- Senzeni na? Sono sethu, ubumyama?Sono sethu yinyaniso?Sibulawayo, Mayibuye i Africa
- (What have we done? Our sin is that we are black? Our sin is the truth, They are killing us, Let Africa return)
- This is the touching hymn that we sang at a chapel service dedicated to the events of June 16, 1976. In the mid 70's the Apartheid government passed the Bantu education act which required the schools in the townships to be taught 50/50 in English and Afrikaans. This was seen as a form of oppression because the natives were no longer allowed to learn in their native tongue and were forced to learn in the language of their oppressors. On June 16, 1976, around 20,000 students in Soweto, a large township outside of Johannesburg, took to the streets in what was supposed to be a peaceful protest. The protests were met by strong government force and around 175 students were killed. The scene has been immortalized by a picture of a young boy named Hector. who had been shot, being carried by a young adult with Hector's sister running beside. Hector was one of those who died in the conflict.
- June 16, has become a national holiday and the seminary held a service and lectures in remembrance of the event. In these lectures the seminary students were urged to speak out against current corruption in the government so that it would not take this type of event to happen again to change to system. I thought it was a pretty good message, but after talking to many of the seminarians, they seemed to have a different view. Many said that what he was saying was morally correct, but practically impossible. They told stories of the government giving jobs to those who were speaking out against them, or providing their family with some of the things the desperately need in exchange for their silence. They also said that they would bribe higher up officials in the church to place these ministers in affluent churches, so that when they spoke out against injustices, they appeared as if they were hypocrites. Others even said they wouldn't put it past the government to set up car "accidents" in order to silence critics. It is a very sad state of fear that these seminarians are still in. It is hard to tell how much is truth and how much is carryover from the fear they faced in the apartheid regime. If I had to guess I would say that there is some truth to what they are saying. Prayers are definitely needed for the future ministers of South Africa, while the apartheid may have ended, the struggle is far from over.
- On a side note, we are traveling to our new placement up in the foothills of the Drakensburg mountains, with a high likelihood of having no internet. That being the case this may be the last post for over two weeks. Come back to read after that though, because I am sure that I will have a lot of wonderful things to talk about. God Bless.
Saturday, June 18, 2011
June 16, 1976
Thursday, June 16, 2011
Last Days of Walk in the Light
I will be writing two posts in a relatively short time, this one will be talking about my last days at Walk in the Light, and the other one that will follow later will be talking about a historical event in South Africa. As I mentioned, Monday and Tuesday were our last days at Walk in the Light. On Monday we sorted donated clothes and then packed them according to gender and size in small plastic bags. We then loaded them into multiple cars, hopped on top of the Range Rover (that's right, on top of it) and drove around Haniville delivering clothes to the township. It was moving to see how much this meant to the people. One woman came walking past us with no shoes and a pack that maybe had two shirts and two pants in it, and was so thankful and happy for what she received. It is amazing that the clothes that we discard and would not wear anymore, are cherished and appreciated in this township. It really puts it into perspective.
Later that afternoon we went to the house of one of the workers at Walk in the Light, Neils. He and his wife Helen work with equestrian therapy, using horses as a well to overcome trauma such as addiction, divorce, or even rape. They told us how working with horses helps to show us a lot about ourselves. For many people who are struggling, learning how to work with horses shows that they have some control in their own lives. Helen allowed us to see how horses can teach us about ourselves. She had us get into a coral with a horse and had us try to get the horse to move and stop. Some of us tried a calm method others tried more aggressive methods, but none had much success. She then taught us how being confident and assertive is different from aggressive and was still kind and let us try again. It was amazing how we all changed and were able to control the horse. It really did teach us a lot about ourselves.
Finally on our last day at Walk in the Light we were cleaning up an Old playground and making room for new additions. This included us pulling large polls out of the ground. That was a lot more difficult than it sounds and became a good team building exercise. It took all of us working together to get the poles out of the ground. One in particular was extremely stubborn and took John shoveling around it while both Jamison and I pull with all of our strength. Like I said it was good team building.
