South African Journey

Just a short thing about my birthday. I had informed folks here in Alex as to when my birthday is. I wasn’t sure if we would be doing something for it or not. I knew that with my birthday falling on a Tuesday it would be unlikely since everyone has to work the following day. I was at the church for a church council meeting the night of my birthday. The meeting was going long and I hadn’t been told of plans for anything. I was fine with not having a party and didn’t expect much either. This particular week I was staying with a family that lived in a different part of town, but was informed that someone else would be taking me to their house after the meeting. As we pulled up to the house I noticed a few familiar cars parked nearby that weren’t usually there. It wasn’t until then that I thought something might be up. Once inside I was escorted out the back door to find 20 people from church and that I knew from around town there…”Surprise!” They all kept quiet about throwing me a surprise party. We enjoyed a nice braai (cookout) with steak, chicken, wors (similar to bratwurst), mealie pap, pie, cake and ice cream. It wasn’t a long party but it was just enough! It was awesome how they came together and did something special for me that they didn’t have to do. I’m quite appreciative of the thoughts of those here in South Africa. It’s certainly a birthday that I will never forget!!!

New Years was, like Christmas, quite different than those of the past. New Years Eve 2009 I was swimming in the Indian Ocean on the Durban coast. I along with 4 other volunteers gathered together for a few days in Durban because we were told that that is where all of Africa goes for New Years. The weather became rainy as the clock ticked towards 2010. As we walked out onto the beach a few minutes before midnight we were shocked to find it beach fairly empty. We just assumed that the rain kept most people indoors. Yet the rain didn’t put much of a damper on the many fireworks displays in the city. There were even people shooting mortars out of their 10th + floor apartment building. It was quite a site! People were so excited that the year they have been waited for for 6 years finally had arrived. 2010 is the year that South Africa will be thrust into the living rooms of nearly a billion people around the world as they tune in to watch the Fifa World Cup. As we woke up the next morning and headed out to the beach we found that almost the entire city was there. It was a great experience to be in the middle of the excitement as we rung in the year so many here are looking forward to.

Christmas in South Africa was quite different that the past 22 Christmas’s I have experienced. Just about every previous Christmas I have experienced I haven’t been able to wear shorts and a t-shirt. There have been a few that involved snow on Christmas and most have been cold. This time around was quite different. There was no need for a winter jacket or gloves, just a fan and lots of water to stay cool and hydrated. I spent the Christmas holiday with a local Pastor and his family near Krugarsdorp, which is a town about 20 minutes away from downtown Johannesburg. We spent much of our time together enjoying laughs and stories. The family time was great to learn more about each other’s traditions. We didn’t make it to a Christmas Eve service due to some work that was being done at the house going long. Christmas morning we attended a Christmas Day service (3 hours long). The service was awesome! I didn’t mind the length at all…we sang some familiar Christmas tunes and even if they weren’t in English I knew what song it was. After church we went to the Vaal, south of Jo’burg, and spent the afternoon cooking out and enjoying each others company. The weather was so nice, mid 80’s with a breeze, very few clouds; a little different than the snow that was falling back home at this time!

12-28-09

During my time here in South Africa I have come to learn that every situation I am put in has a hidden meaning behind it,regardless of how things might seem right off the bat. There are times when things run smoothly and other times when I start wondering why I am at this particular event. I have learned that even if I am questioning why I am somewhere it doesn’t take long for the answer to be revealed to me. I had another one of these experiences just theother day, it went something like this:

The day was December 27th, a Sunday. I attended a church service with a pastor friend who’s friends daughter was being baptized. Just some background:  the service began just after 9am and went until just before 1pm. The service included two baptisms along with a 45+/- minute sermon and communion. I share this with you so the following makes more sense.

