siyahamba

fish first or first fish

2012-01-22T02:29:00.001-08:00

Moses, our second-born son, heard the gospel reading from the lectionary this week in a way that I had never heard it before. He heard the familiar line from Jesus' call of James and John (Mark 1:16-20) not as "I will make you fishers of men", as it has been traditionally rendered, but as "I will make you fish". That is, because of the way in which the New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) renders the line--"I will make you fish for people"--Moses took "fish" not as the verb but as the direct object of the verb "make". In other words, Jesus was not going to make James and John to be fishers of or for people, as the Greek literally has it, but as "fish", presumably to be eaten by "people". "Come after me, and I will make you into fish--food--for people."

Though our son's interpretation is not textually defensible, I find it, on the other hand, theologically primary, of first importance. Indeed, Moses' interpretation implies that the method and the means--how we fish--precedes our desired end--the people for whom we fish. That is not to undermine people; on the contrary, it is precisely to value them above all else--so much so that we ourselves seek to be made by Jesus into something which people might taste and live, food which will actually nourish and not poison people.

I sense, also from my experience in South Africa, that the way in which the church has called people to Jesus has often been out-of-step with the longings of people outside or on the margins of the church to be embraced and loved by God. And that what the church needs in our day is first to be made and remade truly into fish before we begin to fish.

That, in the end, is not only the theologically but also the broader textually appropriate interpretation; Jesus called, taught, and embodied for his disciples the true way of life before he sent them out to "all the world" (Mk 16:15).

-Joe

the Ephesian trajectory

2012-01-16T07:27:00.000-08:00

Today is the third Monday in January, Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, as observed in the United States of America. Marking this day is in my blood; growing up, I used to attend the festivities hosted by Bethel College, North Newton, Kansas, for the wider community in honor of Dr. King. Since living in Africa, the continent of King's ancestors, I've used this day to reflect on the connections between the American story and the South African story, and the place of my own experiences within those larger streams. I do so again today.

King spoke of his dream being "deeply rooted in the American dream", that "America would rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: that 'all men are created equal'". In doing so, King framed his coming world in inclusive terms; "all men"--and today we should say "people"--kept white people in the picture even as it called upon them to open their hearts to the struggle of black people to realize, in the words of the United States' Declaration of Independence, that to which the "all men" are entitled, "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness". South Africa, similarly, speaks of a "non-racial society", or a society that bestows its benefits upon all its inhabitants irrespective of color. These are the visions, if not yet the realities.

A related contribution comes from the field of Christian missiology. Andrew Walls, a leading thinker, has spoken of our time, as a result of the great expansion of the church to the global south and east over the last century, as "the Ephesian moment", or a situation in the life of the church equal in its ethnic diversity to the first-century context in which Paul penned his letter to the Ephesians. The familiar reading from Epiphany has just passed us (6 January) again: "In former generations this mystery was not made known to humankind . . . that is, the Gentiles have become fellow heirs, members of the same body, and sharers in the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel" (Eph 3:5-6). Multiple peoples, multiple cultures, "Jews and Gentiles", each retaining its own distinctiveness, have nevertheless become "one body" by sharing Christ's self-giving love for one another.

My own efforts to articulate the gospel of Jesus Christ resort consistently to the language of Ephesians. As well as "the same body" of which the many are one, Ephesians uses the parallel images of chapters 2 and 4: "the one new human being" (Greek: anthropos) created "in place of the two" (2:15) and "the complete man" (Greek: andre) (Eph 4:13) into whose fullness the members of Christ's body, church, are growing together. Cloaked by the generic translation "maturity" in the New Revised Standard Version, the more literal rendering of 4:13--"the complete man" into whom the church is growing--evokes the similar sounding "one new humanity" of 2:15 and thereby creates an unmistakable association of meanings between the two "persons".

The character of that association is essentially christological; it speaks of Christ who "himself"--alone--"is our peace" (2:14). The goal of the "one new human being" is none other than "the complete man" who is its origin. And that by which he made "the two" one--the peace/forgiveness which he proclaimed/embodied for his enemies on the cross (2:14-16)--is the same means by which the members of his body will come to "the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God, to the complete man, to the measure of the full stature of Christ" (4:13).

Before there is an "Ephesian moment", therefore, there is an "Ephesian trajectory"; the coming together of once-divided and hostile peoples into "one new humanity" flows from the One who satisfied God's perfect love for creation within his flesh. In the South African context, "the Ephesian trajectory" may be found in the beloved Xhosa hymn, "Masibulele kuYesu", "Let us all give thanks to Jesus." Indeed, in the two verses which we most often hear paired together, the second flows quite appropriately from the first. First there is the exhortation to "thank Jesus" (Masibulele kuYesu) because "he died for us" (wasifela), a display of loving "kindness" (izibele) on his part. For our part, in the second verse, we are implored, "black and white" (Abantsundu nabamhlope), to "serve the Lord as one" (Mababulele kunye).

The loving-kindness that was Christ's dying for us is the spirit in which we who belong to his body must relate to one another, and the spirit which the church must embody for the world as it "seeks the peace" of the nations in which it resides (Jer 29:7).

-Joe

The reference to Walls's term comes from "The Ephesian Moment: At a Crossroads in Christian History" In Andrew F. Walls, The Cross-Cultural Process in Christian History (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 2002), 72-81.

retreat 2011-2012

2012-01-10T01:37:00.000-08:00

Not much blogging occurred over the past seven months while we were in the states. But now that we're back in South Africa--and away from most of the people who read our posts--it's time to become a bit more regular.

The boys passed the layovers in the airports on our return journey by filling up their NFL sticker books.

Jesse and Levi checking out one of the three planes that would take us from Chicago to Durban.

We arrived back safely in the country on 28 December. Our colleagues, Karen and Andrew Suderman and their daughter, Samantha, picked us up at the King Shaka International Airport in Durban. After only one day at their home in Pietermaritzburg, we all traveled together to our usual spot over New Year's, Skogheim Christian Retreat Centre, near the coastal town of Port Shepstone. By "we all" I mean our family and the Sudermans, Melanie Quinn, Mennonite Mission Network's "woman in Botswana", and two young women, Hannah Sauder and Joanna Epp, serving for one year in South Africa through Mission Network's Radical Journey program. Absent this year--for the first time since we began our South African sojourn--was the Lindell Detweiler family; we felt the loss (as they have relocated in North America).

Ringing in the New Year with grapetiser (sparkling grape juice), our South African favorite

We had a great Mennonite worker retreat. This year we shared the input among the team. We each told our own personal stories of coming to faith, our spiritual pilgrimages, and read stories of people embarking on journeys in the Bible. Hannah and Joanna were wonderful additions to our team; their insights, participation in all activities, and attention to the children were special blessings for us this year.

worship time

Below is a list of some other highlights of retreat 2011-2012.

the pool
the beach at Mtentweni
playing Settlers of Catan (Isaac and Moses now love this game)
the "first ever MMiSA [Mennonite Ministries in South Africa] heptathlon", including competitions in Dutch Blitz, broom jumping, diving, swimming, and bananagrams
eating a potjkie [POY-key] , a South African meat stew cooked in a three-legged pot, cooked by the Baptist church group which also stays at Skogheim every year over New Year's

Settlers of Catan

if you who are evil

2011-10-07T09:27:00.000-07:00

Within the last several weeks, I’ve been approached by the same ostensibly down-and-out person for help. The first time was right outside my in-laws’ home; the second time, yesterday, was at McDonald’s—two very different places within the same city. I do not believe that the person remembered that I had helped him out earlier, and am therefore all the more curious as to why he picked me out of a crowded restaurant on a Sunday afternoon.

My internal, and possibly external, reaction to this man was one of disgust: why was he asking me again? doesn’t he know he’s already tried his spiel on me? Having seen him now for the second time, I was more suspicious of the truth of his story the first time, and less inclined now to be gracious toward him. Still, in spite of myself, I gave the man what he was asking for: a ten-piece chicken nuggets meal “with barbecue sauce”. He thanked me both at the time and before he left the restaurant, coming back to find me in the playplace area where I was seated near my children.

I thought especially about my reaction to his request; my inhospitable spirit troubled me. And yet, I gave the man precisely that for which he asked. The two side-by-side, both my resistance to and persistence in grace, suddenly spoke to me of Jesus’ words in Matthew 7:11: “If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good things to those who ask him!”

Just as suddenly as these words came to me was the realization that the one who had asked me for food, far from being a nuisance come to take advantage of me, was a messenger of God come to teach me. For if he, swallowing his pride, could ask—and receive—something good from an evil person, why do I not ask the God who “alone is good” (Mk 10:18) for that which I believe God wants to give me and those around me? For so he says: “For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened” (Mt 7:8).

-Joe

on compassion or we are the poor

2011-09-13T12:41:00.000-07:00

This summer, as we have related our experiences in South Africa to North Americans, I sometimes sense a confusion about the people with whom we work in South Africa. For if the people with whom we work in South Africa are among the poorer members of society, why then do they appear in our pictures and reports as they do: wearing suits and ties, using cell phones? The logic, of course, is that these amenities are not within the domain of the poor; thus anyone who has them must not be poor. This may lead to a further line of thinking—if someone is not “really” poor, that someone is not worthy of another’s help.

Last night I watched a television show in which the anchorman expertly exposed a similar logic in the expressed views of popular media pundits. In ruminating on the United States’ budget crisis, these pundits disparaged proposed taxes up to $750 billion as “a drop in the bucket”—of no real consequence—even as they touted, in the name of justice, taxing the poorest Americans whose combined wealth totals only double that same $750 billion. Then, as though he needed a moral argument to support his economic proposals, one pundit insinuated that America’s poor were frauds—since 99% of poor households have refrigerators!

Behind the sentiments in the above examples is an image of the poor person who can neither look like nor have anything in common with the one who himself/herself holds that image of the poor. It’s a sentiment rooted in the lie of our own self-sufficiency, the belief that whatever good we have today is only the result of our own efforts, owing nothing to factors that preceded us in this life. It’s also a lie, I believe, which is usually sustained apart from actual relationships with those whom one perceives as different. For, when one begins to know the other, learning the story of another’s life, compassion—the recognition of the self’s struggle in the other—cannot but arise.

-Joe

what is mission?*

2011-07-19T18:26:00.001-07:00

At the Mennonite Church USA convention last week, we led two seminar sessions for youth on the topic of mission. In each session, after gathering the group’s perceptions of mission, we shared four definitions of or quotes related to mission. They were:

1. “Mission is ministry in the dimension of difference.” This quote, from Titus Presler, an Episcopalian missionary and scholar, implies that mission is a subset of ministry—not that ministry is a subset of mission. In other words, mission is a distinctive form of ministry; though all mission is ministry, not all ministry is mission. And that which makes mission a distinct form of ministry is “the dimension of difference”, or when ministry takes place between people of various categories (ethnic, socio-economic, religious, etc.) of human difference.

(Presler, Titus. “Mission is Ministry in the Dimension of Difference: A Definition for the Twenty-first Century.” In International Bulletin of Missionary Research 34, no. 4 (2010): 195-204.)

2. Before our own presentation, we attended a seminar on ministry in the city led by Joe Manickam and Leonard Dow. Mission, in their definition, exhibits three essential components. 1) Mission involves a crossing of barriers; 2) mission involves a proclamation of the gospel; 3) that proclamation of the gospel is in word and deed.

3. “Only through mission can theology be liberated from its otherwise inevitable cultural bondage.” This quote, from Jonathan J. Bonk, describes the importance of mission in the history of the church. Because mission is ministry across boundaries, an engagement of difference, mission is the means by which the church discovers its unity with others. When people from different backgrounds, with different ways of living, encounter each other, one new way from the two must be established in order for the two to live in peace. Mission, thus, is the process by which each culture’s “absolutes” are relativized in light of the other in order that a law higher than that of either’s respective law may rule the day.

In the biblical story, the decision of the Jerusalem Council (Acts 15) exemplifies this process. The Gentiles, on the one side, did not have to undergo circumcision—the cultural “absolute” of the Jews, the other side—in order to belong to the community of Christ. In other words, the Jewish Christians discovered, through their encounter with the Gentiles, that circumcision did not define identity as the people of God. The Jews in Christ subjected a cherished way of life for the sake of a relationship with the Gentiles in Christ. Yet the Jews were not the only ones who gave up an important tradition for the sake of community; the Gentiles gave up “things polluted by idols”, or everything that was offered as an act of service and devotion to the gods of Greek culture (Acts 15:20). Gentiles forfeited certain cultural patterns in order to belong to the new community toward which they had been drawn by Christ’s love. This is not to say that all things are always equal, in this case, that circumcision as an act of devotion to the one true God of Israel, the God of Jesus Christ, is on a par with acts of devotion to pagan gods. Indeed, Jewish Christians did not give up circumcision as an expression of their faith in the same way that Gentiles had to give up “the polluted things” in order to belong. Jewish Christians continued to circumcise as an expression of their faith. Therefore, what they did not give up was circumcision as an act of devotion to God; they gave up circumcision as a barrier to the true worship of God in community, or the requirement that the participation of Gentiles in the community of Christ was contingent upon their willingness to be circumcised. All this is to say that both Jews and Gentiles, because of Christ, gave up beloved cultural patterns unique to each in order to belong together. And that this process of giving up in order to belong is discovered, in the words of Bonk, “only through mission.”

(Bonk, Jonathan J. “Missions and the Liberation of Theology.” In International Bulletin of Missionary Research 34, no. 4 (2010): 193-194.)

4. “Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness among the people” (Mt 4:23). This summary of Jesus’ ministry, which also serves as an introduction to Jesus’ ministry and teachings in Matthew’s gospel, is a powerful illustration of mission. Within this narrative definition is visible the characteristics of mission discussed in the preceding points. Mission was “ministry in the dimension of difference” or a “crossing of barriers”: Jesus went throughout Galilee, choosing not to be located primarily in the center of his religious tradition (Jerusalem) but in “Galilee of the Gentiles” (Mt 4:15). Even within Galilee, Jesus was not static: he went throughout. And though far from neglecting his own people, the Jews—“teaching in their synagogues”—even ministry to his own was far-reaching, a kind of crossing of boundaries between congregations; Jesus taught in synagogues (plural).

Proclamation, likewise, was essential to the ministry of Jesus. Jesus taught and “proclaimed the good news of the kingdom.” Moreover, that proclamation was in deed as well as word. People were healed “from every disease and sickness.” Jesus’ words confirmed his deeds, and his deeds confirmed his words.**

So here are four “definitions” of mission. What would you add?

-Joe

* The title to this entry has been used before, namely by J. Andrew Kirk, What is Mission?: Theological Explorations. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2000.

** I make this statement with the question in mind of whether “word and deed” is even an appropriate distinction. Was Jesus’ healing activity separate, or of a different order, from his teaching, or did not Jesus often heal precisely by his word? To put it differently, is not the word truly spoken itself the deed? Of course, the reverse is also true; inaudible deeds, done in love, also speak.

American freedom, God’s grace

2011-07-11T13:30:00.001-07:00

The Mennonite Church USA convention opened last week, on the 4th of July, in Pittsburgh, PA. We arrived early in order to meet with the board of Mennonite Mission Network, and so also were given the gift of a free afternoon in the city before the convention began. So we took in that day’s baseball game between the Pirates and the Astros at PNC Park.

It seemed to take forever for the game to begin because—predictably on an independence day at the ballpark—we stood through several displays of American civil religion: a short address on the video board from “old glory”, the flag, reminding us all of how she was there with us throughout our nation’s history; “God Bless America” sung—beautifully—by a woman in the military; finally, the national anthem itself, sung by the choir of an evangelical megachurch.

Even after the game began, we were exposed, between innings, to introductions of soldiers and a video presentation in which the Pirates’ players, one by one, responded that the “best thing about America” was “freedom”—seemingly an American invention. That tandem—soldiers and freedom—reinforced the message that the one was dependent on the other, that soldiers, by their service to America, give freedom to the rest of its citizens.

As an American citizen living abroad and a Christian, I find that message wanting. First, though living outside of its borders has caused me to appreciate the United States in ways inaccessible to me before, it is false that people in other countries are not free. There are certain ways in which I feel more free over there than over here. Second, and most importantly, as a Christian I have been taught that freedom is not a thing contained within borders; it is the gift of God whose “the earth is and the fullness thereof, the world and those who live in it” (Ps 24:1). That confession, made by the Psalmist, was over against the Canaanite religions of ancient Israel’s day, religions whose God was the God of borders. Israel’s God, by contrast, was a God within as well as without, a God who traveled with his people from slavery to freedom, from geography to geography, from Egypt to Canaan. It was by God’s “presence going with [them]” that Moses declared that the people “would be distinct from every people on the face of the earth” (Ex 33:14-16).

Exception-uniqueness-distinction—that which American religion claims is its freedom—is, in biblical religion, an experience of God’s presence rather than a possession of human might. The Christian’s freedom is given by the “God who will fight for us” independently of the soldiers who guard America’s, or any other’s, borders (Ex 14:14). Freedom is by the grace of God’s love and forgiveness and “not by works—so that no one may boast” (Eph 2:9).

Judging by the ease in which “the great congregation” of PNC Park assented to the narrative of American freedom, America has yet to hear “the good news of God’s grace” (Acts 20:24).

-Joe

highlights from our first month back in the states

2011-06-30T09:38:00.001-07:00

Denver. To visit Jacob and Aaron, Anna’s brothers. Shortly after our visit, Aaron got engaged to Kelli Kol, and the wedding is set for November 19—while we’re still around.
Bike-rides with Grandpa in Goshen, Indiana. This included a 26-mile round-trip ride on June 18 on the Pumpkin vine. Isaac and Moses both completed 18 of those 26 miles.
Sawatzky-Gingerich family reunion at Camp Mennoscah, Kansas. We enjoyed playing in the Ninnescah River with my parents’ eleven grandchildren between the ages of 8 and 1.
Family time in Kansas City. On the way from Indiana to Kansas, we had a great time at the College Basketball Experience and Kauffman Stadium for a Royals game.
Sunday, June 19 at Clinton Frame Mennonite Church, rural Goshen, Ind. This was our first official congregational visit of our North American assignment. Next up for us is the Mennonite Church USA convention in Pittsburgh, which marks the beginning of an accelerated speaking schedule for us.
Running into old friends wherever we have been.

Partnership Council 2011 Group Photo

2011-06-08T15:35:00.000-07:00

This is the group that met in Bloemfontein at the beginning of May, reported on here. Thanks to Martin Wiens for the photo.

North American Ministry

2011-05-25T08:14:00.000-07:00

We've just reached another milestone in our missionary career. Yesterday we arrived in the United States for the beginning of our second "North American Ministry", or time away from our host country of South Africa in our sending country. This time around we will be here for seven months, returning to South Africa just after Christmas.

The purpose of this period will be:

1) visits to our supporting congregations throughout Mennonite Church USA (June, July, August)
2) "mission education" at various other events and church visits (October, November, December)
3) spending time with extended family
4) personal renewal

We made lots of arrangements in order to be gone from South Africa for this amount of time. This period will be a good test of whether the work we have been doing over the last five years can continue long into the future. We return to the United States pleased that we were able to make all the necessary arrangements before leaving South Africa. Now we leave the work to others in confidence and in prayer.

In telling people about our plans, one other question kept resurfacing--"What about the boys?" The boys will complete the fall term of school in the states, in Goshen, Indiana.

We hope to see many of you around!

