HOW TO SAY GOODBYE?

by Cheri Roland

Since Facebook is blocked, we have no internet signal and the water is off for the second day in a row, I might as well jot down some thought about leaving that have been swirling around in my gut.

  

The Field Education and Ministry course we initiated in January 2011 has demonstrated that working with real folks in real life situations across the life spectrum plays a major part in spiritual formation.   This year FEM has graduated from a non-credit/non-grade course requirement into a significant part of the curriculum.  We feel blessed to have been instrumental in FEM’s development and implementation, as well as providing pivotal input into writing policies and procedures of this infant seminary.  The longer we have been here, the more we have come to understand the profound importance of these budding ministers’ mission to transform Southern Africa and beyond.  

Doug and I have been lame ducks, basically, for the past week.  And this is a good thing!  Our Board of Global Missions Intern, Hillary, is already doing a great job with our FEM program.  Despite her tender age of 23, she has gained the respect and acceptance of the staff and seminarians.

Now saying goodbye is a black cloud looming on my horizon.  Leaving folks I have come to love is hard in any situation, but perhaps having to wiggle our way into an an unfamiliar culture has forged a different quality of bonds.  Here we’ve had to work more intentionally at relationship building. Nurturing these friendships took  dedication to scrape away layers of suspicion and miscommunication before we could click as fellow children of God.  Yup, I’m dreading April first!   

What really makes any place in the world special is the PEOPLE.  The friends, colleagues, seminarians, agency partners, neighbors, fellow church members, even the folks that keep us company on TV - they will forever remain a major part of our lives, of our stories.   

And just to name a few other things I’ll miss...  

The true gift of being part of the team that leads, mentors, counsels, prays/giggles/cries/praises/sings/dances with this amazing collection of dedicated souls who are striving to save this church and nation

Working where the number one thing stays the number one thing

Working in stunning surroundings, my floor to ceiling windows looking out over the tree-studded quad to the amphitheatre and chapel

Sitting on my “front porch” grading FEM workbooks

The privilege of sharing the insights and spiritual growth of the seminarians as they confronted serving the marginalized

Walking/hiking through this arresting landscape with my new-found peeps, both human and animal

The profusion of flowers and birds everywhere

Learning and living other cultures

Working with my beloved husband 24/7 

Being surrounded by hills and mountains as far as the eye can see

The serendipty of weird critters sharing our house, inside and out 

Hiking in the bushveld with giraffe, zebra, wildebeests, impala, warthogs and monkeys just ten minutes from home

Cheeky monkeys awaiting any opportunity to sneak in the house to forage for food

So, how to say goodbye and express my thanks for the extraordinary love and care poured out to us by our extraordinary adopted family?  God only knows!

"Thursdays in Black"

  by  Cheri Roland



South African men can now claim the prize for the most violent males on the planet.
Statistics are shattering:

- South Africa has the highest rate of rape in the entire world

- national news reported that 1 in 2 South African women will be raped

- South African women have a better chance of being raped than learning to read

- 1 in 3 women on the planet will be raped or beaten in her lifetime

    February 14 is V-DAY here, not just for Hallmark chocolate and flowers anymore.  V-DAY is about God’s love that shouts “ANTI-VIOLENCE!”   An international campaign highlighting violence against women has erupted under the banner of ONE BILLION RISING, which heralds:

“A global strike                                            An invitation to dance
A call to men and women to refuse to participate in the status quo until rape and rape culture ends
            An act of solidarity, demonstrating to women the commonality of their struggles and their power in numbers
            A refusal to accept violence against women and girls as a given                                                  

 A new time and a new way of being”

                                                        See http://www.onebillionrising.org/pages/about-one-billion-rising .

     According to the SABC news reports, the Apartheid manifested its evil in black men left with emotions of hatred, despair, emasculation and hopelessness. The seminary is called to be a beacon of light standing against governmental refusal to redress this injustice.  This morning signals the first day of Lent.  We joined Christians around the world having a cross of ashes drawn on our foreheads, in memory our own mortality and the death of our sin through Jesus’ crucifixion, death, and resurrection.  Our chaplain announced that on the seven Thursdays in Lent, as a seminary in solidarity with the One Billion Rising campaign, we will all wear black.  At the Communion rail each of us received a lapel button to don with our Thursday black, proclaiming our stand against violence against women.

