Hyde Park Speaks

A WORD OF THANKS

by Doug Roland

    Cheri and I wish thank you for the spiritual and financial support that enables us to continue in our work with joyful hearts.  God’s love is indeed real in our lives.  

    The lengthy separation from our biological family, our church family and our family of friends is a daily challenge.  For solice, we regularly look at recent photos of our granddaughter playing with the little Zulu drum we sent for her 1st birthday.  And, once in a while, we come across that stunning photo that Bruce Johnson took from the choir loft on Christmas Eve.  These images are powerful reminders of the tenacious nature of the people and places we left.  

    Yet, by God’s grace, we are buoyed by our work in the field education area, creating ways for seminarians to experience Jesus through the “least of these”. Starting last August we sought out and established partnerships with several agencies that agreed to lead seminarians to rich and transformative experiences.  These agencies serve HIV/AIDS families, hospice patients, several abused and disabled children, orphans without families, the elderly, teenagers, prison inmates and the mentally ill.  To capture what happens each week the seminarians to to their agency, we developed a workbook that requires a spiritual reflection and an experience reflection. In effect, it becomes a journal.  What we have read so far suggests that many seminarians are seeing others and themselves differently.  Some have taken initiative to go beyond the scope of the assignment and are spending some of their own time serving these people.  Others may be undergoing a possible redirection in how they perceive ministry.  Our job is to be their guides, encouraging them to describe what they see and do, and how it affects them and their ministries. At some later time we will detail how all this works and share with you some excerpts of the writings. It has been a large but gratifying undertaking.  

    Ever present in the background is fact that our time here requires resources – money.  It’s been more financially challenging that we anticipated.  We based our budget on 2008 prices only to learn that they had increased substantially while the dollar has fallen in value.  

    I’ve written previously that the trust you have placed in us to carry out our call to South Africa is both humbling and challenging.  Humbling because we are unaccustomed to asking for things. Challenging because the task is enormous. The denominational church in South Africa is at a tipping point.  It will only survive through a disciplined, trained and transforming ministry.  We are here to add what gifts we have to the effort.

    Thank you again on behalf of Cheri and me, and also of this wonderful village we call the Seth Mokitimi Methodist Seminary.

 

“For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”   Eph. 2:1-10 

 

Gasparilla Distance Classic This Saturday

Just some quick reminders about Saturday's Gasparilla Distance Classic event:

• Wear your sunny yellow "Running to Make God's Love Real" t-shirts
• Runners (and those cheering) should meet at the church fountain - at 6:40 a.m. for the 15K and 8:30 a.m. for the 5K
• And this week's e-newsletter announced we're to receive an award for "Largest Team Participating in 2011." How cool is that!? To help celebrate this honor, join us for the awards presentation directly following the races in front of The Tampa Convention Center.

To get you fired up, a slideshow from last year's 5K event:

 

Lift the Burden Off - Second Saturday at the Hillsborough House of Hope

by Herb Young

The Hyde Park United Methodist Church crew was already starting on a number of different projects when I pulled up to the Hillsborough House of Hope.  Much to my chagrin, I had rushed out of the house without the address and I got a little lost, and it put me 15 minutes late in arrival.

Not much had been done, but I still felt embarrassed that I wasn’t there promptly at 9:00am.  I saw Paul Phaneuf and checked in with him to see where I was needed.  It looked like we would be raking leaves in the yard, cleaning leaves from the roof, cleaning out gutters, and if we had time, we would be painting one of the garages. 

As I started to figure out where I was most needed, I started to see the rest of the team from Hyde Park.  Marlin Schmidt was on the roof cleaning leaves from the roof and gutter. There was Pam Melander and Brandon Baughn who had started to rake leaves, and James Louis and Brandy Johnson were sweeping leaves from the walks.  On closer inspection of the leaf situation, it was apparent that those tiny stiff oak leaves blanketed the lawn throughout.  It was also clear that we did not have the right tools for what was now appearing to be a massive raking job since we only had two rakes, with one being a steel garden rake.

Before getting into the raking, we were taken away to another task … to fix a toilet tank float that was hanging up.  Steve and I went to tend to that first. We realized that this was a one man job, so I went back to the large task of raking leaves. We were blessed to get another rake, and this was exactly the type that we needed.  Of course we could have used three or four more, but this was a start.  We would do what we could with what we had.

I was completely immersed into the raking now and getting a good workout.  We were making progress, but it would be difficult to finish this project by noon.  No sooner was I thinking about this when a team of six men and a boy from Grace Family Church, each with leaf rakes joining to help.  Wow, praise the Lord!  We were getting provisioned by the Lord with an army of leaf rakers! 

It was incredible … the team was entirely focused on finishing this task.  I saw David Smith and Charlie Hamburger bagging leaves. We filled up the back of Steve’s truck with leaves and bagged another 30 – 40 bags by the time we were finished … and it was only 10:45am at that point. 