-Joe

Easter and beyond

2011-05-10T00:50:00.001-07:00

After our southern Africa trip, we had only one week at home before setting off on our Easter travels. Taking advantage of the long school break, we spent nearly two weeks in the Northern Cape and Free State, visiting churches and leaders to whom we Mennonites relate in South Africa.

We spent Easter with Grace Community Church (GCC) in Philipstown, and spent the following week visiting members and getting better acquainted with the small town. The big event of the church’s Easter conference was the ordination of a pastor, for which Anna and I were both invited to offer words of encouragement. The lingua franca in Northern Cape is Afrikaans, so, with those people who do not speak English, our best hope of communication is in isiXhosa, the other prominent language in the region.

After Philipstown, we headed 50 km down the road to De Aar. As last August, we enjoyed the hospitality of the Vena family and worshiped with New Beginnings church. Then we, along with two representatives from that congregation, traveled to Bloemfontein (Free State province) for this year’s meeting of the “Partnership Council”. There we met up with representatives from GCC, Breakthru Church International, Bethany Bible School, the Anabaptist Network in South Africa, A Rocha (a Christian environmental organization), and our other North American Mennonite colleagues.

The Partnership Council meeting was very rich. We developed a structure, appointed a Steering Committee, and made some plans to collaborate with one another on some ministry opportunities within the coming year. Ideally, the Partnership Council will function as a network of mutual growth, support, and accountability for partners diverse in experience, background, and theological perspective. Another highlight of the one-day meeting was an opening panel discussion on the meaning of salvation drawing upon the wealth of imagery and texts from the Bible.

-Joe

Southern Africa Trip

2011-04-16T02:49:00.001-07:00

From 30 March-14 April, we were away from our Mthatha home on a tour through the broader southern Africa region. The purpose of the trip was threefold: 1) to visit Melanie Quinn, our colleague with Mennonite Mission Network, serving in Francistown, Botswana; 2) to see the sights of the region, in particular Victoria Falls; 3) to visit Anje and Philip Cassel, workers with Mennonite Central Committee in Macha, Zambia. Since, from Francistown onward, we traveled through Botswana and Zambia with both Melanie and the Lindell Detweiler family, our Network colleagues in South Africa, the trip afforded much quality time together as a team. The pictures below tell the story of the Zambian portion of our journey.

We crossed the border from Botswana to Zambia and back again by ferry. Here our Opel Zafira, which made the more than 5,000 km-round-trip journey without a hitch, boards the pontoon.

The day after arriving in Livingstone, Zambia, we headed for the Falls. Anna, Jesse, Levi, Moses, and Isaac get set to go down one of the trails to view the Falls.

Baboons such as the one below are fixtures near the entrance to the trails at Victoria Falls. They’re obviously used to people and acquiring their food, as these were so aggressive as to climb into the back of our car in search of nourishment (they made off, only briefly, with a bottle of motor oil). We were also concerned for Levi, clutching an apple in the above picture, as the baboons, lurking near but out of view here, would have stolen it right out of his hand.

Victoria Falls, Mosi Oa Tunya, “the smoke that thunders”, themselves. From even this picture one can sense something of the sheer volume of water which plunges into the gorge. We were there in the season when the water is at its highest level.

Our group gets soaked. The trail along the edge leads to several fantastic vantage points of the Falls. Actually, when this close, the Falls are quite hard to see; one looks rather into a blinding wall of white—spray bounding up from the waters’ long fall. In places such as the one above, that mist is a torrential rain.

Another trail leads down to the “boiling pot”, or a treacherous whirlpool of water having made its fall. An intrepid Moses surveys the scene.

From natural wonders to man-made oddities, all taxis in Zambia were this shade of blue.

After Livingstone, we went three hours further inland to Macha, current home of Philip and Anje Cassel and their sons, Everett and John. They live and work on the complex of Macha Mission Hospital, a ministry of the Brethren in Christ (BIC) church in Zambia, a member church of Mennonite World Conference. The BIC church in Zambia dates to 1906, when the efforts of four missionaries, two American women and two Zimbabwean men, led to a church. The Cassels worship in one of the several BIC congregations in the area.

Our two days at the Cassels’ centered around their dining room table, symbol of their most gracious hospitality.

Traveling with four children certainly has its trying moments, but, as so many of our team activities in South Africa, our way was made by the Lindell Detweiler children’s ever-present willingness to play the role of older cousins to our boys. Here Annika carries Jesse on her back.

In addition to the highlights represented by these pictures, we also enjoyed:

finally seeing Melanie in her own environment. Though she has spent every Christmas with us since 2008, we had yet to make it to Francistown. We saw Bopaganang Basha, the youth centre where she works, worshiped at her church, met her friends, and ate delicious Indian cuisine at a local restaurant.
the wildlife along the way. Without even entering a game park, we saw dozens of elephants, giraffes, zebras, warthogs, and more on the stretch between Francistown and Zambia.
Fawlty Towers, the backpackers (low budget accommodation) in Livingstone. It features an expansive courtyard, large swimming pool, even a lounge with satellite television where we were able to watch the NCAA men’s basketball championship (too bad the game itself was total rubbish!).
our first hitchhiking experience. 20 km outside of Nata, Botswana on the return trip, our car ran out of petrol. But friendly assistance got me to and from Nata with a container of gas while Anna, Melanie, and the boys spread a blanket and read from the Chronicles of Narnia by the side of the road.
the friendly and helpful border employees in Botswana and Zambia, not so much the aggressive hawkers and moneychangers on the Zambian side.
two days in Johannesburg on the way home. We met up with another set of colleagues, the Suderman family, who is staying there for several weeks as part of their work for the Anabaptist Network. The highlight was a day at Gold Reef City, an amusement park. This was just what the doctor ordered for our boys after several long days in the car.

We’d been anticipating this trip from the beginning of the year, and are grateful that we made it to Zambia and back to Mthatha safely with many blessings in between.

-Joe

definition of “Anabaptist”

2011-03-28T06:01:00.001-07:00

A colleague recently asked me to write “an historical definition” (450-500 words) of Anabaptism for a forthcoming newsletter for the Anabaptist Network in South Africa.

I like history a lot, though I think I am too inclined to want to do theological analysis of historical events to truly measure up to the standards of modern historiography. That disclaimer aside, my definition is below.

In order to find a useful definition of “Anabaptist”, let us begin with the name itself. The word “Anabaptist” consists of two parts, “ana” and “baptist”. The first part, “ana” is the Greek prefix meaning “re”. The second part, “baptist”, refers, obviously, to the Christian practice of baptism by which one becomes a member of Christ and his Church. In the sixteenth-century, European context in which it was first coined, the title “Anabaptist” denoted a person who had been “re-baptized”. The title was pejorative; it was the Anabaptists' opponents way of speaking about those whom they said had violated the “one baptism” mandate of the New Testament (Eph 4:5). The name stuck, and today the spiritual descendants of the sixteenth-century Anabaptists gladly embrace it. Yet, originally, the Anabaptists did not believe themselves guilty of re-baptism; they simply denied that their “first” baptism—the sprinkling of water upon a newborn baby's head—was truly Christian.

The first known Anabaptist baptisms took place on 21 January 1525 in Zurich, Switzerland, when a group led by Conrad Grebel, George Blaurock, and Felix Manz baptized one another in Manz's home. Their baptism, which has come to be known as “believers' baptism”, stood in contrast to “infant baptism”, the standard practice of the European society known as Christendom, the alliance of power between the church and the state. The meaning, again, lies in the name; the baptism of “believers” signifies those who have put their faith in Christ, not “infants” who, against their wills, have been sprinkled with water. Anabaptist baptism is the baptism of discipleship, of “counting the cost” before one sets off on one's journey after Jesus (Lk 14:27-28). Thus, believers' baptism—along with the type of community (church) it forms—is also often described as “voluntary” and “free”. Consistent with the freedom of their baptism, Anabaptists, in spite of a few notable exceptions, rejected coercion and violence, including participation in military service—for which they were persecuted and martyred.

Just as the early church after the martyrdom of Stephen (Acts 8:1ff.), so persecution “scattered” the Anabaptists; in addition to remaining in their birthplaces of central and western Europe, Anabaptists fled in waves to Russia and the Americas. Later, through the great missionary movement of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, Anabaptism took root in Africa, India, and East Asia. Today, the spiritual descendants of the Anabaptists are on every inhabited continent, with the greatest concentration of believers in Africa. As of 2006, according to the findings of Mennonite World Conference, “a community of Anabaptist-related churches”, there were nearly 1.5 million Mennonites and Brethren in Christ worldwide in 75 countries and over 200 “organized bodies”. Yet wherever people commit themselves to Jesus in a community of “justice, joy, and peace”, there the Anabaptist vision is alive (Rom 14:17).

In drafting this definition, a connection I began to make but had never quite seen before was the “freedom” inherent to “believers’ baptism” with the “nonviolence” characteristic of “believers’ churches”. In other words, though we often reason for nonviolence in terms of Jesus’ example from the gospels (which I still take to be the bedrock), Anabaptist Christians might also make a “theological” case from the wisdom or logic inherent to our (“free”, not “coerced”) baptism.

-Joe

a gift that keeps on giving

2011-03-17T06:01:00.001-07:00

Today during our morning office time, we had an appointment with the Canon (Bethany Bible School rents office space from the Diocese of St. John’s, Anglican Church).

We met to discuss an unexpected fee raise on accommodations for conferences that we had noticed from our last invoice. While the Canon said that the decision was not his to make—that he had to take it to his Executive meeting later this month—he would certainly advocate for us, for our school, to receive a lower rate. He then gave his own testimony about BBS. He said that he used to see the Zionist leaders in the place where he was also serving an Anglican congregation. And, upon noticing over time that the quality of these pastors’ preaching had greatly improved, he commented to them, “I can see that you are getting some new things.” They replied, “Yes, we are going to Bethany.”

So, the Canon said to us, “I have seen the fruits of your labor.” Those are things that we do not always see. Nor did we expect to hear such an affirmation today; we are therefore grateful for this gift that has come our way. So too we are grateful for, to use a phrase which I first heard used of another ministry context involving Mennonites and African Initiated Churches (AICs), the “significant deposit of goodwill” which was made long before we even dreamed of coming to South Africa. That deposit is still there for us.

-Joe

worker care

2011-03-16T10:52:00.000-07:00

Mennonite Mission Network has learned through long experience that the pressures and sometimes isolation of cross cultural work lead to high levels of burn out and other problems. And so they take the health, mental and otherwise, of their workers seriously.

To address these issues they employ a number of "worker care" people. A new initiative has been to take on, as mission workers, a couple who are based in London and travel the world visiting workers and seeing what they need. Wayne and Lois Hochstetler have come to see us twice and have washed dishes, played with our boys, visited ministry sites, met people, talked with us, done more formal counseling, and taken us out to eat. Their experience in pastoring and counseling qualify them for the work. Making them more highly qualified is the fact that that they are easy, warm, and adaptable people. Now they have been all over the world and have seen missionaries dealing with all kinds of situations, experiences which they bring to bear on other situations. In addition, they have been living outside of their home culture themselves.

Lois wrote a list on her blog the other day about the great things about being a missionary. It all feels very true to me, having spent most of my life in cross cultural mission in some way--as a missionary kid and now as a missionary myself. Here is the list.

You get to live in some of the most beautiful parts of the world.
You get to travel.
You get to be (have to be!) self directed.
Your experiences are very varied.
For most, the daily routine is very unstructured, often relaxed.
You get to see so many life experiences from different cultural points of view.
You get a much greater, "zoomed back," world view.
You feel unique.
The great satisfaction, when it happens, of "getting it," be it the language, a cultural moment, a connection with a national.
Kinship with other expatriots.
Although sometimes lonely, you know you are prayed for.
Those moments of supreme grace when there is a sense of being in the presence of, and participating with, a great and compassionate God.
You get to combine all this with a passion for the church, the Kingdom of God and the spiritual wellbeing of people all over the world.

--anna

HIV-AIDS workshop at Bethany Bible School

2011-03-12T03:20:00.001-08:00

When South Africa has been included in international news over the past decade, it has often been for an unfortunate reason: its scourge of HIV-AIDS. The government of Thabo Mbeki (1999-2008), successor to Nelson Mandela as the nation’s second president, was widely condemned for its stance on HIV-AIDS, namely its denial that AIDS was caused by the HIV virus. Just as the government followed a course of misinformation during these years, so many of South Africa’s citizens remain misinformed or uninformed about a disease that affects all of them directly or indirectly.

7-8 years ago, Mavis Tshandu (below), a student-leader of Bethany Bible School and a nurse by trade, led a series of trainings on HIV-AIDS throughout the Transkei (the eastern part of the Eastern Cape Province with Mthatha as its principal city) as part of an off-shoot organization of BBS. That organization no longer functions, but our expansion of BBS’s program with three additional workshops throughout the year has created new opportunities to bring understanding of HIV-AIDS and other social issues affecting South Africa. On 4-5 March, Mavis led the first of these workshops in 2011 for 25 students who had gathered. Of these, only one person had participated in her trainings years ago. Moreover, Mavis reported that the knowledge of HIV-AIDS of those gathered last weekend was next to “nothing”; it seems that the time had definitely come for this workshop.

It was well-received. With an air of surprise and a sense of empowerment, one participant exclaimed, “This workshop was very nice—we are doctors now.” Hyperbole, yes; but also testimony to knowledge—and a measure of power—gained over an otherwise overwhelming burden in the rural communities from which these students come.

-Joe

the urban tortoise

2011-02-28T07:36:00.000-08:00

My mom went fo a wock and she came back with a tortoise. We cave hem

carrots and water.

--Isaac

life and death

2011-02-28T01:23:00.000-08:00

At our Mennonite Ministries in South Africa retreat over the turn of the year, we were privileged to have several sessions with former general secretary of Mennonite Church Canada Jack Suderman. We spent mornings with Jack while he shared biblical insights for mission and discussed these insights in light of situations that we deal with.

Jack shared on the importance of good biblical interpretation. Looking at the story of the wise men who come to visit Jesus, we see the life and death consequences of incorrect biblical interpretation. The wisemen came to Jerusalem following a star that signaled to them the birth of the "King of the Jews". Based on their study they believe that the king of the Jews has to be born in Jerusalem. And so they come to Herod to inquire about the new king. Herod is afraid and threatened and summonses his wise people. His scholars read prophecies of a king to be born and see that such a king must be born in Bethlehem--"geographically close but theologically very far apart" says Jack.

As a result of this exegetical "mistake", King Herod has all the baby boys in Bethlehem killed. The task for us is to at least do no harm through our exegesis.

Over Christmas a woman from our church released her husband to go home to his family for part of the holidays. I don't know what their relationship was like or why she did not accompany him but I do know that when he did not reach home people began to look for him. He was found murdered in town. We attended his funeral several weeks later. Pastor Ntapo was to lead the service and Joe to preach. As is the custom, we gathered in the rondavel before the service for which a tent had been set up. The "mourners" sat on mats on the floor and everyone took turns speaking, singing, and praying. During this session, Joe had been mulling over various texts on which he could preach. As the time for the service to begin drew near, the coffin was brought out from the wall for everyone to see the deceased in flesh one last time. As the murdered man's sons of 12 and 10 circled the coffin it became clear that this was not a situation of comforting the bereaved. This had become a situation in which our primary task was to do what we could to prevent the sons of the murdered man from becoming murderers or being murdered themselves.

So Joe chose to preach on Cain and Abel and to relate the story of that death to Jesus' death as interpreted in Hebrews 12--the blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel. It was a strong message and was received with joy but we didn't know any more than that.

The next day at church we heard more of the story. Pastor Ntapo told us that during the early part of the funeral, which we had not understood, the friends of the deceased had stood to tell the story of the death. In their manner of telling they implicated the widow in his murder. One man had begun wondering aloud why he had been alone in town without his wife and had ended with: "I had better stop there." Malice and ill-will were running high when Joe got up to preach. Pastor Ntapo said: "but that word silenced them. It was a miracle since you didn't even know."

When we arrived in the US for three months in 2008, I was amazed by the quiet peace of Newton and Goshen. Everything looked clean and in order and everyone looked healthy and happy. As we traveled and met old friends and new, we found out how much pain lay behind some of those closed doors, how much had happened internally for people even as their lawns continued to look unharmed.

I am grateful to pastors and others who speak a prophetic word into the lives of people suffering--whether that suffering is upfront and known as it often is here in Mthatha or whether it is hidden and deep as it often is in North America. The word that comes from the Word can reverse the drive toward death and harm, it has the power to heal and bring newness of life.

--anna

the just and the social

2011-02-22T06:37:00.001-08:00

Recent events, which I will not specify, are forcing me to rethink my commitment to the primacy of a social, embodied peace. That is, taking my cues from such texts as Ephesians 2:11-22, I had come to see as all-important the “one new humanity created in place of the two”—“the two” being the different groups of humanity which were “hostile” one to another, but now brought into a relationship of “peace” “through the blood of Christ” and “by the cross, by which he put to death their hostility”. It is this same social “peace” which the apostle exhorts must be “maintained” by “every effort”—and so it should be (Eph 4:3).

The problem, of course, is that many cry, “Peace, peace, when there is no peace” (Jer 6:11, 8:11; 1 Th 5:3). In the name of “unity”, some counsel the simple “forgetting”, the “putting behind” of offenses committed apart from “every effort” being made to rectify such wrongs. Apart from that rectifying, however, the sting of offense remains to pain the body. And though the body, the social peace, may for a time hide its bruises under clothes, that which is hidden eventually consumes from within. There is nothing hidden that will not be revealed (Mk 4:22; 1 Cor 4:5). We either rectify offenses quickly—though not carelessly—or they will deal with us at the appointed time.

Consequently, before the embodiment of peace comes the doing of justice/righteousness. Before there is the “one body” created by the cross, there is “his body” crucified there. Before there is peace, there is “the division” which he came to bring (Lk 12:51). Before the church, the Christ who fills it (Eph 1:23).

To be sure, the justice which precedes the peace is part and parcel of it—that is, in fact, the point. It is precisely in standing up for the “things that make for peace” (Lk 19:42)—true peace—that division comes. Yet stand up we must—and “make every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace” (Eph 4:3).

-Joe

for love of God

2011-02-16T10:31:00.001-08:00

Yesterday we said good-bye to my parents after a wonderful two-week visit to South Africa, their first-ever overseas trip.

At church on the 6th, Pastor Ntapo asked me to introduce my parents with “that song which you love”—Besuka Bamlandela. Translated, it says that certain people “left to follow him/they left their homes to follow him/they carried the cross, going to Golgotha/they left their homes to follow him.”

I do indeed love that song. Early on, I had singled out its melody from a range of choruses and Xhosa hymns. When I learned its meaning, it impressed me even more. The song encapsulates for me both my calling and what I perceive myself to be calling others to: a faith in Jesus that leads even to dying for enemies (the cross), a passion to please God more than human beings, an obedience to an Authority higher than the authorities of “home”—of nation and yes, parents. In other words, the song acknowledges the conflict that often arises between loyalty to God and loyalty to parents, one’s earthly elders.

For that reason, I have sometimes fancied that my missionary identity has much gospel integrity—that because I have so obviously left the home of my birth I have the power to preach to others the allegiance to God over humans; no one can deny that my simple being in a foreign land is a demonstration of that commitment. It also seems true, however, that such a commitment can seem so strange to others—perhaps so distasteful—so as to be scarcely human. Upon seeing my parents, the one “old woman” of the church proclaimed, “Now we know that Joseph is not a street kid”.