It just so happens that each Thursday is a big day for Field Education and Ministry course, Doug’s and my legacy to SMMS.  Two-thirds of our seminarians will be scattered throughout Pietermaritzburg, including the prison, volunteering in black clothing and sporting provocative lapel buttons, opening opportunities for dialogue and healing.  With God’s help, this seminary can chisel a crack of brilliant light

WRAP-UP Pt. III

      By  Doug Roland 

         In  WRAP-UP Pt. II, I drew a grim picture of South Africa.  I wrote what I saw and read daily on TV and in the print media. We have ourselves witnessed many troubling things.  In that sense, Pt. II is accurate. 

I received an e-mail response to the last post from a reader, a friend who is a Methodist minister in South Africa.  He commented on Wrap-Up II with the following:

"I'm concerned that whilst all that you cite is true, Doug, it is not

the WHOLE truth, and sometimes half-a-truth is not the truth at all." 

He's right. The is a second, more hopeful story.

  In spite of the painful difficulties in the land, there are also, outside the glare of the klieg lights microphones, and print reporters millions of people carrying on bravely up the long steep hill to better lives for themselves and for others . Their daly hard, battling hunger, miserable housing, lack of money to pay children's school fees and uniforms, disease, corruption , rampant crime and unemployment.  And yet, they carry on day by day often with spontaneous joy.  Most of the poor remain hopeful.  The only explanation I can see is that they have an  abiding faith to believe that the vision of 1994 will be renewed.  They know that while their government has failed them, there are others who labor without notice to revive the dream, one step at a time. 

The spirit of altruism  comes partly from the colonial era.  Immigrant farmers cultivated much of the land and soon learned quickly that the local people, dependent on them, had no training.  Many farm family wives stated projects to help their workers in basic skills and some physical comfort. While some of this may have been self-serving,  a  budding culture of volunteers took hold in the agricultural community.  This spirit of service to others continues to this day.  

Over time, an wide array of small projects cropped up to help people in need.  The founders of these organizations give of themselves to the non glamorous work of serving the needs of others.   South Africa is blessed with such these heroes,  angels working tirelessly in serving the "least of these" without expectation of material reward or recognition.  We have come to know the few listed below.

*  Gail Trollip started a children's relief project in her garage 12 years ago.  Today Tabitha Ministries is home for  60-70 parentless children.  It also shelters several hundred  HIV positive children in a large township nearby. These children cannot remain at home after school because it is too dangerous to stay there during the day without a parent. There are gardening projects and food distribution.  The agency is blessed with donors across the world. 

        *  Rob Kluge was a professor of entomology at a local college.  Years ago, he suffered significant paralysis from a snake bite that compromised his ability to speak such that he had to leave his job.  A man of deep faith, he was led to starting a project on his own in a township of approximately 35,000 people, 50% of whom are HIV positive and with an unemployment rate of 80%.  Today, 13 years later, his agency (Masibumbane,  meaning "being together") has 11 different projects such as AIDS counseling, food parcels, gardening, after school programs and managing money to make better the lives of their clients.  He also employs a manager who usually "translates' for Rob.  A local Methodist church also assists in the project.

*Pastor Jabu  heads up a multi-agency project located in the old Pietermaritzburg jail.  His personal passion is teaching skills to teens and other young people to help them become self-sufficient.  As well, he has trained and empowered a large community in building its own church.

*  Bruce Taylor left his job in business to start, Walk in the Light, a non-profit agency to serve the forgotten community of Haniville.  To sustain the program, there is a garden of rose geraniums.  The flowers are then distilled on site that yields a base liquid sold to perfume companies. There is also  help with clothing, computer training, transportation to the clinics, a child care facility and a program that welcomes volunteers from around the world.

Our seminarians have been placed in each of these projects and several more. Not all of them enjoy these experiences. In time, I think they will become more valuable to them than they can now imagine.

We have had the privilege to go to these places with the seminarians.  One day we joined them to visit two homes in Haniville,  Fewer things can get you closer to what it is to be poor than to visit the homes - lean-to's, mud huts, corrugated metal with old tires holding down the roof.  The drinking water could be a kilometer away.  Many have no electricity.  Others tap into a live line.  

