Friday 6th - Monday 9th May

It’s been a busy few days. Friday was quite quiet as Jacques and I were both suffering from an ‘Autumn cold’. Thankfully by Saturday morning I had recovered enough to do the training with a rather rough voice, and without a constant stream of tissues! About 16 priests came, one or two I had not expected. They have been ordained for more than 10 years, but are ‘slow learners’. We began with Morning Prayer and then had breakfast – an evil smelling ‘sour porridge’ and cheese and ham sandwiches. Some had had to travel long distances. One left home at 6am in order to be sure to arrive for 10. We then worked hard till 1.30pm, looking firstly at our call to ‘BE’ priests and how that is supported by a Rule of Life, and then at problems priests face today. We ended our time with lunch. The day seemed to go well and, they had all engaged with the process, even if they found some things hard to understand at first.



Sunday morning I was up really early because I had to drive to Tigane for the 8am service. It did not begin well when I set off on the wrong road and had to turn back and start again. But I got there in plenty of time, aided by a server who was walking to church and whom I stopped to ask directions. It was Mothers’ Day – a separate occasion from Mothering Sunday – and the church was decorated accordingly. Some decorations fell during the service, narrowly missing the candles carried by the servers!  

Central decoration on the altar frontal

  Afterwards I was able to distribute some of the jumpers I had brought, but sadly about half of the children were too big for them. The smaller ones will be taken to other outlets with connections to St Luke’s. The congregation is served by Canon Tom Mafora, a retired priest, who has worked hard to grow the congregation. Now they have to working hard to extend their building, and so are busy fund raising. Boxes of cakes were on sale, with a Happy Mothers’ Day sticker on the lid.

 

After the service I drove on to Lichtenberg, where I am staying with the Revd Elizabeth Amir in her small house on the location (township) of Blydeville. She calls it an old lady’s house. It is tiny but has large furniture. The only supply of hot water is from the kettle. There is a modern but small bathroom, but no water to the sink tap, and only a cold water tap for the bath. I dare not think about how many extensions are run off one power point. But the welcome is warm and genuine. Today we have been out and about in the area, visiting the half built church for Blydeville, a lady whose birthday it was yesterday, and Isaac Rapakeng, whose wedding I went to last week. We had an evening meal with Elizabeth’s daughter who lives nearby, but in a much larger, modern house.

Lichtenberg is served by two reservoirs, both of which are nearly dry. Every day between 12 noon and about 5pm the water is switched off in both the town and surrounding townships, and so people have large containers of water standing around in their kitchens to enable life to continue. I have also seen field after field of dried up crops, wasting away, both maize and sunflower. The drought is biting hard.

Tomorrow I travel north to Zeerust – and new adventures and experiences. Pray for rain for all the drought affected areas of southern Africa; for those who attended the training that they may be faithful priests; those who don’t enjoy what we think of as the basic necessities of living; and the young people seeking solace in alcohol and hard drugs.