Friday, March 3, 2017

Dear family and friends,

We’ve had a full and difficult month in many ways – Jacob has been sick, we moved for the third time in thirteen months, and thanks to a contentious divorce between the house’s owners, our move was made quite stressful. But we are happy in our new place and both boys are settling well into their new school routines. Here is our new address:
 

16 Koopman St.
Strand, Western Cape 7140
South Africa
John Clair and Jacob in front of our new house!
Bunny Yang enjoying some peace in the new side yard, while the landlord's dogs watch through a fence.
Our work with SADRA has also sailed along, with the acquisition of a new office in Somerset West. Oscar’s dream of all three of us dispersing daily – Oscar to the serious community dispute east of us he is currently mediating, Dan in the office working out logistics, Kathryn in Cape Town representing SADRA at European Union funding meetings – has finally been realized.
Kathryn, outside SADRA's European Union meeting last week. 
Oscar and Dan before our European Union consultation, where Oscar explained how conflict and crises management is instrumental in curbing community problems. 
Since October, Dan and I have been taking an online course through Eastern Mennonite University, as recommended by Mission Network. It’s on Cross-Cultural Discipleship, taught by Linford Stutzman, and final papers were turned in last week. So rather than writing a long update, I thought we could share excerpts from our final reflections. These are written for a seminary course, so feel free to skip if not your cup of tea. :)

Question:

From where you are now, think about the world of the future. Describe some of your “hopes and fears” as someone with a perspective that has developed from at least two different places – at home and in a country far away from home.

Dan:  It’s easy to look at today’s societal structures and see how closely they resemble those of the past… human interactions based on positions of power, wealth and status are still much the same as they’ve always been. From the opening chapters of the Bible we read about the conflicts within one family over matters of wealth and status. These same issues plague our world and play out on the global stage with devastating consequences.

The fact that we can read accounts of the rise and fall of empires from thousands of years ago and find such similarity in our modern age, especially as Americans, means that we can and must look at the past to predict something about the future. Empires have always fallen and I expect this is already happening with the USA.  As followers of Christ, this is not something to fear, since our Kingdom is not of this world. But as Christians we have a duty to serve the “least of these” of this world. Many do not know any other kingdom, and if our faith and religion is not able to show them something better, then where does hope come from for them?

Religion, sadly, is being used again like in the days of the Holy Roman Empire crusades on Jerusalem, to defend an agenda which is antithetical to Jesus’ Kingdom and serves only to drive people further apart…. The good news that we aim to share as Jesus’ followers, is that God loves peace and justice, mercy and grace.  May we always be authentic participants in Jesus’ movement.

Kathryn:  I am not a person to project into the future – I believe there is nothing new under the sun, and while things seem chaotic now, they have been so in the past. The more I travel and see, the more I learn about myself, my context, and my faith. It was studying in Washington DC that taught me Mennonites are radicals; visiting an archeology museum in Barcelona that showed me complicated history stretches back for millennia; and living in the Ugandan bush in war-times which tested my reliance on God for me and my baby.

I have hopes that people will learn to let go of fear, and desire to bridge the divides between us. I am horrified at the things I am hearing from the States – human rights abuses and hate crimes, but also name-calling and continued polarization between sides. If I was not living in South Africa, with its recent example of Mandela, Ubuntu (traditional forgiveness based on connectedness) and peaceful democratic turnover, I would be sure Civil War was coming to the US. Linford’s prophetic chapter on Paul speaks truth – the American church needs to be delivered from the enticement of success and the fear of decline as an institution – I cannot say it better. America has become like Rome, and we have lost Jesus’ message of caring for orphans, aliens, and neighbors. I hope that we, as privileged Christians, can see and respond to the suffering around us, including the injustices of the free market and America’s foreign policies. May God’s words from the minor prophets strike us anew, and may we find wisdom and compassion for the hard days ahead.

I hope that the church will wake up and realize they are meant to be counter-cultural. As a Mennonite, I don’t need the State to be fashioned to my faith, I just need freedom like any other religion. And yet Christians of all types have been wooed into a comfortable place within the empire, and we have lost our visionary voice. I was recently in a Bible study with white South Africans and we looked at the Beatitudes. One woman voiced her relief that we are not persecuted anymore, but I know she is afraid to walk by herself outside or drive across town; she quietly puts up with colleagues telling racist jokes, and continues to benefit from Apartheid economics. It was hard to find a gentle moment to suggest perhaps we need to be persecuted a little more than we currently are…

Question: 

from where you are now, describe how you know that Jesus is alive and present in the place you are serving, and how you envision the church will be…

Kathryn: God worked a miracle in South Africa twenty years ago, and the fruit of those events is still evident. There is a lot of work to do yet: a whole new generation of young folk are discouraged by broken promises, or feel entitled, and the democracy itself needs to mature through its growing pains. But as Desmond Tutu humbly says, “There, but for the grace of God go I,” even after listening to the terrible stories on the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. If he can find hope and thankfulness for God’s mercy after listening to some of the worst stories in modern history, then I know Jesus is at work. And if hope is a way of life and not just a feeling, then I do have hope.

And what about the Church? The South African Church struggled the whole time with Apartheid; in fact, some instigated this legalization of racism. Denominations and families were irreparably divided by what they believed was truth and how they lived it. When it came down to it, many Christians were able to live with injustice and rationalize it biblically and from the pulpit. I fear the US is headed in this same direction. Churches and their leaders must be faithful to Jesus’ social gospel and choose to be pilgrims moving in the direction of the Kingdom of God. Some big tests are ahead for the Church, and I pray that we find light and truth.

Dan: In our work with SADRA Conflict Transformation, we talk about interconnectedness. We try to help people think about the ways in which we need each other. One of the barriers we bump up against in dialogue is the economic factor, as it’s easy to see where the disadvantaged need those with more means, but much harder to identify the need in reverse.  Helping work through this one-way thinking is a key component for us in the identity work we do which accompanies the understanding and management of conflict. For me, this is part of the calling as a follower of Jesus, who said, “Blessed are the peacemakers,” and who also went into the areas where others feared to go and made contact or spent time with those whom many had rejected. As his followers, we must also be willing to do likewise.

South Africa has survived its past. Working with people like our director, Reverend Oscar Siwali, who is a beacon of light shining toward a better future, is what gives me hope and faith that the Church, through faithful followers of Jesus like him, will survive any war, scourge or menace the men of this country, and the world, can inflict upon one another.