January flew by, and it’s interesting how fast our proverbial clean slate can grow cluttered with old habits we’d hoped we had put behind us in the new year. Every day is a new day, though, and it’s never late to become a new person! (This is what I tell myself, anyway.) I didn’t make any New Year’s resolutions per se, but now that I have my Kindle I’m trying to read a book per week, which I’m managing to do so far. Last Christmas when I got my Kindle as a gift, I downloaded quite a few free books almost at random. (This was before I learned how to use the Kindle, at which point I decided that it was far inferior to real books. My feelings on that changed when I realized how useful it could be to me here, however.) Ironically enough, the first full book I read on this cool new device was Orthodoxy by G.K. Chesterton, one of the free ones I’d downloaded a year or so ago that I didn’t necessarily have any intention of actually reading. Of course, such a book comes free on the Kindle for a reason; it gradually dawned on me how classic this book is for the excellent and clear way he portrays the way he stumbled on Orthodoxy and why it makes sense to him. I’ve never heard or read such a lucid portrayal of the faith, and this book made me realize that it makes sense to me, too!
At the same time, I’m becoming more and more comfortable in the church I’m going to here (Gates of Praise); making friends and continuing to enjoy going to the weekly home group meetings where we pray, worship, discuss Bible passages and encourage each other. Believe it or not, I’m also going to start singing with the team at Gates of Praise soon, which I’m looking forward to! It might sound strange, but I don’t see any spiritual dissonance in taking part in the church life of a Pentecostal church while I’m here; though there are major things I miss about the Orthodox church (Gospel readings, veneration of saints, some of its music, and, yes, even fasting) I’m finding a lot that impresses me about this one. I can say with certainty that my ability to discern what is good and bad in the areas of religion and church have been heightened, not dulled, by my religious experiences here.
I’m still unsure what the next six months are going to entail. Through SDC I’ve gotten in touch with another woman wanting to run a Co-op like the one here in her area (Knysna) but we don’t yet know about funding there either. I know I will find ways to make myself of use for the year that I’m here; I really am determined to stay the full year unless something goes drastically wrong and I for some reason I need to come home. There’s certainly plenty to do with SDC here, now, so it’s conceivable that I could even stay in Margate for the full year, though that would of course cost me a lot more money. I’m trying to learn to trust that it will soon become clear where I’m supposed to be, though this is hard for someone as planning-focused as me.
It continues to get hotter here, and as the seasons change new volunteers keep coming and going. We got a new girl (Marlin) on Friday, and next Wednesday Adam leaves. Then in late February another guy (Joel) is coming. Already it’s become too crowded for all of us to sit at the kitchen table at the same time, and don’t get me started on negotiating bathroom usage, but we’ll manage somehow!
I was in Margate, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa for a year to volunteer with the Ugu Community Fresh Produce Co-Operative. Stay posted for news of my adventures!