In the first home, the family made space in their crowded little house for us to sit.  We talked, prayed and sang.  The lady of the house was going through some unnamed illness.  At the end, we prayed and sang again. She shed tears of gratitude.  A single caring moment can be  powerful.

We moved down the rutted dirt road to see a gentleman in his dark mud hut that he shares with his sister.  A piece of cloth hung from a wire divided the house into two rooms.  He had suffered an ankle injury and was barely mobile.  In his own language, he told the seminarians that it was very painful.  Cheri noticed this and was concerned that he would not use his leg enough, and it would eventually atrophy. She then showed him some simple exercises that would help strengthen his leg and ankle. He looked at her skeptically at first until he realized that she was helping him.  He then started practicing an exercise, painful as it was.  A seminarian prayed for him without a prompt.   As we left, the man thanked us, especially with his eyes.  A few weeks later, another seminarian reported back that we was now fully mobile and better able to care for himself.  

There are heroes all around us in our own area.  A 2011 publication lists non-profit organizations providing children services in KwaZulu-Natal Province.  I counted 119 of them.  Most are very small, often located in remote places and struggling to stay afloat.  These are ordinary people who have heard a call that gives them strength to carry on.  Their vision is to improve the lives of those in the communities who come to them or are visited.  To an outsider, small projects like these may seem inadequate.  But while grandiose plans are debated by the government for years at a time, the real work is done by these small organizations, one day at a time, one person at a time.

This is what we have been doing here for these nearly three years - exposing  future ministers to the truth that it's usually the simple things that confirm Christ's presence.  We too have learned that these visits are precious moments that affirm the dignity and value of the poor.   The mission of the seminary is to empower ministers to be true servants, to go from the pulpit to the mud hut, the hospital, the hungry, the prisons, the lame and the poor. Then seminarians take the first small steps to put the church on the front lines of transformation of the the church and the country.  

Above:  four seminarians volunteering at a school for the mentally challenged.

Note 2:   We will continue writing including when we get home and experience re-entry.

WRAP-UP PT II

by  Doug Roland

         South Africa is a simmering storm of frustrated, cynical, indignant, disappointed and angry South Africans of all colors. They are anything but united. 

Outside this storm lives a privileged class that has built a sort of economic stockade. They own very fine homes, command the business world and continue to accumulate wealth.  There is a TV series called "Top Billing" that spends an hour each week saturating the viewers with stories of the privileged, the beautiful people who live in 30,000 Sq.ft. homes overlooking the ocean.  We get to see their kitchens, their bedrooms, their horses, their artwork, their architects and their "fans".  These folks may as well be on another planet, so insulated they are.  

By contrast, most people live near or under the poverty level.  Many are losing hope.  Last week, a fire broke out in a shack settlement located in the shadow of South Africa's crown jewel and tourist magnet, Cape Town.  The fire spread in the brisk winds and left 4,000 people homeless.  

       The vision of a "rainbow nation" that delivers social justice, a better way of life, a color blind government, and the promise of  peace and prosperity is fading. The fabric holding the country together is splitting, leaving enclaves of discontent.  

        These problems arise out of a long, difficult history.  Millions of South Africans have lived lives of bare subsistence for generations. They are mostly simple folks, uneducated in basic life skills. Fellow Americans, deeply infused with the Protestant work ethic, would ask why black South Africans don't just work harder or get more training. It's a reasonable question in highly developed countries. Here, though, there is a series of deep ruts in the road the rainbow.  

These include a history of tribal conflicts that still remain. Several hundred years of colonialism took away the land of the indigenous people, followed by apartheid that broke their will.  Though the end of apartheid liberated black people in many ways, the ruts and the scars of their history have not healed. Very suddenly, black people were set free but without the knowhow or skills to survive in a growing industrial economy. 

For a couple of hundred years black Africans were ordered to do specific tasks, and only those tasks, leaving little room for improvisation, initiative or a sense of value as an individual. There was no reason to think big thoughts.  Consequently, showing initiative, going beyond what is required, and working hard to better oneself is rare.  For many, the "freedom" is an illusion. 