We did many things Wednesday, much of which I will talk about in my next blog, but one thing we did was talk about our upcoming assignment in Bulwer. During this conversation we found out that we would not be accepted in the rural Zulu culture as ministers unless we had on black shirts and collars, like priests do in the States. We then had to take a trip downtown to buy these shirts, which weren't cheap by the way. It was funny to watch us try to put these collars on because it was a lot more difficult than it looked. After we figured it out we looked so funny and out of place; we didn't really no how to pull the look off. We looked more like criminals in priests disguise then real priests. It was funny. Hopefully we can wear it with more authority later.
That is what happened so far this week. Pretty exciting. Look for another blog a little later talking about another aspect of life. Until then, God bless.
Later that afternoon we went to the house of one of the workers at Walk in the Light, Neils. He and his wife Helen work with equestrian therapy, using horses as a well to overcome trauma such as addiction, divorce, or even rape. They told us how working with horses helps to show us a lot about ourselves. For many people who are struggling, learning how to work with horses shows that they have some control in their own lives. Helen allowed us to see how horses can teach us about ourselves. She had us get into a coral with a horse and had us try to get the horse to move and stop. Some of us tried a calm method others tried more aggressive methods, but none had much success. She then taught us how being confident and assertive is different from aggressive and was still kind and let us try again. It was amazing how we all changed and were able to control the horse. It really did teach us a lot about ourselves.
Finally on our last day at Walk in the Light we were cleaning up an Old playground and making room for new additions. This included us pulling large polls out of the ground. That was a lot more difficult than it sounds and became a good team building exercise. It took all of us working together to get the poles out of the ground. One in particular was extremely stubborn and took John shoveling around it while both Jamison and I pull with all of our strength. Like I said it was good team building.
We did many things Wednesday, much of which I will talk about in my next blog, but one thing we did was talk about our upcoming assignment in Bulwer. During this conversation we found out that we would not be accepted in the rural Zulu culture as ministers unless we had on black shirts and collars, like priests do in the States. We then had to take a trip downtown to buy these shirts, which weren't cheap by the way. It was funny to watch us try to put these collars on because it was a lot more difficult than it looked. After we figured it out we looked so funny and out of place; we didn't really no how to pull the look off. We looked more like criminals in priests disguise then real priests. It was funny. Hopefully we can wear it with more authority later.
That is what happened so far this week. Pretty exciting. Look for another blog a little later talking about another aspect of life. Until then, God bless.
Sunday, June 12, 2011
Howick and the Indian Church
I'm back as promised to tell you about the weekend that I have had. Saturday morning we went up to Howick which is near Mpophemeni, the place we worked the first week. There in Howick is a fairly large waterfall. While the fall is not very wide it is still quite impressive. Picture any movie or show depicting a fall on a stranded island such as on Lost and you'll begin to picture it. Below the fall there is a small pond which makes the scenery even more beautiful.
All around Howick are stores selling many different handmade items so we drove around to many of them to observe as well as to buy some souvenirs. There is a lot of interesting types of art, but the ones that are most common in South Africa is art made of wires and art made of beads. Some of the most interesting pieces were bowls made out of different color telephone wire. One shop that we stopped at was a leather store, and while John was trying on a leather coat, I tried on a hat just to be funny. When I looked in the mirror I realized that the hat actually looks really good on me; the others said I must buy because it looks so good, and after seeing how cheap is was for such a high quality hat I indeed bought the hat. I am now the owner of a hat that is a mix between a Indiana Jones hat and a Australian Outback hat. Don't judge before you see it, and anyways it keeps the sun off my face and neck.
Midday the group stopped at a local microbrewery and got a sample of their four main beers. Hey, us divinity students need a break every once and a while too. After leaving the brewery we went for lunch at a very nice restaurant called the Bierhassl. While the cuisine was not South African, but rather Austrian, it was still new to me. I got something called a jagerschnitzel which is pretty much country fried steak but pork instead of steak.
