The devastation caused by the fire in the Knysna area was evident soon after we left George today. The Garden Route was black and ashen instead of luscious and green. But I am ahead of my story, so allow me to back up a bit.

This morning we met with Bishop Brain Marajh and his Archdeacons. Alright, I admit I was completely intimidated, but the dear Bishop quickly put me at ease with his constant teasing and joviality. Louise and I presented the program to the group of men and answered their questions…by the time we left, everyone was on board and eager to set a date for training. We are all anticipation…

When I was a child, my parents would come down to South Africa from Namibia every year to spend their vacation in a hotel called the Van Riebeek in Gordon’s Bay. But part of this annual ritual was a trip to Holy Trinity, Belvidere, a small chapel connected to the estate of the Duthie family back in the 1850’s as well as the grave of George Rex.

http://www.holytrinitybelvidere.org/history.html

I still don’t really know what the connection was back then. This time the small chapel meant a lot to us. You see, the raging forest fire that caused so much sorrow and loss throughout this area, came right up to the gate of the church but went no further. We met with the local priest, a young man by the name of Jerome, who told us how he stayed behind while his family was evacuated. No one thought the fire would come over the mountain…but it did…with a vengeance. He saw his neighbour struggling to douse the flames in her backyard and so he ran to help her, but a tree went up and flames at the side of the house and fell onto the roof. He told us how he had to physically drag her away as she watched her house burn to the ground. He knew the church could be next, but he had to get her out…”people are more important than buildings,” he said. So he fled with her to a nearby hotel.

But forest fires are treacherous, and, as the wind had turned, they were all forced to flee once again…but this time on foot…poor, wealthy, sick, and injured together across the beach sands to safety. As they sat and waited for the fires to be put out, news came that Holy Trinity was no more. But he refused to believe that.
Once they were allowed to leave, he walked back across the sands to where he had left his car. They had to remove trees and fallen telephone poles  before they could get out of the hotel parking lot. As he approached the church all he was watching for was the roof…and there it was. Not a roof tile was touched. The neighbour’s house was but a shell. His own rectory which was next door untouched.

We found George Rex’s grave as well…I felt I needed to do that for my mum. It seemed to be in a better shape than when we last saw it, but still…for the founder of Knysna, the state of the grave is rather a poor reflection on the community.

We had to push on from this point as Post Elizabeth was still quite a way to drive. Once again, we have a wonderful B&B to stay in tonight.

We also received great news as we drove into the city.

We are grandparents again! Hanno and Lauren have had another wee girl: Constance Advent. So we found a local restaurant to celebrate…

What a wonderful way to end a perfect day…

The majestic grandeur of the scenery along the route we are taking to George is indescribable. It will take poetry or a grand symphony to explain what we have seen today. Miles and miles of farmland rising up to the fantastic heights of the mountains all around us…landscape dotted with animals of varying species, both domestic and wild…ostriches, sheep, cattle, Bontebok, huge flocks of Guinea Fowl, Cranes and Egrets, even two Elephants…Elephants? Yup, there are a few small game farms along the way as well.

Once the sun was up and the folks of the small towns were visible, we stopped for apple pie and coffee. This particular bakery is known for its pies, but, being health conscious as we are, we reluctantly passed by the rest and bought two small buns instead for a quick picnic along the road…but that would have to wait as we were now approaching the town of Swellendam and we needed to have a chat with the Anglican Priest there about our work with GtC.

What a wonderful couple! Mario and Hester Hendricks lead four churches, the largest of which is over 300 strong. They immediately wanted to know when we can come to do the training! Well, as with all hierarchical churches there are hoops and loops through which one has to manoeuvre before anything can get done…but where there is a will, there is a way, and we will work it out. One of their parishioners, Rob also showed up and we had a lovely chat over coffee.

By the time we left Swellendam, the sun was just beginning to make its presence known and a good bask in its warmth was just the thing we needed to thaw the winter cold and get our fingers moving in the right directions again. So we stopped again, for a quick bite…ah, the open road…nothing like it.

We then drove straight through to our destination for today…George…a place that used to be a quaint town 20 odd years ago, but that is now a large city in its own right. Here we met Archdeacon Lyndon Du Plessis, a man I met last year December up in Johannesburg. Lyndon and his dear wife, Corine, met us at an upscale Mall…not quite what I was expecting to find here…and took us to Mugg and Bean for a bottomless Hot Chocolate. Seriously…how much hot chocolate can one drink in one sitting? But it was delicious and the fellowship sweet. These are hard working folk. They told us that when they got here, their church was dying…literally…a few older folks clinging on for dear life. But now their church is vibrant and filled with young folk too…over 3000 strong! But the majority of the parishioners are poor and struggling to make ends meet. That is a story one hears a lot in Anglican circles here…

We are staying overnight with parishioners who have just started up their own B&B…what a lovely little place and so nice to be staying with folks from the church. Tomorrow is the big day when we meet with the Bishop and his council, but there is still much that needs to be done tonight!

We went out with Lyndon and Corine to look at their church and the area in which they serve. It is a large and very diverse area with some very, very poor folks living right on their doorstep. We stopped at their church, St Paul’s, and met with their choir and were blessed to hear them sing…outstanding! We finished off a wonderful day with a meal and fellowship…dear blessed saints, they are.

