Things I’m Going to Miss and Things I’m Looking Forward To … by Dave

Things I’m going to miss…

• Friends and family … of course! It’s going to be hard to leave behind people we love and value.

• British sport. As many of you will know, I love my sport. Football, rugby, cricket, NFL … that’s just the main ones. Although British football is vastly popular over there, it’s going to take some getting used to living and breathing a different sporting culture to the one that has been the soundtrack to my life for all these years.

• Rocky. It looks like he’s got a new home, and that’s a good thing. But he’s been such a big part of our lives. We’ll miss him.

• Knowing how things get done. In the UK, we know what to do or who to call in just about any instance. In SA, we won’t. There will be many phone calls to friends and colleagues with questions that to native ears may appear stupid.

• British TV … we’re going to be relying on gifts of DVD sets of the new Dr Who, Spooks … and any of the US dramas we enjoy that aren’t on the main channels in SA.

• A good pint of bitter. Please, please, no Castle lager. But Amstel is OK.

Things I’m looking forward to …

• St Peter’s. It’s the opportunities at the new church that are, of course, the main reasons for us going

• Living so close to one of the most beautiful sports ground in the world….in a sports mad country. South Africa is mad about sports – especially rugby, cricket and football (it depends who you and are where in the country you are from). Super 14 rugby, Tri-Nations rugby, the best cricket team in the world – it’s all good, and I’m looking forward to getting stuck into it. Wait for the forthcoming film Invictus (click on the word for a preview), for a sense of the power of sport in this country – we’ll write more about that nearer the time.

• Being part of a country with so much ahead of it – developing country etc. We’ve said that we see South Africa as a place of hope and opportunity. Ever since our individual and joint sense of call to the country emerged we have been excited about the possibilities ahead of the country. There is much need, much to be done, and the possibility for much to go wrong. South Africa is a developing country which has come a long way and still has a long way to go – and we are very excited about being part of that in our small and insignificant way. I love the South African Tourist Board’s current campaign, which sums up so much of the vibrancy and joy to be found amidst so much to be done – click here to be inspired.

• Living in a World Cup city. The first African World Cup is going to be amazing. Our last trip in June coincided with the traditional year-ahead warm up tournament The Confederations Cup. This is normally an ignored and boring affair; South Africa was really up for this (as far as we could see, across cultures – competing very well with the Lions rugby tour which was also happening) in a way which suggests the World Cup is going to be an exciting and atmospheric affair.

• South African TV advertisements.  Some of these are funny and creative in a way that shames so much of what we fast-forward through whenever possible here. Here’s one, to whet the appetite – working knowledge of rugby helpful but not essential.

• Eating and drinking outdoors – the wine farms, the braais … lovely! Want to know more about braais? Have a look at this video, which so many of our South African friends agree lovingly and satirically sums up the SA obsession with braais. They even have a national day devoted to it.

Ways You Can Help

We been asked by a number of people how they can get involved and help us as we move to South Africa to St. Peter’s Church in Cape Town.

Here are some suggestions :

• keep reading our blog & keep up to date on how we are getting on
• keep in touch and let us know what you are up to we’re on Facebook and Twitter (vicardave & bevmeldrum)
• pray for us, if that is your thing
• we have some stuff we want to take over to the church with us,  resources that it would be great to have – we’ve set up a wish list here.
• we also have some stuff we’d like to take so if you want to buy us something as a leaving gift you can do that here
• alternatively iTunes vouchers, amazon.co.uk vouchers for books & DVDs or amazon.com vouchers for e-books for our Kindle are also a good idea
  

Some of you have asked about supporting us financially either a one-off or regularly. Dave is being paid and this will cover our basics. We won’t have the sort of life we are used to over here but we know that and that is our choice.

But if you do want to support us in some way for new things we want to start at church or the occasional treat or help towards a trip home then do contact Dave on his new email address at dave@vicardave.com

They’ll be a particular opportunity to support Dave finish the church leadership course he is on but we’ll tell you about that another time.