After the service we departed on our way to the family’s home for a celebration meal and time together. Typically celebrations like this follow a similar format. We did some singing and a word of thanks for those there to be part of the celebration. Following the meal is social time. Circles begin forming from chairs out in the yard, typically in as much shade as possible, and people join their friends in different groups around the yard. After the meal I sat in a huge armchair withsome other folks, while the pastor I was attending with had to make the rounds to greet various people. Just as I was starting to think of how long of an afternoon this could turn out to be I heard someone calling me.

“Hey, William!”  I assumed they were referring to me since they were speaking in English and as I turned around I was summoned to come sit amongst four gentlemen under the shade of a front yard tree. I sat with two of the men on either side of me and a platter of biscuits(cookies) and some homemade juice on the ground in the middle. Aftersome introductions of names, and correcting mine I explained where it was that I come from. I also explained a little about the program that brought me to South Africa. After the formalities they got right to the issue they had been discussing and wanted to know what I thought, but they started easy, kind of leading me where they wanted the conversation to go.

I was asked how things here in South Africa compared to things“over there” (back home). I quickly figured out that they wanted to know about church stuff back home, not necessarily what the town I‘m from is like. I explained the two obvious differences to me, language and length of services. There it was the issue they had been discussing before my arrival, time. The next hour or so was taken up with the issue of time and church. I explained that services have the same elements on both sides, though services in the US are typically under 90 minutes. The gentleman on my far right was all for the hour and change service. The man on my immediate left, who did most of the talking, didn’t believe that there should be a time set to services. He went on to explain that he believed that a service should be as long orshort as needed, dictated by how people feel. If the Spirit is moving and people feel led to sing more songs or spend more time in prayer then the service should just flow with it. He also added that he didn’t mind if there was a long sermon.

The debate shifted from just the length of the service to how long a sermon should be. Sermons in the US are roughly 20 minutes. (Yes I know there are some pastors that can go longer and those rare few that might preach for less than 20.) The sermon at church this particular morning was somewhere in the 45 minutes to 1 hour range. We all agreed that there is nothing wrong with a 1 hour sermon, as long as there is apoint the preacher is getting at. We came to this agreement after some discussion about how some people like to hear themselves talk and will talk about nothing for extended periods of time. The man on my far right again chimed in with how sermons should be 20 minutes (later he changed his mind to say 15 min), because if you can’t get something out in 20 minutes then you have lost the congregation. He noted that people start to lose focus after 15-20 minutes (at this point I was informed that he is a teacher). There was some discussion about how there are few pastors that can keep a congregation captivated for long periods oftime, in this case no one had a problem if they went long. Again, it was noted that there are few that hold this gift and they shouldn’t try to stretch for an extra 15 minutes.

We wrapped things up after more discussion on this issue of time. It was interesting for me to hear their views on the topic as most services back home that go over the typical time makes people restless and having a 3 hour service would be…well, I‘ll go with interesting. As a friend reminded me the other day in an e-mail, I too have found myself complaining about a service taking “too long,” but why? Now, if we are truly trying to grow with Christ and enjoy going to church, singing, praying, and all that…shouldn’t we not mind what the time is? Cause if we are worrying about the time we aren’t fully present duringthe service, likely missing something that truly hits home.

Yes, I know I have been bad at updating this site! I am sorry, as I know there are at least 2 people that want more, I really wish I had the time to post more as well! In the past month+ I have been quite busy. I have started working 3 days a week at an orphanage here in Alex. I have spent a couple weeks near Krugarsdorp at the Western Circuit’s office. I attended the first ELCA-YAGM/M.U.D. retreat over Thanksgiving. I keep hearing from people back in North Carolina that it’s cold and snowy, typical December weather. Yet, here it’s regularly in the 90’s and is not the December weather I’m used to! Though I’m definitely enjoying the warm weather! (We went swimming, yes outside, on the morning of Thanksgiving!) I will be celebrating Christmas with the Dean of the Western Circuit and his family near Pretoria. I am really looking forward to this time together and experiencing how Christmas is celebrated here in South Africa.