a difference. Please continue to pray for us as we relax and travel for safety and good navigation.

Sunday School Conference Underway

The Sunday School Conference started on Monday. There are 64 delegates from all round the diocese.  24 of the 40 parishes have sent delegates and over 40 delegates had arrived by the time registration started at 2pm.  Some had travelled 6 hours to get here. On Monday we introduced the theme of 'who was and is and is to come' and taught them our theme song of 'all through history' which they learnt quickly and enthusiastically. We studied No ah together and showed the delegates ideas on teaching Noah to children. Today we have focused on Moses. The delegates are having a whale of a time, enjoying it and learning lots and the team have risen to the challenge magnificently.

We have managed to cope with a power cut just as we were starting, and today there is no water. There have been occasional small earth tremors too.

We have heard some wonderful testimonies of perseverance and faithfulness by the Sunday School teachers.

The team are enjoying a brief break before the next sessions when we teach them other skills and look at how to teach David.

Church

Catherine writes: Church this morning in Jouberton. We (Bishop's family, Chris, Chenda, Marcus and I) left at 7.30am for the service which started at 8am. Great to be part of a large African congregation. Most of the service was in Setswana but we understood the gist of it. Great singing and dancing. We went out to meet the Sunday School who were meeting in an outbuilding with chairs but no equipment: books, toys, resources etc. We taught them a song and they sang to us. there's was much more tuneful. The surrounding area was quite shocking to me really with very poor housing, mainly shacks. Lots of stalls selling things. However about 80% of the population in the township go to one church or anotheer. The service finished at 11am.

Marcus writes: We taught their children to sing 'My God is so big' and 'We want to see Jesus lifted high' which went down well and it was great to hear the children sing with such enthusiasm. It was also good to hear the songs they sing and join in with their actions. Chenda used her 'change bag' which captivated the children and they were transfixed as she explained God's salvation plan through Jesus to them using the bag.

 

arrived safely

The team have arrived safely, met up with Bishop Steve, collected the hire car, and driven to Klerksdorp via lunch at John Dory in Potsch. After a good nights sleep,we  have visited Klerksdorp museum to learn the history of the area and done a big resources shop at PicknPay. The checkout lady had never seen such an unusual shopping basket containing dozens of scissors, pens, exercise books etc. The team are now running through the conference programme to check everyone is prepared and has the resources they need.

As usual, wonderful hospitality from Bishop Steve, Brenda and several hosts in the area. Tomorrow we are going to different churches with our hosts.

One day to go!

Really excited about going out to Matlosane tomorrow and all we have to give and receive.
Also looking forward to making new friends we have not yet met! Sarah Witcombe

Two days to go

The Sunday School Training Team will be leaving Lichfield for Matlosane in just two days time. Final preparations are being made by team members. The conference programme is being printed and sessions prepared. We are hopeful that we will be able to spend some time in the local schools too.