A GAME CHANGER

by Cheri Roland

Greetings from this blogger to all you blogetts! I know it has been ages since you last heard from me. I guess I do not get inspired as often as my boyfriend does.

It has not been a quiet week in Pietermaritzburg, but our lives are getting back to normal after three weeks of popping back and forth from work to home to wait for detectives, police, workmen, or security folks. We’ve come to realize several silver linings to the robbery: Ross had A/C (“air con”) units installed in our dining/living space and bedroom (thick layers of red dust throughout the house, necessitating another round of spring cleaning); we are promised a security system; and it’s been quite an adventure.

Another adventure has been the transformation of the feel of this seminary by the welcome addition of 44 new seminarians, now constituting almost half of the student body. Our wildest dreams did not prepare us for the sheer delight of students who are more educated, literate, professional, and eager to participate fully in the offered opportunities for learning and formation. WOW!!! Personally, this has lightened our work load immeasurably. Instead of suffering overtime through many workbooks, puzzling over the meaning of each word and guessing the intent, our weekends are now our own. Our necessary emphasis on “developing the disciplines of adequate preparation and following instructions, and reading carefully for understanding before writing” still hold for the second and third years, but these new guys are burning it up! The attitude is a 180 degrees switch to the smile side. The first day of FEM we received three calls from a group of new seminarians hopelessly wandering through the unfamiliar countryside in search of their assigned agency, only to arrive at quitting time. The next day the driver of said van apologized to Doug for the mix-up and wondered if their group could go back on Thursday morning to make it up. My husband almost fell over. Instead of whining about being turned into slaves and no remuneration and ministers being too good to get their hands dirty, this new group’s reflections speak of the blessings of serving for Jesus in whatever capacity their agencies require. Have we died and gone to Heaven?

Our new class schedule, necessitated by more students and the proverbial transport problems, finds us having FEM visits on Monday afternoons and Tuesday and Thursday mornings. This affords Doug and me more opportunities to visit the seminarians while “on the job”. We’ve been able to hold talk back sessions with several groups. Particularly important were those following visits to White Cross Disabled Hope Centre, a very challenging and challenged orphanage for severely physically and mentally disabled children whose problems have been exacerbated by unconscionable abuse. (Just ask the HPUMC mission team who visited us last August.) The seminarians facing their own morbidity and mortality during exposure to old age home and Hospice clients struggle with unchained emotions; they grateful for the chance to voice their doubts and fears to “safe” foreigners not bound by traditional black cultural expectations.

My needed inspiration to send along these thoughts came from the reflections of one of these new seminarians. She is the only white woman in our first year class, and scored highest on the English proficiency and comprehension assessment during orientation. Did I mention how cute and personable she is? Her assignment to the psychiatric hospital had filled her with dread, and, then during her initial visit, this was exacerbated by the hospital staff’s admonition to never be alone with certain (horny) old men. The assigned scripture for her second visit was Philippians 2:4-5: “Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others. Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus.” Mind you, I had prepared the workbook for this current semester in October-November, focusing on discerning spiritual gifts in oneself and others using Biblical passages relating to the various gifts.

I am going to simply quote her so you may share in another seminary God thing. She wrote her scriptural reflection the day before her visit. “The biggest challenge is of course turning away from my interests to God’s. Often in ministry we want to use the [spiritual] gifts which best suit us, being loving with people who are easy to love and operating from a place of comfort. Town Hill Hospital is not a place of comfort. The challenge for me is to shine as Christ’s light even though I am uncomfortable and woefully ill-equipped. But Jesus was brave and He walked with God to do what had to be done. I must put my selfish desires of not wanting to go to one side and do this with a glad and willing heart. I pray Jesus would spark in me a desire to be brave and willing to engage with these men where they are at.”

She wrote after the visit, “Today Thobeko and I laughed and prayed with these men and there were some tears and some more prayers and laughter. There seemed to be a happy light spirit in the room, making for a very uplifting morning with God’s special people. After spending time with Doug and Cheri [in the Utsig E-F parking lot] after our visit, I realised there is perhaps more I can do if I step out of my comfort zone further. My pride sometimes get in the way of being able to let my guard down . This scripture reminds me today that humility is all important. Jesus was always authentic with people; so I pray God will help me to be as authentic and creative offering myself as a channel for His love. The ironic thing was what these men taught me about faith. My ability to learn as a teacher was enriched by my time with them. As I become less afraid of them, my faith is being strengthened immeasurable. Christ does indeed shine in the dark places when we can put our egos and fear to one side and allow Him free reign. “

This is but one example of why we were called here. What a privilege it is to be able to journey with these future transformers of church and nation.

