Wednesday 10 August and Tuesday 11 August
Over the years that I have served as a Regional Conference Minister in the New York Conference I have often speculated with congregations about what it might mean if all of our local churches would take on the identity and calling of being a mission station. How would that change our outlook on ministry? How would our programs, our budgets, our worship and ministries of Christian education and nurture change? All of these questions remain conjecture in New York. But on these days I was happy to experience a community that began as and remains a Moravian Mission Station: Enon a village located about an hour northeast of Port Elizabeth.
The Moravian Church is a pre-Reformation Protestant Church with its roots in present day Czechoslovakia. Moravian communities were founded in Pennsylvania (around Bethlehem), in North Carolina (Winston Salem) and across the upper mid west of the USA. Always a small denomination, the Moravians have had an historic concern for mission, establishing churches, schools and hospitals around the world.
There are eight Moravian Churches in an around the port city of Port Elizabeth. Each of these congregations sent a representative to be part of our delegation. It was fitting for us to begin our experience of their life and ministry by spending parts of two days and a night in Enon. Moravian missionaries traveled to the valley in which Enon is located to set up a mission in 1829. They built a church and a school in 1821 and set apart a village for Moravians. It was a purely Moravian community until the turn of the 20th century.
We were greeted warmly by the pastor and several members who gave us lunch and offered the official welcome in the sanctuary by the Moravian, Congregational and Pentecostal pastors. We also had dinner at the church followed by a most wonderful musical presentation by various community groups and choirs. They also invited our delegation to sing. We sang our signature song, "Siyahamb ekukhanyen kwenkos" (We are marching in the light of God). We had fun and the entire congregation of well over 100 joined in. We all applauded each other afterward.
Walter Schneider, the German delegation leader, our two drivers (Byron and Monte) and I stayed at the home of Tyron and Levi Closson. Tyron is a former principal of the village school and Levi teaches in a neighboring village. Tyron, Byron, Monte and I stayed up talking in the Closson home when the community program ended. We spoke about life in the village, it's history (Tyron is a lifelong resident), and broader topics of mutual interest. As the only white person present during this conversation I asked if I would have been able to stay in that house during Apartheid. All said, "No, I would have been put under surveillance as a potential troublemaker and they would have been arrested." What a difference 16 years has made.
Sleep came quickly that night. I don't think I stirred at all till the alarm went off the next morning.
On Thursday we took a walking tour of the village of Enon. The Moravian Pastor and one of the Town Councilors led the tour past the Congregational Church, the village offices and day care center, and out to Beersheba, an outpost village of Enon. Along the way we stopped on a hillside between the two villages used as a place for the surrounding communities to come and pray in times of drought or other kinds of trouble as well as joys. We enjoyed visiting the school in Beersheba where the daughter of one of our group members, Pumza attends, and of which Pumza is an alumna.
After lunch we said good bye to Enon enroute to Port Elizabeth. On our way out of the area we stopped by a citrus plant for a tour. We arrived just at the mid-afternoon break, allowing the workers to greet us with smiles and poses for our cameras.
Blessings,
Rick Cowles
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