Early to rise gives one a head start on matters of the spirit, but it also makes one available for early morning meetings. Today’s after an invitation from Andreis Buffela, its off to the beginning of orientation for the Graduate Programs at the School of Religion and Theology [SoRaT] at the University of KwaZulu-Natal. The Head of School [Dean] is Dr. Steven DeGruncy, and he sets the stage for introductions of Faculty, then students. Sixteen countries are represented among the students: Australia/Canada, Cameroon, Mozambique, Rawanda, Uganda, Burundi, South Africa, Nigeria, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Namibia, Botswana, Tanzania, Malawi, Democratic Republic of the Congo, and one I forgot-perhaps Central African Republic. The fields of study include: Theology and Development, Biblical Studies, History of Christianity, Ministerial Studies, Gender and Religion, Systematic Theology and African Religion, and Catholic Theology and Christian Spirituality. The morning is topped off with Tea before area meetings. I know that I’m the first one from the ELCA to take on this sabbatical travel/teaching, but it would have been helpful to have met several of these folks who were in San Diego for AAR/SBL, including the Principal of LTI, Dr. Farisani. After lunch I experience a second faculty meeting at LTI. The faculty now have the test scores for new students, and they like the faculty at LTSP have concerns about what to do with students who are on the margins. Though I was given the option of leaving early, I didn’t leave early enough. I’ve been asked to preach at the opening worship service on Sunday. That is considerably more time than the first time [12hours] I was asked to preach in South Africa. A quick walk to get a newspaper before dinner, then back to start reading for the sermon….or so I thought. [Cont. Tuesday AM] It must have been an act of God to give us Load-Shedding twice in the same day.
The national power company is only able to provide 90% of the power needs for the country. That means that the gold mines are reporting a loss of 60 million Rand per day, because of the rolling power outages. So it was early to bed, 7:45 pm, no light, no radio, just me and God, and thoughts of D, K and J; and a touch of lonliness. [Yes, I’ve got matches and candles, but I’m not reading by candle light.]
1 comment:
The adults of Grace Epiphany are studying the Millennium Development goals during Lent. It seemed natural to choose South Africa as the focus country because you are there, Evelyn Washington spent 10 weeks at the university and traveling in the country. Paula Smith has also traveled there and has a project connected to a school in one of the townships outside Pretoria. I'm hoping the youth will help us with some research. In addition to their internet research, I'm hoping you will be able to help them with some of their questions and you will post some pictures to help us "see" South Africa and something about her people.
Dawn
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