The comment was partly tongue-in-cheek, yet it revealed the strong African characteristic of fidelity to one’s elders. The woman was glad to see that I had a living relationship with my parents. For if I did not, was I fully a person?

The comment was also a check on my perception of how others perceive me. Is that which we perceive to be our most faithful witness sometimes an impediment to gaining a hearing for our message? A certain logic, for example, has sometimes told me, along related lines of forsaking family for the gospel, that one could be a more effective missionary freed from the responsibilities of family. Some of the words of the Apostle Paul appear to give credence to such logic (see 1 Cor 7:32ff.) Yet Anna and I have found that our greatest asset in this work has been our marriage and family. In a culture that both values families but suffers much brokenness within them, the greatest witness is a man and woman who go through life together, publicly tend their children, and even sometimes say “no” to ministry opportunities for the sake of family. On occasion the latter example, initially feeling like a failure of ministry, has been received as a witness of faithful love, as an opportunity for the one watching and listening to be convinced of the importance of primary relationships.

For in the end, tending family and following Jesus are not inherently opposed. Marital love can be the source of strength for other relationships. And parental love—that which embraces—can be, ironically, that which sets one on his course away from home—that which releases—to follow Jesus. So it has been for me.

As I interpreted the words of that song to my parents, I realized that it was not simply I who, for love of God, had left home and parents. They, for the same love, had given me up.

-Joe

Tim and Lela Mae Sawatzky bring greetings to the gathering of Bethany Bible School, 4 February 2011.

another school year begins . . .

2011-01-27T06:26:00.001-08:00

for Levi, his first year in pre-school

for Moses, grade R (kindergarten)

and Isaac, grade 2.

The school boys with baby brother Jesse and neighbor Liwa.

globalization comes to Mthatha

2011-01-27T06:01:00.001-08:00

new man, woman new

2011-01-25T03:32:00.001-08:00

Several weeks ago on my scripture blog, I reflected on the story of Judah and Tamar (Gen 38). The story had served as our inductive Bible study at Bethany Bible School last August, and its relevance to elements within South African culture continue to astound me.

Most importantly, for example, the text champions the cause of the widow, Tamar by name, in society. The text is a glowing narrative example of Old Testament law’s, also echoed by the prophets, constant refrain that God is a God for “the orphan, the poor, and the widow”, or society’s most vulnerable members. The story is a glowing testimony to the overwhelming dignity of the Old Testament, a document in general which is still largely derided and misunderstood by many within the Christian community, pastor and layperson alike.

Perhaps my appreciation of the Old Testament generally, and the story of Judah and Tamar in particular, is magnified by my living in a society whose own dark side regularly features contempt for women and widows in particular (Please note here that I refuse to define such treatment as an element of “traditional” or “African” culture; we can point to humane and inhumane treatment of society’s most vulnerable in every human culture throughout time, and thus the choice is ours to define as authentic culture that which is good or that which is evil in any society).

Two examples will suffice:

1. Widows are vulnerable because, as in the story of Judah and Tamar, popular opinion often implicates them in the death of their husbands. I just preached at a funeral for a man who was stabbed to death by tsotsis (young gangsters) over the Christmas holidays. He left behind three children and a widow—a member of our church. Although the widow had nothing to do with her husband’s attack, she, like Tamar following the deaths of Er and Onan, was suspected by the husband’s family of plotting evil against her husband. Recall that, even though the text clearly states that the brothers Er and Onan died for their own sins, because they were evil in the sight of Yahweh, Judah suspects Tamar. Our pastor tells me that such suspicion of widows is all too common. The reality that many marriages are not healthy either gives rise to such suspicions or exacerbates them.

2. And why are marriages difficult? I recently had the privilege of conversing with someone who was privy to a conversation between young people about cultural practices that contribute to the oppression of women in society. At her meeting, the conversation got around to circumcision, which is the initiation here for boys becoming men (about age 18). Although men are not supposed to reveal what they learned at their circumcision schools (what happens there is supposed to remain “secret”), two men disclosed their experiences. One went to a circumcision school in which the initiates were taught how to be men by learning how to respect women. The other went to a school in which initiates were taught that manhood was sealed by sleeping with as many women as possible—especially women whom one “does not like” or find desirable. When asked whether he had followed through on such “wisdom”, the man said “yes” because doing so was the way given for him to become a man. If it is true, according to a recent study, that 75% of men in South Africa have committed violence against women, it is reasonable to assume that the latter school of thought on manhood is the prevailing one. And if these are the men who also marry, woe the women to whom they are married.

If all of this sounds too depressing, there is yet the witness of a better way. For the story of Judah and Tamar reveals, not redemption for Tamar alone, but for Judah, the offending man in her life. His repentance through the word of truth—“she is more in the right than I”—from his prior condemnation of Tamar is hope for a society in need of a “new man.”

-Joe

style and substance

2011-01-21T22:49:00.001-08:00

We have written many times about our little church and the spiritual nourishment we have found there. We met in a tiny cement building. The music was soul-tearingly beautiful and we found a lot of life in a common practice of everyone praying out loud together. While the people raised their voices to God together each could find their own way to come to God. Some could scream and shout, some could cry, some could pray in the silence of their hearts. The emphasis was on no one person or on eloquent words and I could be lost in prayer in a way that I haven't experienced before.

A few weeks before Christmas, the landlord demolished the building with two day's warning. The following week we met in a tent on another piece of land. The church hired a sound system since it was a special end of the year service. The amplifier has to be turned all the way up and the microphone held right up to the mouth of a person who is used to projecting a voice with no amplification and does not tone it down for the microphone. The sound is intense but in that tent for a special occasion I was able to handle it and still enter the worship.

Over Christmas, the church put up a tin shack to meet in. It is considerably larger than the previous structure which had become much too small.

On Sunday we were dismayed to see the speaker that projects the sound out into the community already in place. It seemed that they had settled into a pattern of regularly using the speakers that had once been for special occasions. The sound was the loudest I have ever heard in five years of going to extremely loud churches. The combination of tin walls, the sound all the way up, two speakers in a small building, and the power of the voices that are shouting straight into the mic, was enough to create a sense of panic in me.

The cacophony was overwhelming and I found myself utterly unable to enter into the worship. The practice of praying together took on new dimensions while the two people with mics screamed their prayers out into the neighbourhood. I was unable to think or pray. The voices of the two women leading the songs were so distorted that I could not understand the words or participate in the singing. The electrification put a wall between people who had previously been united in lifting their voices.

This week has been difficult for me. The church that was our stability had become a place that I dreaded to be. I woke up in the night feeling the panic of Sunday all over again. Even if I can find a way to worship in the frenzy, I can't sacrifice my children's long term health.

In a setting in which I am among "my own" or in a situation with no power imbalance, I would be able to address the issue with the pastor or the people. But I am different and have different tastes. If everyone else finds life in this then I can't be the one to change it. And yet, I can't be sustained in this place without a way to worship with other people.

We all know and condemn the stories of missionaries who came into a culture and told the people that the way they were doing things was evil and that they needed to be more like the missionaries' home culture. Not a matter of the Gospel at all but of culture. Or is it always that simple?

Independent Christians in this area, AICs and Pentecostals, have grave concern that they obey the words of Jesus in Matthew 6:6 "but whenever you pray, go into your room and shut the door." Although the door is normally open during a service for air and light, it is closed as soon as a prayer begins.

Now the prayers of the faithful are projected via loudspeaker into the community. They act from a concern for outreach--more people will come in if they hear what is going on. Which concern trumps the other? Which is faithful? Do we hold the people to their own concern for not being "like the hypocrites"? Or is that imposing our culture? And is it separated from our desire to worship in a way that gives life which we had previously found with them?

--anna

living the dream

2011-01-17T02:01:00.001-08:00

The coming of this day every year, the third Monday in January, is for me an opportunity to undergo one of my favorite experiences: to be moved by the words of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

I am grateful that I am, in certain ways, living Dr. King’s dream; not “in Alabama” but in South Africa, I see “little black boys and black girls” joining hands with “little white boys”—my own— “as sisters and brothers.” Such a witness means at least as much in South Africa as it does in the United States of America.

And just as Dr. King often and in brilliant fashion called upon the hymns and prophetic words of his faith to interpret the old and call into being a new world, so more than a few South African brothers and sisters have proclaimed the “fulfillment of prophecy” through the words of a cherished hymn upon our sharing of worship together.

Abantsundu nabamhlope/Mababulele kunye/Mabavakalise bonke/Baculele iNkosi

Blacks and whites/let them give thanks together/let them all proclaim the good news /let them sing to the Lord

-Joe

being the church

2011-01-10T06:57:00.001-08:00

At the beginning of last month, the last month of 2010, our church lost its building. It was literally there one Sunday, gone the next. The owner of the land wanted it back in order to put up a personal residence. The church structure is now a heap of rubble, the personal house has not yet arisen. The church has moved on regardless. For a few weeks the church worshiped in a tent; during the time when we were away for our retreats, a new, large “shack” was erected from two-by-fours and sheets of tin. We worshiped in it for the first time, the church’s second Sunday, yesterday. The shack has lots of room for growth—a good thing since the old building had become too small.

The church got a R15,000 ($2,200) loan to secure the building materials and will have to pay it back in R1,150 monthly installments. That breaks down, averaging four Sundays per month, to about R300: that is what the people will need to give in offerings in order to pay it back. Although that seems like a manageable sum of money, typical Sunday offerings never even approach it. In an independent church of this nature, shortfalls typically become the pastor’s responsibility. So, if some here get into the ministry as a money-making enterprise—as it is often alleged—others enter it with much fear and trembling for its great pressures. Our pastor, for example, carefully balances the pressure of running a church with caring for a family of five. Dipping into his own pockets on behalf of the church is money not spent on his household. For that reason, many pastors’ wives are reluctant to embrace their husbands’ ministries. That, of course, is also a major strain on marriages; and some pastors have discarded their wives for others who will bear silently the pressures of ministry.

In light of such scenarios, our pastor has transferred the family’s bank account into his wife’s name, giving her final control of their income. That move should go a long way in keeping the precious unity of the marriage in a time of financial uncertainty in the church.

In the meantime, the church will need to pay back the loan. Yesterday might have been a start—if the offering had not gone, in total, to the member of the church who was widowed over the Christmas season, her husband found stabbed to death in town. Such a situation too, whether death by violent crime or disease, is one of the realities that churches “on the edge”, in the poor communities of South Africa, deal with on a regular basis, and which hold them back from their dreams of developing programs which would improve the quality of lives.

Even still, though the church struggles, it is precisely within the struggle that the church fulfills its mission. As it “bears one another’s burdens”, it “fulfills the law of Christ” (Gal 6:2). Would that all the programs of the Church did as much! In that sense, the church of the poor is less to be pitied than considered, a witness to the plan of God for the world from which all churches might hear anew their true calling.

-Joe

the lights of home

2010-12-25T06:36:00.000-08:00

On our drive home earlier this week, on the evening of the 21st, our longest day here in the southern hemisphere, we passed through, as usual, the town of Mt. Frere on the N2 highway. It was twilight, and a beautiful, huge--"the biggest I've ever seen"--moon had risen over the hills. To our surprise, the natural light of the moon was not the only light breaking through the gathering darkness; the poles of streetlights were adorned with Christmas-light displays. The sight was amusing for at least two reasons.

First, in a region, the Transkei, in the province of Eastern Cape, known to be South Africa's most corrupt and under-serviced, someone had apparently taken great care to decorate for the festive season. The potholes of Eastern Cape may never be filled; the proposed refurbishing of the Mthatha airport delayed forever; the schools in disarray; the hospitals under-stocked; but the lights, the beautiful lights, will shine for Christmas.

Second, many of the displays themselves seem out-of-place on this, the African continent. What has a sleigh, for example, to do with a land that rarely--and never in December--sees snow? Or Santa, that fat white man from the North who rides his sleigh through it? Or Frosty--the snowman?

There were the religious-themed lights as well. These, certainly, are not confined to climate or geography. And for me, a midwestern boy whose family used to search out the best neighborhood Christmas-light displays in our small Kansas town, the lights of Mt. Frere were, religious or not, a little taste of home.

Merry Christmas!

-Joe

what is a Mennonite?

2010-12-23T10:51:00.001-08:00

In engaging in conversations over the last several weeks with fellow North Americans living or traveling in southern Africa, I have been struck anew by the reality of a truly global church. Students of mission will have been aware of the global church, if they have not experienced it firsthand, through the writings of such scholars as Philip Jenkins and Lamin Sanneh. Even so, those reminders cannot really prepare North Americans to comprehend the reality of a global church; only direct exposure over time can do that.

One of the evidences of my slowness of mind and heart to understand the global church is the field of images and connotations which come to my mind when I hear the word “Mennonite.” For if I truly understood the reality that the church is global, then my first associations with “Mennonite” would not include, as regards worship, for example, four-part hymnody, tightly-managed orders of service, and rather un-emotive preaching.

I spoke recently with a leader of the Mennonite Church in North America who was traveling on behalf of Mennonite World Conference on a teaching tour throughout the global Mennonite family. He spoke of his conversation with a pastor in a certain country who runs a “megachurch” which worships in a “state-of-the-art” stadium facility, is a “mover and shaker” in the civic arena, including with plans to “reclaim land from the sea” in order to build an alternative “Christian city”, complete with plans to attract a “Disney World” on the land—all under the name “Mennonite”. Though the resume sounds to my “Mennonite” ears more like that of a Charismatic or televangelist, to the people of that country it is that of a “Mennonite”.

The example is but one illustration from the globe that, from a North American perspective, we can no longer take for granted our definition of “Mennonite”. For millions of people across the globe, both insiders and outsiders to the tradition, “Mennonite” does not mean what North Americans with generations-old membership in the tradition take it to mean.

Much, in fact, that has been established in different “Mennonite” traditions may be distasteful one to the other. “Mennonites” from one reality may be more comfortable worshipping with Christians from other denominations whose religious culture seems more like their own. To take one example, I spoke to a North American worker last week who worships with a baptist congregation in Zambia rather than with the local Anabaptist (the broader tradition from which the Mennonites come) church. Yet, if all “Mennonites” have a stake in the name—as we do—we will be concerned about what kind of a witness we are giving for Jesus and the kingdom of God. That means that—in spite of the often vast differences between “Mennonite” cultures—we, as members of the global church, as members one of another—must push beyond our particular, cherished forms of religiosity to find the faith common to all that lies beneath the surface. Such pushing beyond will take commitment, time, and energy, and will entail many setbacks. But if we persevere, if we stay in relationship, if we give and receive counsel from the word of God, we will experience together life’s purest joy—the presence of God in our midst.

Here then is a call to cross the boundaries of human difference, to participate in “mission”, to engage the global church.

-Joe

Christ and culture

2010-12-16T05:40:00.001-08:00

Currently we are at a retreat with workers from Mennonite Central Committee (MCC). In our input sessions, we are reflecting on the meaning of culture, which has brought me to some observations on how the sessions are being conducted.

Our group itself is multicultural; MCC employs Africans in Africa, not merely, as in previous eras, westerners working in Africa. Beyond that, of course, even the North Americans and the Africans within themselves are diverse. That being said, it is still difficult to get away from—even, or especially, when we think we are being sensitive to cultural differences—exacerbating those cultural differences. For example, I have observed that in our comparisons of “Western” and “African” cultures and worldviews, the westerners tend to define as culture for Africans those practices that seem different, exotic, from their own. From there, having accepted the exotic as authentic African cultural practices, the westerners move to try to validate or understand that which they have accepted—perhaps putting a Christian spin on what they believe to be African traditions—and then move to congratulate themselves when they believe they have successfully done so. The problem, however, may be that what the westerners believe is culture for Africa, defined on the basis of difference, is not—in the eyes of the African participants—truly African culture as they recognize it in their own countries of origin. Rather, what the westerners believe to be African culture may, in fact, be a perversion of culture. As a result, the whole process of westerners trying to rationalize certain African cultural practices is misguided from the beginning because what they see as authentic culture may not be culture at all.

The particular example of which I speak is the issue of “sexual cleansing” which we have been prompted to discuss in small groups. Our presenter gave us an explanation of the practice in “Africa” as he understands it—one which was not recognized by the African participants. Briefly, according to the explanation, “sexual cleansing” refers to a man, perhaps the brother of a deceased, sleeping with his widow, in order to “cleanse” the widow of the dead man’s spirit (such a tradition becomes highly problematic in a society ravaged by HIV-AIDS). The white workers, of course, almost all said that this phenomenon was in their host countries. Some of their understandings were based on reports from and conversations with actual Africans—so we are not denying here that “sexual cleansing” does occur in some places on the continent. The bigger question, however, is whether it is valid to see “sexual cleansing” as culture at all—or whether, since it was not recognized by the Africans in our group, as merely a perversion of culture.

I use the word “perversion” here, not to imply that culture should be pristine and unchanging; then the “perversion” would be simply the deviation, irrespective of moral judgments, from an original. No, I use “perversion” to imply that, in a setting where people of ethical concern and commitment sit down to discuss culture together, it is important not to bless as true culture that which is not. For Christians—people of profound ethical concern—it is important to define as true culture only that which conforms to the life of Christ—and not to cause offense to our African brothers and sisters in Christ by defining as their culture that which is spiritually-ethically offensive to them on the basis of their own faith in Christ (The reverse, African Christians assuming that the culture of western Christians is professional wrestling, daytime soap operas, or the support of “holy wars” against Islam, may be equally offensive). In all this, then, there seems to be an implicit sense that, while the west has a culture largely shaped by Christianity (perhaps decreasingly so), African culture in the eyes of the west is still more shaped by its pre-Christian past. In fact, Christianity has, and has had, a major stake in African culture for generations now, so that what anthropologists might claim as true African culture is scarcely recognizable to Africans themselves. At the very least, it seems, Christian Africans do not want to cede their culture to the domain of what is exotic to westerners. They seem to want—as do ethically-minded westerners—a truly humanizing, dignifying definition of culture.

That, it seems to me, is the culture which we all seek, and the culture around which we might rally.

-Joe

no other head

2010-11-30T04:39:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, on my scripture blog, I reflected on the claims of the Christ hymn of Colossians 1:15-20, specifically on the claim embedded in its center that "he is the head of the body, the church" (v. 18). That Christ is the "head of the body, the church" is particularly relevant in light of much pastor-speak I have heard in this country about headship. For example, Charismatic pastors are particularly keen on emphasizing their importance in/over the church. I have heard on a number of occasions that Satan particularly targets pastors because to destroy them is to scatter the flock that they lead. I have been a part of prayer services in which a visiting pastor brings the pastor of the congregation up front to be prayed for precisely on the basis of this rationale, that Satan is out to get him more than others. That the evil one would target the pastor seems, in these presentations, almost as a validation of the individual in the role of pastor, as if without it either the pastor initiating the action or the pastor being prayed over is not a legitimate pastor. Another variation which I once heard of this theme is more explicit. "If someone wants to kill a snake," the proverb goes, "he does not whack its tail, but rather its head." The analogy, of course, was that the pastor of the church is the head of the snake which the evil one tries to destroy in order to kill the church.

