Loving welcome in K&K

Last November I led 15 pilgrims to our linked diocese of Kimberley and Kuruman, South Africa.

We toured Johannesburg Cathedral and also also visited the Apartheid Museum before moving on to Pretoria. At Mafikeng museum, we visited the Boer War Siege display.

We enjoyed two nights of the warm hospitality of the local congregation at Mmabatho. Their new Church of the Resurrection had been consecrated three days before at a service attended by 800, which lasted from 8 am to 1 pm!  

This loving welcome was repeated at Batlharos, where they took us to a village decimated by HIV/AIDS; a recent storm had washed away their mud-brick houses. We visited the mission founded by Victorians Robert and Mary Moffatt, who printed the first local-language African Bible. 

In both parishes, we surrendered our inhibitions, sang hymns in Setswana, and entered into the joy of the people, as they sang and danced their welcome to us.  A blessed pilgrimage!

The Revd Tom Moffatt, vicar of Thatcham