As Old North Church prepares for its third visit to the Pholela Congregation ministered by Rev. Gideon Khabel, we look back on what has been accomplished to date.  The following is a letter from Christian Service Committee member Stow Walker to Rev. Khabel:

September 5, 2005

Dear Gideon,

On behalf of Old North Church, I send our best wishes to the Pholela Congregation. This year marks our third year of partnership with your church, and we would like to review our progress and share some observations as we plan for the future.

Together, we have both emphasized the principle that our partnership is not based on financial and other assistance, but rather on building friendships and understanding. While we have made financial and other contributions to your congregation and the community, it has always been considered secondary to creating a relationship of fellowship and faith supported by common understanding and trust. The two visits members of our congregation have made to Pholela in each of the last two summers (but not this one), have given us a strong start. In addition, we have provided financial assistance to the church and helped its mission within the wider community. To date, this has included:

• Contributions for the construction of the church at Posane, and for the future church at Mangwaneni
• Scholarship support for a local student member of the congregation (Mthembeni)
• Financial contributions and gifts to local schools (substantial contributions to the crèche at the Turn Table Trust and the Nkelabantwana Creche and Mangwaneni Primary School, whose students performed for us last summer in Mangwaneni; microscope sets to various schools during our visit last summer; and more token contributions to other schools whose students performed for us during our first visit two years ago)
• Support to begin the Chibini Heifer Project raising hens for eggs and homestead gardens, which I understand may be extended to a new project in Mangwaneni in October
• Contributions to the Congregation’s Mothers’ Day Picnics this year and last year
• Two large contributions of clothing that your Congregation’s Women’s Committee has distributed each of the last two years before Christmas to deserving families
• Two older personal computers
• A prayer shawl (given during the first trip) and blankets (given by us to members of the Pholela community during both of our visits)
• In response to a request from the Pholela Congregation’s senior leadership, we have provided continuing major support through the last two years for your position as minister 
• The purchase and re-sale of embroidered, beaded pillows made by women in your communities, with all proceeds being sent to back to these women
• Funds for the purchase of a truck for use by the church and by the Hospice

We also have set aside substantial funds to begin the Hospice Centre in Pholela (Senzangothando) to be staffed primarily by volunteers in property donated by the local Zulu chief. We have plans to work with you to secure local South African Rotary Club funding to match local Rotary Club contributions we have secured in Marblehead, and together pursue matching funds from Rotary International. We hope that this will provide the first 2-3 years of necessary funding, until stable local South African sources of support can be secured. Assuming it remains a priority of your church, please keep us informed about the status of this project, how it has been formally organized, and when it would appropriate to send you the initial funds we have raised.

We send our best wishes to everyone,

Stow Walker
Chairman, Pholela Committee
Old North Church, Marblehead, MA

At the end of August a group of fifteen adults and teenagers traveled to the Pholela township in South Africa’s KwaZula-Natal province to meet with our partner churches in the congregation of Reverend Gideon Khabela.

The visit featured food and festivities, music and dancing, and much food for thought as the group visited these warm, embracing people in their churches, schools, and meeting places. Educational endeavors, fellowship, and health issues were at the top of the agenda.

The group followed up on last year’s visit to the Pholela (High) School where the teenagers on board renewed acquaintances made last year. They also visited a nursery school which last year received a rug and wood burning stove to keep the children warm in winter. The group toured a recently completed five room high school in a remote village. The principal, our friend Esther Ngeobo, has worked very hard for its completion and now needs to find a way to purchase furniture and books for the facility.

A special treat was a visit to the village that received Old North’s Heifer International Fund contribution last year. The young man who received hens from us proudly told us he is selling eggs to local inns. Officials from Heifer were spending the night at the hotel the group was staying in. This serendipitous fact allowed Old North to strengthen further the ties between us.

Fellowship played an important role in the visit. Wherever the travelers visited one of Rev. Khabela’s congregations, food, music, entertainment followed. They were even treated to a banquet given by a Zulu chief in a remote village. The hospitality of these kind but struggling Zulu people was gracious and heart warming.

The HIV-AIDS virus is a huge but largely unspoken issue in KwaZulu-Natal. As the group visited a clinic and an orphanage, the complexity of the issue with its many cultural and political ramifications emerged. Rev. Khabela and his elders do their very best to minister to those infected. Although, all too often, the victims do not speak of their conditions because of the social stigma that is attached to the HIV virus.

Two Boston University College of Communications professors and a medical doctor traveled with the group. They are making a documentary highlighting the life of a sixteen year old American girl and her South African counterpart whose parents had died of AIDS.

In coming weeks you will hear more about this amazing adventure and how we can help our South African church partners help themselves. Meanwhile here are a few photos.