There is something to learn in all this. Pastors matter a great deal. Good leadership is as "yeast leavening the whole batch of dough" for good, while bad leadership is a leavening of the dough for bad (1 Cor. 5:6; Mt. 13:33). It should be a topic of discussion in churches which are especially suspicious of hierarchy whether the pastor--if he or she is even afforded such a title--is recognized as a person blessed with special gifts for leading a people toward "the measure of the full stature of Christ" (Eph. 4:13). It is likewise cause for concern, on the other hand, if the biblically-legitimized role of pastor becomes cause for seeing the pastor of the local church as having the same measure of authority of the one alone whom our text proclaims is "the head of the body, the church". In such a situation, the pastor is feared as though God, and, in effect, becomes a mediator between "God and humankind"--between the one head and the body--where none but Christ Jesus is intended (1 Tim. 2:5). In such a case, the body's growth in realizing the fullness of God's spiritual gifts to many is stunted in deference to the one posing as head in place of Christ.

If Christ is truly recognized as head, however, the body will not fear even though its pastor be removed. If the body knows Christ as head, and not a mere human (though Christ himself shares our humanity), it will rejoice, though it suffers, knowing that the One who fills the church also suffered yet rose from the dead. If Christ is head, the one who died and was raised to life, not even "the gates of hell will prevail against the church" (Mt. 16:18); they did not prevail against the head--they shall not prevail against his body.

The proverb of the snake is therefore misapplied; there is no head which can be struck by which the body may die. Rather, at the appointed time, let the pastor be removed, and " 'let another take his position of overseer' " (Acts 1:20).

The pastor who knows that his days are numbered, who has learned to "count his days" (Psa 90:12), who knows who she is in light of her Creator, is the one to lead God's people toward the fullness of Christ.

-Joe

christmas in south africa

2010-11-15T04:46:00.000-08:00

Shalom Mennonite Church has asked us for information about Christmas in South Africa. For us, Christmas is a time when we try to simulate our own culture's Christmas traditions but adapt them to South Africa and to summer. We buy a tree every year that can serve as a Christmas tree (gardenias have been our favourites),

Siya, Moses, and Isaac bringing in the Christmas tree

Jesse under the decorated tree

we decorate Christmas cookies,

and we hang stockings.

This year will be the third year that we have spent with our friend Melanie Quinn, a Mennonite missionary in Botswana. We cook a fairly traditional meal although one year we did have roast warthog leg and we are able to have vegetables fresh from our garden since it is summer. Here we are with our own Christmas tradition of the "stinky meal" on Christmas eve: chips and salsa, stinky cheeses, salami and other stinky things.

It is true that we spend a lot of time at our friend's pool--a Christmas tradition that we quite like.

We have asked some friends about traditions here in kwaXhosa (the place of the Xhosa people). The two biggest special things at Christmas are that everyone gets new clothes and that a lot of people repaint their house. The colours of houses in the rural areas are pink, green, blue, turquoise, and yellow. Some have a black strip around the bottom and this would also be refreshed for Christmas. For weeks before Christmas, you see people leaving town with big buckets of paint, often carrying them on their heads. Can you pick out the different colours of houses in these pictures? What colour house is in the bottom picture that I didn't list?

On Christmas day, kids get into their new clothes and then go in groups to the houses in their area. At each house they are given something to eat. At some it is a full meal of chicken, samp and beans or rice, and vegetables. At others they will get sugary milky tea and biscuits. Some houses will give them chips and sweets. Two things that were traditionally done to make Christmas special were that curry powder (called "Rajah") was added to the rice to make it yellow and that kids got jam on their bread. Even now when these things are everyday occurrences, they are sure to be done for Christmas.

Food cooking at a rural Xhosa homestead

At Isaac and Moses' old preschool, they did a Christmas play every year complete with donkey, shepherds, wise men, and gifts. Here is the year in which Isaac was a wise man and Moses was a shepherd. At the end they sing the chorus "oh come let us adore him" in English and in Xhosa. In Xhosa, the words are "Yizani nibulise. Yizani nibulise. Yizani nibulise. UKrestu Inkosi"

--anna

the righteousness of God revealed

2010-11-15T04:09:00.001-08:00

In the “Principal’s Report” that I presented to our Annual General Meeting of Bethany Bible School (BBS) on Friday night, I concluded by describing 2010 as a "good and stable" year at BBS. The flip-side of stability in 2010, of course, was the upheaval of 2009—a year in which a conflict arose among members of our Committee and opened up fault lines in our student body as well. Nevertheless, we entered 2010 having restored a measure of peace—the product of a special gathering last December to honor the lifetime service of the particular Committee member who had been offended by the rest of the Committee. Although, in spite of our efforts, that member and those who followed him did not attend in 2010, we remained in friendly contact with him and he continued, in some form, to honor the work of the school; as a sign of his goodwill, he continued to refer students to our office for study materials or collect them himself. This arrangement indeed seemed “good and stable” and we were not holding our breath for anything more.

Something more, however, came last weekend. On the night before the closing conference weekend for the year was to begin, our vice-chairman received a call from a woman, one of the members who had stayed away in protest (or while wounds healed) at the perceived slight of her leader. Her call, however, was not a call to arms; rather, it was a simple notification that she would be attending the conference. That in itself was enough to stir our Committee, fearful of her reasons for choosing to attend after a long absence. The woman made good on her word, arriving on Friday afternoon.

As the Committee gathered for a short meeting following our oral exams over the year’s lessons, we decided to call the woman to the office in order to hear her intentions. She said that she had none—other than simply to return to the school. Although this was great news, it presented us with a new dilemma.

Every year, BBS lends its own graduation ceremony to two sister Bible Schools from Cape Town who share a common constituency (independent churches, least formally-educated church leaders) and mission (to educate such leaders). These sister schools offer their lessons in correspondence; as a result, they have students in our area—some of whom are also BBS students—who come to our site as the nearest place where they might receive recognition for their studies upon completion of them. Three of the last four years (including this one), we have also had at least one official representative of these schools at our graduation. Because this is a significant event in the life of those who graduate, they are often accompanied by guests who wish to share the party with them—a party for which BBS foots the bill. As a result, the Committee has had to establish registration costs for our graduation conference appropriate to the level of participation in our school throughout the year. Students who were on our roll in 2010 would pay the normal fee of R70 for the weekend; guests would pay an amount more reflective (yet still a good deal) of the cost it actually takes to sleep and feed a person for an entire weekend.

The problem, of course, in the situation of the woman who came back, was that she was once among us but then estranged; were we—to employ the biblical categories—to treat her as a Jew or as a Gentile? As a Committee, we were, in our hearts, inclined to treat her as one of us; we desired her return, and the return of all our brothers and sisters who left us in 2009. Even so, we had grown in our understanding as a Committee to be seen as a people who “stick by our word” for the overall health and functioning of the school. Too often in the past, we had made decisions in meetings only to set them aside under pressure from certain individuals who liked to complain. Yet it is the very “rule of law” which guards against individuals taking advantage of the whole and establishes trust in the whole. That trust, in turn, leads to growth. To summarize, on the one hand we were keen to uphold our commitment to love/grace/mercy; on the other hand, we were committed to justice, to respect for the honor/dignity of every human being which is commensurate with a sense of fairness—that one is being treated as the other. Thus, if we could not be seen in the eyes of others to make an exception for our sister, neither could we be seen by our sister and our God to withhold our grace. And if we could not deny her grace, neither could we deny the honor we were trying to uphold in the whole and, in effect, in every part as well.

Still, the decision of whether or not to treat our sister as an outsider was an easy enough one on the basis of the clear communication of our principles; if we simply explained to her that we were treating her the same as every other person who had not attended in 2010, she might understand and gladly pay the required fee. The problem, however, was that the woman had left home having budgeted for only the members’ fee of R70 plus her transport to and from. If she was going to sleep over and pay for meals, she would need to come up with more.

Initially, the Committee decided to do justice to their sense of honor rather than to their sense of mercy. We explained to the woman that she could pay the night’s fee but would be on her own for meals. She sighed heavily under her burden and minutes of silence ensued.

After she had left, one of the women on the Committee spoke up.

“Why did we not ask her to leave and then make a decision and call her back? Did you hear what she said? She said, ‘I didn’t know we were still fighting.’ We must not be seen to be fighting with anyone. We must be God’s messengers. We must only do righteousness.”

The same thought had dawned on me while our sister had still been with us in the room. Confirmed now by one of our Committee members, it was as the voice of God.

“What if we the Committee paid the rest of her fees out of our own pockets?”

“Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy,” we all said together, remembering Jesus’ words which were one of the answers from the oral exams earlier that day (Mt 5:7).

We called her back and told her of our new decision—which she embraced.

But whereas our first decision had been weighted toward upholding a sense of honor, our second decision was neither honor over mercy, nor mercy over honor. Rather, honor and mercy, dignity and love, justice and grace, embraced as one, indivisible unity. The Committee neither lowered its standard of justice for all, serving the cause of love, nor denied its desire for mercy, serving the same. The Committee both set and fulfilled its own standards for the sake of the other. It both set and paid the price on behalf of the woman. In doing so, the woman was restored to our fellowship. So perhaps will others be who hear her report of righteousness.

In fact, the old man, her leader, for the first time in more than a year, was back at BBS the next day—seated in a place of honor on graduation day.

-Joe

the preaching vocation

2010-11-15T03:55:00.000-08:00

Mama Faniso is a "Bible Woman" in her Methodist church and serves on the executive committee of Bethany Bible School (BBS). She conveys as much in her look as in her words--passion and compassion. Here she is giving the vote of thanks at the BBS graduation on Saturday, 13 November.

--anna

provision through the church

2010-11-11T06:35:00.001-08:00

During our partnership council meetings last June, during the time when each of our South African partners shared about his or her respective vision for ministry, Pastor Ntapo of Harvest Time Ministries in Mthatha disclosed that he and his wife had discovered that many of the children who come to the church on Sunday have not yet had a meal on that day. As a result, the Ntapos had resolved—out of their own pockets—to provide a little something for their parishioners to eat every Sunday. We have certainly experienced the sharing of food within the church to be the rule, not the exception, over the last half of this year. Our children, though well-fed at home, share no less in the overflow of the Ntapos’ generosity than the children who do not know—except perhaps with regard to the church—from where their next meal will come. Just as Jesus taught and then fed the five thousand “in a desert place”, so Pastor Ntapo declares, “We have been fed with the spiritual food—now we will be fed with the physical food as well” (Mk. 6:30-44).

-Joe

exilic work, exilic hope

2010-10-25T10:55:00.001-07:00

For three of the last four American autumns/South African springs, we have waited for babies to be born. In November 2007, Levi arrived; last year we welcomed Jesse; this year we waited with our colleagues, Karen and Andrew Suderman, for their daughter, Samantha Joy, born on 19 October. As Anna had committed early on in the pregnancy to serve as Karen’s doula (labor assistant), and as the Sudermans reside a five-hours’ drive from Mthatha in Pietermaritzburg, waiting for Samantha also meant separation for our family. I stayed home in order to see Isaac and Moses through their school schedules; Anna, Levi, and Jesse settled in with the Lindell Detweiler family, colleagues with Mennonite Mission Network, near Pietermaritzburg as they waited with Karen and Andrew. As our separation threatened to enter its third week, we decided to take the boys out of school and to Pietermaritzburg for a few days, convinced that the baby could not delay much longer. In the end, that decision was rewarded: Samantha finally came (the boys missed only four days of school), and, in the meantime, we enjoyed some great team bonding time.

Our period of waiting and separation coincided in the Revised Common Lectionary with the reading of Jeremiah 29:1, 4:7, “the words of the letter that the prophet Jeremiah sent from Jerusalem to the remaining elders among the exiles . . . whom Nebuchadnezzar had taken into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon” (v. 1). In opposition to the lying “prophets and diviners” among the Jewish exiles in Babylon who had prophesied an imminent return to Jerusalem, Jeremiah implored the exiles to “build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat what they produce. Take wives and have sons and daughters; take wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage, that they may bear sons and daughters; multiply there and do not decrease. But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare” (vv. 5-7). In short, Jeremiah was telling the exiles that they must not delay—that they must not wait—to live their lives though they be away from home. Though they be away from the familiar, from that place where they had always lived, from that place which was to them life itself, the exiles would have to learn to live a new life. Only in that living anew would they truly live. Only in seeking the peace of their new surroundings would they themselves find peace.

Though I was the one left behind, I felt no less than Anna “in exile” in my life without her, Levi, and Jesse. Though I was tempted to treat the period as an interim, as a time between the time of union and reunion, I resolved to carry on the regular duties of the home as much as possible. In that sense, then, my particular challenge of living in exile was not so much, as it was for the exiles in Babylon, to build new homes as it was to maintain the home Anna and I had already made together for our family. Indeed, it was only in that maintenance that I would find my peace, in my work that the waiting became bearable. Indeed, without the resolve to work, the passing of each day in the long wait is as the sign of an interminable wait; without work, hope dies.

Karen, the expectant mother, said something similar during her long wait. Each day that passed seemed to decrease “the probability that this baby would actually be born.” But, she said, maintaining her hope, the passing of time actually “increases that probability”. The work of her waiting was eventually rewarded: labor finally came, and, after more work of another intensity, joy—Samantha Joy.

It seems, therefore, most appropriate that the apostle Paul compared the fulfillment of the kingdom of God to a woman in labor (Rom. 8:22; 1 Th. 5:3). As we wait for the arrival of the King, we work so as not to lose hope. Though our work does not bring God’s kingdom, it prepares us to welcome it when he comes. It allows us to experience beforehand, as a woman who finally gives birth, that the kingdom is joy, not fear, and that “God has destined us not for wrath but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Th. 5:9). “Blessed,” then, “is that slave whom his master will find at work when he arrives” (Mt. 24:46).

-Joe

Bethany Bible School Committee at work

2010-10-23T04:25:00.001-07:00

The Committee of Bethany Bible School met this weekend. Our agenda was primarily twofold: oral examinations over the year’s topics; preparation for our November graduation conference. If the Committee’s performance in the exams is any indicator of how the student body at large will perform next month, this will have been a banner year indeed. In this, the third year of our new curriculum with oral tests, we have seen vast improvement. Reasons for that improvement:

1. Increasing familiarity with the curriculum and method of learning and what is expected of students

2. The addition this year of a review time following each lesson at conferences

3. Last but certainly not least, the distribution of a study guide ahead of exams.

The Committee was prepared. Their answers this year were direct, to-the-point, given with confidence, and, much more often than not, correct.

planning next month’s graduation

Committee posing with our certificate of registration as a Non-Profit Organization in South Africa, a status which we received this year

briefly, on poverty

2010-10-07T07:28:00.001-07:00

Last March, Bethany Bible School hosted a workshop on Farming God’s Way as a means to addressing a serious problem in the Eastern Cape: the non-use or mis-use of farmland in a context of hunger and poverty. Indeed, though many people from the rural areas are unemployed, neither are they working their land. While some are all too eager to attribute the problem to “the laziness of the people”, others—such as one friend who provided valuable insights to me over the course of conversations last week—refuse to accept sloth as a thing to be taken for granted in any human being. Rather, he says, causes related to the history of oppression underlie the appearance of laziness. In particular, he noted how enduring is the association of farming with oppression in the people’s minds. Farming was not something the people did for themselves; it was what they did for the white “boss” who reaped from their labor as they eked out a meager existence. The memory of such a life can be a deterrent to forging a new life from the land when one is finally “free” to work his own land. Of course, historical explanations such as these can serve the cause of fatalism no less than racist biological arguments can; nevertheless, they can also aid our understanding, patience, and compassion as we proclaim, against all hopelessness, the dignity of every human being in the sight of God.

-Joe

our work, explained for kids

2010-09-24T06:45:00.000-07:00

One of the ministries we work with is called Bethany Bible School (BBS). BBS is a school for pastors who don't have very much formal education. Many of them have not gone past third grade! Our former chairman had never been to school at all and could not read or write. And yet they are leading churches and want some education to help them do that better. We read the Bible together and talk about what it means. They are all very grateful to get this education and some of them come a long way to school—some from 3 or 4 hours away.

After the group session, we break into small groups to discuss a particular scripture. In this picture, a group was meeting under a particularly nice tree.

Between sessions we always sing. Sometimes we get to dancing and sometimes dancing/running around a circle.

The symbol of the school shows a person rising up from a Bible. We hope that studying the Bible at Bethany Bible School will give them confidence and will help them to rise up from their difficult lives. The slogan of our school is “we are growing in the knowledge of the Son.” What do you think this means? Who is the Son? How do we grow in knowledge?

Mama Dokolwana is wearing a t-shirt with the BBS symbol and the words "Siyakhula ekwazini uNyana" which means "we are growing in the knowledge of the Son."

We also work with a small church called Harvest Time Ministries. This church is made up mostly of kids and youth. Most of the kids come by themselves without their parents. We met the dad of two of the kids once and he said that whenever his kids hear our car, they run out the door because they know that church must be starting! Church usually lasts about three hours and often the kids sit still for the whole thing. They usually have Sunday School before the service so they are often there for 5 hours on a Sunday! Sometimes the kids leave for the sermon and go play outside. One time there was a bull roaming around outside the church and all the kids had a good time running away from it. It wasn't a dangerous bull but it was still fun.

In this picture a lot of the church members are standing outside the church building. Most of the kids are not in this picture.

But here are a bunch of the kids, singing a song for the whole church. They perform as a choir every week.

--anna

marbles, part 1

2010-09-24T03:14:00.000-07:00

Isaac and his friends at school like to play marbles. At break time, they find a suitable dust patch and proceed to play. It is an incredibly complex game with almost incomprehensible rules and its own language. I'm sure that each school and group of kids plays it differently but this is a simple version of Isaac and his friends' way of playing.

Up to six people can play. The goal is to hit another player's marble three times.
You begin by digging a little hole in the dirt or grass.
Each person announces their position by calling "firstys", "secondys", "thirdys", etc...
You begin with each person shooting their marble as near to the hole as possible. Whoever is closest gets to go first. The order then proceeds as first announced.
Let's say that I was that closest person. I now get to try to get in the hole. If I get in the hole I am now "poison" and can hit other players and try to take their marbles. On the turn that I get in the hole, I can shoot out on the same turn.
I now go after other players.
If I hit a player that player then has to "place themself" which means that they choose a place to be shot at. I now get a chance to hit them again. If I hit, I get another chance. If I hit again then I get that marble and that player is out.
If I miss, the other player is back in the game but has to go back in the hole to become poison again. If the player was not poison to begin with, they have to get in the hole twice.

I hope that this makes sense. It took me a while to make sense of it. I will add all the calls and how to play with multiple marbles for each player in another post.

Here is Isaac demonstrating the three ways to hold a marble for shooting.

For a big marble, you use an underarm toss like this...

For a small marble, you can hold it in either of the following two ways.

Here the marble rests on the tip of the index finger and is shot by the thumb...

Here the marble rests in the crook of the index finger and is shot by the thumb...

--anna

elwandleni, at the sea

2010-09-23T23:41:00.000-07:00

Two weekends ago, we enjoyed a break at Mdumbi, our favorite spot on Eastern Cape's Wild Coast (Indian Ocean).

Mdumbi's wonderful, expansive beach (Can you spot three boys leading the way?)

heading down to the beach

our accommodations at Mdumbi Backpackers

View across the river with Xhosa houses (rondavels) perched on the hills overlooking the sea

tromping through the "squishy" sand in the estuary area

And finally . . . a picture of each boy enjoying their beach holiday

Jesse

Levi

Moses (with crab on "crab island")

Isaac

the upside-down kingdom

2010-09-20T02:29:00.001-07:00

In the middle of the service, Pastor Ntapo stopped in mid-speech, looked out the door, and announced that “the man of God has arrived.” I could not see the door and waited to see who would enter. I expected the headman or another very important pastor—someone important enough to pause the service for. In came a young man from the community, a mentally-challenged man who mumbles to himself throughout the service. He entered and was given a seat of honour at the front of the church.

