A Letter Home

by Cheri Roland

6/9/10

Dearest Family and Friends,

I pray this finds you all well and happy and enjoying your summer. Greetings to you from the beautiful Seth Mokitimi Methodist Seminary, officially opened Sept.4/5. My heart is full to bursting. We are so blessed and privileged to be here during this historic time for Methodism round the world.

As you can imagine, life around here has been hectic and exciting in preparation for the opening. Thank God both Saturday’s and Sunday’s celebrations came off smoothly. By all appearances the programs flowed effortlessly, thanks to Dr. Peter Storey (responsible for our being here at SMMS) and his meticulous attention to a thousand details. Of course, he didn’t do it alone, and now our staff is breathing a collective sigh of relief. The weather was a big unknown. I’m quite uncomfortable bothering the Lord about the weather; but, in this case (and hurricanes)… The lawn of the amphitheater was already a marsh (due to a major landscaping faux pax) and would have swallowed the chairs WHOLE if it had rained. There IS a God So, no rain, but it was hot-HOT-HOT!, even for a Florida girl. All the courtyard table umbrellas were pressed into service to prevent congregational heat stroke. Yet the poor officiates seated in front were unprotected from that sun at its most obnoxious angle. In the country for two short days and still reeling from jet lag, Dr. Greg Jones, our American VIP from Duke University, never caught the shadow afforded by the 4 ton wooden chapel doors. He was directly blasted for 2 ½ hours! And he still had miles to go before he slept.

The seminarians processed both days in proper straight rows as if they had done so a thousand times, a much different picture than at Friday’s rehearsal. Our week long coaching and singing rehearsals had paid off. The whole group was fabulous, leading the hymns and liturgy like pros. Even Dr. Storey was impressed. They sang their big hearts out, whistling and clapping and jivin’. Even the congregation was jumping. We sang in English, Zulu, Xhosa, and Afrikaans. The Lord really got an earful! I know He still has a big smile on His face. And so do we.

Following the Saturday opening program, the seminarians served as docents for the different areas and buildings on campus. I was on duty in the grassy area behind the canteen/commercial wing, beside the chapel, to explain the production garden section of the Life Garden. Doesn’t look like much now, but we have BIG PLANS for beauteous vegetables, fruit, and climbing tomatoes and passion fruit and grapes and cucumbers to adorn the iron fence border. The large compost bin will be in the corner, with fruit trees along the back. We will learn about door frame and tire gardens and crop rotation and uses of different fertilizer and vermiculite as alternative soil base and I’m so excited to get this going! All we need now is a heavy duty tiller to cut through this shale.

Doug and I are making steady headway on our field experience interviews. With the help of Garmin (I named him GG) - thank you, Samie and Nat and Clara - we are becoming confident navigating around the greater PMB area. It’s very interesting meeting the angels here already being Christ’s hands and feet to the poorest of the poor and the sickest of the sick. Our goal, God willing, is to expose our students to real life situations, preparing them to become servant leaders.

This “servant” concept/word has a very negative connotation for the blacks because of Apartheid (“the Struggle” here). In the black church tradition the pastors must oversee perhaps 20 separate churches (societies) and may only visit a given church once every few months. These pastors are revered and held up on a pedestal by their congregations, never to be found in the midst of their flock getting their hands dirty. SMMS’s radical mission is “Forming Transforming Leaders for Church and Nation”. So we have been tasked with providing encounters that will effect transforming “surgery” on the hearts of these student pastors, crucial if they are to usher in a new age within the church. It is no coincidence that this new seminary is covered in scripture - on the doors, on the thresholds, on the walls - all with the theme of servanthood. The breathtaking chapel is christened “Christ the Servant”.

Tomorrow is our staff retreat to plan for next year, Jan. 2011. Doug has put together a power point presentation, complete with African hues and border designs, highlighting our proposed concepts and contacts thus far. We are eager to get everyone’s reaction so we know how to proceed. After this past weekend’s celebrations, we feel confirmed in our choice of the overall theme for the field experience as being “Preparing Servant Ministers”. “Servanthood” was the word on every speaker’s lips.

It’s late and we have a day pregnant with opportunities awaiting us. Please know we send our love and misses out to you all!

Blessings,

Cheri and Doug