Pictures from some recent events!

Hi all,

We haven't been written for a while. Interesting what a new addition to the family and pioneering a ministry will do to your time and survival skills. We are also in the middle of buying a house in Cosmo City and closer to Zandspruit, so we have been and are in a lot of transition to say the least.

In the midst of all that we are doing well, getting into some new rhythms and enjoying to challenge of the reconciliation ministry God has called us to. We just had Derek Engdahl, our supervisor from Servant Partners, visit us for the first time in South Africa. It was a real gift to have him here, to share our work and vision together some next steps.

We wanted to share some pictures with you from some recent events and some family pics. They are posted on www.facebook.com/trevsa, so check them out.

Also here are the direct links:

Drakensburg Hike 
Family Pics: May 2010
Zandspruit Soccer Tournament
World cup friendly - Soccer City


We will share more soon.

Love to all

Sharing lives…reclaiming our humanity

Sharing lives…reclaiming our humanity

Last night at our discussion group where we are crossing racial, economic, gender and age boundaries we stopped to reflect on what God has done and what we have learnt so far. We stopped to remember that 6 months ago most of us didn’t know each other and many of us were living the usual South Africa story of division and separateness. We are starting to slowly tell a different, new story…

From the voices of the people:
I have learned to face conflict and not shy away from difficult conversations.
I am finding my voice, this is a safe space to speak up.
People are speaking their minds and not holding back, learning to be real.
I am learning that the wounds of the past go very deep.
I am grateful that I am accepted for who I am.
This is my support group.
This is my second family.
I have learned to not treat all people of a particular race the same. Not just "those people" but individuals.
I am learning to trust those of different races and backgrounds, to share my life.
I have a place to share frustrations and struggles that I have bottled up my whole life.
I can be proud of my African name and don’t need a white name.
Hearing others stories has allowed me to have more compassion, to understand better.
Honored to be together. Privileged to share this journey.
Dissatisfaction with Church and segregation, wish there were places like this in the Church where we could talk about real issues.
Realize there are issues we need to work on amongst our own people.
Have been challenged to work on our friendship outside this group.
Helped us talk about real things in our friendships.
We are meeting each others families.
Wished we could bring colleagues and other Church members to this group.
Grateful for peoples generosity as I take small steps.
Blessed by opportunity to relate cross culturally.
Learned to respect other opinions even if I don’t agree.

We are on a journey and a different story is unfolding…we have taken small steps…and we have many more to take together. We are recovering our humanity. 


God is at work and restoring his people.

Reconciliation: A journey together…facing the past to move forward…

This past weekend we went to the Apartheid Museum. The purpose of the trip was for a group of us to discover and learn more of the history of our country so that we could move forward in to the future. The Apartheid Museum is unfortunately not a popular place for South African’s but very popular for foreign tourists. The funny thing is that Chrissy and I visited it on our honeymoon. It has been a helpful place to recognize what we are up against as we seek to walk into our call to be bridges of reconciliation. There is hope if we can walk through our past into the future together. One thing that struck me most was the pervasive lies, propaganda and systematic oppression that were put in place under apartheid. Everything was set up to segregate blacks from whites and to benefit the whites minority population at the expense of the majority black population – The scariest thing though is that post 1994, the democratic elections, one would have expected things to have changed but for the average black person on the street not much has changed. Apartheid might not be the law but the is an ever increasing distance between the haves and have not’s, a distinction that runs mostly along the black white line does not help to bring people together. This is what we are feeling more and more called to work against. The challenging thing for the wealthy white, I being one of them, is that because of our privilege we have to choose to enter into this struggle for equality and justice. We also have the choice to leave and return to our lives of privilege. It can be difficult to stay and learn, as it is easier to turn a blind eye and remain ignorant. It is a more radical choice to try to listen to and identify with those who are oppressed or who are poor, especially when you are part of the reason they are in the position they are. I pray that more white people will stay and commit to the journey of learning together how to reconcile, to follow Jesus into a place of healing together. Praise God for food, taxi rides, singing songs, soccer balls, rugby, tea and coffee and laughter that were also part of this challenging day. They all brought us closer together and give us stories that we now share.