The service was a special farewell for Erica Yoder who has been living and worshipping with us for two months. After the service we were to share cake and coke to mark the occasion. The steadfast and unshakable rule of this sort of an event is that the men are to be seated at the head table, the married women in chairs around the room, and the young women are to serve all the men and the older women, only themselves eating when everyone else has been served. But this time, Pastor Ntapo seated the young women at the head table. He then seated the young men and the married women to the side. He took no seat for himself.

As the people were being seated we sang “makube njalo"-- “let it be so.”

On earth as it is in heaven.

--anna

tyre rolling

2010-09-15T02:54:00.001-07:00

Several churches have asked us for South Africa-related activities to do with Sunday School groups or Vacation Bible School. In an effort to respond to this I will try to regularly include suggestions of children's activities. Here is a first installment.

Moses and Isaac with tyres in 2006
Photo courtesy of Dan Nighswander

A favourite activity at Isaac and Moses' preschool was tyre rolling. The school had a pile of tyres which the kids ran around with at break time. You can use car tyres or bike tyres. An added skill is to push and balance the tyre with a stick. Take a look at Isaac and Moses rolling tyres and then try it yourself.

--anna

birthday-cake communion

2010-09-06T07:23:00.001-07:00

Yesterday at church we celebrated the 18th birthday of Andisiwe, one of the young women who has become active in the congregation. The idea to celebrate came from Erica Yoder, our American helper these last two months, who has herself become active in our congregation. Erica and Anna baked a cake for Andisiwe which the whole church shared together. Each person got a small piece—with some left over.

The whole celebration time became for me a witness to how community is built within the church. Though the event was ostensibly for one person, Andisiwe, the good things it brought overflowed to all. Though the cake had her name on it, circumstance—one small cake shared among many—required that Andisiwe receive no larger portion than any other person there on that day. Likewise, though we sang to Andisiwe, we went around the room and listened to each person, young and old, inform us of his or her own birthday. One woman did not know her date; yet her very not knowing brought home the importance of the event. In a world of shattered worlds, in which people are searching to know and be known, the unknown woman can have her cake and eat it too—among those who have opened themselves to share the love of Christ. The celebration of the one overflowed with blessings for the many, including, and perhaps especially, for those who are "least" in the world's eyes.

The apostle Paul said something similar in describing the work of Jesus Christ (Rom 5:15). And though Andisiwe was not herself in the position of Christ, the celebration of her birthday within the church hints at the power that the regular celebration of Christ’s “life laid down”, “unto death”, “for many”, has to unite those who “remember” it (Jn 10:18; Php. 2:8; Mk. 14:24; 1 Cor. 11:25). Just as the “unleavened cake” of Christ’s righteous life was prepared for us in his broken body and blood out-poured, so birthday cake on this day became the one “body” through which we expressed our love for one another in the Lord (Ex. 12:14-20; 1 Cor. 10:16-17).

As Erica prepares the cake, the congregation sings (translated), "The name of the Lord be praised"/"Jesus is exalted".

-Joe

stumbling blocks to transformation

2010-09-03T04:09:00.000-07:00

On our way back from Botswana in June, I witnessed a scene that reminded me of how difficult true transformation in South Africa really is.

We had stopped at a Steers (fast food) which was connected to a petrol station to eat lunch. There was a young black man at the table beside us. He had no food but was writing to someone on his cellphone. He got up and went out of the restaurant and over to the petrol station to buy airtime for his cellphone.

While he was gone, a middle-aged white man came and sat at the table that the other man had just vacated. Soon the black man came back and sat in the chair that he had been in and began to activate his airtime. The white man told the black man that he was sitting there first. The black man told the white man that he had been there and just gotten up to buy airtime. The white man protested and the black man got up and left.

It was a heart-breaking scene. Each thought that the other was rude. The white man, valuing personal space, thought that the black man had invaded his. The black man, valuing connection, didn't understand why he would have been asked to leave. Each went away feeling wronged.

While the structures of apartheid have been dismantled and most claim to desire unity, there remain cultural differences that divide. Racism is no longer saying "I don't like him because of the colour of his skin." Racism is an unwillingness to move out of your own culture; an inability to see how someone else might think differently. South Africans will need a lot of grace toward one another to move forward in the building of a nation.

--anna

"so that the Son of God may be glorified through it"

2010-08-31T02:19:00.000-07:00

On Saturday, 21 August, we went with three members of our committee from Bethany Bible School to visit our chairperson and his family at their rural homestead. A few weeks ago, and just before the August BBS conference, one of the committee members phoned to say that the chairperson was "seriously ill" and hospitalized in Mt. Ayliff, the town nearest him (about 130 km from Mthatha). We could not go at the time, though we felt that we should visit him. Later, we received another phone call reporting that he had recovered and was back home, though not well enough yet to attend BBS. Having missed him at the conference, we set out with representatives from the committee to visit him. On that visit, we learned the story of his illness and recovery.

The chairperson, who has diabetes, had passed out, or perhaps died, one day at home. Finding him motionless, his wife began to sing and praise God. In the course of time he revived, after which an ambulance arrived to take him to the hospital. As his wife worshiped in this world, the chairperson, according to his testimony, experienced another. While blacked out, he felt like he was rolling, as if "in a barrel". Then he saw "God with his angels" who told him to "go back" to "finish his work".

In anticipation of our visit, a number of friends and church members had gathered to thank God for bringing the man back to life. "Today salvation has come to this house," said one of the pastors there. Another woman, taking her word from 2 Chronicles 20:15, said, "Do not fear; the battle is not yours but God's". I shared the words of Jesus upon hearing of his friend Lazarus's serious illness: "This illness does not lead to death; rather it is for God's glory, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it" (Jn. 11:4).

Indeed, Jesus' words contain great explanatory power for the experience of our chairperson's illness and recovery; not unlike Lazarus, though dead for awhile, he lived again through the power of God. More importantly, his death-not-unto-death, his life restored, was not for its own sake but "to the glory of God". His "coming back" was for him and his entire household, for those gathered together on that day--and now for us--a confirmation of faith in the God who saves, a revelation of the God who does not "give his glory to any other" (Isa 48:11).

There are other glories, other powers, other gods, on whom the people might have called. They called on the living God--and were saved.

-Joe

erica

2010-08-19T05:56:00.000-07:00

We got an email in May asking us whether we would like to have a nanny for a few months. Well, how could we say no to that? 2010 has been frustrating for me (Anna) with a baby and a two year old and no place to house the Mennonite household helper of the past 30 years. So this email was an answer to prayer in many ways. We did not yet know in how many ways.

Erica Yoder comes from Clinton Frame Mennonite Church, one of our supporting congregations, and her parents have been long time supporters of mission. She is 21 years old and at a cross roads in her life. She arrived in Mthatha on the 20th of July to stay for two months.

Erica has more than fulfilled all of our hopes for her. In addition to reading to Levi, talking with Moses, doing homework with Isaac, and playing with Jesse, she has gotten involved in the youth group at our little church, befriended our friends, attended Bible study, and generally launched herself into life in Mthatha.

Here are some pictures of Erica pursuing life to its fullest.

Our friend Sim put extensions in Erica's hair. It took two full days but the result has been well worth it. She looks great and everyone turns to see the white girl with extensions.

Erica practiced putting a baby on her back with Levi who is less likely to throw himself off than Jesse is.

Erica and Jesse.

Erica with our pastors, the Ntapos.

At church in Mthatha with Mama Ntapo (right) and some members of a visiting congregation.

Erica and other members of the Harvest Time Ministries Youth Group singing in De Aar.

--anna

American old-time religion, South African style

2010-08-19T02:24:00.000-07:00

In our last post, I spoke of "coming home" in the Northern Cape to the "old-time religion" of the United States. The videos below contain the most striking example of that from the weekend. This group of young men is called The Friends, and they have an incredible sound.

-Joe

many peoples, one faith: northern cape, part II

2010-08-18T09:13:00.001-07:00

After four years of trying to understand the Xhosa-speaking segment of South African culture, the last few months in particular have broadened our perspective on this beautiful and diverse nation. For one weekend last April, and again last weekend, we basked in the glow of the spirituality and hospitality of churches in the Northern Cape Province. The purpose of these visits was to provide teaching on the Anabaptist-Mennonite way of understanding the gospel of Jesus Christ to two interested communities—Grace Community Church (with congregations in Philipstown, Cradock, and Colesburg) and New Beginnings Church in De Aar. In April we met in Philipstown; last weekend we were hosted by the good people of De Aar. Adding to our diversity, a delegation from Harvest Time Ministries, our church home here in Mthatha—and an aspiring Mennonite congregation—also attended.

The weekend was, for us, exceedingly rich—even a homecoming of sorts. By living in Mthatha, I have incorporated many songs and choruses in isiXhosa into my spiritual repertoire. In De Aar, I was surprised, and pleasantly so, to find elements of what in America we might call “the old-time religion.” Our beautiful hosts, David and Lolo Vena, like to listen to, among other things, American southern gospel (Gaither Vocal Band) in their home. Although I find my orientation more in the old gospel hymns of my grandfather and bluegrass music, cousins of southern gospel, to hear it in their home was to feel as though a special place had been prepared just for me. Far beyond that, we enjoyed good conversation, whether over tea, watching soccer, or preparing meals together. Another precious highlight of the entire weekend was the instant companionship our boys found with their two sons, Monde and Sihle.

The worship services in New Beginnings were a true reflection of the rainbow nation. We moved seamlessly between songs in Sotho, Xhosa, Zulu, Afrikaans, and English. Dances unique to each tradition punctuated the songs. In my parting words on Sunday morning, I likened the whole experience to being in the midst of “those who have come through the great ordeal; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the lamb” (Rev. 7:13). The message of the vision, of course, is that only the robes of the redeemed are white, the moral purity of the people through the life and Spirit of Jesus; their distinctive colors, languages, and expressions remain. In her parting words, one of the leaders of New Beginnings reminisced about being part of a government-led initiative for diversity in the public school system in 2001. She saw for the first time that goal, that unity-in-diversity, fulfilled—on this weekend, in the church.

At this point, I will not go on to describe more about the specific sessions led, lessons learned, wisdom gleaned. I do want to share some pictures of the weekend. Enjoy.

The Venas and the Sawatzkys

The Mthatha contingent (L to R)—Erica Yoder (our guest from Indiana for July-Sept.), Andisiwe (youth from Harvest Time), Pastor Ntapo, Mama Ntapo, Mama Cule and Shalom (on back), Joe, Anna (with Jesse on her back but out of the photo), Sis Nandi (foreground).

Jesse with the daughter of Pastor Coetzee from GCC-Cradock.

Andisiwe and Erica have become good friends. Erica has been attending youth gatherings with Harvest Time.

For the evening meal we would gather at the home of the pastors of New Beginnings, Gerald and Carmen Mulenga. At left are the Coetzees from GCC-Cradock. Seated in front of the fireplace are Andrew and Karen Suderman, MC Canada Witness workers from Pietermaritzburg.

All in all, this was one of the greatest weekends we have had in South Africa.

-Joe

baby wearing Xhosa style

2010-08-11T23:51:00.000-07:00

I have been asked many times how to put a baby on my back the way it is done here in kwaXhosa. It is a great method that you can do with any big towel or heavy blanket. Even older kids like to ride this way when they need attention and you have something else to do. Here is a little tutorial video. The same Jesse who was fussy in this video was asleep within minutes.
This is for you Alicia.

--anna

true church growth

2010-08-02T06:05:00.001-07:00

We recently encouraged our pastor to write an entry for the website of the Anabaptist Network in South Africa. His perspective on church growth is swimming against the tide in the vast sea of Pentecostal/Charismatic Christianity in South Africa.

deep or wide?

2010-07-28T02:41:00.000-07:00

As a child, I loved to listen to my parents talk. One night I sat up as they talked with a friend of theirs from Northern Ireland. I remember that friend saying: "you can become a true world citizen by being very deeply immersed in one culture more than by experiencing many cultures." This comment has stuck with me my whole life, as I have experienced many cultures and sometimes lacked the depth of time and understanding in any one culture.

When we began work in South Africa, we expected to visit many churches connected to the Bible school. But invitations were not forthcoming and we found ourselves deeply frustrated with our inability to get out and know these churches. When we began to regularly worship at our little church in Mandela Park our administrator, Steve Wiebe-Johnson, was glad for our attendance there because: "you can get to know the culture well by being deeply immersed in one church." Almost the same words as my parents' friend used all those years ago.

Over the past years I have become dissatisfied with many of the books I read on Africa in general and African Christianity in particular. Scholarship based on a huge diversity tends to generalise and pick out particulars that fit what the author wants to convey. I am troubled by a western desire, which I recognise in myself, to find a pure, true Africa that fits an ideal we hold out of communalism, non-commercialism, spiritual rather than scientific world view, and connection to the land and other people.

I have begun a book that I find much more satisfying: African Gifts of the Spirit. Author David Maxwell spent many years thoroughly researching one particular African-founded pentecostal church. In deeply analysing one church, he is able to portray it with its negatives and its positives, where it agrees with his theology and where it does not. He considers the complexities of prosperity gospel as it is preached in this church--neither totally glorifying it nor totally demonising it.

It is a challenge to me to get to know people as they are and not as I want or assume them to be. I pray for the deep immersion that can accomplish this goal.

--anna

harvest time

2010-07-26T04:56:00.000-07:00

The past year has brought us our most successful garden ever. Here are some pictures of our harvest.

Isaac and Nikwa pose with our Indiana sweetcorn.

Joe and I also wanted to be seen with this great crop.

One day Levi helped me shell our dried beans--sugar beans and cow peas (native to South Africa but used all over the world).

My favourite part of Christmas dinner is cauliflower and cheese sauce. This year I grew my own cauliflower for the occasion.

Moses and Isaac love pulling their own carrots from the ground and eating them with the tops attached.

Our chili bushes were our most productive. We have strings of drying chilies all over our kitchen and jars and jars of pickled chilies which we eat with everything. Moses loved to pick them.

Spring is coming and we hope for another good year, full of the natural miracles that God gives us every day.

--anna

"Mshini Wam"

2010-07-20T11:18:00.000-07:00

Our Sunday afternoon trip to the Mthatha airport happened to coincide with the arrival of the South African state president, Jacob Zuma. He was returning via helicopter from Mvezo, the birthplace of Nelson Mandela where a party for the latter's 92nd birthday was being held. We watched from the viewing deck/airport cafe as Zuma, accompanied by his third wife--"the pregnant one", explained the people standing next to us--descended the steps of the helicopter, walked across the tarmac, and boarded the South African air force jet waiting to bear him back to Pretoria.

The whole scene was unceremonious. Yet it reinforced for me the proximity of sitting presidents to power--military power. A camouflage helicopter and a jet inscribed with "South African air force" was needed to transport one man, a wife, and his entourage to and fro. In light of such service, I wondered how any politician would not automatically be beholden to the specific interests of the military. I also pondered that, just over sixteen years ago, Zuma had been on the other side of the same power that now shielded him, and whether that did not seem to him at all disturbingly ironic--that the very machinery which was employed to destroy his people was now within his control. Or is he in its control? And is that not why Jesus refused "control" of the kingdoms of the world when they were offered to him?

-Joe

observations from partnership meetings

2010-07-13T02:56:00.001-07:00

After our time in Botswana was finished, we headed to Pietermaritzburg for a different set of meetings, held on 13-15 June.

The first meeting, over two days, was between we North American Mennonite mission workers and our visiting North American administrators. The second meeting, on the 15th, was between the North Americans and our South African partners. The purpose of the meeting was to evaluate these partnerships. In the process, we also got to know one another better—North Americans and South Africans as well as South Africans and South Africans.

Representing our partners in Mthatha were Mama Tshandu and Mama Dwele from the Executive Committee of Bethany Bible School and Tata and Mama Ntapo from Harvest Time Ministries in the location of Mandela Park. It was our joy to see our friends from Mthatha relating to friends and friends of friends from Pietermaritzburg, Philipstown, Cape Town, and De Aar.

It became even clearer in the meeting what had already seemed clear beforehand: of the people MCUSA and MC Canada are working with in South Africa, some are looking for a much closer relationship, even towards building a common Mennonite identity, while others have a firm identity in their own churches/denominations even as Mennonites assist them in various aspects of their ministries. For example, some expressed a desire to have these meetings more frequently and for longer, while others said that this once-a-year format was already the maximum amount of time they could give considering the full range of their priorities and commitments.

One other thing I think I noticed: There is a rub between the way in which we Mennonite mission workers have defined or perhaps not defined what we intend to do in South Africa and how a significant portion of our South African partners define their own mission. When, for example, certain of our South African partners talk about vision and mission, they speak of a specific number of people ministered to by a specific date, or a specific number of new congregations planted by a target date. Mennonite mission workers, at least in southern Africa, have/do not. When we drafted a vision and mission statement for the work of our Mennonite team in 2007, we wrote of “the church trained and equipped to engage the larger community with the shalom God intends for creation” and of “working with existing churches and organizations to build up the Body of Christ for healing and reconciling ministry in South Africa”. In this there is overlap with some of our more numbers-oriented partners; they also use phrases such as the “whole gospel” for the “whole person” (Mennonite Mission Network currently speaks of “sharing all of Christ with all of creation” or, in an earlier incarnation, “the whole gospel for a broken world”) and some are passionately committed to social justice within the South African context. Where there is not overlap, however, is in the numbers; the missionaries have specified none.

All this is simply to say that this is a difference that I have observed between the missionaries and some of our partners. It also represents a tension that will continue to exist in me; I remain skeptical about the compatibility of a numbers-oriented focus with a church thoroughly taught in the way of Jesus. It is also partly for that reason that I have found a special kinship with Pastor Ntapo. Regularly he introduces his ministry as “not trying for numbers, though we would like to grow.” Or, as he and Tata Maka put it simply in the constitution of their church, “The vision of the Ministry is to shepherd the people of God in accordance to his word.” I believe in a mission so stated, and trust its ultimate ability to produce a “thirty, sixty, hundredfold” harvest with little more than the sowing of good seed (Mk. 4:8, 20).

-Joe

observations from Botswana

2010-07-05T06:55:00.001-07:00

We spent four days in Gaborone, Botswana, from 8-11 June. The purpose of our visit was to participate in a review of the work that Mennonites have been doing with African Initiated Churches (AICs) in Botswana for more than thirty years. In the past, Botswana was home to a large contingent of Mennonite workers. At present, one worker remains. The present is thus a time of taking stock of where we have been and where we should be going with regard to Botswana.

It was clear from the review process, consisting mainly of extensive interviews and conversations with both church and civic leaders in that country, that Mennonites have left behind, in words we returned to many times, “a significant deposit of goodwill”. One thing which has not yet developed, however, is a viable structure which can ensure that the ministry of biblical education and leadership training in seTswana, the local language, will continue to serve the AICs without a future, long-term Mennonite presence in the country.

In light of this, the primary route that the review team explored in conversation with AIC partners was that of housing the Bible-teaching ministry under a local theological college. Doing so would benefit the AICs in terms of providing their pastors with an accredited certificate in a seTswana program (the college is currently working on its own accreditation), with the possibility also of moving into a diploma track in English for those who are able. Doing so would benefit the theological college in broadening its base even further within the AIC community/communities. Although the college is from a mainline denomination, already 40% of its students come from AICs in a country in which AICs have become the majority expression of Christian faith.