  

The government is looked to for answers, but few come.  The ANC was one of the main moving forces that brought apartheid to an end.  It has controlled the government since 1994.  However, many high ranking members of the ANC, along with favored contractors for government contracts, are now very wealthy while ordinary people have seen little evidence of a better life in a post-apartheid country. 

"The ANC leadership has failed to improve unemployment, housing, poverty and inequality during its 18 years at the helm of the South African government. To some extent the ANC, with its connections to big business, it's bloated salaries to party favorites and it's corruption in playing nice with friendly contractors, has become part of the establishment."  ("Rage By Miners Points to Shift in South Africa";  New York Times, Aug., 2012.)   

        Complicating this are cultural differences that stubbornly resist change.   Here's an example:

  Superstition exists even among our seminarians.  Just before exams last November,  some of them went  home to their own witch doctors or sangomas (local healers) for pieces of trees, plants roots, bark and other stuff. They came back to their apartments and boiled the concoction in water. He or she then created a sort of "tent" in which to breath in the steam.  It's a kind of Vick's Vapor Rub for improving the odds.  All this is done on the belief that it would help the seminarians be successful in their exams.  If you are wondering why people training for the Christian ministry would eschew prayer for this, so are we.  

Another roadblock is found in the Zulu culture.   A person who tries harder, goes the extra mile and improves his life, is not rewarded by his community. On the contrary he is considered disloyal because of the belief that all wealth should be shared equally. There are no honors for being outstanding.  Instead of individual thinking, we see a kind of "group-think".  As a result, individual responsibility is lacking.  All this, of course, ends in mediocrity.  It's a tough nut to crack.

What happens in South next is unpredictable.  Just how rigid are the traditional customs?  Can they be adapted to this century?  Will the people rise up and decry the corruption in all levels of government, or will they tacitly accept it as other African countries have?  

        After 18 years hopeful years of waiting to see how the new government would work out, most of our acquaintances are deeply troubled by the current state of affairs.  They have not yet given up even though the trajectory is not good.  Some have confessed that they already have an "exit strategy".   Others lack the resources to leave.

The level and frequency of problems has spawned a combination of defeatism, apathy and frustration.  This has serious implications outside of South Africa.  As the people continue to lose heart, the country is vulnerable to radical shifts such as demands to nationalize the mines and "taking back" the land of the ancestors.  If South Africa, Africa's most developed countryand the hope for the continent, begins to wane, it could trigger a domino effect. For the last 20-25 years, the neighboring countries have looked at South Africa as the model for the future. If it collapses, the other, smaller countries become vulnerable.  A new wave of economic colonialism could emerge, or other countries, fearing the worst, may pull out altogether.  

In my next piece, I will try to tie all this to what we have been doing these last months to help arrest and reverse the tide.  Recently, we've seen a couple of "green shoots" that might be a sign of correcting the course.

WRAP-UP Pt. I

       

by:   Doug Roland

  This post is the first step a series to sum up what we have found here, what we have done and what it means.  

I begin with a listing of incidents and problems that we have encountered during the 28 months we have lived here.  It is a compilation of observations that, in the aggregate, suggests that a social, moral and and political cancer is threatening the people of South Africa. 

        I am keenly aware that I am here by invitation, a foreigner, a temporary guest.  So the litany of items below are filtered by my own culture. It's risky business.  In the eyes of South Africans, this may be seen as alarmist, biased or unnecessary.  Nevertheless, I must be honest in recording what I have seen and experienced. 

For my friends back home, the intention is to share a sense of what it is like to be here day in and day out.  It may help make it clearer if, after you read this, you try to imagine what it would be like if you were here.  How would you act and think?  How would you feel?

