From Chris and Chenda

Hi, we are looking forward to flying out with the Sunday School team on Thursday and meeting the folk in Matlosane for the first time. It is 17 years since we last visited South Africa (Pietersburg) so we are pleased to be returning. We have been busy preparing for the trip but are taking time out today to celebrate our wedding anniversary. Unfortunately it is wet and windy so we haven't gone out but we will have a Chinese meal tonight near our home in Stafford.

Tomorrow, together with Rob and Ruth Hitchens, we will be running an Easter event for children and their families at our local church. 

Less than a week to go ...

In less than a week seven of us will be on our way to Matlosane to lead a training course for the Sunday School teachers of the Diocese. We are all very excited, especially those who never been farther than Guernsey!

'We' are Chris and Chenda Nuttall, Libby Leech, Rob and Ruth Hitchens, Clare Spooner and Nita Edwards. This is Nita's sixth visit to the Diocese, but it's a new experience for every one else. We fly out on Thursday 12th April, arriving in Jo'burg at 09.15 the next day. We have a weekend to acclimatise, familiarise and  - can't think of another -ise to mean getting ready! - and a weekend in the homes of people from the Diocese. The conference itself begins at 2pm on Monday 16th April, and we are expecting around 60 participants.
Our second weekend in the Diocese will be spent with different hosts, enabling us to experience Sunday Schools at work in their own settings. After that it's a couple of days of fun - at Pilanesburg Game Park and the Apartheid museum before we fly home on Tuesday 24th April.

It will be a hectic two weeks - and then its back to work on Thursday 26th.

Please pray for the team from Lichfield:

·         for our health, stamina and safety:
·         and that we will be sensitive to the culture and expressions of faith in Matlosane.

And for the delegates from Matlosane

·         that they will be open to and inspired by new ideas and ways of doing things:
·         and that they will be given vision and endurance to stick with it for the years ahead.

Our final days in Matlosane… Monday 12 March 2012

On our last Sunday with Bishop Steve and his family we shared a “farewell and thank you”  meal together.  We agreed how our time with them in the diocese had gone quickly and that there was still so much that we hadn’t seen.  We have some sense now of just how large the diocese is and the scale of travel involved for all those who are ministering, especially in the many rural areas.

Bishop Steve, his wife Brenda with Letlotlo,
Leruo and Gnata, with Ivy their helper 

On Monday 12^th we rose with the family to say goodbye to them … Brenda off to work as Senior Environmental Co-ordinator at a gold mine, and Letlotlo, Leruo and Gnata off to school.  By 7.05am they were all gone.  We loaded up the car and said a big thank you to Ivy who is the housekeeper/family friend/helper for the Diseko family… she was always kind and so willing to welcome and help us…even though our limited Tswana meant that we couldn’t always say thank you very well.

Bishop Steve with admin staff from the
Matlosane Diocesan office.  Ruth (left) and Mable

We then joined Bishop Steve in a final visit to the diocesan office, where we were shown the plans for a heritage site to be built on the ground where Archbishop Desmond Tutu was born.  We met the diocesan office staff, Sonia, Ruth and Mabel  and Bishop Steve prayed for us, for a safe journey, as we left.  We were each given a Matlosane Diocese badge, which we all put on.  Andrew and Sam were especially pleased as it was a bit like a “Blue Peter Badge” …. I had no idea how helpful the badge was to prove on the journey as we met a policeman who was an Anglican too and he recognised the badge.

We arrived safely just after 6pm at Mercy Air and have been resting and enjoying some family time together.  We are so grateful for all we have experienced and encountered in our time in Matlosane – all the people we have met, the kindness care and hospitality.   We will not forget them

Thank you for following the blogs and please carry on following for more details about our links with Matlosane.  Especially, you may like to follow a team of people from Lichfield who will be coming to Matlosane after Easter 2012 to help with some training for Sunday School leaders.

Please continue to pray for the church and people in Matlosane as they face ongoing challenges…and they will pray for us too.  It is exciting to think about where and how God may use this partnership.

