Blog
Did you know that we host an amazing adult literacy and IT skills project on our property in the evenings each week?
Driving out of a school parking lot this week during the morning drop-off chaos, I was stopped by a woman who gave me a handwritten note, which introduced her, explained that she was from Malawi, had gardening experience and was looking for work.
If you worship here at 09h00 or 18h30 you will know that an important part of the experience is building community over tea and eats (after the morning service or before the evening service). Historically we haven’t been able to offer this at 07h30 – but now a great injustice has been addressed :)
This week Kym and I have been up in Johannesburg for the eighth and final module of our Spiritual Direction training course with the Jesuit Institute of SA. It's been a fantastic journey - learning from Christian communities and authors that were completely new to us, and meeting people from across the full range of Church traditions.
Our next Oasis Ladies’ Ministry Meeting is being held on Saturday 12 November 2022 at 9:15 to 9:30. All ladies are invited! Bring a Friend!
In a conversation with Desmond Tutu, the Dalai Lama once noted that “The more time you spend thinking about yourself, the more suffering you will experience [however] taking care of others, helping others, ultimately is the way to discover your own joy and to have a happy life.”
Our groups at WMC were slow to get going at the beginning of this year as we re-emerged from the pandemic, but something has definitely shifted in the life of our church over the last few months. Groups are growing and good things are happening in these little communities.
I have never before been associated with a church that welcomes as many outside visitors onto its property each week as we do here. This last week has seen many additional new faces on the property with the large memorial services taking place here, but each week we also host numbers of our own internal groups, various mission projects (soup kitchen, sewing lessons, sew and sews, adult literacy, computer classes) and a host of outside groups (including ballet, yoga, Alcoholics and Narcotics Anonymous, and others), not to mention the pre-school and gym on our property too.
Our son Thomas has been performing in a school play over this last week. Highbury put on a wonderful show – Kenneth Grahame’s Wind in the Willows – full of music and lots of local South African humour.
One of the things that spiritual directors are taught to look out for in conversation with others relates to our image of God. We may all say that we believe God to be loving and gracious, but often the way we speak about God suggests that what we actually believe is quite different.