 

**********************

Things seen, read, heard or experienced:

•   frequent power outages and water main breaks

• the solid waste pickup takes one vehicle, the driver, and about four others 

• a deep hole in the sidewalk, large enough to swallow a small child, resulted from the repair of a water main break; the hole remains 5-6 weeks later 

• about 20 yards from the hole is a street named "hores", or at least it was 2 years ago;  recently the sign was repainted, "Shores";  glad they cleared that up

• potholes in our street are not fixed for 3-4 months

• robots (stop lights) go out regularly, usually during rush hour

• police investigation of the burglary at our house last February; a promise from the Captain to send a fingerprint team.  The prints remain on the wall; the team never showed

• car accidents near us, glass and debris on the road is swept into a pile and left

• street lights on our street and a street nearby have been out more than on in our 28 months

• there are high schools with libraries of empty shelves; but, outside there are athletic fields sufficient to accommodate soccer, cricket, track and others;  most have competition level swimming pools, including primary schools

• the nearby university has built separate clubhouses for rugby, field hockey, cricket;  and an array of outdoor lighting for the fields even when no one is there (these lights seem to always work)

• proportionately more Mercedes and  BMWs than I see on Florida roads;  this in a country of  27% unemployment

• a trip or phone call to any public office is often depressing due to employee incompetence and dreadfully slow pace;    

Recent stories from the evening news:

     ●   miners go on strike, express their demands by marching, singing, shouting slogans;  police open fire, killing 31 miners.  200 police are involved

●     wildcat strikes have broken out in mines and agricultural areas; strikers sing, march and dance;  demanding up to twice existing salaries

     ●  a platinum miners demanded equal pay for all the regular miners regardless of skill, years with company, absences;  also demanded that the job of foreman be eliminated, i.e., no bosses

       ●   nearly every newscast begins with 100's of strikers, their, families, friends and hangers-on demonstrating for their causes; it has been said that this country is the only place where people express their anger by singing

●  the economy's growth estimates are adjusted downward;  the value of the country's currency has dropped during these strikes

     ●   a school has one bus to pick up students;  it's either late, broken or doesn't show up at all

     ● 5-6 children ride to school in the back of a pickup truck as parents have no other way to get them there;  truck crashed into another vehicle;  all children were killed

     ●  an adult was carrying three young children to school in his car did not arrive;  children found dead, including a girl who was raped 

     ● in a protest against failure of the government to provide help to a poor community, parents kept their children from going to school  (think about that)

       ● in one of the provinces, a supplier failed for over 10 months to deliver books to schools; one truckload was found along the roadside, simply dumped; investigation continues

      ●   a week ago a 12 seat van belonging to the seminary was stolen from within the seminary's  apartment complex secured by metal fences 

      ● some universities lower their academic standards because of unprepared students;who can't cope; otherwise, if students are failed, there would not be enough to remain open;  in short, institutional dumbing-down

•   there is a constitutional right to a college education;  last January
• thousands of hopeful students en mass tried to get into one of the
• universities that could not accommodate even a fraction of them;  a riot ensued

     

      ●  the president of the country is a grade school dropout;  he  approved a project to "improve" his personal home for himself and his several wives at a cost of about $25 million of taxpayers money;  the home is in a far rural area;  the president answered the critics by saying that the millions were being spent because of security issues; [Note: it is not an "official residence" that would qualify for security as a government expense.]

• the ANC (African National Congress) has been the dominant
• political party in the country since the end of apartheid and has
• commanded about 2/3 of the electorate; every province in the country,
• save one, is governed by the ANC

• the president has had some setbacks from the Constitutional Court. 
• He is fighting a movement from critics to hold a vote of confidence. Fearing the Court, the president has called for a return to the "Traditional African Court" way of doing things, thereby showing an indifference to the rule of law.

*******************************************************************

        Folks back home, I think  you should be very thankful. 

WHAT'S GOIN' ON

BY:  Cheri Roland

Dearest Family and Family,

         Guess you might have thought we had vanished!  But, no, this is crunch time when working in an almost new institution with a whole world of God possibilities just waiting to be tried on.  “Exciting” would be a gross understatement.

         First we need to thank the United Methodist General Board of Global Missions for developing a dynamite internship program for budding ministers.  Hillary Taylor, a new Furman University grad, came to us a month ago courtesy of GBGM, as a 14 month volunteer to SMMS, after which she will serve another 18 months in mission stateside.   We are grooming her to take over the reins of the practical ministry course, FEM, when we bid adieu in 2013 on April Fool’s Day.  Maybe a message there…

         Finishing the academic year comes with challenges of its own, as all of you teachers will appreciate.  The flurry of assignments, final exams, marking, averaging, avenging!!!  Just kidding…   A major mission for us, exclusive to our course, has been tracking down evaluations written by our partner agencies on individual seminarians.  OH the trauma and gnashing of teeth around typical TIA (This Is Africa) complications - no copier, the weather, no way to bring them, no one there when we go to pick them up, having not even begun to fill them out when we arrive at the agreed upon time, no email access because the power lines have been stolen (to get the copper)…  We also have helped with invigilating, or monitoring, exams.  And all this must be done allowing time for those who have failed an exam to take “supplementaries” (for students who have failed).  Our valedictory service closes out the year this Saturday.   We staff members then work through December 14^th.