Thank you and God Bless

Richard, Rose, Andrew and Sam Westwood

Sunday 11 March 2012...St Andrews Boikutso, near Lichtenburg, (in the north of Matlosane Diocese)

Our final Sunday in Matlosane was spent in different places.  Rose, Andrew and Sam went with Bishop Steve and his family to a church in Kanana, near the town of Orkney – about 20 minutes drive.  I had a longer journey, about 1 hour & 20 minutes to the township of Boikutso, just outside Lichtenburg-

These long journeys and early starts are routine for priests here in Matlosane.  Many of them will have several churches (or chapelries) to visit within the same parish ona Sunday.  The parishes are often huge, so the distances covered can be very large.  They would appreciate our prayers for God’s care for them as they travel

I had no idea where the church (also called St Andrews) was and had arranged to meet the priest, Father Joseph Ngiidi at a petrol station at 7.30am.  This all went according to plan.  I was glad to arrive safely as I had travelled on the same road on which, two weeks earlier a guinea fowl had flown into the windscreen and cracked it when we were in Bishop Steve’s car.  I found myself driving astride the centre line and looking closely at the verge for most of my journey… thankfully the journey went well.

Canon Joseph Ngidi (left) & Father Ghoro Mogami -
Ministers ar St Andrews, Boikutso

Inside St Andrews Boikutso

Having been met by Father Joseph, I followed him to the church and we joined those preparing for worship. The sights and sounds and actions were more familiar now – one of the servers lighting charcoal on which to burn the incense which would be generously used in the service at various points.  My role was to preach and as all the readings were in Tswana I had to take it on trust that the readings I had used were the ones which had been heard by the congregation.  (It turned out that they were)… All the same I listened intently to try to see if I could recognise key phrases (like “Jesus”) which I knew should come at the end of the Gospel reading.

I still haven’t got the hang of the skill of preaching with a translator… unlike Rose’s experience of hearing Bishop Steve with his translator -  I don’t think that the person who translated for me knew me well enough to know where I was “going” with my talk.  Nevertheless I trust that the message encouraged them to trust the Lord Jesus and follow him.

I found that the service was reverend and worshipful and even though most of it was in a language I do not speak –I could especially sense that the Lord was present as we gathered to receive bread and wine in Holy Communion and in the beautiful singing which followed.

After the service Father Joseph and his wife Obertina, took me along with Father Ghoro the deacon for the church took me around the township of Boikutso, The community is perhaps one of the most needy I have come across… 2/3 (66%) unemployment and poor housing for many of the residents means that life is heard for lots of people who live here.  There were (as in all the townships) a collection of tin “shacks” put up at the edge of the “formal” housing… But there were more of them here… without electricity or sanitation… I wanted to take a photo, but I was the driver, and anyway it felt like I would have been intruding. 

This must be such a hard place to live in.  But how good that there is a church here…  St Andrews Boikutso gathers members to worship God, even though lie is hard.  There are talks of using the back to the church for and Internet café, which would help township residents get access to jobs which are advertised on the internet. 

The scale of the problem for communities like Boikutso is massive… politicians have make promises to people in these sort of situations – but they are still to deliver on them. 

Whilst we have been in South Africa there have been, in various parts of the nation, protests and demonstrations involving people living without water and electricity and with poor schools for their children.  It is no wonder that they protest – who wouldn’t, when you can see across the road and work daily with people who have these basics, and luxury on top as well. 

We went on to have lunch with the Masia family (with whom Rose and I & Andrew and Sam had stayed earlier) before I returned to Klerksdorp.  Our conversation over the meal covered the distance which South Africa has come.  Father Ngidi told me of the harsh way he personally had been treated under the apartheid era… “And yet,” he said, “here we are!”  We agreed that it was by God’s mercy that South Africa had not descended into civil war.  It has certainly come a long way…. But there are still such a lot of things to put right, injustices to correct and attitudes to change. 

In praying for South Africa, perhaps we can pray “Lord have mercy” and do the same for the UK too.  We do not know what God having mercy on these lands on their people will look like, or when he will answer that prayer… but we can be certain that His mercy is a good thing to pray for.

Richard

What we believe... Rose... Sunday 11 March 2012

Today I went to St Monica’s in Kanana, a township of Orkney, near to Klerksdorp. I went with Andrew and Sam, the Bishop and his family. The service was mainly in Tswana, but also some English and some Xhosa. The music seemed to have an ‘African’ rhythm and arrangement with a lead singer and group responses.