We ended the night with another braii (cookout) with some of the seminarians at the flats such as John and a guy named Arno. The braii was in preparation for a big rugby game, which we went up to Arno's flat to watch. It was a very interesting game which I picked up quickly, and ended with time running out as one player was tackled just short of the goal line in what would have been a winning score. What made it even more exciting was that one of the teams was John's favorite team and the other team was Arno's favorite team so throughout the game they were shouting at each other and at home in Afrikaans. It felt like being back in America watching football with buddies, minus the Afrikaans.
Today we went to an Methodist church in town that was entirely Indian. The sanctuary was like a fellowship hall with plastic chairs directed toward a small cross on the back wall and a small pulpit for the preacher. The songs were displayed on overhead projectors like the one's we used to have in school. Other than the economic differences than the church we had previously been attending, the service was no different than any other that I have attended. I found this to be a beautiful thing. There were hymns, liturgy, a excellent Pentecost sermon, and communion. I came into the worship service expecting to experience a different culture, but found out that they worship the same way I do. To me this really emphasized that we are all brothers in sisters in Christ no matter where in the world we are, or what ethnicity, we are all one in the body of Christ. It was a great experience.
Tomorrow and Tuesday we head back to Walk in the Light but we will be back on Tuesday night so that we can attend lectures held at the seminary on Wednesday. Hopefully that means that there won't be so much time in between this post and the next. Until then though, God Bless.
All around Howick are stores selling many different handmade items so we drove around to many of them to observe as well as to buy some souvenirs. There is a lot of interesting types of art, but the ones that are most common in South Africa is art made of wires and art made of beads. Some of the most interesting pieces were bowls made out of different color telephone wire. One shop that we stopped at was a leather store, and while John was trying on a leather coat, I tried on a hat just to be funny. When I looked in the mirror I realized that the hat actually looks really good on me; the others said I must buy because it looks so good, and after seeing how cheap is was for such a high quality hat I indeed bought the hat. I am now the owner of a hat that is a mix between a Indiana Jones hat and a Australian Outback hat. Don't judge before you see it, and anyways it keeps the sun off my face and neck.
Midday the group stopped at a local microbrewery and got a sample of their four main beers. Hey, us divinity students need a break every once and a while too. After leaving the brewery we went for lunch at a very nice restaurant called the Bierhassl. While the cuisine was not South African, but rather Austrian, it was still new to me. I got something called a jagerschnitzel which is pretty much country fried steak but pork instead of steak.
We ended the night with another braii (cookout) with some of the seminarians at the flats such as John and a guy named Arno. The braii was in preparation for a big rugby game, which we went up to Arno's flat to watch. It was a very interesting game which I picked up quickly, and ended with time running out as one player was tackled just short of the goal line in what would have been a winning score. What made it even more exciting was that one of the teams was John's favorite team and the other team was Arno's favorite team so throughout the game they were shouting at each other and at home in Afrikaans. It felt like being back in America watching football with buddies, minus the Afrikaans.
Today we went to an Methodist church in town that was entirely Indian. The sanctuary was like a fellowship hall with plastic chairs directed toward a small cross on the back wall and a small pulpit for the preacher. The songs were displayed on overhead projectors like the one's we used to have in school. Other than the economic differences than the church we had previously been attending, the service was no different than any other that I have attended. I found this to be a beautiful thing. There were hymns, liturgy, a excellent Pentecost sermon, and communion. I came into the worship service expecting to experience a different culture, but found out that they worship the same way I do. To me this really emphasized that we are all brothers in sisters in Christ no matter where in the world we are, or what ethnicity, we are all one in the body of Christ. It was a great experience.
Tomorrow and Tuesday we head back to Walk in the Light but we will be back on Tuesday night so that we can attend lectures held at the seminary on Wednesday. Hopefully that means that there won't be so much time in between this post and the next. Until then though, God Bless.