         But the MOST exciting project now is the makeover of our FEM program.  It all began with a visit by Dr. Mark Fowler from Garrett Theological Seminary in Chicago, a friend of Pete Grassow.  Pete is our Chaplin and new Head of Formation, under which FEM falls.   Anyway, Mark came this past winter (Tampa’s summer) to review our FEM course; his speciality is practical ministry, so who better to help expand our vision?  He was full of praise for what Doug and I had put in place, saying our program rivalled those of many seminaries in the States.  What he saw missing was integration into the academic side of seminary life.  We wholeheartedly agreed.  Our meager attempts to link with our lecturers had fizzled, often because of the existing seminary structure.

         The renowned Dr. Peter Storey to the rescue!   He has been our interim president and most excellent backdoor neighbour when in visiting in Pietermaritzburg.   Dr. Storey has redefined our internal structure to compliment a just birthed revolutionary seminarian assessment tool.  This is so new that MCSA General Council hasn’t even voted on it yet!  The idea is to evaluate the person called to ministry using the same criteria from day one till ordination seven years later.   We can’t wait to try it out!   No longer will the three years at SMMS viewed as a separate and sacred time block not to be messed with by EMMU bishops peering down from their thrones.  No, now we are all one big happy family, thanks to Ross Olivier, his son Jon-Mark, and Peter Storey expanding horizons.  Yes, there have been hands of reconciliation across the water.  

         With this fortuitous  rethink, FEM will indeed to join the rank of an honest-to-goodness academic class – and get this – will be taught by none other than our new seminary pres, Dr. Mvume Dandala!  Take about instant clout .   One week will be classroom time, and the next, their agency visits to apply what they are learning.  SMMS offers both a Diploma in Practical Ministry and a Bachelor of Theology, with year one providing the foundation for following in Jesus’ footsteps, year two focuses on deepening  servanthood and year three culminates in leadership training.  

         So all of these changes have necessitated ferretting out NEW agencies to partner with SMMS in this adventure.  I’m sure you all are OK with CHANGE, but it’s still a six letter word for me.   My gut reaction was to circle the wagons around the program we had built – but how silly is that?!   This overturning of the apple cart – forgive my mixed metaphors – has actually knocked out the rotten air, making room for revitalization and exploration of other wonderful agencies in our area who are doing amazing work for the Lord.  And, shock of ages, they are not all Methodist…

         Hillary has come to the fore to shake up our in-the-box-thinking (see the need for our blog’s name?), and with her enthusiasm will propel this program to new heights.  She will be the official coordinator, linking the agencies with the lecturers.  And get this!  Our new accountant and his wife from Malawi -- who knew they both have a Masters in Practical Ministry?  Yet another God thing!  So they have been recruited as adjunct lecturers for FEM. This classroom experience will also offer a fabulous venue for our agency staff members to share their stories and expertise as well as greatly increase seminarians’ exposure to issues at the intersecton of ethnicity, church and society .

         SOOO, as you can tell, we have tons and tons to be thankful for this Thanksgiving.  Although we are soon closing this indescribable chapter in our lives, our hearts are bursting with joy as we birth a new era of FEM, secure that our call to work with future ministers has been taken up by others.  This seminary will continue to bear fruit!  And, in that spirit we are celebrating Thanksgiving Thursday with real turkey and stuffing and pie and the rest.  Hillary from South Carolina, Wilhelmina and Rodrick from Jamaica, Frenchey from Mississippi, and Nellie and Rob from Holland are converging on #7 Isabel Beardmore to keep up the American tradition of over indulgence alive and well.  And you all will be in our hearts and minds as we praise the Lord for his providence and love.

Blessings for an awesome Happy Thanksgiving,

          Cheri