The rub in all this for AICs is that the college is mainline. In our meeting with AIC leaders, they expressed fears that the joint AIC-Mennonite legacy would be “swallowed up” by the mainlines. One man, the most forceful exponent of this position, suggested rather that the Mennonites “build your own institution” which would continue to serve the AICs “just like you are now”. His suggestion might be attractive if Mennonites did not find themselves in a situation of want in both human and financial resources for mission and, more crucially, if the AICs envision a future in which the academic training for their church leaders comes from among their own ranks.

In the end, the AIC leaders were not completely opposed to a collaboration with the mainline college. Given that the proper safeguards and institutional organs would be put in place, and with the assurance that this would not move forward if their interests were not being served, they could begin to see how such a move could benefit them.

It seems also, then, that the role Mennonites have still to play in Botswana is assuring, encouraging, sitting with these two groups, AIC and mainline, as they come closer together through theological education.

-Joe

St. Lucia wildlife

2010-06-30T06:30:00.001-07:00

We returned yesterday evening from one week of traveling with Anna’s parents, her two brothers, Jacob and Aaron, and Aaron’s girlfriend, Kelli. Our destination spot, the same as last year, was St. Lucia. The village of St. Lucia, located on Lake St. Lucia, regularly sees hippos walk through its streets after dark. In fact, Aaron and Kelli witnessed one such “urban hippo” while enjoying coffee from the deck of a local restaurant. Last year, Isaac and Moses with their grandparents watched hippos graze on the back lawn of our accommodations. Both years we also went on a boat tour of the lake to see hippos, crocs, and various birds. This year we were fortunate enough to see a fish eagle.

Our greatest discovery, however, came one day while driving back from the beach at Cape Vidal. A mother and baby rhino walked along the road for several minutes—for only us to see.

BBS Sunday School workshop

2010-06-18T06:44:00.000-07:00

On 4-5 June, Bethany Bible School hosted a workshop on teaching Sunday School. This was the second of three workshops we are hosting this year in addition to the six curriculum topics we are also teaching. We introduced methods for teaching the Bible which we have used in various settings, namely from our time as youth pastors in the states and at home with our children. The workshop had four main sections over two days. First, Joe led a Bible Study which introduced the theme and spelled out the importance of knowing the Bible. Second, students divided into groups, each assigned a story from which to construct a drama to perform for the entire group. Third, Anna introduced the concept of the Jesse Tree (see this site), an advent activity which tells the stories of Jesus' lineage. It is a great way to learn biblical history. Students learned important stories leading up to the birth of Jesus and constructed a symbol out of available materials or illustrated the story. To our great surprise and delight, the students really got into the craft portion of this exercise.
Isaac also participated. He illustrated the messianic age as described in Isaiah 11, that "the lion shall lie down with the lamb" (he made a great attempt to spell it all out himself in his first-grade phonetic skills).The students then told their story for the whole group and explained their symbol or illustration before hanging it on the "tree".

Mama Booi from Idutywa, a faithful attender of BBS conferences, made a memorable and humorous contribution to the event with her creative retelling of the Israelites' wilderness wanderings under the leadership of Moses and Aaron. She found a picture of Bafana Bafana, the national soccer side (currently competing in the World Cup), and designated the keeper--the only one wearing unique attire--as Moses.We purchased children's Bibles in isiXhosa with funds raised by the children of a supporting congregation in the states. Each participant received a Bible to take back to the children of his or her own congregation.

The fourth activity of the day was for groups to take different verses from scripture and put it to a tune. Our AIC and Pentecostal brothers and sisters love singing as much--perhaps even more--than we Mennonites. In addition to the songs they put together on the spot, many longstanding scripture songs carried this workshop forward. In the video below, several participants collaborate to remember a song which tells the story of God's testing of Abraham.

ask, search, knock

2010-05-28T07:59:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we went to the bank with two members of the Bible School committee to open a savings account in the name of Bethany Bible School. This has followed upon our registration as an official Non-Profit Organization in South Africa, something we have been working on for several years now. All of this fits within our broader vision of Bethany Bible School empowered as a locally-owned and operated ministry. So yesterday was a big step along the way.

At our meeting last Saturday, the committee appointed two members, along with us, to be signatories on the account. The one man who was appointed seemed very reluctant; he kept reiterating that he lived "far" which would make it difficult for him to be a signatory, despite the fact that he lives no farther from Mthatha than most members of the committee. He eventually agreed.

Why was he so reluctant? It seems that he was simply scared. Most--if not all--of our students, drawn from among the least formally-educated, economically-poor section of society, have a distinct inferiority-complex in the face of the modern world. They are disadvantaged linguistically, in which English and in some areas, Afrikaans, is the language of government and the corporate world (e.g. the world of banks). This is not to say that they cannot get services in their home language; in fact it is government policy that people should be able to receive basic, government services in any of the nation's eleven official languages. And in Mthatha, Xhosa is too predominant not to be available to the general population. Still, when we presented the minutes from the meeting at which we had decided to open an account--one of the documents required of us--we were informed that it "must be in English"--not the Xhosa in which our deputy-secretary had recorded the meeting. Anna thus quickly rushed off to an internet cafe to type up the relevant points in an English document. All of this is simply to say that, although Anna and I usually find ourselves marginalized socially due to our lack of facility in Xhosa, there are other worlds, in this case the corporate, in which we are more resident than a vast majority of the country's citizens. In other words, the aliens have become the residents and the residents are the aliens.

That our students are, in some ways, aliens in their own country is not a matter of language as much as it is of education and status. Indeed, our committee members exchanged all the usual greetings with their fellow, though more-educated, Xhosa-speakers who were employed by the bank; they exchanged clan names and talked about their respective home areas with all the characteristic warmth and respect of such encounters. Still, when it came to the actual business of the account, the committee members deferred to us, even in certain situations when we were not the ones being called upon to supply information. The banker had to indicate for a second time that she wanted them this time and not us.

All of this is, I think, not simply a matter of our committee members appearing with their teachers and, out of respect for our role, deferring to us--there are other situations in which that is the prime motivator. But in this case it is more a matter of their unease in the modern world. In that world, education, status, and to some extent, language, is not their own. That world is still foreign--and not a little bit mysterious.

Mysterious? I say so because over the years I have received a number of puzzling questions from our Bible School students. One man, who used to come to our office to pick up modules for a correspondence course in church leadership, kept pressing me as to "what he would get" from completing the course. For example, in the module on music in the church, he asked whether completing it would not qualify him to start a singing group like the Lusanda Spiritual Group, a popular gospel outfit based in this area. Likewise he queried whether the completion of this diploma would qualify him to be a Methodist pastor, even though this man's particular church was Zionist. All of this added up for me that this man was desperately searching to solve the riddle of success--why do some people prosper and others not?; why do some benefit from modernity's riches while others do not?; and how do I get there? He was also hoping, it seemed, that there was a magic route to success, that, in his words, "the successes would come" immediately upon completion of the correspondence course, as if by simple virtue of grasping the diploma on the day of graduation. I thought it best to emphasize that what one "gets" is knowledge if one works hard. And even then "success" is not guaranteed.

Another man recently tried to get me to take what appeared to be two application forms for job opportunities in his own local municipality. He also insisted that I send his tests to the address of the correspondence course's headquarters, even though he already had the envelope ready to go and could access the post office as easily as I; thousands of people exactly like him do it every day.

Another person, a woman, came to our most recent Bible conference saying she "wants what Jesus had." She wants to be able to heal people. The Friday lesson was, in fact, on the topic of healing, in which one of the main points was that God heals, we listen and pray. Our particular ministry is to provide perspective from the Bible on the world. Some people are able to see how that knowledge is relevant to their aspirations. Others, this woman seemingly one of them, come hoping that we might be more directly, more immediately involved in bestowing upon them the power that is missing from their lives.

In all of these examples there is an element that we, as ostensibly successful people, might hold the key to a world now hidden from those in need; we are mediators making an invisible world visible. While it is true that we--indeed all people--are mediators of knowledge, the quest for knowledge, for that which is just beyond our reach, is fundamentally personal. Each person must search. Every child of God is free--dignified, confident, powerful, responsible.

I am searching. So too, I believe, are the people mentioned above. We take it as our calling to inspire that quest.

"Ask, and it will be given you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you" (Mt. 7:7).

-Joe

Moses is 5

2010-05-27T06:01:00.001-07:00

Yesterday we celebrated 5 years with Moses.

The day began at 5:00 with presents. This look is either pleasure or surprise that his parents would get him such a cool present as Spiderman socks.

Moses' brothers helped him with his presents.

At 10:00 we took a cake to school for Moses. Since the cakes were made at the last minute and were still on the warm side, the icing melted off a corner. Everyone seemed pretty pleased with the explanation that a bad guy was trying to melt Spiderman's web.

Moses was not displeased to be the centre of attention.

Each of his parents wanted a picture with the birthday boy.

Since the school cake had been eaten down to the last crumb, we had to make another cake for the evening so Isaac could have some. Since we have no oven (and haven't for a long time) and had already borrowed our friend's (thanks Viwe), we made raw brownies for the evening. By this point all boys were on the verge of hysterically tired and we could barely get them in bed fast enough.

We are very proud of our articulate, inquisitive, and zealous 5-year old and look forward to seeing his development in the coming year.

--anna

bumping into God

2010-05-12T23:21:00.000-07:00

At breakfast this morning we were reading the Revised Common Lectionary readings for the week which, today being ascension day, were related to the ascension of Jesus.

Moses (age almost 5) was getting visibly upset by something and said "but God is not our God, Jesus is our God." He went on to tell us that God is not "real", Jesus is real because he had a body and Joseph is his father because Joseph also had a body.

Isaac (age 7) responded to him with the transfiguration story and asked "whose voice came from the cloud? Was it Joseph or was it God?"

Moses came back at him: "but if God were real, we'd be bumping into him all the time."

I like this image. Today, I am going to think of "bumping into God" all the time.

--anna

children from overseas

2010-05-12T04:01:00.000-07:00

Tata and Mama Momoza

This morning we went to visit our friends after too long an interval. Mama and Tata Momoza had welcomed us on our arrival to South Africa and we have since visited them at regular intervals and them us. In 2008, we spent a week at their house. They are members of the Bible school but have been unable to attend for a few years now because of a series of health problems. Because we see them only periodically, our visits to them serve as a measure of our Xhosa language improvement. Today we had not seen them for about 9 months and were pleased to find that we could carry on the entire conversation quite comfortably in Xhosa. We exchanged family news and Bible school news and had a good laugh about some recent developments at the Bible school. There always comes a point where our minds are full and our Xhosa fails us. The crash came a little later this time than previously. We always enjoy the Momozas' company and I want to share some photos of various times with them over the past few years.

Early on in our time in South Africa we attended a weekend worship service at their homestead. Isaac and Moses were excited to get warm bath water brought to our room first thing in the morning.

2 1/2 years later, Levi got to have his own bucket bath at the Momozas.

In 2008, we spent a week with the Momozas and learned a lot from them. Mama Momoza and Moses discuss the manure they are putting in the planting hole in this picture.

The Momozas are very patient teachers and we often read the Bible together in Xhosa or had a lesson outside like this.

Mama Momoza is very active in her community, doing home-based health care for people living with HIV/AIDS and running income generating sewing projects. In 2007, she arranged for school uniforms to be given to all the AIDS orphans in her area. They are pictured here clutching their new clothes.

Tata Momoza always introduces us as his "children from overseas". Today I am feeling grateful to the Momozas and all those who have adopted us and made us feel like family and not outsiders.

--anna

"Feel it . . . it is here!"

2010-05-04T02:04:00.000-07:00

One hears this slogan these days on South African radio. What "it" is, or that which we are implored to "feel" is, of course, the 2010 World Cup soccer tournament.

The coming of the World Cup to South Africa is not without controversy. Several weeks ago, for example, I spoke with a South African, a socially and environmentally-conscious Christian, who questions the wisdom of bringing the tournament to a country in which so many of its citizens live in abject poverty. Far from benefiting the poor, resources (e.g. electricity) used to host the tournament and later maintain infrastructure built specifically for it come directly at their expense.

That is one side of the issue. The other side is the pride that hosting an event of such magnitude can bring to the people of South Africa. Several weeks ago, as we walked through the streets of the township where we worship after church, a group of young men commented, "Is it the World Cup already?; we like to see you here!" This group of people, undoubtedly classified by outsiders as the poor, who indeed will not likely reap any material benefits from the tournament, nevertheless own the idea of hosting foreigners in their country. Perhaps the single greatest assurance of dignity for Africans--the essential characteristic of being human according to the Psalmist ("crowned with glory and honor") (Ps. 8)--is their capacity to host, to throw a party to which the world is invited.

Last week, while stopped at a red light, the voice of the young man driving the car beside mine came through my window: "feel it!" He spoke those words because he, a black man, and I, a white, were both wearing Bafana Bafana jerseys. We exchanged smiles and thumbs up. In the interest of doing my small part to support unity in a still deeply-divided society, Anna and I had decided to purchase one for my birthday. To me it is money well-spent.

So, yes, the international, corporate powers that put on the World Cup do not care for the poor. Perhaps they even impede the poor's actual ability to host the event. Yet we might ask whether our preoccupations with material considerations is the flip-side of a deficiency to appreciate as genuinely real those benefits which are invisible--or at least hidden from our eyes. That is a question.

Joe, Isaac, Levi, and Moses attempt to "feel it".

-Joe

trip to northern cape

2010-04-29T02:48:00.000-07:00

Last Thursday, we set out for a long weekend, extended by public holidays on Monday and Tuesday, in the Northern Cape Province. En route we stayed overnight in the town of Aliwal North, on the border between the Eastern Cape and Free State provinces. The town boasts natural hot springs. We took this picture of our boys beside one of the pools.
We resumed our travels on Friday. Our destination was the small town of Philipstown, located in the scenic Karoo region of South Africa. This field of cacti was on the long gravel road between Colesburg and Philipstown.
The purpose of our trip was a weekend of seminars with two churches, Grace Community Church, with headquarters at Philipstown and branches throughout the Karoo, and New Beginnings, a church in the nearby town of De Aar. GCC is a member of Mennonite World Conference and has recently expressed a desire to know much more about their Mennonite identity. New Beginnings is a church which has also expressed interest in Anabaptism and recently made contact with us Mennonite mission workers in South Africa.
We proceeded by exploring the identity and mission of the church from the New Testament and church history. In this session I am leading a Bible study on Ephesians 2:11-22. You can see that Isaac is also participating.

Though this was our first trip to Philipstown, our American and Canadian colleagues have been nurturing this relationship with GCC over the last four plus years. The weekend was for us a wonderful experience of giving and receiving gifts within the Body of Christ.

-Joe

Easter break

2010-04-15T10:44:00.000-07:00

We spent our two-week Easter break with colleagues and friends in Pietermaritzburg and then back home in Mthatha hosting guests from Mennonite Mission Network, Wayne and Lois Hochstetler, now based in London. Their work is pastoral care for the Network's workers across the globe--and they seem to do a great job of it. We enjoyed having them in our home. See their blog for images of our boys and our time together.

-Joe

mob justice and the justice of God

2010-03-25T22:43:00.000-07:00

Last week in Mandela Park, the location in which we worship on Sundays, several teenage boys were murdered in retribution for acts of theft and rape committed against members of the community. The events were chronicled in the regional media; we heard about them from our pastor who saw the police in pursuit of the boys. According to his account, a mob surrounded the boys. A mother of one of the boys was alerted with the news that her son was about to be killed. She arrived on the scene, but was chased off by the mob, helpless to save her son. The police looked on as the boys were beaten to death.

"I am not on the side of the thieves," the pastor said to me, "yet no one deserves to die like that."

The story brings to mind for me the witness of Jesus when confronting similar mobs, in particular his words to those who had gathered to stone the woman caught in the act of adultery (John 7:53-8:11). His statement, "Let anyone among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her", describes perfectly the crux of the dilemma. In violence-plagued communities, whose son or daughter, mother or father, is not a participant in such sin? Those who beat the boys to death, without mercy, are the same ones who on another day have played the part of the thief. In fact, their very act of vengeance implicates them in the moment, for the violence they committed is of a piece with the initial act of offense. They show themselves to be of no higher character than the boys.

The irony of the gospel story, of course, is that the only one without sin, opposite his words, also did not "cast a stone." Those who live by violence will die by it (Mt. 26:52)--an apt description of reality--but God in Jesus does not treat us as we deserve. He gives us a new word: "Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy" (Mt. 5:7).

I am amazed, given the hysteria of mob dynamics, that Jesus was able to defuse that situation with his words. For those who believe, there is more hope in that he was able to do so than there is despair in what transpired in the events of last week.

"No one deserves to die like that", "Let one without sin first cast a stone" will yet right the wrongs of our violent world.

-Joe

spot the boy

2010-03-24T23:46:00.000-07:00

I recently had occasion to print a picture of each of our boys as a baby. They are kind of hard to tell apart--even for us. Can you do it?

--anna

Isaac's birthday party

2010-03-22T00:11:00.000-07:00

The 2010 World Cup (to be held in South Africa) was loosely the theme of Isaac's birthday party. His mom made him this cake of the jersey of the South African national side, Bafana Bafana, complete with "SAFA" script (South African Football Association) and a number "7" for Isaac's age.
As Isaac's friends arrived, we had home-made party hats ready to be decorated and personalized by each child.

Lunch was chili-cheese dogs, flavored cheese puffs, and punch.

We also cranked ice cream. Each kid took a turn and seemed very interested in the process.

Cake time with the star in the center.

A final game of musical chairs.

Isaac had been looking forward to this day for months. It felt great to successfully host his first major party with friends from school. Isaac turns 7 on 24 March.

-Joe

Farming God's Way

2010-03-18T05:39:00.000-07:00

Last week, Bethany Bible School hosted its first workshop--a new thing this year in which we run three hands-on type seminars in addition to our 6 curriculum topics. The first one was called Farming God's Way and was taught by Mennonite Central Committee country representative, James Alty.

The idea of Farming God's Way is to teach conservation agriculture, emphasising the spiritual over the scientific. The three tenets of Farming God's Way are no till or burn, using mulch, and crop rotation. Mulch is referred to as "God's blanket" and its importance is emphasised by explaining how in nature, trees drop their leaves which are then returned to earth. In creation, the earth is never turned over and so we too should not deep-plough. In addition, participants are urged to do everything to a high standard and with joy--as unto the Lord.

It is a sad reality that while most people in this area have some land, little of it is being used to great advantage. The land has suffered from years of over-use in which nothing is given back to the soil. Rural people come into town to buy 10 cabbages at a time or 10 kgs of potatoes with their government grant cheques. Returning people to the land would bring huge rewards in the reduction of poverty.

Participants were excited about the workshop and plan to implement the strategies at planting time in November. We hope to do some follow-up and encourage people to actually do this. One person with a healthy garden with living soil would be a small miracle and that's what we pray for.

Singing to open our work on the demonstration "well-watered garden". Mama Dokolwana is leading with her hoe.

--anna

a beautiful moment

2010-03-15T11:07:00.000-07:00

Joe wrote last week on the Anabaptist Network in South Africa website about the unexpected acts of conciliation that break down walls of hostility (Surprised by Grace). On Friday we experienced such a moment.