Friday, June 10, 2011
Walk in the Light II
I apologize for the length between posts, but I was once again at Walk in the Light where internet availability is scarce. So I would love to talk about all of the heartwarming or emotional experiences that I had this week while at work, but unfortunately most of our work centered around preparing for a large group of college students who were coming to stay at Walk in the Light. To make room for them, an old house had to be restored so that the pastor and the youth pastor who were staying at Walk in the Light could move in and the college students would take their old rooms. This required more painting for us, pulling up carpet, washing walls, and moving a lot of furniture. While it was at times frustrating to do work at the agency rather than out in the community it did teach me a lot about how much work goes into running an agency. While places like Walk in the Light are known for the great work that they do out in the community, there is a lot of work behind the scenes at the agency itself that must be done to keep the agency functioning.
We did have one very interesting experience during the week. We took some people downtown to get money from their government pensions. As we arrived the the streets where lined with vendors trying to sell whatever they could to the people who just received their money to live off of. Sadly, there was a lot of alcohol and tobacco being sold, which just is painful to think about someone spending what little money they had for electricity, food, and clothes on alcohol and cigarettes. As we entered the compound it was impossible not to notice the 15 to 20 armed guards outside and inside the building, garnishing automatic shotguns, assault rifles, and Uzis. Inside what looked like a church or school gymnasium, people stood in line while government officials handed out their apportionment of money. I was a sight to see, but a place that I was glad to quickly get out of.
Other than this experience and the preparation for the college group, there is not much work related to talk. For leisure, I am reading The Picture of Dorian Gray, which is very well written, and while I'm staying at Bruce's house, Jamison and I have watched many episodes of CHiPs. On Thursday, as a group we took Bruce and his family out to a place called The Crafty Duck. It's a very interesting place because its like a small zoo with a restaurant in the middle. They had snakes, crocodiles, alpacas, parrots and a lot of other interesting animals. The food was delicious and I tried what was essentially Sheppard's Pie, except instead of beef it had wild boar in it. I know I talk about food a lot but, that is because it is an interesting part of the culture that I believe deserves to be written about as well.
Luckily I managed to get this post done; there have been rolling blackouts in the area and we have lost power intermittently. Tomorrow the group is going to a waterfall in the area and then their is some sort of arts trail nearby. It should be fun, look out for another post hopefully Sunday about it. It's been raining all week, I hope we have a somewhat nice day tomorrow to enjoy the falls. Until next time, God Bless.
We did have one very interesting experience during the week. We took some people downtown to get money from their government pensions. As we arrived the the streets where lined with vendors trying to sell whatever they could to the people who just received their money to live off of. Sadly, there was a lot of alcohol and tobacco being sold, which just is painful to think about someone spending what little money they had for electricity, food, and clothes on alcohol and cigarettes. As we entered the compound it was impossible not to notice the 15 to 20 armed guards outside and inside the building, garnishing automatic shotguns, assault rifles, and Uzis. Inside what looked like a church or school gymnasium, people stood in line while government officials handed out their apportionment of money. I was a sight to see, but a place that I was glad to quickly get out of.
Other than this experience and the preparation for the college group, there is not much work related to talk. For leisure, I am reading The Picture of Dorian Gray, which is very well written, and while I'm staying at Bruce's house, Jamison and I have watched many episodes of CHiPs. On Thursday, as a group we took Bruce and his family out to a place called The Crafty Duck. It's a very interesting place because its like a small zoo with a restaurant in the middle. They had snakes, crocodiles, alpacas, parrots and a lot of other interesting animals. The food was delicious and I tried what was essentially Sheppard's Pie, except instead of beef it had wild boar in it. I know I talk about food a lot but, that is because it is an interesting part of the culture that I believe deserves to be written about as well.
