Sisyphus and prayer

In Greek mythology there is a story of Sisyphus. Sisyphus dies, and goes to Hades where he has to push a boulder up a hill before he can go to the land of bliss, but just as the Sisyphus reaches the top of the hill, the boulder slips and rolls back to the bottom, so he has to do it over and over again.
This story came to mind yesterday as I was carting bricks around church property for the third time, and it would be easy to feel like we are being treated like sisyphus. We are constantly being asked to do the same job multiple times either because they need something moved, or we weren't told about a step part way through the job. so the job get's done over and over and over again.
But as I thought about the repetitiveness of the tasks that we are given, I realised that it wasn't pointless doing the same job over and over again. Doing the same job over and over again creates repetition the same way monks recite scriptures in latin over and over again. IT allows allows my mind to wander and for me to contemplate and work out with God my theology, my insterests, my beliefs, my feelings, my calling and my very existence.
Currently God's working out my calling. Yesterday during brick moving, God reminded me of a promise that I had forgotten from years ago that he had made me. He reminded me that my education will be in pastoral ministry because it's going to prepare me for what he has planned for me, but that full time pastoral ministry as I see it, preaching in a church every sunday, isn't what he's calling me to. I had forgotten this, but he reminded me. I still don't know what the call is for me, so I guess I'll have to dig some holes or something.
I'm still not sure what he's going to with my life, I guess I'll just dig some more holes

Shelly Beach

So as stated in my past entry, this past week we were in Port Shepstone at Skogheim Christian Conference Center with other Mennonites doing a week long Retreat. It was good times, and we did a bunch of cool stuff.

Note:if you don't understand a term see my previous entry, it should be in there.

We sang hymns from the Hymnal: a Worship Book, which was cool, I haven't done that in a while. I was however, disappointed we didn't sing the good Doxology the entire week, yet did the slightly less awesome one like 3 times.

We did sharing and praying time, when the various families/ groups would share what their job discription is, what they do, what they struggle with and what various prayer requests, then we laid hands on them and prayed for them.

We swam in a pool and played a form of water polo where you had to get a ball under a chair. This game was complicated by the fact that their were little kids playing with us, and we didn't want to hurt them.

We built relationships.

I met a Rockway Alumni who graduated the year I started, and learned that things don't change.

We went to a used book store, where we got a bunch of books, then went and got Frozen Yogurt which was good.

We had good discussion times about how we experience God in a new culture, talking about both what we have to gain, and what we have to learn from the new culture.

We had chocolate fondue which was good,

We did communion, which was even better. It was cool sharing Christ's Body, with Christ's Body

We also went to the beach where I learned a few things
1.just because you haven't sunburned somewhere before, doesn't mean you can't (my legs hurt for three days).
2.Wind picks up sand blows it around. That's how a sand blaster works, and theres a reason you wear thick clothes for that.
3.Wind Barriers don't work if they are made out of sand. It just provides more ammunition for the wind to shoot at your body.
4.Sand can get into everything including your ears, and into your glasses (which turned out to be problematic, sand kept getting into my eyes, and it sucked trying to get it out).

Mennonites in South Africa

This past week we went to a retreat, all of the Mennonite workers in Southern Africa were there. Everyone from SALTers to MC Canada Witness workers, to MCC Country Reps, IVEPers to us RJers to MMN workers. Now I know what youare thinking, none of these terms make sense, that's because we mennonites like Acronyms, so this entry will be about acquainting you with relevant Mennonite Groups, programs, people, and organizations that I like/ think are important.


ANISA- Anabaptist Network in South Africa, a network of Anabaptist minded groups in the beginning stages, currently a website getting 75-100 hits a day, with news, editorials, and a growing library of print and electronic resources. See: MC Canada

IVEP- International Visitors Exchange Program, a MCC program that allows people to come to Canada and the States and volunteer at various Mennonite organizations such as MCC thrift Stores, or Mennonite Schools (we once had an IVEPer at rockway). Think SALT, but reverse it. See: MCC, SALT

MCC- Mennonite Central Commitee, the development organization affiliated with the Mennonite Church. Founded after World War Two to help Russian Mennonite Refugees, and has since expanded all over the world doing various work such as helping Co-ops get started, and other cool stuff. The best thing about MCC is that they do not force themselves on people, they wait for other organizations to ask for help before entering an area. The family we know are the Altys, who like everyone else on this list are cool.

MC Canada- Mennonite Church Canada, their name speaks for themselves, it's basically all of the Mennonite Churches in Canada (hence the name) coming together and working alongside each other. I love going to their annual conferences, but have missed the last two.

