Over the past week I have seen a lot of posts from people in the UK showing images of springs, flowers appearing, barbecues happening and the sun shining. Here in Cape Town we are heading into autumn which means shorter and cooler days, more chance of the well needed rain and the winter camps and holiday club season is on its way! This month, Margaret Lilley who line managed my while I was in Bristol came out to visit SU Western Cape to plan a trip which will happen in July. I went to the Justice Conference (which gave me some helpful cultural orientation), moved house, assisted in planning Camp HavaGo and lead a session at one of the Holiday Club training events SU run. This week I am on camp from today (2nd April) till the 7th. We have a diverse group of 41 boys from across the city. This is my first tradition SU South Africa camp. I am looking forward to seeing how it runs. The end of this month will be focused on building relationships with schools and churches in the South Peninsula area of Cape Town, with a view to develop a creativity in working with children and young people. Prayer requests
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This week felt like a bit of a crescendo regarding work with a slower start for Monday and Tuesday getting busier and busier from Wednesday till Saturday. South Africa had a public holiday on Tuesday which meant no work, instead this time was spent with Margaret before she flew back to the UK and Marc.
The real excitement came at the end of this week. On Friday, Shenick (the female coordinator for the Froggy Camps) and myself hosted a meeting for representatives for NGOs to invite them to send some of their children to two of our camps (a boys camp and a girls camp) which we are running in July. We had around 20 NGOs represented who will send up to five children to each camp. The children who they will send are some of the most disadvantaged children across the city of Cape Town. We ask the NGOs to help send the children with really basic items which most of them do not have such as tooth paste, soap and sanitary items. Yesterday SU hosted a Holiday Club Directors and Section Leaders training morning to help prepare the holiday clubs for the school holiday clubs in July. Our building was almost to small with over sixty guests attending. The training included things such as the role of a director and section leader, how to manage/lead a team and "the world of a child" (exploring how children of different ages understand/think in slightly different ways). In the week to come the whole SU team will be in full camp preparation mode with two camps happening the first week of April, a boys teen camp and a girls teen camp. I will be leading on the boys teen camp which will be my first South African camp experience since moving here. To use a popular South African adjective, this week has been truly "hectic" with weekly meetings, prayer meetings, having Margaret from SU England and Wales join us, planning for a UK team visit, a 2 day conference etc. I feel like now is the first time I have stopped and looked back on the 7 days.
It has been great having Margaret out here, she has helped us think through some of the work we have been doing as well as sharing with us the vision for SU England and Wales and some fo the conversation they have been having, particularly in times of transition. These thoughts seemed very appropriate for where SU Western Cape is in regard to transition and reviewing our focus in the Western Cape. We also attended the Justice Conference. The aim of this conference was to start the conversation about what it would look like to see justice in South Africa, the removal of all injustices. This conference, although this conference did not cover all the things I expected it gave a very helpful insight into some of the cultural dynamics at play in this country, especially where race is concerned, particularly looking at the knock-ons of systemic racism through out the years and exploring how it may still be happening to day and the way to manage it in our every day life. This week has really given me some interesting incite into this country and I have lots of thoughts for how what I now understand of the culture effects the camps and programmes which I am involved in. I feel like I always say this, but I shall say it again. This week has flown by.
This week contained personal goal setting, a meeting with a teacher to see how I can support and develop the Christian Union she oversees and I met with a local Christian activity centre to explore partnership in running a camp and assisting one another in the work we are doing. The highlight of my week was a meeting I had yesterday with the committee of the Froggy Pond camps which I coordinate. In this meeting we set out the theme for the week, Role Models. Created the frame for the teaching programme, discussed the leadership on camp and explored how the leadership could be developed, and to see how mentoring relationships could be built more effective in the camp. We also looked briefly talked about to do follow up on the camp with the children to start building a long term relationship with the kids and not just have the camp as a one off event. Ideally, this will be managed by local churches and NGOs in the local setting of the children. In the week coming Margaret Lilley who was my line manager for my time in Bristol is coming out to Cape Town for a week to plan a trip from the UK to come out here in July for two weeks to do Holiday Clubs and the Froggy Camp. I also have meeting with another school to explore possible work in that school with the Christian Union. It is Friday yet again and I am looking forward to a restful weekend. The first half of this week was focused on goal setting and building in times to review the newly set goals. The past couple of days I have met with a couple of pastors and the academic dean of the Bible Institute of South Africa to discuss how their students could fit in with the work of Scripture Union Western Cape. It really seems like there is lots of room for potential partnerships once the ball gets rolling of our work in the South Peninsula.
