MATE Report on recent visit.
Mission Trip to South Africa – September 16 – October 9.
The goals of this trip were several:
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What follows is a small fraction of the pictures that document the trip. Here are most of the travelers: left to right – top to bottom:
Top [In the truck]: Rev. Susan Gleason – Haverhill; Unathi Mlisa – ‘03 Youth Exchange – SA;
Mid [On the step]: Barbara Cooper – Trip Leader & co-chair of PNNE uBunye Comm. Bonnie Frick-Jesteadt – Fairbanks.
Bottom: Charlie Monroe – Haverhill; Tom Barker – Leeds; Nancy Perkins – PNNE, VT; Vi Jekwa – Amathole uBunye Chairwoman; Charlie Barker – Leeds; and Ed Jesteadt - Fairbanks.
The rest of the team is in other photos. We took a day and ‘sampled’ nearby Addo Elephant Park. We have dozens and dozens of elephant pictures!
Click on this url to see Charlie Monroe's pictures - https://www.dropbox.com/sh/abamg6eurbv0qp8/AAAhTxcsK6J3MwWwjYqHGAkka?dl=0
Mid [On the step]: Barbara Cooper – Trip Leader & co-chair of PNNE uBunye Comm. Bonnie Frick-Jesteadt – Fairbanks.
Bottom: Charlie Monroe – Haverhill; Tom Barker – Leeds; Nancy Perkins – PNNE, VT; Vi Jekwa – Amathole uBunye Chairwoman; Charlie Barker – Leeds; and Ed Jesteadt - Fairbanks.
The rest of the team is in other photos. We took a day and ‘sampled’ nearby Addo Elephant Park. We have dozens and dozens of elephant pictures!
Click on this url to see Charlie Monroe's pictures - https://www.dropbox.com/sh/abamg6eurbv0qp8/AAAhTxcsK6J3MwWwjYqHGAkka?dl=0
The impetus for this trip was the Celebration held in the Nangoza Jebe Hall [shown below] – with many, many more people in the hallways and outside the Hall as well.
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In addition to the Friday meetings and the Sunday worship service held in the Hall, there was an all-day event at nearby Woolson Stadium. Each Presbytery was introduced; our delegation walked in with the Amathole Presbytery. I’m sure you can pick out Rev. Cindy Kohlman – co-moderator of the PCUSA GA, followed by her husband, Rev. Erik Markman – and behind him is Rev. Susan looking at the camera! The rest of us are lost in the crowd or up in the stands.
Shown to the left is Woolson Stadium with one of the larger Presbyteries entering the stadium to join the multitude already there. Each group entered with their unique selection of songs and dance.
Rev. Thea, Bonnie and I started our trek on Monday, Sept. 16 with an overnight stay in Portland, then to JFK on Tuesday morning and the 16+ hour flight to Johannesburg, landing there Wednesday morning.
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We were greeted by Thea’s parents – Petra & Gerrit - and that afternoon Gerrit gave us a quick tour of Pretoria – one of the three capital cities of SA. Behind Mandela’s statue are the Executive Office buildings. The next day we drove 5 hours to the Drakensberg Mountains, just north of the country of Lesotho. Gerrit designed and built their vacation home, with zebra, wildebeest, baboons, monkeys and other SA fauna freely roaming.
We were treated to great hospitality, and for Bonnie’s birthday hiked in the Drakensbergs. The scenery was spectacular.
After the 20th Anniversary, the PNNE contingent stayed with Vi Jekwa in East London and visited with many Amathole congregations. The Barker’s joined Thea, Bonnie and me in the Tyhume Valley.
With Richman Xuza and Ernest Jwambi, we visited a number of home gardens in the villages of Mazatsho, KrwaKrwa, Upper Ncera and Dyamala.
Left to right – with Ernest Jwambi in Winnie’s garden in Dyamala, with Richman Xuza in a neighbor’s garden nearby, and in the communal garden in the village of Mazatsho. demonstrating with hard work and following the Tim Wigley gardening techniques one can still have a robust harvest in the midst of a severe draught.
We also got to talk with a granny who was part of the Heifer International Project from 2000-2007. She is still raising goats, and credits the income she received from her goats to enable her to send her grandchildren to school and provide for them – an exciting testimonial. We also managed to meet with a good friend, Leocadia Zhou - PhD, and two other staff members in the Agricultural Department of Fort Hare University. Hopefully we can establish linkages with them to continue the work we’ve started in the Tyhume Valley – God willing!
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We met twice with Vi Jekwa and the Amathole uBunye Committee to review the current status of the PNNE-Amathole partnership and to discuss the future. Above-left is our group [Tom is taking the picture] with Vi, and behind her is Doug Tilton, the PCUSA Southern Africa liaison officer based in Cape Town. Above-right: Our final worship service at Auld Memorial in the township of Mdantsane – Vi’s church. Rev. Susan Gleason was the guest preacher – here with the Presbytery Moderator, Rev. BZ Mkentane. Pictures from the final service are below - see & listen!
The three pictures below almost emit the sounds of the foot stomping, the clank of the bell, the rattle of the tambourine, the thumping of the hymnal, and the blasts through the vacuum cleaner tubing!! And the voices – oh, the voices! Their songs are sung from the heart; It all takes you to another place.
So .... what's next?
What is the future for MATE and SAP [South Africa Partnership]? Simply stated, MATE will no longer be part of a “sister-church” program or the PNNE uBunye Committee – that will become a relationship each church can determine for itself. But MATE may pursue Social Justice Programs [like a youth exchange], working with the PNNE uBunye Committee through our separate churches – STAY TUNED!
Respectfully, Ed Jesteadt, - South Africa Program [SAP] Chair