Luckily I managed to get this post done; there have been rolling blackouts in the area and we have lost power intermittently. Tomorrow the group is going to a waterfall in the area and then their is some sort of arts trail nearby. It should be fun, look out for another post hopefully Sunday about it. It's been raining all week, I hope we have a somewhat nice day tomorrow to enjoy the falls. Until next time, God Bless.
Saturday, June 4, 2011
Walk in the Light
Ok, so it's been almost a week since my last post, I apologize for that, but it is because this week were not at the flats in Pietermaritzburg. I also apologize that since it has been so long between that this post may be extremely long. Hopefully it will read quickly for all of you.
This week we began our placement at a place called Walk in the Light, located in a township called Haniville, which is not far from Edendale which we visited last week. Walk in the light was started by a man named Bruce who felt that the Lord was calling him to do more than just sit in church, especially after all the horrors of townships that he saw while he was serving in the military. Bruce was a software engineer who made a lot of money on software that helped farmers' sell their crops. After feeling his call he sold the rights to his software and with the money that he earned he started up Walk in the Light. Walk in the Light does a lot of the things that Masimbubane and Ethembeni do such as home vists, youth programs, gardens, and transportation to clinics and hospitals. What really excites me is the potential that Walk in the Light has to grow. Bruce is a very organized and well planned guy yet at the same time he allows room for the spirit to work. For example he says that Walk in the Light now functions strictly off of donations and that week to week he has no idea where the money will come from, yet he still plans for big things, and usually it still works out.
One pleasant surprise about Walk in the Light is that there are three college students from Azuza Pacific University in California named Ali, Alysa (sp?) and Kim who are spending a semester at Walk in the Light. It is really nice to have people who understand Jamison and my sense of humor because the locals don't really understand sarcasm, and those who know me know that sarcasm oozes out of my pores, and Jamison may be even more sarcastic than I am.
Our first experience at Walk in the Light was that we were going to go watch a Zulu funeral. After picking up the family from the township and driving to the other side of town (after many hassles), we arrived at the funeral home, which was a small building in the back of a junk yard. It's odd to have dead bodies surrounded by dead cars. The problem was that when we arrived the body was not there and neither was the coffin. After Niels (one of the Walk in the life staff) talked to the workers at the funeral two men left in a truck and came back an hour later with a coffin in the back; however the body was not in the coffin. This family had already been given the run around by the morgue and had not been able to bury their mother for two months already and now their mother's body was lost. The saddest part was that the family acted as if they were used to this type of injustice. Niels was irate, yelling at the funeral home staff, "If this was my mother I would be devastated, and you don't even care." This is even more meaningful now after Bruce told us that Niels was a huge racist before getting involved with Walk in the Light, and now he was defending these people that he really didn't even know. At the end of the day the body was never found, and the family was taken back home unable to bury their loved one. At the beginning of the day I was excited to see a Zulu funeral, but looking back I think that this was a more valuable lesson, because I got to see firsthand the injustice that is still present in this country.
The rest of our activities for the week were normal mission/pastoral activities. For two of the days Jamison, Joan, John, Kim and I painted a house at Walk in the Light that was going to house the pastor and a member of the staff. The five of us also walked around the township of Haniville with Pendi and made house visits, much like we did at Ethembeni, but the visits were a little shorter and there was no scripture read, though we did pray for each person. Let me tell you about Pendi; Pendi is a lady that Bruce hired from the township to help run Walk in the Light. Over time she has gained more and more responsibility, and now besides Bruce is the major leader of the organization. She is quite a character; she is so friendly yet so sassy at the same time. The other responsibilities that Jamison and I had during the week was to organize and lead bible studies for both elementary school ages kids, and young adults. Both programs went really well, and I think that Jamison and I make a very good team because I am so methodical and he is very free flowing.