A Slight Delay …

Well everything is sorted our end but we were still waiting for the documentation from the church in Cape Town to be sent over. Once that arrived we could apply for the work permit which at the most would take 30 days to come.

We started this process 4 months ago thinking that would be more than enough time … we were being very cautious in terms of how long we thought it would take.

We had been told the papers would be with us by now but there’s been a delay to do with finding the original job adverts that were posted. We’re now being told it’ll be another 3 weeks before they can send the papers over.

We were going to wait to give a final leaving date until the work permit is sorted but another issue related to Dave being off sick from work for the last 9 weeks forced us into giving a final date that he would leave St. Michael’s & St. Stephen’s and we’d leave the house.

If praying is your thing please pray. It looks like we might end up with no work permit and nowhere to live at this stage! Please pray it all comes together.

Rocky the Dog

We knew we would have to make sacrifices moving to South Africa to join the church in Cape Town – it has become very real! We need to find Rocky a new home.

We would love to take Rocky with us but we got a bit of a shock when we asked for a quote as to how much it would cost to ship him over – around £2500! It would be cheaper to buy him a first class ticket – I’m sure he’d be very comfy on one of their big seats.

Maybe it’s the best thing – the house we are moving to has no private outdoor space of its own. The front door opens onto the church car park and there’s no garden or yard. There’s a wonderful woman who does an amazing job of the flower borders around the church – Rocky may enjoy them a bit too much!

Rocky is 5 1/2 years old. He is a rescue dog – his litter was abandoned at the side of the road. He spent his first 9 months in RSPCA kennels and since then he’s been with us. He’s a cross between a Great Dane and a German Shepherd – the size of a German Shepherd but the shape of a Dane.

He adores being around people but he’s good being left on his own for much of the day. He’s good with children (as long as the children are old enough to be taught how to treat a dog) and he’d be happy with other dogs. His favourite things are sleeping, walks, treats and carrots! He doesn’t do cats or fireworks. He also comes with his own dog walker who he absolutely adores. We take him out for a walk round the block in the morning and then a longer walk to the park in the afternoon – or Sue the dog walker will take him out for us if we’re busy.

He’s well-behaved but not perfect like his pedigree cousins – he likes barking to inform you that the doorbell has been rung and leaning on guests. He does a good impression of a Wookie Monster and has a collection of other unusual and entertaining noises.

He’s an absolutely lovely dog, who would fit well into any home as long as there’s a bed to sleep on, food on offer and the occasional belly rub. He’s been such a blessing to us but it’s now time for him to be part of someone else’s life.

Can you help us get rid of some garden stuff?

For those of you who have been reading our blog you’ll know we are selling all our stuff to raise money for our move to Cape Town.

This is where you can help! While we still have a bit of sunshine we’d thought it would be a good time to get rid of all our garden stuff.

Here are pictures of everything we are trying to get rid of just email Dave or Bev if you see anything you’d like to take. If you would like to make a donation for our move that would be great too (particularly for the big stuff, for the small stuff don’t worry so much). There’s a few other bits and pieces listed after the pictures.

large Outback gas BBQ – click on the link to see its features (it’s the 3 ring one, we have a gas canister as well)

Other items:

• table top gas patio heater with gas canister
• leaf blower
• green plastic garden table (with fold-down eaves)
• 4 plastic garden chairs
• wooden sun lounger (has a broken slat – easy to fix I’m sure)

Email Dave or Bev if you’d like to take anything.

[the pots and plants, table & chairs have now gone]

What will Bev be doing?

… not much of the traditional vicar’s wife stuff, but that won’t be a surprise to those who know me.

Just because we are going to a more traditional church doesn’t mean that I’m going to suddenly become an expert baker and flower arranger and head of the Mother’s Union!

But what will I be doing?

Well The Tool Factory – the social enterprise I run here in the UK will be continuing. We develop tools & resources, including software for social entrepreneurs. We’ll be moving more of what we do online so we can run it as what is called a Location Independent business. This gives me the freedom to run it from wherever we are in the world.

This won’t take up all of my time so I’ll be doing a lot more at church than I’ve had the opportunity to do here in Putney.

