Thank you to everyone who has been praying for us and supporting us. We're here now and this is our first proper update since the course started (yesterday). Last week was orientation, explanation of assignments, learning our chores, house rules and administration.
We've had a tour of Muizenberg. It's a lovely little coastal settlement, just south of the city and Table Mountain. The weather is really windy here, so you don't really feel the heat, which is nice, as there is no air conditioning. Although the downside is you don't notice the strength of the sun, so us brits tend to look a bit like lobsters! The prices here (probably due to the weak pound) are really expensive. Most things are just as expensive as in the UK and some things even more so. Let's hope the pound strengthens, so we can last a bit longer on what we've funraised.
Please pray for guidance. This week we need to put forward our choices for outreach and we've been asked to seek the Lord on where we should go. If you feel God is leading you, please email us – peterclem@googlemail.com
So far this week we've been learning about the complex nature of the trinity. There was a specific focus on the nature and person of the Holy Spirit. This was very interesting and helped unpack something that we knew already, but in a way that we can demonstrate to others (also, we hadn't really thought about it in that much depth). We've had a very enthusiastic speaker who has been very hands-on with visual demonstrations and lots of useful diagrams! It's very biblically sound.
The training that we're doing at the moment is mainly to help us have a theological foundation and knowledge for outreach and further ministry. There are many people from all sorts of denominations here, but as the speaker asked probing questions on where our churches stood on certain theological issues (such as is it possible to lose one's salvation) many didn't know. This is key to when we might be asked or challenged by non-Christians or people interested in becoming a Christian.
It has also been a great opportunity so far to have some 'time out' to reflect. We hope that God will guide us as we learn of His plan for our lives.
We're staying in a former hotel. Advantage: en-suit bathroom. Disadvantage: it's a large building (in some disrepair) and we are responsible for all the cleaning!! There are 20 other people on the course and it's fascinating to live in community. Because of the nature of this course: people are far from home and the security aspect of having to lock yourself in the building and only leave the building in groups of three or more, we end up spending many hours here, so breakfast, lunch and dinner + lectures + socialising is all done with the same group. There are other groups here, but we're definitely finding a very close bond within the DTS group.
There are 100 staff who work here. They run several schools, plus accept people staying here while they are doing outreach to Muizenberg from other locations around the world. Currently there are groups from Carlisle, Switzerland and Hawaii. So, all in all, it's a pretty busy place. You can always here someone playing a tune on a guitar somewhere!
Meantime, for us: our stomachs are still acclimatising to the diet (institution food).
We'll keep you posted regularly
P&B xx