On Friday, Bruce took us to a piece of land that he bought for Walk in the Light. We drove up a hill and stopped at the edge, and witnessed a breath taking view. There bellow us was Pietermaritzburg sandwiched between rolling hills, and directly below us was the whole township of Haniville. Bruce talked about his dream for a Community Center to be built at the spot and he showed us the blueprint for the building. The building would have a care center in order to nurse critical patients back to health, a craft and coffee shop to bring jobs and money into the community, a chapel for worship, and classrooms for educational programs. He also talked about his dream to put a large cross in the middle with lights so that at night all of Haniville and all of Pietermaritzburg could see it. It instantly made me of the cross at Junaluska, and this cross has the potential to be even more powerful of a sight than the one there. Bruce said that this idea for the center came to him after looking at a constellation called the Southern Cross and the Bible verse Matthew 5:14-16, "14 “You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. 16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven. After talking with members of the community he found out what they wanted and needed and had the plans drawn up.
Next to the site where this center will be built, are fields of Rose Geraniums. Rose Geranium is the plant used as the base for most perfumes, so Bruce harvests these plants and has them distilled into the oils and sells the oils to companies around the country. He has even purchased his oven vat for distilling so that the whole process can be done by Walk in the Light. The great thing about this enterprise is that he hires people from Haniville to work the fields and the money made from the work goes to pay for the ministries at Walk in the Light. Essentially he is creating jobs and putting money into the community simultaneously.
Finally for the weekend we returned to our flats with the seminary. Today, Jamison, John, Joan, David (an Anglican priest from the UK who I believe I have talked about before), and I walked to an event in the park called "Arts in the Park". There artists from all over South Africa came to display and sell their artwork. It was a great experience, the art was so beautiful and some were very unique. We then walked around downtown Pietermaritzburg. There was a smaller park downtown that had local vendors selling some very interesting handmade pieces. We then went to an art museum in town, and though the gallery was closed the coffee shop was open; however between the coffee shop and the entrance were the galleries and there was nobody to stop us from going in so we looked at the gallery anyways (Shhh, don't tell anyone). The collection of art was very impressive, at least to me, and the more knowledgeable members of our group seemed to agree. The day was a very pleasant day and wonderful day of experiencing a different type of culture in the area.
Next week we return to work at Walk in the Light, so depending on internet availability it may once again be a long time between posts. I can't believe it has been two weeks here already. What an experience.God Bless.
This week we began our placement at a place called Walk in the Light, located in a township called Haniville, which is not far from Edendale which we visited last week. Walk in the light was started by a man named Bruce who felt that the Lord was calling him to do more than just sit in church, especially after all the horrors of townships that he saw while he was serving in the military. Bruce was a software engineer who made a lot of money on software that helped farmers' sell their crops. After feeling his call he sold the rights to his software and with the money that he earned he started up Walk in the Light. Walk in the Light does a lot of the things that Masimbubane and Ethembeni do such as home vists, youth programs, gardens, and transportation to clinics and hospitals. What really excites me is the potential that Walk in the Light has to grow. Bruce is a very organized and well planned guy yet at the same time he allows room for the spirit to work. For example he says that Walk in the Light now functions strictly off of donations and that week to week he has no idea where the money will come from, yet he still plans for big things, and usually it still works out.
One pleasant surprise about Walk in the Light is that there are three college students from Azuza Pacific University in California named Ali, Alysa (sp?) and Kim who are spending a semester at Walk in the Light. It is really nice to have people who understand Jamison and my sense of humor because the locals don't really understand sarcasm, and those who know me know that sarcasm oozes out of my pores, and Jamison may be even more sarcastic than I am.