I’ve also made some contacts in the Social Enterprise sector in South Africa, including at the University of Cape Town (UCT) which is just up the road from where we will be. Social Enterprise is quite a new concept in South Africa so I’m hoping I’ll get to use the stuff I’ve learnt here to help social entrepreneurs in Cape Town. In February, once we’ve arrived, UCT are running a semester-worth of programmes on Social Entrepreneurship as part of the Connect 1-2-3 undergraduate programme – giving students the opportunity to study abroad for a semester.

However, what I would really love to do is to start my PhD again at UCT and focus on Social Enterprise in a South African context – and in particular how we can effectively support social entrepreneurs. That is my dream. I’m pushing the doors at the moment to see if it will be possible.

One very exciting project I’ve come across already is UnLtd South Africa – based on the UK UnLtd model, it is just being set up in South Africa and will be running out of Cape Town. UnLtd provide grants, mentoring and training to social entrepreneurs helping them set up their projects. It’s a great organisation and that’s how we got started as an organisation many years ago.

I am hoping to be joining UnLtd South Africa on a study tour of South African social enterprises in early February 2010 – we will have moved by then. That will be a great introduction to Social Enterprise in our new home country.

And all this before we’ve even arrived … I think somehow there will be more than enough for me to do!

Long Goodbyes

Beginning of the end or the end of the beginning? Last weekend was a little bit of both.

It was August Bank Holiday weekend here in the UK. It’s a long weekend off for a lot of people, and while summer limps on well into September, many would see the weekend as marking the end of the long holiday season. It’s often a time to get away. For us it’s been our custom to go the Greenbelt festival

Greenbelt is a special place to us. It’s a weekend of live music, talks, worship and general festival atmosphere. It covers the genuine breadth of the Christian scene in the UK and beyond. Some find that frustrating; considering it too ill-defined or liberal. We love it. We love the music, the breadth of expression, the sheer friendliness of the whole experience. We come back refreshed by God in so many different ways – not least by the really deep laughter and sharing with people we love whom we haven’t seen since the same weekend the previous year. One difference this year was that we were volunteering – pastoring the youth team run by our friend Phil; but we still took in plenty of music, talks (Rob Bell was a highlight) and the essential Beer & Hymns (on which we’ve modelled our own Beer & Carols event at Christmas).

The experience, though, was further deepened by the realisation that this is likely to be our last Greenbelt for some time. There will be many more of these ‘last time’ moments, but this was the first time we really became conscious of it. This focused our minds. We found ourselves thinking of how much we would miss the place, the experience, the people. On occasions, I would step back from a moment I was in and try to observe it as if from the outside. Take a birds-eye-view of where I wouldn’t be this time next year. This did many things. It made me shed the occasional tear, for one. It meant I hugged a lot of people, for another. On a different level, I think for the first time I really entered into the ‘theme’ of the festival. This year it was called ‘Standing In The Long Now‘; the idea of not letting life rush by, of entering into what is happening and what God is doing now in our lives. The theme reminded me of the testimony of one older teenage girl who had become a Christian in a previous church. When asked what difference her faith had made to her daily life, she replied thus: “There’s a tree I pass every day on my way to school. I’d never really looked at it, never really realised how beautiful it was until now”.

Beautiful – that’s a great testimony of faith, and a great summary of what the festival theme was all about. The conflation of our own circumstances meant that we really found ourselves looking at things in the festival properly, really making the most of time with people on a deeper level. Naturally, it was also emotional; we found ourselves tearful more often than usual. All this makes the whole experience draining, but also deeper and richer.

So much more of this lies ahead; we’re praying that despite all the urgent things we need to do, both for our work and life in the UK and in preparation for our move, we would recognise these sanctified moments as they come along and make the most of them, squeezing out of them every last drop. It also makes me suspect that what God has ahead of us starts now – and we don’t want to miss that. He’s at work every day in every way, shaping us, forming us, working through us. He has things for us to do and to do in us now.  We want to search for Him and find Him.

May you, and we, truly stand in the long now.