I was fascinated to watch how Bishop Steve and the interpreter worked together to communicate the message to the congregation; when he spoke in Tswana, she spoke Xhosa, when he spoke English, she spoke Tswana and when he spoke Xhosa, she spoke in Tswana. They switched languages within the same sentence, moving fluidly from one to the other. The whole thing seemed to be organic; the two speakers weaving their speech together. At times, as the Bishop increased the volume and speed of his speech, as for example, when he was emphasising a point, the interpreter would raise her voice too. Sometimes they were both speaking at the same time, overlapping the stream of words. I asked him afterwards if interpreters were selected because they had a particular gift with language. He said that this particular interpreter was lay reader in the church and therefore was a preacher herself; she knew where Bishop Steve was ‘going’ in his sermon and believed passionately in what he was saying. It was therefore easier for her to help him to communicate this to the listeners.

I couldn’t help thinking about my job as a Speech and Language Therapist in the UK. We often work with interpreters to communicate with parents, carers and clients. The therapist and the interpreter need to work closely together. This relationship works well if the interpreter knows where the therapist is ‘going’ with his/her questions or observations. Interpreting isn’t just translating the speaker’s words: An effective interpreter knows the purpose of the interaction and helps to communicate this.

I must have had my Speech and Language head on that morning because I also noticed that I could read the Tswana words in the Liturgy and the hymn book (though the longer words and sentences were difficult for me).  The written Tswana matched the spoken Tswana, so I could read it without understanding it. I could match the responses to the familiar English responses being used at St Andrew’s church in Great Wyrley that morning. This was especially evident in the Nicene Creed, when we say what we believe as Anglicans. It struck me that the Anglican Church is a worldwide church whose members all repeat the same creed in whatever language they communicate in. The last part of the service is when the Minister sends the congregation out ‘in the power of the Holy Spirit to be a living sacrifice’. I realised that that is the most important thing for me…..to not only say what I believe with the world church, as in the creed, but then to try to do what I am then called to do as a result of that belief i.e. to offer my soul and body as a living sacrifice.

It has been such a privilege to take part in the worship of so many Churches in this diocese. I am so grateful to our hosts for sharing their lives with us and in particular their journey with Jesus. The Sunday services are different from each other and are different again from the services I take part in at home, but when it comes down to it we can all say the same creed and we are all trying to serve the Lord Jesus in our daily lives.

Rose

Friday 9 March 2012 A visit to the Apartheid Museum

If I’m honest I can’t say that I was looking forward to going to the Apartheid Museum, when Bishop Steve said it would be a possibility.  The effects and legacy of the apartheid era are all around South Africa – and a day looking long and hard into it was always going to be difficult.

We were not allowed to take photos and without giving a room by room, photo by photo account of the museum it is difficult to portray the day… but I will have a go.

Your ticket has printed on it (randomly) either “white” or “ non white”  and you enter the museum, segregated into different routes.  Sam and I were non white, Rose, Bishop Steve and Andrew were all “white.”  Of course its not fair… but this is the very point.

The museum is filled with photos, video and information points about the set up, development, maintenance and opposition to the policy of apartheid.  All within a concrete and caged setting which seemed to reflect the separation and oppression which were so much a part of apartheid.

A key impression for me was the role that Britain and its empire and economic dominance had in some of the early days of white settlement in South Africa.  The rush for gold and diamonds by British prospectors and the aim  big profits The Anglo Boer war established in many in white South African- a mind set which was one of defiance and embattlement – a kind of siege mentality, which carried on into the 1930s when the rising numbers of black citizens began to be mistreated on a more systematic basis.

It is easy to travel through the museum and mock the ridiculous laws which the apartheid governments came up with- almost as if to say… “we would never do that!”  But the seeds of apartheid are things which are common to all cultures, the lust for power and keeping it – and the greed for money and more of it.    When privileges we have enjoyed become threatened in order to bring about a fair and just life for all… many of us respond in a similar tone to the way that the successive apartheid governments did.