Our first experience at Walk in the Light was that we were going to go watch a Zulu funeral. After picking up the family from the township and driving to the other side of town (after many hassles), we arrived at the funeral home, which was a small building in the back of a junk yard. It's odd to have dead bodies surrounded by dead cars. The problem was that when we arrived the body was not there and neither was the coffin. After Niels (one of the Walk in the life staff) talked to the workers at the funeral two men left in a truck and came back an hour later with a coffin in the back; however the body was not in the coffin. This family had already been given the run around by the morgue and had not been able to bury their mother for two months already and now their mother's body was lost. The saddest part was that the family acted as if they were used to this type of injustice. Niels was irate, yelling at the funeral home staff, "If this was my mother I would be devastated, and you don't even care." This is even more meaningful now after Bruce told us that Niels was a huge racist before getting involved with Walk in the Light, and now he was defending these people that he really didn't even know. At the end of the day the body was never found, and the family was taken back home unable to bury their loved one. At the beginning of the day I was excited to see a Zulu funeral, but looking back I think that this was a more valuable lesson, because I got to see firsthand the injustice that is still present in this country.
The rest of our activities for the week were normal mission/pastoral activities. For two of the days Jamison, Joan, John, Kim and I painted a house at Walk in the Light that was going to house the pastor and a member of the staff. The five of us also walked around the township of Haniville with Pendi and made house visits, much like we did at Ethembeni, but the visits were a little shorter and there was no scripture read, though we did pray for each person. Let me tell you about Pendi; Pendi is a lady that Bruce hired from the township to help run Walk in the Light. Over time she has gained more and more responsibility, and now besides Bruce is the major leader of the organization. She is quite a character; she is so friendly yet so sassy at the same time. The other responsibilities that Jamison and I had during the week was to organize and lead bible studies for both elementary school ages kids, and young adults. Both programs went really well, and I think that Jamison and I make a very good team because I am so methodical and he is very free flowing.
On Friday, Bruce took us to a piece of land that he bought for Walk in the Light. We drove up a hill and stopped at the edge, and witnessed a breath taking view. There bellow us was Pietermaritzburg sandwiched between rolling hills, and directly below us was the whole township of Haniville. Bruce talked about his dream for a Community Center to be built at the spot and he showed us the blueprint for the building. The building would have a care center in order to nurse critical patients back to health, a craft and coffee shop to bring jobs and money into the community, a chapel for worship, and classrooms for educational programs. He also talked about his dream to put a large cross in the middle with lights so that at night all of Haniville and all of Pietermaritzburg could see it. It instantly made me of the cross at Junaluska, and this cross has the potential to be even more powerful of a sight than the one there. Bruce said that this idea for the center came to him after looking at a constellation called the Southern Cross and the Bible verse Matthew 5:14-16, "14 “You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. 16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven. After talking with members of the community he found out what they wanted and needed and had the plans drawn up.
Next to the site where this center will be built, are fields of Rose Geraniums. Rose Geranium is the plant used as the base for most perfumes, so Bruce harvests these plants and has them distilled into the oils and sells the oils to companies around the country. He has even purchased his oven vat for distilling so that the whole process can be done by Walk in the Light. The great thing about this enterprise is that he hires people from Haniville to work the fields and the money made from the work goes to pay for the ministries at Walk in the Light. Essentially he is creating jobs and putting money into the community simultaneously.
Finally for the weekend we returned to our flats with the seminary. Today, Jamison, John, Joan, David (an Anglican priest from the UK who I believe I have talked about before), and I walked to an event in the park called "Arts in the Park". There artists from all over South Africa came to display and sell their artwork. It was a great experience, the art was so beautiful and some were very unique. We then walked around downtown Pietermaritzburg. There was a smaller park downtown that had local vendors selling some very interesting handmade pieces. We then went to an art museum in town, and though the gallery was closed the coffee shop was open; however between the coffee shop and the entrance were the galleries and there was nobody to stop us from going in so we looked at the gallery anyways (Shhh, don't tell anyone). The collection of art was very impressive, at least to me, and the more knowledgeable members of our group seemed to agree. The day was a very pleasant day and wonderful day of experiencing a different type of culture in the area.
Next week we return to work at Walk in the Light, so depending on internet availability it may once again be a long time between posts. I can't believe it has been two weeks here already. What an experience.God Bless.
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