The minister with the mask on is Rev. Calvary of Mthatha and the other is Rev. Mountain of Canzibe.
Many of our URCSA Cape Region Synod’s congregations must function without a pastor; something that is a huge challenge for our Synod.
In the light of this, the joint URVSA and DRC ministering group, Witness Ministry, has (since 2018) together with the other URCSA ministries, started supporting congregations to call proponents. For the past two years, for example, four new ministers have been employed in the former Transkei. They are Revv. Wiseman Calvary (Mthatha), Thanduxolo Mountain (Canzibe), Thembinkosi Mene (Rietvlei) and Zukile Bloro (Lusiksiki and Bambisana).
If you ask them how they are dealing with their challenges as ministers in the current COVID-19 pandemic, the WhatsApp answers come quickly:
“My family and I are well,” answers Rev. Mountain who is the new pastor at Canzibe. “At first it was hard because people wanted to continue with church services and funerals but as time went by they understood that this pandemic is a serious issue. We need to adhere to the guidelines given by our president and ministers.”
He explains further, “The argument was that we are here in rural places, therefore, we never travel abroad and to cities. If COVID-19 affected one of them, it will be brought by people from cities.”
It is a huge challenge to explain something to people that can not be seen yet, “We try to teach about it, at least making them understand the safety of personal protective equipment (PPE’s). So far we are coping because of that understanding. ”
But it remains a challenge, “We still have a challenge because other people are just walking up and down without even a mask.”
The big challenge is to still keep serving your congregation, but plans have been made for that as well: “In terms of the congregation, we record sermons and send them to church council members. We also formulated WhatsApp groups with members to share the Word on a weekly basis. We started that before Easter, like Palm Sunday, the Seven Words on the Cross (Good Friday), and the resurrection sermon.
“Another challenge is that not every member has WhatsApp. Even now I am preparing the Ascension and Pentecost sermons in order to share.”
Rev. Wiseman Calvary (what a wonderful name for a minister!) from Mthatha says that he also makes the same plans and has the same challenges: “People do not have enough data and not everyone has WhatsApp.” So he sends SMS text messages to these members; something that again requires a lot of time and data from him, but it works.
Another challenge is funerals, “I cannot even support the family of the deceased with a prayer or visit. The families feel rejected and I feel that I am not doing what I am supposed to do. The church council does a tremendous job explaining to our members to understand that this is a global problem and everyone must work together and abide by the rules. I keep praying that God will show me more effective ways of communicating with our members.”
Contact
Rev. Stephen Pedro
stephen@kaapkerk.co.za