Our friend Kuhle Mxakaza's boarding school choir was coming to Mthatha to perform. We had been to one of their concerts four years ago and knew that the performance would be top quality. They were to play at the school hall at Isaac's school. The hall was about a quarter full, almost entirely parents of the girls in the choir. From the minute they opened their mouths for the first requiem, we were stunned by the power of their sound. They were incredible. They sang a range of classical and opera in the first half. It was gorgeous.

In the second half, their accompanist sat down and they proceeded with African songs to which they danced and moved. The crowd also got going.

Several songs into the second act, the single white girl in the choir was brought forward to open with a solo. She began to sing a spiritual song in Xhosa. The crowd erupted. They waved and danced through the whole thing.

When she finished they asked her to come back and sing again. She did so. In different parts of the hall, Joe and I were weeping. There was something about the crowd's response to her song that gives me chills thinking about it. They weren't by any means a hostile crowd. And she wasn't anything other than a participating member of the choir. But the joy and blessing were so abundant. And suddenly, the concert had become a worship service. It was beautiful.

I don't know if anyone there particularly needed that moment of mutual humanity but the concert followed a week in which two top ANC leaders had made violent anti-white statements. Tension is running high in South Africa--the majority of black people are still suffering economically and white people feel left out of the political power structures. People can only hate when they don't know. We saw into each other's souls that night.

--anna

morning at Supa Quick

2010-03-09T05:03:00.000-08:00

On saturday, I took a friend's car to the Supa Quick to repair a leaky tyre. The car was there at 7:30. the third one in line. The place opened at 8:00 and I waited inside with Jesse while tyre after tyre was wheeled in and worked on. I finally went in to ask the man at the desk why my car was not being seen. I heard him telling a worker to "bring in the BMW." I asked about my car and he said to remind the workers. I went back out and asked about my car. After another minute or two, the worker got into my car and drove it over to a different door and someone pulled up the BMW at the door that I was standing in front of.

I began to hear sounds of a rising argument. A woman standing across from me was shouting at the worker that had moved my car. I started to realise that the argument involved me: "It's racist. You're racist. You took that car because she's white. If I had kept quiet my car still wouldn't be seen." The worker, who was coloured, explained to her that he had moved my car in order to make room for her BMW as hers needed to be jacked up. She continued to shout at him, with rising fury that he was racist. He began to shout back that he wasn't racist and that she was making him really angry.

A manager came out and tried to calm them both down. Eventually the worker went to work on my car and someone else came to work on hers. I saw that she was still angry and fuming. I went over and said that I was sorry if that had anything to do with it and asked how long she had been waiting. She poured out a story of Supa Quick Mthatha putting the wrong tyres on her car and when she went to East London, they asked her why she had risked her life with these tyres. She had come back to Mthatha demanding that they fix their mistake. They had said they would phone her the week before and never had so when she came in on saturday she had expected to be seen first as none of this had been her fault, but theirs. And yet they had continued to keep her waiting. She said that they were taking advantage of her because she was a woman and didn't know what the right tyres were supposed to look like. They told her that she should have told them which tyres to use, to which she replied that they were the tyre experts.

We talked for a while and when her car was ready she came over to say goodbye. The manager told me that my car had only had a kinked rim which leaked air and that there was no charge. I don't understand everything that happened that morning--I don't know whether she was kept waiting because she was black or a woman or because they were incompetent. I don't know whether I had to wait because I was a woman or because they have no system at all. I don't know whether I would have waited longer had I been a young black woman. But a dull morning of waiting for a tyre repair turned into a meaningful time of understanding and the evils of the system matter less when we don't let it build up walls between us.

--anna

one came back

2010-03-01T04:25:00.000-08:00

I was once taking a pastor home from a service. It had been a meeting to discuss plans for an HIV/AIDS ministry. At the end of the meeting, everyone had begun to sing and dance as usual. This particular pastor went around praying for each woman in turn and placing her hands on their heads. As she left each woman, I saw her shake her hands as if the power had gone out from them and they needed rejuvenation.

In the car, I asked her about it. She is a healer and she is the founder and bishop of her church. She told me that she is sad because everyone wants to come to her for healing but, having been healed, they do not come back. She said that, as a pastor, you have to be prepared that on any given Sunday you may be preaching only to your husband.

Soon after we began attending church in Mandela Park, a young man appeared at church one Sunday. At a time in the service in which people are prayed for, he came forward and said that he had "fits" and wanted healing. Everyone gathered around and prayed for him.

That man came back. Every week. Every mid-week service. We have never been at church when he wasn't and we have never made it to church before him.

The pastors have continued to pray for him. They have also taken him to a doctor. When it was time for his circumcision, his initiation into manhood, the pastor took him to a doctor for the physical circumcision and then visited him during his time of seclusion to teach him on what it means to be a man.

While the nine went on their way, satisfied with their healing, this man is the one who came back to give praise to God. While his healing may have been affected in that first visit, truly it is his faith that has made him well (Luke 17:11-19).

--anna

a deeper hunger

2010-02-27T11:53:00.000-08:00

Tata Maka is one of my favorite people in South Africa. He is a faithful member of Harvest Time Ministries in the location of Mandela Park, just outside of Mthatha.

After services, he openly shares his insights with me.

Tata Maka's prayers for regular employment were finally answered several weeks ago. He now works at one of the many Spar grocery stores in town. His job is to bring bread out from the bakery and into the salesroom. He reports that the bread disappears into the hands of eager shoppers as soon as he wheels it out. Some days he runs back and forth, in and out, all day without rest. One day in the process, he heard the voice of God telling him that the people's desperate hunger for bread was but a sign of their deeper hunger for God.

Just today I also read these words from Kenneth E. Bailey in his fine book on the Gospels, Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes. Describing an experience in the Sahara Desert in which the author and his company went for a day and a half without water, he writes,

"As I staggered on, my mind turned to this verse and I knew that I had never sought righteousness with the same single-minded passion that I now gave to the quest for water" (Bailey, 2008: 77). The verse, of course, was the beatitude of Jesus: "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled" (Mt. 5:6).

Bailey concludes: "This Beatitude makes clear that the bless-ed are those whose drive for righteousness is as pervasive, all-consuming and recurring as the daily yearning to satisfy hunger and thirst. Hungering and thirsting for that righteousness can only be satisfied by God" (pg. 81).

Tata Maka would agree.

-Joe

Kenneth E. Bailey, Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes: Cultural Studies in the Gospels (Downers Grove, Ill.: IVP Academic, 2008).

consensus

2010-02-24T01:14:00.000-08:00

I had written two weeks ago about my frustrations with trying to empower people who may not want to be empowered (whose decisions?). Specifically, our committee was not willing or able to stand up for the decisions that they had made but, as soon as any dissent arose, they came back to "pleading" with us for new decisions. I went into our committee meeting last week prepared to come out feeling even worse about the future of the school.

But when the issue of decision-making arose on the agenda, our chairperson made a speech in which he apologised for the manner in which the issue had been brought to us and said: "the committee appeared as people who do not stand to their word."

I was touched. I was thrilled. I was humbled. I was hopeful. This was a committee that we could work with. A committee that wanted to "stand to their word."

The discussion went around and around and when all facts and details, thoughts and opinions had been laid out, the committee decided that the decision taken in November was still the one that would serve the most people the most faithfully. Everyone weighed in, consensus was reached, and the committee committed itself to defending the decision to the people.

We move on in hope.

Tata Gumenke, committee chairperson

--anna

"good news to the poor"

2010-02-19T02:08:00.001-08:00

Earlier this month we passed the four-year mark of our time in South Africa. One of the issues that is ever-before us is poverty and how to respond to it. Neither romanticizing those who are poor, on the one hand, nor condemning them, on the other, will do. Amidst all of the confusion that comes with working to empower the unempowered, inspire the uninspired, give hope to those in despair, I find my way in the proclamation of Jesus' simple words--words of love, words of challenge, words with power.

The so-called "prosperity gospel" is one message which speaks to the poor. Regardless of whether one finds it unsavory at best, blasphemous at worst, one cannot deny its large following. To this we may simply say that the way of Jesus was never meant to be popular--"the gate is narrow and the road is hard that leads to life, and there are few who find it" (Mt. 7:14); and after all is said and done, it may come down to that. Even so, we can also ask whether we have done all we can do, said all we can say, to proclaim a message that gives hope to the poor.

I have posted a short essay on this theme on the website of the Anabaptist Network in South Africa.

Peace,

Joe

whose decisions?

2010-02-09T01:28:00.000-08:00

For the most part, things went very well with our conference this weekend. The teaching was well received, attendance good in spite of recent conflict, the singing as beautiful as ever, and the people as warm. And yet, there was one incident that has made me question our entire ministry.

While our purpose here is to build up church leaders through biblical and leadership education, one desired outcome from this building up is Christian leaders who take over the running of the school and no longer "need" the missionaries. One of the ways that we have worked at this is to work very closely with a committee of ten elected students in making all decisions related to the school. Our hope is that these students will take responsibility for the running of the school and will grow in capacity to run it themselves.

Our final conference of the year is in November and this is the time when major decisions are supposed to be discussed at the committee level and taken to the annual general meeting for discussion and approval or rejection. In November, we proposed a new teaching schedule that would make better use of our resources and would allow students to finish their certificates in 4 years instead of 6. It would prove a slight inconvenience for those few students with jobs who would probably need to finish in the original 6 years. The committee assured us that this would not be a problem and later told us that the general student body had approved it.

Our first conference on this new schedule was this past weekend and the new additional Friday teaching went well. We had good turn out and were able to spend more time on the topic than normal. Everyone seemed very happy.

But the next day, when the students were in discussion groups, the committee said that they wanted to talk to us. They had had complaints about this new schedule and wanted to change it. We asked them to understand the implications of their new proposed changes and also the implications of running an organisation that makes decisions in this haphazard way.

The incident has been haunting me ever since. I think that what bothers me is the committee's failure to take responsibility for their decisions. We had naively believed that they were fully empowered and knew that the decisions they made were the ones that were implemented. And yet, as soon as someone complained, they were more than happy to bring it back to us and ask us to make changes. They had passed a proposal that they wanted to change by the next time we met. We told them it wasn't our (Joe's and my) decision but OUR (the whole committee's) decision. But it ultimately comes down to them believing that we are the big bosses. Which we are to an extent.

And that's the other part of it. We are the ones paid full-time to run the school--so we are the big bosses. We are trying to empower a committee of volunteers who have their own lives and work. Why should they take responsibility for the running of the school? It seems to suit everyone fine to have the missionaries make the decisions and run the school. We are the ones who are trying to be democratic and empower the students. That is not their goal but ours.

These are perpetual questions. I can't let myself be dejected by the lows as I can't let myself become overly optimistic by the highs. We carry on in faith all people are "crowned with glory and honour" and have been given "dominion over the works of [God's] hands" (Psalm 8:5,6) and we are all living ourselves into this glory.

--anna

recipe for love

2010-01-21T04:08:00.000-08:00

A true story:

One evening at twilight while a certain man was inspecting his garden, his wife approached to report that she was going across the way to visit another woman on the location. Returning some hours later, the husband "felt something telling him" to search his wife's coat, after she had taken it off. His suspicions were confirmed: in the inner pockets he found two plastic baggies of "powder"--"poison" in his assessment, intended for him. Later confronting his wife about the find, she denied such intentions, claiming instead that it was medicine for a certain ailment her mother had been carrying. Knowing, however, that the mother had previously been healed, the husband pressed his wife further for the truth. Eventually she conceded; the powder was for him. Even so, the wife did not intend for the powder to kill her husband. On the contrary, she was going to feed it to her husband in order to make him love her; the powder was a love-potion.

This situation is not uncommon. The city of Mthatha is littered on any day, its buildings likewise adorned, with flyers of traditional doctors--sangomas--advertising their services to the public: enlargement (or reduction) of sexual organs, abortions, the attaining of jobs or riches, curing HIV-AIDS, and yes, bringing back a lost lover. That it is so, I now understand, is not for no reason; where the demand is great, so the supply.

One of the most common explanations we hear for cause of death among this segment of the population is "poisoning": "they are saying she was poisoned"; "maybe he ate poison"; "they poisoned her." It is also worth noting that poison in the South African context has political connections; the apartheid regime maintained chemical labs in which lethal mixtures were produced and applied by secret agents, for example, on the clothes of political dissidents. That which differentiates these two examples of poison--the one "traditional", "primal", "premodern", the other "scientific", "sophisticated", "modern"--is not as relevant as what unites them. Both were devised in the shadows, in secret, with deception. These ingredients are the impetus of such concoction, the biological combinations mere conductors of their master's malice.

That malice was not the wife's, for she loves her husband. Nor even does it belong to the woman who supplied the powder, the sangoma, though she deals in the powers of darkness. It belongs to the evil one, "the father of lies" (Mt. 6:13; Jn. 8:44), the one who bends desires for good to evil.

God bends them back. Though he later noticed only one bag of powder, the man will not refuse to eat the food his wife serves. To reject his wife's gifts is a greater threat to their marriage than the poison powder. Someone must break the cycle of doubt and fear. The man knows he's complicit; his own falling with another woman three years ago set back his wife's ability to trust the love she now seeks from him in powder. Eating is an act of faith--one simple act, among others, with power to remake their marriage according to God's intention.

What the devil intended for evil, God intended for good (Gen. 50:20).

-Joe

Anabaptist Network in South Africa

2010-01-18T01:21:00.000-08:00

Both Anna and I have been contributing to the website of the Anabaptist Network in South Africa (ANiSA), a project which our colleagues Karen and Andrew Suderman are spearheading from their base in Pietermaritzburg (You can access two of our opinion pieces below).

colonialism and ancestral worship
online worship and community

In southern Africa, and also in some other places, Mennonite mission from North America has focused not on planting a Mennonite denomination, but on being a voice for values (e.g. peace, justice, simplicity, humility) which can be incorporated by whosoever may choose to listen. The Mennonite presence in Mthatha, for example, was founded on precisely that principle. While I cannot escape (nor do I wish to) that as a Mennonite my teaching on the Bible has been shaped by my theological tradition, that teaching has been graciously accommodated by a wider circle, in our case the African Initiated Churches (AICs) and Pentecostals who have supported Bethany Bible School for nearly 30 years.

Rightly, however, the North American Mennonite voice is not now the only Anabaptist voice in South Africa. Zimbabwean nationals of the Brethren in Christ, a member church of Mennonite World Conference, are planting Anabaptist congregations in South Africa; so too are Mennonites from Congo. Their presence, as well as South Africans who have become interested in Anabaptism (some in part via the website), causes us to revisit our historic way of doing mission in southern Africa. I, for one, am not averse to the sprouting of Anabaptist congregations and, provided that the growth is organic and free of manipulation, would encourage it. Still, as other colleagues have pointed out, any participation in the growth of explicitly Anabaptist faith communities must be weighed alongside historic commitments to support existing denominations, relationships which have been built on the understanding that Mennonites did not have as their goal the increase of their own church membership. Regardless of these considerations, we continue to have as our goal the witness to peace through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

-Joe

retreat

2010-01-15T23:29:00.000-08:00

From January 3-8, we were at Skogheim Christian Retreat Centre near Shelly Beach, in the province of kwaZulu-Natal, with fellow workers in the organizations of Mennonite Mission Network, Mennonite Church Canada Witness, and Mennonite Central Committee (MCC). Together we represented four countries of work (Botswana, Lesotho, South Africa, Swaziland) and four nationalities (Canada, Swaziland, United States, Zimbabwe). This year's retreat was blessed with an infusion of young adults who were serving/had served in programs of the aforementioned Mennonite organizations: MCC's SALT, in which young adults from North America spend a year living and working in a foreign country; MCC's IVEP, in which young adults from countries where MCC works spend a year living and working in North America; and Mission Network's Radical Journey, in which young adults from North America spend a year living as community and learning what if means to follow Jesus in the context of the global church.

Together we shared stimulating input on the theme of "experiencing God in another culture", vibrant worship, and much-needed (from the perspective of this writer) recreation (I remembered the sheer joy of Mennonite summer camp with pool games, in this case polo, soccer, and ultimate). Best of all was the awareness that our children enjoy these events so much which bridge for them the world they hear about (North America) and the world in which they live (Africa).

-Joe

Thanks to Joan Alty for the photo.

parting words for '09

2009-12-31T10:49:00.000-08:00

As 2009 fades away, I am remembering a number of incidents within the past year of rescue, deliverance, salvation from evil. Perhaps we should not need the presence of evil to remember the goodness that surrounds us; yet that goodness appears brightest against the engulfing darkness that might have been. Similarly, one may know that he is called to a particular work in ordinary times; yet experiences of rescue strengthen confidence in the call, for the loss that almost was seems as gain for what will be.

Tonight I want to register my gratitude for God's protection and provision in our life, and pray that that gratitude might not run dry amidst the challenges of 2010.

-Joe

calling out gifts

2009-12-22T21:12:00.000-08:00

Last week at church the pastor called up our Isaac and his Lilitha to stand behind the table as the offering was brought forward. When he had counted the money, he told Isaac how much was there and Isaac told the congregation. He then announced that Isaac was going to pray over the offering. We waited, wondering how our shy boy would handle this sudden elevation to leadership. The pastor stood patiently and silently while Isaac found his words. The pastor then thanked him and repeated to the congregation that Isaac had prayed: "God, bless everything we do."

The pastor didn't ask. He didn't question whether he would be able to do it. He simply brought him forward and expected him to find the gift within himself. And Isaac did it.

cheap grace?

2009-12-09T00:54:00.001-08:00

Last year we reported on Isaac's preschool graduation and wondered about the purpose of caps and gowns and graduation speakers for preschool children (preschool graduation) This year Moses graduated and we again had to wonder. Was it simply teaching the kids cheap grace?

The long day, which started late and then had 5 speakers before the designated guest speaker, was harder to take this year. What I used to be able to count as cultural experience is now simply wearing. And as I watched Moses climb across the backs of the chairs in his cap and gown and Mona Lisa pick her nose with the lace on her dress, the whole thing seemed like a huge farce.

But when the long day was over and the kids had (finally) been served lunch at 4:00, Moses told us: "I just could not stop smiling, I liked wearing that hat so much." We told him that he had to work really hard in school for the next 14 years and then he would get to wear it again and there would be further opportunities to learn and be rewarded with a cap and gown. Maybe it is worth it for that.

Every preschool in the city does the same ceremony and many, many kids have parents who never graduated from highschool. Hopefully wearing the cap and gown will serve not as an end. Hopefully it will inspire a desire to learn and achieve that will take them further and further as they realise their own potential.

Moses, Nanda, Thina, Siyamdumisa, and Ndinako with their certificates

The graduates with their teachers - Titsha Sibongile and Titsha Thethelwa

--anna

worship as service

2009-11-24T04:50:00.000-08:00

At church on Sunday the visitors and those returning after an absence were asked to introduce themselves and greet the congregation. The last in the line was a young woman. She spoke quietly and after the initial line of greeting, she cried out and fell to her knees crying. One woman began a song and another came over to rub her back as she lay on the floor. As her sobs died down, this mama helped her to her feet, wiped off her knees where they had hit the dirt floor, and put her gently back in her place on the wooden bench. The service continued as she recovered herself.
At the end of the service, everyone who wanted to be prayed for came forward; there was a teenage girl who was worried because her parents were fighting, a young man who wanted to accept Jesus, a teenage boy who wanted to be strong as he is "very weak", and there was the young woman again. Each was prayed for in turn as the congregation sang. We still don't know why that young woman was there but her pain was carried by the entire body of Christ on that day.