MC Canada Witness- The missions arm of MC Canada, their work here in South Africa is in developing ANISA. The couple here doing this work is Karen and Andrew Suderman, a couple from my home town (kind of, they are also connected to Winkler). My team mates and I really like them because they are really cool and fun, and have had us over a couple times have an x-box, and teach the girls to knit/ crochet (we'd like them even if they didn't have an x-box, and couldn't knit)

MMN- Mennonite Missions Network, like MC Canada Witness, but American. Their mandate here in South Africa is to help their three church partners here develop Social Ministries. This is the organization that runs RJ. There are two families here with MMN, the Lindel-Detweilers (aka Phil and Christine) who live here in Pietermaritzburg, and are completely awesome people who invite us to their house, and help us wrestle with the things we are experiencing here. The Sawatzkys (I'm sorry if I'm spelling your name wrong) are the other couple, they live/ work in Mthatha, with Bethany Bible School, helping African Churches build a firm theological foundation, they've got 4 crazy boys who love sports.

RJ- Radical Journey, if you don't know what that is, start at the first entry of this blog, and you'll figure it out. See: MMN

SALT- Serving And Learning Together, a one year program By MCC, participants aged 18-30 (I think) work for a year internationally with various MCC Partners. A program close to my heart because both of my parents did it when they were close to my age. See: MCC, IVEP

I'll write about the Actual Retreat in my next couple entries.

Albert falls times two and fun times

So on friday, we went to a retreat center in a place called Albert Falls in order to have a forcasting (read: planning) session for next year.

We got their friday night, and ate the best T-bone steaks I have ever eaten (maybe that's because I don't eat very many t-bone steaks). Then we played games that night. First I played thirty seconds (kind of like South African Taboo) and failed miserably at it. Then we played spoons, during one round, the last spoon flew off the table, and there were two of us still fighting for it, so I pushed the table towards the other guy, and then dived for the spoon on the ground (which was quite fun).

Then on Saturday (It was a sleepover), we had times of worship and planning for the next year, there they talked about the evangelism goals they have (5 new members/person), effective strategies for reaching those goals, and how the structure for the youth would change. One of my friends here, Wayne, (the guy I pushed the table at), was going to become a senior leader, my Mentor Hein, the guy in charge of the youth, will be taking a more supervisory role, and a bunch of the other leaders were moved between different parts of the town, to make up for one of them leaving for a YWAM Discipleship training school.

On sunday we returned to Albert Falls, but instead of being at a retreat center, we went to a park for an all Church Picnic, which was really fun. The youth set it up so that those senior leaders that could afford it would pay more, and those of us that couldn't could bring less expensive stuff, and everyone was really cool with it, and very gracious. I took a couple of pictures before my camera died again (don't worry, I'll steal pictures off other people's facebook accounts once they get posted), then I played Cheat, and then President before spending 2 hours Braai-ing.

Now this is probably the most important role that one can do at a south african gathering. Braai would be our Barbecue, but they don't have hamburgers and hotdogs, they have real meat- steaks and porck chops and chicken wings, etc, and they eat it in quantities far greater than what we do (in fact, literally one of the first things we were told when we got here was that South Africa is one of the few places that consider Meat to be a staple). So for me to Braai, made me feel deeply connected with south african culture. (The other great thing about being the braiier is that it is our right to sample the meat as we cook it).

Then when we got home I got an SMS (read:text) from a friend from youth inviting us to go to Fantasia, a carnival, with his friends, Connie and I were the only two up for it, but the two of us went anyways, going on incredibly sketchy rides (on the swinging ship, our side gate was kept attached using wire), then we drove to a restaurant to get take out, and went up to World's view.

Pietermaritzburg is literally in the middle of a bowl of mountains, which makes for lot's of pollution and popped ears and other such problems, but it also means that if you get to the top of the Bowl (at a place called World's view), you have an epic view of Pietermaritzburg, especially at 10 o'clock at night with all of the light's shining).

We spent the night talking, and bonding, sharing stories and telling jokes, and growing our relationships with the people of Pietermaritzburg.

Sorry

Yeah, sorry I don't blog more often, but I really don't have much to say because:

1. We don't do much, after work we sit around and watch a tv show on our laptops, and I don't think you want to read about what Jim and Pam are doing on the office in season 4 (btw, we finally got season 4, so that prolongs our watching of the office, yay!)

2. I don't hate everything about africa, while there would be plenty of things to complain about, I've decided to not let them bother me, so I won't say anything about it.

3. I'm not good about talking about my feelings (hey I'm a guy, what do you expect), so That throws that option out to

So here is my blog