Johannesburg area welcome

Wednesday evening, Paul was invited to lead the mid-week Bible class for the original Johannesburg ecclesia, which has been in place for many years. We had a very nice evening of fellowship.

On Thursday morning, we were picked up by Lucas and Leona Scheepers for a tour of some of the work being done by the Kempton Park ecclesia. They, our hosts Paul and Leonie Verster, and a handful of other couples, formed the Kempton Park meeting on the east side of Johannesburg about a decade ago. It has been very active, and has grown rapidly.

First stop was an orphanage in the Tembisa township. The townships around the major cities are a holdover from the Apartheid era. Improvements are being made, and some are working their way into better situations -- but there is still massive unemployment and poverty, made worse by the AIDS epidemic, which has left many orphans. The orphanage is the home of a marvelous couple named Andres and Barbara, who care for 15-20 children, counting their own three. They started with a tiny house made of block, which has been added onto with help from the Christadelphian 2010 Initiative, which is a joint effort of the South African Christadelphian ecclesias. With help arranged by 2010 and the Kempton Park ecclesia, Barbara and Andres feed anywhere from 30-50 children. Some of the food is donated by food stores, who must remove out-of-date food from their shelves, even though it is still perfectly good. When we get a chance, we'll devote a posting to the work at this orphanage. Lucas and Leona talked with Barbara about plans for additional expansion, when funds can be obtained.

The Kempton Park meeting has been taking about 20 kids from Tembisa every week to their Sunday School, but the demand is greater. They are now looking at setting up a Sunday School in a building within the township.

After the Tembisa visit, the Scheepers took us for lunch at a nice place called "Mugg & Bean", a coffee & sandwich shop. (The coffee here, so far, has been universally wonderful!) We had bobotie, a traditional Afrikaans dish of egg & ground meat, with chutney, rice, and bananas on the side. They then took us to the Bible Education Centre (BEC) which the ecclesia operates in a mall. It is a shop for Bibles & Bible materials, and they also offer correspondence classes as well as on-site classes. There are several BECs here in SA, including the one we'll be working at in Durban. Each is a little different in its approach, and we will be visiting them all to become familiar with them. This is a concept our home ecclesia in Champaign hopes to implement--and we hope to learn as much as possible about how they operate.

After a full day, we were dropped off back at the Versters, and then Brother Emmanuel Mphambo dropped by for final planning for a Bible seminar on Saturday in Rustenburg. Emmanuel and Paul (Z, not V) will be the presenters. The Versters then took us to meet Leon and Joan Shuker, who took us all out to eat. Jane had ostrich, and Paul had kudu -- we're definately not in Illinois any more! Both were delicious. The Shukers, along with some other families, decided about a year ago that a third ecclesia was needed in the Joburg area. They led the formation of the Yeoville ecclesia, north of the city. In the intervening year, the ecclesia has more than doubled, and like KP is growing wonderfully. The Shukers will be our hosts next week, and we look forward to working with them.

We have some pictures of these people and places, and we'll try to get them posted soon. It's already apparent that having time for these posts is going to be something of an issue... But it's also apparent already that the vibrant ecclesias and the wonderful work here in South Africa is going to be a great experience that we are glad to now be part of!