Right now I am actually writing you from an ocean view café on Beach Rd here in Sea Point. I must admit, I feel a bit conflicted. When I signed up for Africa, I really didn't have in mind ocean view caf​és on Beach Rd., and yet here I am. I suppose the first thing we should establish about my time here is that it won't be what most people imagine as 'African Missions.' I suppose I'm making some assumptions here, and perhaps you know a little something about South Africa, and Cape Town more specifically, but really, this city is quite like any other that you would find in the North America or Europe. It is quite developed, with many of the luxuries and capitalistic, consumer based problems you would find in Winnipeg or Toronto. Except there's an ocean. And mountains. And of course it's not so simple as all that, either. I find that as I try to understand this city for myself, I'm still only making superficial assessments. I look forward to being able to really come to know this city and it's people, to have something to say about the struggles and the joys of South Africa, but more specifically our lovely church here at Sea Point Evangelical Congregational.


Life in Sea Point

So far I am very much enjoying my time in Sea Point. There are times when it is difficult to be without my family and close friends, but such things are natural I do believe. I believe I've told you a bit about the house I'm staying at in Sea Point. Things are still going well there, we're still working out the finer points of what it means to live together, but I think it will work out well in the end. The family I'm staying with is in the midst of 'reorganizing' themselves a bit, it's proving to be difficult times for them, keep them in your prayers as continue through a rough patch.

In Sea Point there's no shortage of things to do, but I do try to keep cost in mind, and also, my first commitment is to the church, so that comes to influence how I spend my free time. However, this isn't to say that I just sit at home on my nights off. Last Friday I was to see “As You Like It” at on outdoor theatre in a suburb on the other side of town. That was a real treat, a good performance in a really nice venue, it was a nice experience. And tonight I plan to see what the symphony here is like. By this point I have pretty high standards, so we'll see how it goes, but I'm confident they'll be fine. Also on the point of arts appreciation, I've joined the Cape Town philharmonic choir! I'm pretty excited about this one, it's a privilege to be a part of a choir such as this, so I'm glad to have the opportunity. And finally, I plan to begin piano lessons in the near future.

So between all these ventures I will be keeping quite busy. I think the priority I have set up in mind is to have the church come first. That is my primary assignment here, after all, so if worse comes to worse I will let go of some of my extracurricular activities, but judging from my discussions with Thomas I think what I've taken on so far has been reasonable and will work well for the year.


Ministry at Sea Point Evangelical Congregationalist Church

On the 22nd, I finally got to me Thomas Scarborough, the man who will be my supervisor for my year here in Cape Town. Thomas is part of the leadership at our church here in Sea Point. At a first glance one would probably peg him as the 'head minister' or some similar title, but from my earliest correspondence with Thomas he assured me that the leadership at Sea Point was shared amongst various leaders in the congregation, he only holds one equal part of a greater whole. It is true the church provides Thomas with full time work, but I believe this church takes seriously the idea of – dare I say – a priesthood of all believers? No, it's not quite to that extent, but I do appreciate this approach to ministerial leadership. Of course in the Mennonite context back home we are notorious for expecting everything of our pastors only to find out that they burn out after 3 or 5 or maybe 10 years. So it is nice to get another interpretation on what pastoral leadership can be. I should probably mention at this point that Thomas is working on his Master's degree (just handed in the final draft of his thesis) which is specifically about the different leadership models in the church, so he is quite experienced in the area.


Starting To Work At Sea Point

For me, the arrival of Thomas more or less marked the starting point of my assignment in South Africa. In actuality I'm not sure that's quite true, I think my time in Pietermaritzburg as well as the week in Cape Town before the 22nd was important for my coming to understand this country, but nevertheless, with Thomas here, I began to take on more 'ministerial' roles. Thus far I have been gradually eased into what my roles will be. Th e idea is that eventually during my time here I will have had experience with all aspects of pastoral ministry, from visitations to church discipline to preaching et cetera, but as for now, I'm gradually easing myself in as I get to know the congregation and they get to know me, it's a good pace to start, I'm keeping quite busy, but not overwhelmed.

Visitations
I started by doing some visitations at two of the senior's centres in town, just down the road from where I'm living. It was a real treat to meet some of the older members of the congregation and to hear about their lives. Really, they were simply very happy for the company, these are the types of visits that aren't so hard to make, when you are so happily received. I've also had the chance to do a couple hospital visits. These have proven to be a bit more challenging, just in terms of the emotional intensity. Unfortunately the public health care in South Africa is quite bad. They do have a private health care system, but of course it's only for those who can afford it, providing for a system that is discriminatory and unjust overall. A nurse from our congregation put it quite starkly for me, “you got to private health care to get better, you go to public health to die.” So the health care system here has a pretty bad reputation. I've done two hospital visitations so far, one at public health and one at private, the differences were appalling.

Bible Studies
So far I've only been to one Bible Study, the minister's Bible Study, but I will be getting to more after things start up more after summer break, which ends more or less at the end of January. But the study I went to was a very interesting. They were working through Acts just toward the final part of the book. Personally I've spent some time speculating thus far as to how different Congregational theology would be from Mennonite theology. Now, focusing on differences isn't something I like to do, I prefer to be more ecumenical, and to that end I haven't been disappointed. Even though some people may read the Bible a bit differently than I do, we are still a people working together to be a faithful community. I'm looking forward to sharing with these folks a little bit of what Mennonites are and having some meaningful conversations about our similarities and differences.


Final Thoughts

I've found that when I'm writing, my natural inclination is towards 1500 words, and that's where we're at about now. I hope that my humble speculations prove to be as edifying as read as they are enjoyable to write. So far I am very happy with my time here. I'm continuing to discern who my primary social group will be, and that can be a bit of an exhausting task, but we'll see what happens as I continue to meet people and pursue social events. So, I'll try to write again in a couple weeks. Also, I'm planning to send out a prayer letter in the next few days. If you're not on my 'prayer letter email list' just pop me a email (pete.nigh@gmail.com) saying you'd like to be and I'll be sure to include you.

Until next time,