Last week Bishop Hans-Joerg Voigt [Independent Evangelical Lutheran Church - SELK - from Hannover, Germany] and the CEO of Missions of Lutheran Churches Markus Nietzke [Lutherische Kirchenmission from Bleckmar, Germany] visited South Africa and also the Seminary.
They arrived safe and sound on Monday at O.T. Tambo, where I picked them up to start their busy tour through Southern Africa. Today they are leaving again for Germany after their whirlwind tour up and down the eastern parts of SA.
On Monday we visited the Theological faculty at the University of Pretoria. The SELK has decided to free Prof. Dr. habil. Werner Klaen and make him available for the Lutheran Chair of theology at UP. That is a sign of confidence in this work. We need to raise the required funds still, but the gesture is there. Hopefully this can work out rather sooner than later. It is obvious that financial constraints everywhere are influencing a lot of decisions and ways forward. We will have to see, how best to continue to raise money not only to do the work of the Seminary, but also of the Lutheran Church in Southern Africa.
We had a very intensive discussion throughout the day and long into the night. I wanted to hear why Markus Nietzke has taken a call into the dual-parish in Hermannsburg [Kl.Kreuz/Bleckmar] and no longer standing as CEO of the Mission. This will impact on our work too, because he was always very supportive of the Seminary work. However the Bishop assured me that the new candidate for this post, would not dramatically shift this focus. Perhaps it can be worked out that various mission and church partners can concentrate their efforts to maximize their impact. Let's see, what can be done!
I was impressed by options at Ramathea in Botswana and also in Wartburg in KwaZulu/Natal. Both options were raised by brother Christoph Weber and I think they will make the work of the Lutheran Church in Southern Africa even more effective, relevant and successful.
On Tuesday it was examination of the Sebeelo brothers from Botswana. Bishop David Tswaedi DD, Markus Nietzke and myself were on the examination panel. The brothers did a good job and I learnt a lot too from their sermon, catechesis and mission task. This took most of the morning because afterwards the Bishop, the students and I went to have lunch together to catch up on the developments in Botswana and in their respective congregations. It was a very enjoyable time together!
Later in the afternoon the shareholders of the Lutheran Theological Seminary [LCSA, MLC and FELSiSA] finally signed the shareholders agreement. That was a brief ceremony - short and sweet - after which our German guests left for KwaZulu/Natal. The trip to the airport was another chance to discuss cooperation and continued partnership between SELK and LCSA. Always the time is very short and there is always such a lot left unsaid. Our thoughts, words and deeds remain unfinished drafts. We are beggars that's the truth! Luther is spot-on.
Friday Markus Nietzke and brother Christoph slept over on their way from KwaZulu to Botswana. This also was very fruitful, because Christoph as representative of Mission of Lutheran Church in South Africa has a lot of ideas himself. It was good to catch up on those too. Especially the idea of sending pastors children to Wartburg High School on a bursary basis and promoting Ramathea Ranch in Botswana were new idea to me. However I think they are very practical and hopefully we can go through with them - soon.
After a hearty breakfast on Saturday these two mission friends left for Ventersdorp on their way to Gaborone in Botswana, where the Sebeelo brothers were to be ordained on the 3. Sunday in Advent.
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