The majestic grandeur of the scenery along the route we are taking to George is indescribable. It will take poetry or a grand symphony to explain what we have seen today. Miles and miles of farmland rising up to the fantastic heights of the mountains all around us…landscape dotted with animals of varying species, both domestic and wild…ostriches, sheep, cattle, Bontebok, huge flocks of Guinea Fowl, Cranes and Egrets, even two Elephants…Elephants? Yup, there are a few small game farms along the way as well.

Once the sun was up and the folks of the small towns were visible, we stopped for apple pie and coffee. This particular bakery is known for its pies, but, being health conscious as we are, we reluctantly passed by the rest and bought two small buns instead for a quick picnic along the road…but that would have to wait as we were now approaching the town of Swellendam and we needed to have a chat with the Anglican Priest there about our work with GtC.

What a wonderful couple! Mario and Hester Hendricks lead four churches, the largest of which is over 300 strong. They immediately wanted to know when we can come to do the training! Well, as with all hierarchical churches there are hoops and loops through which one has to manoeuvre before anything can get done…but where there is a will, there is a way, and we will work it out. One of their parishioners, Rob also showed up and we had a lovely chat over coffee.

By the time we left Swellendam, the sun was just beginning to make its presence known and a good bask in its warmth was just the thing we needed to thaw the winter cold and get our fingers moving in the right directions again. So we stopped again, for a quick bite…ah, the open road…nothing like it.

We then drove straight through to our destination for today…George…a place that used to be a quaint town 20 odd years ago, but that is now a large city in its own right. Here we met Archdeacon Lyndon Du Plessis, a man I met last year December up in Johannesburg. Lyndon and his dear wife, Corine, met us at an upscale Mall…not quite what I was expecting to find here…and took us to Mugg and Bean for a bottomless Hot Chocolate. Seriously…how much hot chocolate can one drink in one sitting? But it was delicious and the fellowship sweet. These are hard working folk. They told us that when they got here, their church was dying…literally…a few older folks clinging on for dear life. But now their church is vibrant and filled with young folk too…over 3000 strong! But the majority of the parishioners are poor and struggling to make ends meet. That is a story one hears a lot in Anglican circles here…

We are staying overnight with parishioners who have just started up their own B&B…what a lovely little place and so nice to be staying with folks from the church. Tomorrow is the big day when we meet with the Bishop and his council, but there is still much that needs to be done tonight!

We went out with Lyndon and Corine to look at their church and the area in which they serve. It is a large and very diverse area with some very, very poor folks living right on their doorstep. We stopped at their church, St Paul’s, and met with their choir and were blessed to hear them sing…outstanding! We finished off a wonderful day with a meal and fellowship…dear blessed saints, they are.

Cold, cold, cold…but I told Louise a long time ago that when I complain about the cold winters here she must remind me of the 63.8 degree Celsius weather in Gambella. So, I let her do the complaining and I simply nod in sympathy.

This morning, the preacher used the image of a desert rose as an illustration of the nominal Christian…beautiful to behold, but nothing more than fossilised soil. For those who don’t know what a desert rose is, here is a picture of one.

There could not have been a better confirmation for what we are seeking to do as Growing the Church. The reality of non-productive church goers is something that needs urgent attention. The horror of successfully Christianised nations committing atrocities beyond human nightmares such as the genocides of Rwanda and South Sudan remind us that we simply cannot do church as we have in the past. Something must change.

In our recent application to SAMS-USA for a project to fund a scholarship program to assist those who simply cannot pay for the disciple-making training, we pointed out the fact that numerical growth does not necessarily bring about the type of change one seeks for those being added to the Kingdom. The LEAD program, however, teaches disciple-makers to walk with their disciple(s) through a process from unbelief all the way through to maturity.

Schematically thus:

The LEAD program teaches disciple-makers how to win the lost for Christ…then how to build up the new Christian in their new-found faith…then how to train that person to make disciples themselves. All three of these lead quite naturally to the final phase, that is multiplication. But the important thing is to write the concept of multiplication into the DNA of the new believer right from the start…a far easier thing to do at the beginning than to try to ignite that passion at a later stage.

And now, I must disappoint you all…we did not braai tonight…in fact we did not braai at all today. It was a quiet day in this peaceful country town and we spent it peacefully together with everyone else. We had pancakes (American crepes – well, sort of) and chicken soup and now we are gathered around a lovely warm fire.

Tomorrow…ah…we are so excited…

It was -2 degrees Celsius this morning…needless to say, we did not emerge from our beds with the roosters…actually, even the roosters decided to keep a lid on it as we didn’t hear any until later. There is one here whose crow sounds a lot like a rooster we had in Gambella…”Oh what shall I do?” he laments…no-one ever gives an answer.

It suddenly dawned on me that our dear American friends and family will not quite understand our reluctance to crawl out from under our duvets…we do not have central heating (or cooling for that matter) and the cold out there is the cold in here as well!

But in spite of a late start, we did get quite a bit accomplished. We worked on our itinerary and our scholarship fund project application and got a few items we still needed for the road. Louise cooked a few ready-to-pop-in-the-microwave-and-eat meals for the Queen and we ended the day with family, doing what our family loves to do…braaing…which is not exactly the same as American Barbecuing.

Right now this is what the next two weeks will look like.

Monday June 26 – Swellendam and Mosselbay – sleep over in George