And now, on to South Africa

Early tomorrow morning Carolyn and I will leave for Johannesburg, South Africa, on the next leg of our sabbatical travels. We're packing our winter clothes (didn't we just put them away?!), and preparing ourselves for winter in the southern hemisphere. Friends on the ground there warned us today to "bring your woolies!"

Some of you have asked, "so what are you going to be doing in South Africa?" We'll be part of a gathering of emerging church leaders from all across the continent of Africa and beyond, sponsored by an organization called Amahoro-Africa. Amahoro is a Kirundi word used as a greeting (with variations in many other African languages) for Peace. As Westerners, we'll be there as participant-observers and partners, but the main conversation is one between and among Africans, on the topic of The African Reformation. If my experience last year in Rwanda is any indication, it will be a powerful experience to witness the vibrancy of a new generation of leaders emerging into the post-colonial, post-apartheid context, finding new ways of being and doing church -- ways that don't depend on some of the unhelpful (and downright hurtful) aspects of the Christianity brought to them in the colonial period, ways of being authentically African while authentically following in the Way of Jesus. We go as learners, companions, and fellow travellers, hoping that we might see better what it means to follow Jesus in our own context as well, and engaging in partnerships with those who have so much to teach us about what the gospel really means for the transformation of our world.

At the end of the main part of the Gathering, we'll go on a field trip with some of our fellow Western participants to Cape Town. There we'll visit Robben Island (where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned for 27 years), visit the Khayelitsha township, and witness the context for ministry in some of the city's more challenging areas.

Carolyn and I will be staying in South Africa for an extra week after The Gathering, so we're taking a couple of extra days in Cape Town right off. We've booked two nights at the Zandberg Bed & Breakfast outside of the city in wine country. We'll fly back to Johannesburg where we've also planned to take a three-day sarari in the Pilanesberg Game Reserve. We'll be sleeping out in the bush in a tent (in the cold winter nights!) and hopefully seeing lots of amazing wildlife. We're told we'll be pretty much guaranteed to see "the big five" -- lions, elephants, giraffes, hippos, and rhinoceros (rhinoceri?) -- and many other exotic mammals, birds, and reptiles -- hopefully all outside the tent.

We expect to have good internet service along the way, so we'll let you know how it all goes!