Yesterday we received our copy of the Mennonite bi-weekly magazine, aptly titled The Mennonite. In it I read a news blurb about two North American Mennonite congregations that had chosen to give up worship one Sunday a year in order to "do service." This was hailed as an admirable act. The attitude to worship conveyed by the actions of these two churches stood in marked and disturbing contrast to Sunday's service at the little mud brick church. There are two attitudes to worship that the Mennonite church can learn from.

1) Worship is the work of the church.
We do not go to church only to fulfill obligation. We do not go to church only to gain the strength to go out into the world and serve, as important as this may be. We go to church because this is the work of the church. When people can bring their pain into the church and release it there without shame, the church is fulfilling its call to bring hope and healing to a hurting world.

2) We are the ones in need of healing and hope.
The hurt is not all "out there." The hurt is often in ourselves, our families, our communities. We are as much in need of healing as the people out there we go to serve. And we cannot serve them unless we are right with God and our neighbours. We are never so righteous that we can forego this time in order to serve those who are more in need. We are in need ourselves.

--anna

multiplying talents through t-shirts

2009-11-19T05:40:00.000-08:00

When Tabor Mennonite Church asked us whether they could take an offering for a special project in Mthatha, we wanted to find a use for it that would serve multiple purposes. The church gave us money that the kids raised at Vacation Bible School and we used it to buy t-shirts and get the BBS symbol printed on them. These t-shirts went on sale at our conference and graduation this past weekend and were received with joy.

BBS was begun in 1982 as a response to African Initiated Churches' (AIC) feeling that they were not respected by mainline mission-founded churches. Certain AIC leaders identified one of the reasons for this as their own lack of education and formal preparation for ministry. BBS arose as a way to address this issue - to better train AIC leaders for ministry and to give them confidence and credibility in the larger South African church scene. We know that students proudly display their BBS certificates each year and take pride in their school and what they gain there. The introduction of the t-shirts seemed to give them another way to express their loyalty.

We also hope that the shirts will serve as a way to bring in new members. As many people we work with do not read, written promotional materials are not very productive. However, a shirt on someone's body can create interest and begin discussion.

In addition to helping us raise funds for next year's BBS workshops and a future BBS building, the purchase of t-shirts has demonstrated the concept of multiplying resources as in the Parable of the Talents (Matthew 25:14-30). Instead of simply putting the money into the BBS budget, it has purchased something that will be sold at a profit. In a place with extremely high unemployment, most people rely on social grants to eke out a living. Taking a small portion of the money available to them and investing it can make a huge difference in their standard of living.

Mama Faniso, Mama Dokolwana, and Mama Velaphi wearing their new shirts

--anna

marriage blessing

2009-11-06T23:57:00.000-08:00

Last Sunday, our church held a special service of blessing for a newly-married couple, the husband of which is connected to the congregation through his mother. The mother had greatly desired that her church hold this service. The pastor approached the service with great consideration and, at times, consternation--so great was his desire to make sure that all would feel fully welcomed and satisfied at this event. Proof of the event's being "set-apart" in the mind of the congregation was the inclusion of a tent, sound system, and keyboard. The event began with the youth, coordinated in pink attire, dancing the couple in. Then, the pastor and his wife welcomed everyone to the service, most notably a row of special guests from the husband and wife's respective families. I was given the sermon, using a variety of texts to illustrate my points about marriage. The word hitting close to home in a context of many broken marriages, a number of people responded in an extensive period of tears, prophesying, speaking in tongues, and prayer. As calm returned, a cake was unveiled, blessed, and then cut by the couple.

As in all special events in this setting, a hard-earned (from all the patience and sitting through what has become a long, hot day) meal ensued. The special guests and leadership took the meal together in the house of the mother of the groom, while the youth, children, and other members ate together back in the tent. Our kids, with a few other children who were already there, ate with us on the mother's premises, though they had to wait--in reverse of much North American church culture--until the adults were served first. Our oldest two have finally come to accept this. I fed Levi off my plate and Anna held Jesse. The cold Coca-Cola always tastes so good at these events!

-Joe

Thanks to Deb Byler, our special guest from Mennonite Mission Network, for the photos.

the manly calling

2009-10-18T23:48:00.000-07:00

Some weeks ago, I devoted two entries to events which included a young couple who had just joined the church in Mandela Park. http://josephsawatzky.blogspot.com/2009/09/beginning-of-wisdom.html and http://joeannasawatzky.blogspot.com/2009/08/mothering.html Less than two months later, that relationship has unraveled; the husband left the wife and two children and the pastor of Mandela Park behind to work with "another pastor" in an area about 80 km from here.

The news came as a big disappointment for me. The pastor was hoping that his younger colleague would be a great help to the ministry, that they could lean on one another to meet the needs of their people. In order to ensure that that might happen, we had held a special service of blessing for the couple, signaling their status as leaders of the congregation. I left that Sunday feeling pleased that we had done all we could to get the relationship off to a good start. Its unraveling, therefore, comes as a betrayal also to me, the one who offered the words of encouragement that day from the Bible.

The situation is doubtless a greater crisis for the wife and the pastor who were left behind than it is for me. Nevertheless, it also leaves me vulnerable; it forces me to face the prospect of my own ineffectiveness as a minister/teacher of the gospel. I believe in the power of the Word of God; I have experienced it in both personal study and public proclamation. As a result, I find it amazing that a person who has witnessed the power of the Spirit in the company of the Word can--and so soon--do the very thing the Word told him not to do.

According to the pastor, his departed colleague was heard to say that he "believes he is called by God to serve this other pastor". If such a call is true, that is, from God, then we must accept it (regardless, we have to live with it). Yet that call rings hollow. It comes, seemingly, from a spirit without content, without knowledge, without the Word. It comes from a spirit that says "leave wife and children for the sake of the good news"--the very ones, now in essence widowed and orphaned, whom the good news was given to serve. For what other reason was the good news given than to make us better husbands and wives, fathers and mothers, humans-in-community?

Jesus, of course, did tell us to "hate wife and children" (Lk. 14:26), among other family members, in the pursuit of following him. This is rightly a call to resist in one's life the counsel or wisdom of any human authority as greater than God; being controlled by the wisdom of one's spouse or children can lead a family away from the blessings of God. Yet, those who have entered the holy covenant of marriage will find that an increased loyalty to God will lead to an increased--not decreased--concern for the well-being of "wife and children". In other words, we must "hate them" in favor of God in order to love them as God does.

How does God love them, love us? With the words of Ephesians 5 no doubt in the background of his mind, the pastor who was left behind is fond of saying, "The wife of Jesus is the church; I have my own wife". "Just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her," so the pastor must give himself to his wife (Eph. 5:25). That is his calling as a man of God.

-Joe

spring

2009-10-14T05:19:00.000-07:00

A little illustration of how everything in our house becomes a competition or you know you are living in an all-boy household when....

After four days of rain, the sun finally came out and Moses, Jesse and I took a little walk around the yard to check on all the plants. We noticed that one lavender bush was choking out another one and decided to trim back the big one. We made a huge bouquet of lavender which Moses said he wanted in his room "to make him sleepy". He also cut a little sprig for his pillow.

That night, Isaac was upset that Moses had a lavender sprig on his pillow and he didn't. So we cut him one too. The next day I happened to be walking by his room and saw Isaac with a scissors "giving a haircut" to the lavender bouquet. I decided to ignore the whole thing.

The following day I went to take off his sheets to wash them and discovered what he had been up to.

I guess Isaac won the lavender competition.

--anna

outside the law

2009-10-06T05:22:00.001-07:00

Last Saturday night, I enjoyed an in-depth conversation with my neighbor and his friend as they braaied some steaks. My neighbor is my peer: 31 years old, married, a father, a committed Christian.

I listened as my two companions shared fascinating insights into the relationship of Christianity and culture in the traditional southern African setting. They spoke of conversations they used to have with other peers in their Christian fellowship in their university days. They used to debate--and the debate still rages--an issue which also occupied the mind of the early church: circumcision vs. uncircumcision.

The two largest language groups in South Africa, the amaXhosa and the amaZulu, are known to have different traditions regarding circumcision; Xhosa boys become men through circumcision in their late teen years, Zulus do not practice circumcision. In reality, the situation is considerably more complex than that, as various communities often classified as Xhosa, the amaMpondo, for example, traditionally did not circumcise. Today, that situation has changed, as there has been an epidemic of young men dying through botched circumcision rites in Pondoland, and at ages far younger than Xhosa tradition would recommend. In the end, therefore, the practice of circumcision in South Africa reveals my friends' point: there is no pure culture; culture is dynamic.

Having established this background, my friends moved to describe the aforementioned debates. On one occasion, one of their peers claimed that circumcision was essential to his Christian life because it established his credibility when preaching in the rural locations. The traditional people would not welcome the message of a male who was uncircumcised. Something about his argument, however, did not sit well with my neighbor.

"Are you saying that the gospel of Jesus Christ is limited?" Countering his peer's logic, my neighbor had told the following story.

"There was once this Zulu guy who was spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ through all these Xhosa villages. He used to get up and preach and say to the people, 'I am not circumcised', and the people loved him. That shows that the most important thing is the anointing [of the Holy Spirit], not culture."

That the Zulu preacher repeatedly emphasized that he was "not circumcised" illustrates the strength of the attachment of his Xhosa audience to this cultural practice. Indeed, because their belief in the power that circumcision bestows was so strong, it was necessary for the preacher to ascribe the power so obviously at work in him to another source.

It is interesting to read the South African context of circumcision alongside the biblical record of the same. In the book of Galatians, for example, circumcision is tied to blessings and curses. Certain people within the churches of Galatia were insisting that uncircumcised Gentile converts must be circumcised to avoid the curse of disobedience to the commandments of Jewish Law, of which circumcision, of course, was one. That curse, as described at length in the final chapters of the book of Deuteronomy, included the entire nation; the transgressions of one to the law led to the curse for many. That curse entailed loss of land to enemies, disease, plague, death.

A similar dynamic seems to be at play in Xhosa traditions. Although the Old Testament law consistently forbade Israel to consult the spirits of the dead whereas many African traditions are based on such communication, in both disobedience of one member to spiritual authority puts the entire community at risk of death, of the curse.

In light of this, we might not understand the so-called "Judaizers" among the early Christians so much as callous, unwelcoming traditionalists but as zealous members of the covenant community, concerned above all for the survival of the whole people of God. According to their understanding, circumcision and law-obedience was the way of avoiding the curse; the uncircumcision of certain members put the entire community at risk.

In light of Christ, however, we understand that understanding to be limited. Though he was obedient to the law, circumcised, he was also cursed according to it: hung on a tree (Gal. 3:13; Dt. 21:23). Yet, in his name, by his gospel, by his Spirit, came "love, joy, and peace" (Gal. 5:22). From the cursed one came blessing.

As Christ, so the Zulu preacher who came in his name. From him came blessing outside the dictates of the law. If blessing could come outside the traditions, then the traditions--and the powers who presided over them--were not so powerful as previously thought. They might continue to bless and curse those who continued to fear them. But for those who welcomed Christ, only the curse was lost; "from his fullness we have all received grace upon grace", blessing upon blessing (Jn. 1:16).

-Joe

waiting on Jesse

2009-10-05T00:53:00.000-07:00

Last Monday, September 28, ended our long wait for the arrival of our fourth child. He turned out to be Jesse Immanuel Liechty Sawatzky, another big, beautiful boy.

Thinking we knew the date of conception, we had been expecting Jesse a day or two from September 8. Accordingly, we had made arrangements that Anna's mother could be with us for the birth and surrounding days; she arrived on August 31. However, as Jesse stayed inside, it became clear that she would have to extend her stay--something she had to do twice (Thanks to the Elkhart, Indiana school district!). She is now scheduled to leave on Friday.

Based on our expectation, Jesse came late. Perhaps also we produced some worry in friends and family who wondered why it was taking so long. We, too, struggled against our worst fears and had to seek assurance many times throughout the month of September. Yet, we decided that the baby was fine: Anna felt great and Jesse was moving. The wait was difficult, but we believe in waiting.

Perhaps nothing is as difficult for us in the 21st-century as waiting. Information is instantaneous in the internet age. In terms of birth, the medical establishment seems increasingly hostile to the experience of waiting--the rates of induction and caesareans are higher than they've ever been. Why wait if technology and expertise can minimize the disruption to our schedules that is birth?

There are many good reasons to wait--for example, that technology and expertise can't minimize disruption but may, in fact, create greater, more unwelcome disruptions--but for us it boils down to an affirmation of faith, a dogged insistence against the overwhelming weight of conventional wisdom to the contrary, that God still rules the world. With Paul, we "want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings . . .." We want to endure the suffering that waiting can be if it brings us closer to the God who loves us.

Many things brought us back from the pit of despair as days turned into weeks. In terms of scripture, I found myself again and again in Psalm 27. Its closing became for me a word of strong defiance against fear, and, somewhat paradoxically, a gentle assurance of God's presence.

"I believe that I shall see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Wait for the Lord; be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the Lord!" (vv. 13-14 NRSV).

We did see the goodness of the Lord. We did come to know again the creative power of God, the power that calls into being the things that are not and raises the dead. We came to know it in Jesse, a baby named "Immanuel", "God is with us".

We came to know it through waiting.

-Joe

conservative questions

2009-09-14T01:45:00.000-07:00

This weekend, the headline of our favorite South African newspaper, the Mail & Guardian, read "Zuma's New God Squad Wants Liberal Laws to Go".

In short, the headline, as well as an editorial inside, describes a shift underway in South African society in which powers of "conservative" religious faith are gaining a greater hearing with SA's new president, Jacob Zuma, than they had with his predecessor, Thabo Mbeki. Under Mbeki's leadership, South Africa legalized abortion and gay marriage, two laws which Zuma's alleged "God Squad" would now like to repeal.

The articles describe some of the deep paradoxes of South African society. For example, although South Africa is reputed to have "the most liberal constitution in the world", it has arguably one of the world's most conservative populations. Conservative tendencies cut across racial, economic, and religious lines, from deeply religious supporters of the old Apartheid regime, founded as it was upon the doctrines of the Dutch Reformed Church, to members of Pentecostals and African Initiated Churches, to various Islamic groups, to staunch proponents of everything held to be traditionally "African."

Zuma, of course, was swept into office on the popular support of those who held that Mbeki was a European-educated, out-of-touch elite; Zuma, the story goes, embodies the hopes and values of the common person. Of course, the lines are never tidy; Mbeki too styled himself an authentically African leader with "African solutions to African problems", a rationale on which he championed a traditional "African" diet to the exclusion of "western" antiretroviral drugs as a treatment for persons suffering from HIV-AIDS. The Zuma-led African National Congress (ANC, the ruling-party in SA) immediately repudiated Mbeki's policies on AIDS.

In light of such paradoxes, when one leader "conserves" traditional cultural norms in one way yet not another, we might ask, "Who is conservative [or substitute "liberal"]? " Or, what classifies as a 'conservative' issue? Relatedly, who is African? What classifies as an African issue?

Who is an American? What must one uphold to be authentically American?

Or why should that be our criterion? Is there nothing else?

-Joe

this coach is bound for glory

2009-09-04T03:54:00.000-07:00

Last week we purchased a new vehicle in preparation for our fourth child, due any day now, which will expand our family beyond the capacity of our faithful Honda Ballade. In order to get the vehicle, I had to make a five-hour trip to Durban. However, since Anna needed the Honda to get around Mthatha, we booked me a seat on a bus bound for Pietermaritzburg, not far from Durban, where I could stay with our Mennonite colleagues. We also decided that it would be a fun thing for me to do with Isaac. So, he kept me company while Levi and Moses did the same for Anna.

I had an interesting experience on the bus that night. We were welcomed heartily and proceeded to enjoy a comfortable ride through the Eastern Cape hills. After 2-3 hours, we took our first stop at the travel centre in Kokstad. Isaac had already fallen asleep, so I stayed on the bus while the other passengers filed off, and then on, arms laden with bags of chips and cans of drinks from the convenience store. The bus pulled out with a new driver behind the wheel. His predecessor then moved to the role of host, welcoming us all aboard. He did not, then, however, move into a speech about emergency exits and seat-belts; he informed us all that we were "going to pray".

The host did offer a brief disclaimer, something like "if you aren't interested in participating, just sit quietly and respectfully so others can pray." Otherwise, there was no sense that this should be weird or out-of-the-ordinary for anyone.

Then commenced a very typical South African worship service--only, on a bus. In spite of the fact that the travelers were inevitably from diverse denominations, both mainline and independent, the worship was cohesively "African", which is to say, emotive and heartfelt. The host began by saying that we were going to pray for safety, because, though we don't know what's out there ahead of us on the road, God knows. Before the prayer, however, he led us in a worship song from the Pentecostal canon, "You are Alpha and Omega". Then he led us in prayer. His spirited lines were audible above the babble of voices all around, engaging in masithandaze sonke, or "all pray" at the same time. Then our host-driver-pastor opened it up for testimonies. One man volunteered. I heard something about Jesus being the way. Then we sang "Noyana", "Will you go [to heaven]?" With that, the service ended. The host went through the bus passing out our choice of lemon- or orange-creme biscuits and apologizing that there was "no juice" on this night. The painfully-acted martial arts movie starring Dolph Lundgren flickered back onto the solitary television screen at the front of the bus. The coach rambled on safely to Maritzburg.

-Joe

the transformation of our backyard

2009-08-29T01:40:00.000-07:00

before
during
after
adding some landscaping around the patio/basketball court

church and ministry

2009-08-17T04:40:00.000-07:00

Yesterday at church, the pastor welcomed three old women who had come in support of another old woman, a regular at the church, whose son and his new wife were supposed to attend that day to receive a special blessing for their marriage. The son and his wife never came, so the significance of the other visitors' presence had to be found elsewhere--and it was.

The three visiting women all represented "classic" Pentecostal denominations, in this case, the Assemblies of God (AOG) and the Apostolic Faith Mission (AFM). Both of these denominations trace their origins to the founding event of modern Pentecostalism, the revivals of Azusa Street in Los Angeles, 1906. Within months of the movement's origins in California, participants in the Azusa Street revivals were on the ground in South Africa.

I do not know whether or not these three old women know of their churches' American roots. In this case that is not the most relevant point; Pentecostalism has taken on a life of its own within the South African context, and it was events pertaining to that particular history which concerned the pastor on this day.

"All of these ministries which we are leading come from your churches," he said, addressing the old women. "We are your children."

The pastor's statement was the most explicit affirmation that I have heard within a congregational context of the distinction that scholars have made between Pentecostals and New Pentecostals. The "we" of the pastor's statement is church leaders of his generation, forty-somethings on down, who lead "ministries". The pastor's type of Pentecostalism can perhaps best be distinguished from his spiritual parents by name rather than doctrine; he and his contemporaries are inclined to use "ministry" more than "church" to describe their work for the Lord. Thus the pastor's "church" is Harvest Time Ministries. On Sunday, another woman who now worships with Harvest Time Ministries explained that she used to worship in town with Last Hour Harvest Ministries. Last November, I met a young pastor who was leading simply God's Ministry. Our Mennonite colleagues in South Africa do worship with a "church", Breakthru Church International, but it is part of a "ministry", New Zion Ministries International.

I often wonder about the independent character of such ministries. In this situation, the pastor was expressing his dependency on those who have gone before. He owed a debt of gratitude to the mothers of the AOG and the AFM who, on this day, had entered his church to confer a special blessing upon his ministry.

-Joe