On Monday night I visited Bettaway Community Church in Delft, Cape Town where I first spend time in Cape Town. Here they were in the middle of a mission outreach week to share the message of Jesus with those in their community. I always find it refreshing visiting Bettaway due to the passion, peace and joy that is displayed before God, even if life is tricky. They really understand the verses found in Romans 5:1-5, they have this passion, peace and joy that only comes from being made right with God and knowing him having cast off the things which tangle them up in darkness. I woke up this morning with a great feeling of peace, as a staff team spend time together every morning and they felt the same peace and acknowledgement of God's goodness. This made me think of the common phrase "God is good, all the time. All the time, God is good!". This is where I am at this week. Knowing God is good. I cannot believe I have been in Cape Town for four weeks already. This morning I was reflecting on everything that has happened while I have been here. A large majority of my time has been spent with the staff developing a strategy for SU Western Cape which is sustainable, and grows the work that we are doing. We went back to basics with exploring what our vision is for the Western Cape then building up with role clarity, creating focus areas and reviewing the work that has been happening. As staff members we now have more direction, and we have a greater understanding of each person's role within the team. It feels like we have been building the foundations for our work in the Western Cape for some years to come. When we were not looking at strategy, Daryl (the regional director) and I started to build contact with a couple of schools in the South Peninsula area (Muizenberg, Fish Hoek, Simon's Town and Sun Valley) exploring how best I can support the Christian work in the schools and develop the leadership skills of the students who run the Christian Unions. We also had the pleasure of running a children's ministry workshop at a Methodist Ministers conference. We asked the ministers to discuss certain questions which would show the importance and the challenges of children's ministry, as well as offering some solutions. I was shocked to hear that all of the ministers in our workshop came to faith by the age of 20, most by the age of 16 yet none of the training they received in Bible College covered the topic children's ministry. In the next couple of weeks I will be meeting with more schools in the South Peninsula as well as a couple of Bible Colleges in the area to explore whether some of their students could participate in some of the activities that we run at Scripture Union. I realise that my monthly updates are not regular, so from next week I will try and do a weekly blog post. I shall post links to Facebook and Twitter or alternatively you can go to my blog CapeTownMatt directly.
So, as I come to the end of my fourth week in Cape Town I am reflecting on what has happened so far. I mean, I haven't been in many schools yet, have haven't lead any camps, in fact I have spent most my time in meetings talking with other Scripture Union staff. I don't have transport yet, I don't really have a mobile number, my long term accommodation isn't sorted yet either.
The question I am asking myself is what really have I been doing? I haven't been to the beach, I haven't really left the suburb where my office and house is. Why have I travelled over 9500 kilometres to do nothing I have intended to do? My answer comes as a single eleven letter word. Foundations. The past four weeks have been about settling, building foundations to work from, creating strategies, doing research, building relationships with my team, exploring my support structures. Defining my role. I have been setting my foundations right so that I can work from a good place, so I can thrive in working for SU, that I do more than just survive. I see this as a healthy model for ministry. For our team devotions this morning we were reading about the wise and foolish man, one building his foundations in God and the other not. In the meetings and conversations I have been seeking God's will for my work in South Africa, building the foundations. These next three years are a marathon and not a sprint. From March onwards some of the logistical things should be falling into place and I will start establishing work out towards Fish Hoek, Muizenberg and Simon's Town, working from a more stable, supportive foundation. Functioning from this foundation and preparations I am excited to see the work God is going to do, and the work that he is already doing. So after all the planning, the email ping-pong with the South African High Commission for a visa, the praying and anything else I have forgotten I am now in Cape Town, in fact writing this update from my new desk in the Scripture Union Western Cape office.
I am staying just a couple of minutes from the Western Cape office with a family until more long term accommodation is found. The next couple of weeks will be slower, getting a feel for SU South Africa and how they work while sorting out the less exciting things such as email addresses. I am also looking for my own church to go to. I will have more to feed back in February once I really get a little more into the rhythm of life here. Prayer Points
Well, there we have it. I have two sleeps until I leave for Cape Town. For my final two and a half days of UK life I have literally nothing planned other than doing my washing and packing. I am really loving the nothingness.
Often as people we feel guilty about doing nothing, especially when something big is coming up like a party, event or even moving. In fact I am finding this silence, this quiet stillness really helpful in reflecting over the past year and preparing myself mentally to live some 9000 kilometres south of home. More than reflecting, packing is giving me a chance to remove some of the materialistic things I have gained over the years. What do I really need? I few clothes, a book or two, a camera, a laptop for working on, a towel. So much of the stuff I have gained I don't actually need and it feels really refreshing to de-clutter, it feels almost like a "materialism detox". Two sleeps and I am having an accidental "materialism detox". Fancy that. One of the questions I have been asked most regularly over the past couple of weeks is Are you excited?
Now, this might be a very random question to ask anyone without knowing your situation, for me, however, this may seem like the most appropriate question to ask. I have four sleeps left until I fly out to Cape Town, South Africa for three years to be a full time volunteer. My life is at this place of a huge change and yes it is exciting, more exciting than anything else I have done but the question is not that simple to answer. I am excited, nervous, worried, confused, scared, happy, sad, ready, totally unprepared, I cannot wait yet I hope it doesn't happen just yet. I feel like this is the right thing to do yet I do not feel like the right person to do it. I won't want the three years to finish but I cannot wait for them to be over. In asking this very simple question all emotions are brought up inside of me, extreme happiness and sadness, excitement and fear, perhaps even some FOMO (fear of missing out). All of this is because I am going into the unknown, a new place, out of my comfort zone. I am going into something I have never done before. You could fill the blank in the question are you ______? with nearly any emotion or feeling and my answer would probably be yes. Moving to a new phase of life is complex. So very complex. Pre-move mode? For me that is feeling a group of complex emotions while the thought of 'I really must do my washing and pack' is at the forefront of my mind. |