We had one more project … painting the garage.  During the next hour, our team, now counting more than a dozen people, made short work of painting the garage.  We had completed our mission this on this Second Saturday in February, 2011! 

 

How often have you felt really challenged and burdened beyond what you think that you can handle only to discover the Lord is there when you need Him? We were blessed by the Lord’s help, and the hard work efforts from our Hyde Park and the Grace Family Church teams which made this project a joy to work on.  It was indeed a joyous day serving the Lord and lifting one of many burdens off of our friends at HHH. 

If you would like to get simple joys in serving and enjoyment from the camaraderie in the Second Saturday Ministry, please contact Paul Phaneuf or Steve Rorrer. 

Helps To Stay Healthy

by Cheri Roland

"Somebody’s going to die here!” A new student had leapt to his feet, shouting and stabbing his finger accusingly at me. The lecture hall air was electric. For a moment nobody breathed. Inwardly I sighed. I had hoped to get through my power point presentation during the seminary orientation without great confrontation. In hindsight, that was quite a naive expectation; I had just dropped a bomb shell. Per seminary policy, seminarians would not be able to see a doctor until they had been referred by me, the school nurse.

About 100 folks were packed into the lecture hall, 90 of them our seminarians in training to become "transforming leaders for church and nation". They were required to attend my lecture, "Helps to Stay Healthy". Many of our students come from rural settings where education is imparted orally. Books, paper, computers and libraries are scarce. There are no courses in health and science from first grade on up; maybe somewhere along the way they have been lucky enough to have heard a professional teach about HIV/AIDS. As a result, there is wide spread ignorance and misconceptions about how their bodies work, let alone causes or prevention of disease.

In jail vernacular, I had “dissed” my accuser and his fellow seminarians. What right did this white, old, American woman have to trash their health care traditions? Later – much later – I put myself in their shoes. How I would feel if suddenly informed that my wellbeing now rested in the hands of a witch doctor?

Traditional healers, or sangomas, mirror the wide range of practitioners we have in the states, providing reputable to disreputable to downright dangerous treatment. Here healers work with a wide broad variety of techniques, from using highly effective herbal remedies to using witch craft, with all of its far reaching ramifications. But that is another story.

Recently Western medicine has become available to outlying rural areas; for many, the manner in which a doctor is consulted has become wrapped up in its own set of customs. (Please understand I’m relaying a compilation of hearsay relayed to me after my presentation, and in no way meant to diminish the wonderful medical care provided for marginalized patients all over Africa and beyond.) These common cultural practices surrounding medical care put a new face on seeing the doctor.

One such practice revolves around visiting the clinic. Due to the scarcity of doctors, villages must rotate specific days for the medical team to treat patients. Because of 80%+ unemployment in townships and beyond, folks often have little to keep them occupied, so clinic visits become an anticipated social event. This has nothing to do with being ill. Bathed, wearing their church clothes and armed with food for the day, they gather together to kibitz for the 12 hours it may take before they are seen by the doctor. And they are rewarded for their patience; they always are given a tablet with the assurance of “curing” their common complaints of “a mouse running around inside my tummy” or “bugs eating me from the inside”. If they are actually feeling sick, their expectation, at the very least, is to be given an antibiotic; but an “injection” is even better…

No wonder many of my patients have been furious after their visit with the school nurse! In their experience, medical care = tablets promising a cure. But at SMMS they usually leave my office with patient education and (maybe) medicine to relieve their symptoms. The fact that antibiotics are ineffective against viruses is still too great a leap for them to swallow. Imagine their feelings of fear, frustration and loss of control over their health when I announce that a) they don’t need to see the doctor and b)there are no antibiotics that will fix their complaint! Hence my current reputation among the seminarians is, “All she does is tell you to exercise and drink more water.”

So where does this leave me as school nurse? Obviously my clever power point presentation did not do the trick. It seems I forgot the number one principal of Missionary Training 101: I must shed my “western medicine has all the answers” attitude and appreciate the positive healing practices of the seminarians’ cultures before I can hope to affect any real change in cultural attitudes. In other words, it is I who must be transformed in order to help transform and empower them. How will I tackle this challenge?

Early this morning God floated me His promise from 2 Chronicles 7:14: “If my people, who are called by My name, will humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will heal their land.” If I have been called by God, as I claim I have, I must humble myself, pray for forgiveness, and journey, not out ahead of, but along with these folks . He will do the rest. Guess I’d better get started.

Opening Day

by Doug Roland

2010 at the seminary did not end well, except for the collective relief that a difficult year was over. In the final 2-3 weeks there was an accumulation of matters from the complete failure of a some seminarians to clean their apartments to a coordinated effort to subvert a presentation on issues surrounding aging, simply because the seminarians were upset at its timing. The seminary closed with a worship service though many had already left. Yet, it was a year of learning, especially for the staff, and hopefully for seminarians. Some things would have to change.

