I am still praying for wisdom about the two week trip to South Africa that ended Friday. As noted below we spent a lot of time with our partner churches and had a little fun on our own. I was so happy Nancy could go with me. Having another member of Northminster who has seen, heard, and begun to understand our partner churches will be helpful. She can also hold me accountable for some of the plans and promises I made while there.
At the very least our partner churches (Mowbray and M.P. Dube Memorial) have become real places, not pictures in my imagination. Both seem to be middle class churches -- although a sociological study of South Africa could convince me otherwise. Their society is much more complex than ours. I now have a sense of that and want to convey it to our church and presbytery.
We're real partners. Northminster does not give money from our budget to either church. This seemed to have surprised some leaders of the Presbytery of Western Cape. We have given them a refrigerator before, and participated when the presbytery helped them rebuild after freak tornadoes in 1999. But nothing from Northminster's budget goes to either church. We pray for one another, we support each other, and I hope to expand this over time.
What does it mean to be an equal international partner? This is the meaning I hope to seek in the coming weeks.
I am also interested in both presbyteries participating in joint Two Cents A Meal projects.
No comments:
Post a Comment