10 Things We Learnt in Mission School

We’ve spent the last 4 weeks in the mountains away from wifi and phone signal, living communally with people from all around the world. Our days have consisted of teaching, times of reflection and some outreach into the local community.

10 things I learnt from mission school

1. Man can live on white carb alone

2. Community is class. Years of big brothers and boarding schools has conditioned me well for communal living. We immediately gelled as a group and enjoyed much hilarity in doing the mundane tasks of life – cooking, cleaning, eating together. It was brilliant seeing people blossom and transform in the context of accepting community. Despite some anxiety about spending a month living with all girls, I really enjoyed it.

3. Fire can freeze. You can make a freezer work using fire! I feel like this isn’t a revelation to most people but one of the perks of living rurally was discovering how you can operate systems without consistent electricity. As the only man, I was in charge of all man jobs – killing spiders, changing gas cylinders, lighting fires. I learnt a lot!

4. Quiet times are hard. Trying to do a 2 hour long quiet time, in 30 degrees heat, after having eaten a big bowl of pasta followed by sticky pudding is potentially more challenging than running the ‘Marathon de Sables’. Despite having an awful lot of free time to read the Bible and seek God, it was still very difficult. This came as a real comfort to me. So often we think we have to ‘get away’ to spend time with God. In reality, God is just as available and present in Clapham as He is on a Christian retreat in the African mountains.

5. Alcohol = badness here. The problems caused by alcohol are accentuated in the poor communities here. Often the men choose between buying food for their families or buying themselves booze. As most families live in single room households, the social implications are also far more marked. This was driven home when we went to the primary school on a Monday morning and saw children of 4 or 5 years old with fresh black eyes and bruises. The teachers just do the best they can as there is not the social structure to address such problems.

6. Instagram is REELy fun addictive. One lasting memory will be of Beth sat in bed at night, trying desperately to scroll on Instagram despite having had no internet for 4 weeks. “I just love Reels” may forever be a catchphrase of mission school!

7. People have it tough. Maybe my job isn’t so hard after all! Many people out here make huge sacrifices for their families. The workers on the farm were the most hardworking and kind-hearted men. They had come over from Zimbabwe and would send money packages home to their families. One of the workers (Ngozi) had worked on the farm for 20 years. Despite being paid well in local terms, he ate only rice and beans, and sent almost all his salary home. He loved his family dearly but had been home just a handful of times to conserve money. He had forfeited seeing his daughters grow up to provide a future for them.

8. Truth in love. During our first week we all gave our testimonies – our stories. This was a time to explain how your life has formed who you are, and how you found God in this. Many had amazing stories. Students ranged from a 21 years old straight out of college to a missionary with 20 years of experience working in Haiti. However, the testimony that stuck me the most was from an unassuming Swiss lady in her 40s. She just come out of a 10 year marriage to a transgender man. She describes the rejection and fear that shrouded her experience of church. It felt like her ‘sin’ was greater than everyone else’s. She spoke very powerfully on our call to bring love first and correction second. Ephesians 4 v 15 states we “Speak truth in love”. If truth is wrapped in love, the thing that hits you first is love, not truth.

9. Music is universal… and white people can’t dance. Wherever we went, we connected with music. I even tried to play the guitar. One of the farm workers (Gerald) led us in full on dance party one evening. I danced my socks off and was rather proud of my performance having followed each step meticulously. As we finished, his 7-year-old daughter sweetly came over and whispered in my ear “You cannot dance!”. Savage.

10. The Father’s Heart. It was interesting listening to many people speak about how their relationship with their father had affected their entire sense of identity and worth. A common theme was that people looked to their mothers for comfort, and fathers for approval. This not only affects one’s human relationships, but also how you view and relate to God. Becoming a father is far more than having a child. After hearing our testimonies, one of the other students approached me and said she had never met people so purely loved, that they were able to love so freely in marriage. It made me realise how fantastic (and sadly rare) my upbringing was. It also made me realise what a responsibility it is to bring up children.

I was sad to leave our little community and will greatly miss all the wonderful people we’ve had a chance to get close to.

Beth Adds…

A few take-aways from me too:

1. God can use any experience, good or bad, for his purposes.

This was just a reminder, that anything we have been through God can redeem and restore for his purposes. Even the bad bits of life, or the situations we’d rather forget, God is weaving them into something better and bigger than we could have ever thought. As Corrie Ten Boom once put it:

“This is what the past is for! Every experience God gives us, every person He puts in our lives is the perfect preparation for the future that only He can see.”

2. Afrikaans is a weird and wonderful language!

Ben and I have rather taken to our new lekker way of speaking (and singing!) and have picked up some basic Afrikaans. Many of the sounds you have to create in the same way you would as hucking up phlegm, the art comes in not projecting it at your listener. We’ve got you covered if all you want to do is ask someone to play with you or tell them that they look great.

3. Ben is always a hit!

It’s fair to say, wherever we go, whoever we hang out with, Ben is always a hit! From his popularity with the boys in the Kloof to being the fun starter and initiator of new games (Ro-bros being his newest invention – a tennis cum fives game!) where Ben is, others want to be. If in doubt, follow the laughter and you’ll be sure to find him!

We’re back in Cape Town now until December, just enjoying the beauty of the city, beaches and food (look out for a food blog coming soon as well!). We’ve hit the Garden Route and discovering the beautiful coast of South Africa. This country is like a diamond, with many facets and angles, some parts definitely rougher than others but beautiful nonetheless. We will keep you updated!