July, In Summary

Hey Everyone,

If you were curious as to my absence for the past month, it was due to the fact that I took a month off from writing on this blog of mine. That is to say, I guess, that I skipped one of my bi-weekly entries, and so it has now been a month since my last entry. So here we are, a month later, and of course July was another month full of activity here in Sea Point.

For me the tone of the month was set by the fact that rather than having daily assignments, I was assigned general assignments for the month that I was set to complete by managing my time accordingly. This flexibility allowed for me to set my schedule as I best saw fit, which was nice. Actually, in a way it reminded me of being back at university, being given assignments and projects to complete by a certain date and then having the rest of the time to do what you deemed best. So I tried to make the best of my time, I got a lot of reading done, and I also had a week's vacation. It was a good month.

Three Weeks as Pastoral Minister
Something I've been mentioning a lot in my prayer letters as well as this blog has been the time I spent with the responsibilities of the pastoral ministry at Sea Point Evangelical Congregational while Thomas was on vacation. I guess for me it was important experience beings that it was my first time have some sort of executive leadership in a church setting. And though it's kind of silly to think of any leadership as 'executive' in a church setting, however you want to call it, I was the one addressing the spiritual concerns of our church while Thomas was away. Thomas is back now, so that three week period is over, but reflecting back on those weeks, I think they went well. During this time Una Couchois, one of the woman at our church was admitted to the hospital with heart problems and later she had a pace-maker put in, and I went to visit her a couple times (a challenge when you don't have a car), and Angela, a woman I've been counselling, was admitted to the psychiatric hospital, so that required some special attention. It was these sort of 'crises' that gave me just a glimpse of what it is to be charged with the ministry of a church community. It was a good experience.

Michael McNally
And then, on the morning I was set to leave for my week's vacation, I received word that Michael McNally, a member of our church, commit suicide. Upon hearing that I was tempted to cancel the vacation and stay behind for the family, but I was encouraged to go nevertheless. So that news gave some tone to the rest of my week, though it didn't define it completely. The funeral wasn't until the Tuesday when I got back, so I was able to attend the service. Suicide is so difficult. Michael was an older gentleman, but not so old, he definitely went before his time. He left behind a wonderful wife, two sons and grandchildren as well. Michael was also well respected in the community, for his funeral the church was more full than I had ever seen it.

A Vacation Nevertheless
So with the thoughts of Michael McNally in my head I left for a vacation outside a town called Hermanus. I went to a Christian community called Volmoed, which is a small community set up on the coastal hills about two hours down the coast from Cape Town. After spending straight months in the city, I didn't realize how much I missed being out in nature again. There were some great hiking trails on the property, I think I did all of them by the end of the week. I was there for the week and the only responsibilities I had were cooking for myself, I had the whole rest of the week to myself. It was very nice. Every morning the community met for prayers and then they had coffee or tea together afterwards, it was so good to be among a close-knit community as they were.

While there I also had a chance to meet John De Gruchy and is his wife Isobel. John was Mirjam's supervisor while she was writing her thesis for her Ph.D, himself having many ties to the Mennonite world. John was also one of the chain of connections that enabled me to be placed in Sea Point in the first place, so it was nice to have a chance to meet him and his wife. On the last two days I was there Matthew and John from church joined me at Volmoed and we enjoyed some time off together, it was a great ending to the week.

From the End of the Vacation Until Now
I got back from vacation on July 20th and it was right back into things with Michael's funeral the next day. However, other than that funeral the following was pretty subdued, which I was thankful for. I continued to get some reading done and just did some miscellaneous visits and projects that I hadn't done before I left.

Then, last weekend Phil Lindell Detweiler from Pietermaritzburg came down to visit in order to check up on some of the projects they are working with down here, and he was able to set aside some time for us to connect once again. He proposed that we hike up Table Mountain, and that turned out to be an excellent idea. We left a little late in the afternoon, so it was dark as we descended the last of the hill, but it was a really good time. We had some great discussions on his ministries and experiences in South Africa as well as what I'm doing down here in Sea Point. It was good to be able to get his perspective on some of the issues and ideas that are going through my head. And then the hike itself was fantastic and beautiful as well, the icing on the cake really.

Finally, this past Saturday I went to visit Valkenburg (sp?) Psychiatric hospital where Angela, the woman I have been counselling, admitted herself. I was expecting it to be pretty dire conditions, so when I got there it wasn't as bad as I was expected, but then I didn't really get much of a chance to investigate the conditions of the place, I just took a walk to and from the grocery store near by while talking with Angela. I was once again struck by the frustrations and difficulties of mental illness and depression specifically, and how it is so easy to lose hope in such situations. Angela formerly had be convinced that admitting herself to this hospital would all but solve her problems, and how she's there and all she wants to do is leave, refusing to make decisions to help change her situation. So we pray, and we hope that Angela will persevere in seeing the positive sides of life.

There You Have it For the Month
Once again there seems like a million things I could say, but we only have so much time here I suppose, I will continue with regular updates in the future. Tomorrow Thomas and I will meet to set tasks for the next month, so we'll see what August will have to show.

Take care Until then