After a long semester break, the staff trickled in to prepare for year 3 of the seminary's existence. The full time staff reported along two new members. One is a highly competent academic assistant who would shoulder the load of handling schedules of all sorts, attendance records, room assignments, keys to the new lecterns, and other things. Her Germanic background will serve her well in keeping it all straight. The other is a lecturer from Cape Town and is well-acquainted with many of the people here. He brings a highly developed sense of humor, dedication to the church, and deep sense of grace. It was quickly apparent that his presence would make a significant difference at all levels of the seminary. So, two were added to our number of 8 full time staff. It was inevitable that the character of the group would not be the same.

The seminarians came later, all 90 of them. That's up from 77 at the end of 2010. They included about 50 returnees, and a combination of 40 new faces made up of Methodist probationers, students from other denominations and private students. Like the full time staff, a drastic change was poised to launch. In a major way, the seminary had taken a sharp turn in a different direction before the first hymn was sung. How this would play out as we reconvened was unknown.

The seminary officially re-opened Sunday, Jan. 23 the way it closed, with a worship service. As the seminarians arrived, we received smiles, handshakes and hugs from many. My first clue that something was different could not have been predicted from the demographics described above. Last semester, there was a seminarian that never looked directly at me, much less said anything to me. A day or two before the opening, she was on campus and, as we were about to pass each other, she stopped, held out her hand and said "Hello, Doug." Now, three weeks into the year, she always speaks to me. But back to opening day.

In one of the large outdoor common areas, six to eight of the returning seminarians stood in a shady spot and began to sing a little. The informal chorus grew as as more arrived. This went on for nearly thirty minutes until they finally filled the open space, voices reverberating off the surrounding seminary buildings. Then, without a command, they sort of "lined up" into a loose formation and walked to the chapel in a slow, celebratory cadence, bringing with them the joy of their songs. It brought to mind the psalmist directing us to " . . . come into his gates with thanksgiving and into his courts with praise. . ." It wasn't planned. It just happened.

The service itself was electric from the entry to the exit. It was a day of joyful anticipation.

Since that day, seminarians have come up to me to say that it's a different feeling from last year, a new spirit. And it is starting to show up in other ways. In Cheri's last blog she alluded to the workbook we developed, not as a constant assignment but to direct seminarians to take seriously their field experiences and reflect on how they affect their lives and ministries. The first week of field eduction is complete and the first reflections turned in. Let's describe the result this way: we suddenly had around 80 reflections/reports to read before Tuesday. So, we peeked at a few, then could not put them down until we had finished reading and marking all of them. They met, and in many cases, exceeded all our hopes and expectations.

It's early yet, but there is tangible hope that these experiences in the field will become a part of seminarian transformation as people and as ministers. Still there are no laurels to be worn. This, like many successes, is temporal. It only opens the door to more possibilities. Yet we continue to be confounded and surprised at the amazing grace that blesses each of our days. May it be so for all of you.

Life As A Staff Member

by Cheri Roland

“Ach, shame!” is the Afrikaners' response when we relay the events of the past two weeks to our walking club pals. “Whew!” is probably the equivalent American exclamation. Who knew how complex and time consuming registering and orienting 99 students would be? After this adventure, our hats go off to teachers and administrators at all levels of the educational spectrum. It is just short of a real life miracle.

As I was emailing friends a thumbnail sketch of our activities the first six months as staff members of the Seth Mokitimi Methodist Seminary (SMMS), it occurred to me that we haven’t really explained what has kept us occupied from 7:30-4:30 Monday through Friday since August 2010. Since neither of us has ever been on staff (pronounced staaahf) of an institution of higher learning before, we had no clue what we would actually be doing when we bid goodbye to the familiar last July. Additionally, our son suggested that perhaps several of our blog readers might be puzzled by how we became staff members of a seminary in South Africa.

“Why are you here?” is the frequently asked question. Our pat answer is, “Because the Lord told us to come.” That sounds rather presumptuous or sanctimonious or preposterous, and perhaps all three. But the fact is for several years we had been focused on our desire to give back, to step out in faith, to be used for something bigger, all those warm and fuzzy phrases that make you want to retch. There was a lot of discernment during this process that didn’t make sense until His timing and plan came together, and BLAM - there we were, and our prayers to be used by Him actually caught up with us! As it came to pass, Doug’s background of 4 ½ years teaching plus 35 years in transactional law and mediation translated into a skills set perfect for our current task. My job nursing for 22 years with Tampa’s jail population provided me with great stories and a wide range of experiences teaching, assessing and managing diseases, people and processes. Through an amazing journey guided by other Christians’ encouragement and faith, we finally landed in this small university town charged with helping to birth an infant ministerial training center for all of southern Africa.

Before leaving,one of our biggest concerns in coming here was that we would be bored. Ach, shame! But not to worry! God heard that prayer, too. We, in typical American fashion, hit the ground running in August and haven’t looked back. Now we run out of hours in a day. You should see my desk, or not…