Meeting Mpumalanga pastors

On Thursday morning before daybreak Bishop David Tswaedi DD picked me up at my house and took me along to the Mpumalanga Co-workers meeting in Thandakukanya near Mkonda [previously Piet Retief]. Driving for four hours in one direction gives ample time to touch on a variety of things. That was very necessary, because there are many issues, which are still outstanding and need clarification.
The meeting was under the leadership of Dean Victor Vilakazi, who is based in Thandakukanya. He lead the morning devotion, confession and absolution and also the celebration of the Lord's Supper. His sermon theme was: Jesus on the road with expectations ... He used the story of Jesus cursing the fig-tree. As a final feature of the meeting he presented a paper on successful ministry with 10 sections. Pastor Jacob Nkambule added some relevant theological criticism.
I think the future bishop of the LCSA will really have to visit his pastors, deans, congregations and dioceses regularly to establish good communication and constant interaction on relevant themes and topics so that the pastors are well informed and that a relation of trust can develop. I hope and pray that this will be possible and that the Lord of the Church will provide the necessary means, joy and competency to do his work faithfully!
Most of the pastors are familiar to me and I feel very much at home in this diocese: Pastor Mntambo, Mathebula, Nkambule, Kuhmalo, Mthimkuhlu, Nkabinde, Biyela, Lushaba and Mtshali.
Going back to Pretoria we drove over Amsterdam. However that road has also seen beter days and it also took us more than four hours to get back. Obviously the Bishop was on the road for another hour at least after dropping me off in Murrayfield before he could put up his legs in Mofolo N - if he went straight home that is.