| January 2007
Dear Friends,
“It’s Christmas time and time for a carol, time to
sing about the little king….” The words from this
joyful carol play in my head as I sit to think about you and wish
each of you a blessed Christmas, a time of peace, and a time of
renewing our commitment to working towards making God’s
kingdom come on earth.
This year has flown by. For those I was able to meet and chat
with either at General Assembly or the Presbyterian Women’s
Gathering, when I was visiting churches, or here in Africa: it
was good to see you. I wish I could have seen more folks, but
that will come in 2008 when I have my next interpretation assignment
(the months I am in the United States to speak in churches).
Some of the highlights of the year have been seeing churches,
congregations, and pastors get involved and make a difference
for people infected with HIV and affected by AIDS. The Evangelical
Presbyterian Church in South Africa (EPCSA) has hired an AIDS
coordinator. We had great visits with several of the presbyteries
to learn what is already going on and what they dream of doing.
In one village, as we were talking under a tree outside a church,
one man said that AIDS is “like a wild elephant charging
through the village.” What an apt description. At that church,
they have fenced off a piece of the property that was a lawn and
made it into a vegetable garden so that they will have food to
share with people who don’t have any. Many people grow vegetables
to provide food for themselves or neighbors.
The men’s guilds of two partner churches in Zambia have
decided, quite independently of each other, that they need to
be more involved in addressing AIDS in their communities. In January
I will be going back to Zambia and am looking forward to learning
how far along they are in the process.
In the beginning of August, the General Assembly of the Uniting
Presbyterian Church in Southern Africa (UPCSA) met. I had the
pleasure of visiting with them for a few days in Livingston, Zambia.
The UPCSA is predominantly in South Africa but it also has Synods
in Zambia and Zimbabwe. It was a great opportunity to meet folks
and to hear about what was and was not happening in their area.
2007 will be a year of visiting some of these folks and seeing
how I can be helpful to them, some in starting programs and others
in scaling up. (During the meeting I had the chance to visit Victoria
Falls. If it is not one of the wonders of the world it certainly
should be!)
In the coming year, I am also looking forward to spending time
in Zambia with the various projects that are going on there. One
thing on the agenda is a retreat for pastors and partners. Whenever
I go anywhere I always ask people how AIDS is affecting them and
their communities. After talking for a little while with a pastor,
I often start to hear what a heavy burden the AIDS pandemic is
for pastors. It is not only the funerals, but as one pastor told
me “I feel guilty all the time because the need is so great
and I cannot do anything about it. I can hardly feed my own family.
I don’t have food for everyone who needs food.” Another
pastor said, “Sometimes I feel like I am carrying a heavy
load on my shoulders.” It is becoming clear to me that we
need to do something to help the pastors and their partners cope
with the stress they are under and find ways to renew their strength.
If this goes well, the retreats will be replicated through out
my region, God willing. When I have discussed the idea with various
general secretaries, they have all expressed a need for such an
event in their areas. If we had the funding in place and the retreat
piloted and revised, we could easily line up 15 of these retreats
right away. You will probably be hearing more on this later.
I am also planning to visit many presbyteries of the UPCSA next
year, both in South Africa and in Zambia, to learn what they are
doing and how I might be able to help. I am especially interested
in visiting presbyteries with partners in the United States. There
will also be two (hopefully) collaborative sharing gatherings
in Malawi and visits with the Nkhoma Synod AIDS Project. I may
attend two AIDS conferences next year: one in South Africa and
the other is in Gabon, I think, which is an all-Africa conference.
Some of you may know that part of my internship for my social
work degree was counseling sexually abused women and children.
I am sensing an urgency to explore how I can renew and update
that knowledge and see how the issue of abuse can be incorporated
into my work with our partner churches. It certainly is a major
problem in this region.
I trust that this Christmas is a happy, holy time for you and
that the New Year will be one of hope and shalom.
Janet Guyer
The 2007 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p.
335 |