Similar sort of arguments and reasoning are often used to prevent fair trade initiatives, or to defend the arms trade, or of land claims for oil, or for world trade tarifs… even down to the sort of tax systems that we think are fair, or…. or… or   … we can fill in the gaps with our own experience.

In saying this I am not saying that all these issues are the same as apartheid… It’s just that, having been to the Apartheid Museum, you cannot help but make the connections between the recent history of humans in South Africa and the ongoing decisions which our governments and multi-national companies make -  So what we vote for and support with our trade has a significance.

There is a hidden warning to us all here, to watch out for the deceitfulness of wealth and greed and to beware of the addictiveness of power and influence… in our private as well as community lives.

The museum also catalogues the resistance movements against apartheid, both in South Africa and elsewhere in the world.  There are moving sections, including a room with hangman’s nooses in listing the names of the many people who died in custody or were executed in the course of their opposition to apartheid… The official causes of death recorded include entries like “fell against chair during interview and died from head injuries” 

The museum journey also leads though the painful journey between 1990 with the release of Nelson Mandela and the end of apartheid and the 1994 elections when South Africa teetered on the brink of civil war.  More people died in this period than in all of the previous era of apartheid.

Yet one comes out of the museum with a sense of hope.  This is because the script of the previous decades has dramatically changed, and since 1994 South Africa has defied the forecasts of doom and, against all the odds found a path of peace.  The truth and reconciliation commission and the role of Archbishop Desmond Tutu is also highlighted.

For me all this speaks of God’s mercy on a whole nation.  Many people worked and prayed for a peaceful way through the troubled times and, whilst the museum makes it clear that there is a long way still to go… a different and good future is possible for South Africa.

We also had time to visit Soweto and see the former homes of Nelson Mandela and Archbishop Desmond Tutu, as well as the Hector Petersen Memorial (a young school boy killed  by police gunfire in 1976 as he returned from school – caught up in school pupil demonstrations against the education reforms which would make Afrikaans the language used for teaching them)

It was a long and tiring day, and Andrew and Sam toggled between shock at the information and being overwhelmed by the volume of it.  But they did well.

If you ever have the chance to go to the apartheid museum… take it.   www.apartheidmuseum.org It gives a sobering and important insight into South African history and into the pitfalls into which all humans and societies can fall.

Richard

Wednesday 7th March 2012- The cost of compassion

Mr Mothupi, Rsoe, Andrew and Sam & Chickens too

Our final day in the area around Delareyville began with a visit to the village of Middleton C, where we went to see Mr Mothupi who has turned his village home and plot into a chicken farm and small holding.  His energy and enthusiasm were infectious as he told us about how he uses his small plot for good.  He buys chicks at one day old, and then feeds them up until they are 5 weeks and then sells them in the local rural villages to people on limited income.  Mr Mothupi has had an eventful life.  He was a freedom fighter during the apartheid era and ended up having to live in exile from South Africa in Uganda… where he picked up farming skills and met his wife.  He was saddened though at the current state of South Africa, how many young people seem content to rely on state grants – or want and easy life, rather than being prepared to work for their income.  There was a sense for me that, though he was proud of his part in the struggle for freedom- that he was said at the way that freedom was being used by some.

We moved on to Sannieshof, about 30km away and met Father Hendrik Mpolokeng one of the priests in the parish of St Justin’s Sannieshof.  He took us, along with Archdeacon Guma to see three different projects which the Anglican Church has, or is developing, links with.

Senior Ladies who sew school uniform

First was a senior citizen’s sewing project… the ladies who gather have a cottage industry which makes school uniform for the local schools.  We were impressed by the design and quality of the clothes they made.  The ladies were proud of their work and the income helps to add something to their state pension.  Once again, there was a note of regret that younger members of the community were not involved , as there was no promise of income – until the clothes were sold- and the work is detailed, skilled and hard- the ladies come every weekday to do their sewing work on high quality machines.