P.S. I’m so bummed. Here I am, dressed in my “township clothes” – closed-toe shoes, huge official SMMS golf shirt, ball cap complete with lion scratches, new camera at the ready, sun block slathered on, beaded earrings from Ethembeni – ready to go with the gang to Mpophomeni Township. And it seems that we are so efficient this year seeing six groups off to their appointed rounds that I missed my van! Ach shame.

BURGLED - THE EPILOGUE

by Doug Roland

One of the policemen suggested that we make a list of the items missing and take them to three pawn shops. Around here, that means wondering in to areas and places not frequented by anyone we know. They had interesting names like "Cash Converters ", "Cash Crusaders" and "24/7". The folks behind the desks were very nice and seemed to be familiar with the "list" routine. They were, however, a little baffled by the meaning of Garmin and Kindle.

Three hours after I dropped off one of the lists, the manager called asking me to describe the Kindles. When I did, he asked how fast could I get there because he had them. We were there within 10 minutes and brought them home. And we had a description of the "guy" as about 5', very muscular, black, with a yellowish t-shirt and denim pants. To date, these are the only things recovered.

I called a Garmin dealer. To my surprise, I had saved the serial number. Now any Garmin dealer in the world who handles that Garmin can keep it as a hot item. Nothing yet.

Next was the insurance man. Since we do not own the house, we insured some, but not all, the personal items as a rider to our car insurance. Items to be insured had to be specified. So, we received the limits, less deductible, for the Garmin and the camera. Though this was better than a poke in the eye, the real damage arose when we went to buy new stuff.

The boom box and camera were not a big deal since they come directly from either Japan or China. But anything purchased in the U.S. is very difficult to replace. We bought new backpacks but they are not nearly the same quality. If we had to replace the Kindles, the price would be at least doubled and probably more. For example, a friend of ours here priced a basic Kindle at a "Wal-Mart" type store. In dollars, it was about $330.00. The basic one sells in the U.S. for just under $100.00. Fortunately, we were able to buy the same binoculars we had before at a reduced price.

The new tennis shoes were a good deal - about the same as in the U.S.

A couple of days after the theft, a police investigator came over and basically wrote down the same information we had given the first responders, but on a new form. Later on, I went to the police station to obtain a copy of the police report. I was able to talk with the Capt. in charge. I advised him that the investigator had come but nothing from the fingerprint team. He said he had told them he was not happy that they had not been there. As I left, he said they would be there the next day. I also told him about the description given by the pawn shop manager on the off-chance someone might interview him.

About 4-5 days later, I got a call from a police officer about whether anyone had come to the house for fingerprints. I said they had not. He asked when the break-in happened and I told him about two weeks earlier. "Too much time has passed now to do prints!!" he said in disgust, as though it was our fault. I informed him that we had been told at least 4 times that the print crew would be there soon. He feigned surprise and said someone would call back in 10-15 minutes. That was last week. We've continue to preserve four finger prints on the wall. The cops were good at the beginning not in the end. The fingerprint guys might have been imaginary.

The whole affair was not without irony. The "old" Garmin was quite difficult to use, even with the instruction book that he left behind. The Kindles were in more or less good condition. I turned on one of them and the letters on the screen were at maximum size, suggesting that he had played around with it and probably realized it didn't play music or contain any porn. (Maybe he missed that book by D.H. Lawrence.) In short, he saw no quick market value in something that only contained words. Believe me, this is not a book culture. The other Kindle did not work at all. I was unable to get it to accept a charge. So I advised Amazon, and they replaced it. Of course, it was shipped to the Tampa address. So another month delay.

A few days later, I stumbled onto another bit of post-theft damage. I check our credit cards online every month. I had changed my Amazon password so that no one could buy stuff. Still, there were two charges, $50 and $100 in favor of "Amazon Local", whatever that is. Our good fortune is that Chase Bank has a toll free out-of-country line. I spoke with the representative who then got the Amazon Local person on the line. Wireless Kindles communicate directly and exclusively with Amazon. Ours have Tampa advertising on them for all sorts of goods and services. It seems that our enterprising thief hit some buttons and ordered a new car windshield ($100) and tinting ($50). There was a link to the service provider and it turned out to be a shop at the intersection of I-275 and Dale Mabry. I doubt that our not-so-literate thief had any idea. The charges were removed. The Chase guy and the Amazon lady both appreciated the humor. And so did I.