Well I am here in Durban, South Africa. The last few months disappeared in a whirl wind of dissertation writing, packing up the house, getting visa's, renting my house, raising support...the lists seemed endless but I did it. I still can't quite believe that I've made it but I have.
Soul Action Network Day - My second day in Durban was a Soul Action Network Day. Since 2008 Soul Action has been contacting, visiting and recording faith based activity amongst the poor in the Ethekwini municipality—an area covering 2,292 sq km with a population of 3.5 million people. As a result they have built relationships with 135 different initiatives and in doing so discovered a sense of isolation and a need for support amongst those serving the poor. The Network therefore exists to encourage these initiatives to interact, share ideas, money, resources and all sorts of needs, from prayer through to people. As well as a monthly newsletter sharing information Soul Action also run Network Days three times a year to enable everyone to meet in person.
This network day focused on ‘Reimagining the future’. Through prayer, reading the bible, listening to God, discussion and informal conversation we looked at how God nurtures our dreams, purpose and vision and how this impacts those we work with.
Soul Action Team - The following day we met together as a Soul Action Team (we meet fortnightly every Friday morning). There are ten of us on the team and so this was a great opportunity for me to meet and get to know people properly after briefly meeting them the previous day. Everyone on the team is self funded and work for Soul Action anything from one day a week to full time. Eighteen months ago the only Soul Action team were the co-founders, Rachel and Phil Bowyer. God spoke to them about the need to focus in on tackling the root causes of poverty but they weren't sure how to do this. As they prayed about how people with different gifting began to get in touch about coming to serve with them in South Africa, I am the most recent one to join.
Children’s and Family Work - My role in Soul Action is to focus on drawing alongside and supporting those working with children and families. The next few months will therefore involve going out and meeting all those in the Network working in this area. Through these meetings I will be able to discover what is happening and how best Soul Action can support this work.
On a more personal note....Since arriving I have been living with the Bowyer family while looking for somewhere to live more permanently. I can now confirm that I have found somewhere.
The O’Sullivan family (Veena, Gavan and their two children Rioghan and Eshan) joined the Soul Action Team in September from the U.K. After three months in temporary accommodation they’ve been looking for a long term rental property. Prior to my arrival they offered to look for a bigger place so that I could move in with them. They recently found a house in Westville, 20mins drive from Durban city centre.
However I need to find a car before I can move, with the house being a bit of a drive from the city centre. I also need a car so that I can start visiting projects in the Network. Finding a car though is proving quite tricky I have been looking since I arrived and Phil the two weeks before that. I need a car with airbags, air con and power steering but finding that for the money I have isn’t quite working out. Cars here are a lot more expensive than in the U.K. I would really appreciate your prayers for this and wisdom when looking for so that the car I end up getting is safe and reliable.
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