Members of the Boineelo Drop In Home Based Care Team

A few yards around the corner- and we met the Home Based Care Volunteers at Boineelo Drop in Centre.  A  team of 10 unpaid volunteers (men and women) work in partnership with a local clinic to give support to orphaned and vulnerable children, support those affected by HIV/AIDS & other chronic conditions, supporting 305 people. They carry out basic tasks such as cleaning for those who are too sick to help themselves.  The team need equipment such as gloves to be able to do these tasks safely.  Bringing older people to the clinic is a challenge, when there is no wheelchair – sometimes the seniors have to be brought in a wheelbarrow.  A wheelchair is on their wish list. We heard about some situations where vulnerable older people were imposed upon by younger members of the community to give them some of their pension.  Disturbing though this is, we thought of situations in the UK where older people are vulnerable to others in the community.  We realised that social problems which have their root in the selfishness of the human heart, sadly,  will show themselves in every culture.
The team of volunteers are keen to start a community food garden and a hospice… ambitious plans They were encouraged to hear that the Diocese of Matlosane has funds set aside for community gardens and Archdeacon Guma offered to help them work through the process of becoming a Non Profit Organisation (the South African equivalent of a registered charity) so that raising funds could be less hard– we prayed together before we left- asking that God would give them what they needed. 

Emily and Father Hendrik wih the
children who come every day for food

Our final visit was both deeply disturbing and also very moving.  We pulled up outside a regular 4 roomed village house, the home of Emily Badula.  Emily is a primary school teacher- but school had finished by the time we arrived.  There were lots of children in her garden and yard as she came out to meet us.  We heard how since 2006 she has been feeding he vulnerable and neglected children in her neighbourhood, some of whom would otherise go to look for food at the local dump (which we passed on our way to the area).  It started when she noticed children at her school who fainted because of hunger

Emily in her kitchen

– she started giving food to the neediest once a week, from her won pocket- and it has grown to a meal every day for more than 30 children.  Often she does not have money to buy food and will ask, “God, let me get food to feed these children!”… she is known in the local stores who will sometimes give her food when she asks as she is known for the work she does.  Many of the children are at risk and some have been abused by others in the community.  Emily’s work and love stand out as a beacon of light for these children.  All this is remarkable – and Emily was excited and encouraged to see us, welcoming us warmly into her home.  But the strain and of the compassion and need which she feels is great.  When we thanked and encouraged her for the great work of love she does… the cost of her compassion could be seen in her eyes.  She does all this single handed.  Friends have helped, but drop out when there no payment for them.

Father Hendrik and Archdeacon Guma encouraged her to ask the parish council for funding for the next year, and Rose and I encouraged her to believe that this was God’s work and that we would be able to find people who would support the local churches help for her.  Surely this is true religion, to feed orphans and vulnerable children.  We felt sad that though there are many churches of many denominations in the area, that up until now it does not seem that there has been much support for Emily’s costly care.  Perhaps we don’t know the whole story, perhaps there will be more help forthcoming.  Whatever, we were glad that at least now the Anglican Church will be able to encourage its members to be involved in this kind of care- and we are grateful to Father Kendrik and Archdeacon Guma for bringing us to meet Emily and the children she feeds.  We hope thatour promise to Emily to find some support for her in the UK will not be empty… if you are reading this… could you help please?

There was an uncomfortable feeling as we drove away and headed back to Klerksdorp to stay at Bishop Steve’s home… the feeling that we had seen some very sad aspects of South African life today.  South Africa is a beautiful country and it is hard not to love it....Certainly we have met some courageous and faithful people, working at great personal cost – but to only look at these acts of love and courage, would be like focusing on the sticking plaster, when there is a serious wound underneath.

The disturbing questions will not go away – Why are children sometimes treated as a means to a social grant, and then left neglected?  Why do some people prey on vulnerable people?  Why do men act with violence against innocent children?  Why do people (like us) who say we love God, sometimes shy away from the loving acts and involvement to which God calls us. And the questions keep tumbling hrough our minds.  Like all the big questions, the answers to these are not easy or comfortable.  And they are not questions only for people who live in South Africa –

A visit to South Africa holds up a large mirror to our own life and culture… and sometimes what we see is not what we would like to.  I can’t help wondering what I will think and feel about the needs of my own community in Great Wyrley (and the communities I have visited here) when I return home.... And whether  those thoughts and feelings will lead to action.

Compassion is costly.  But if we call ourselves Christians then we are to follow the Lord Jesus and I believe that we will, like Emily in her efforts to feed the children, be given what we need to do the work God calls us to.

Richard