Greetings Friends,
    As we are beginning a new phase of our ministry in South Africa, it is a good time to reflect on our purpose for being here. You probably have heard us talk about "Show and Tell the Gospel" often. We'd like to introduce another metaphor - helping churches and Christians be good neighbors.
    One of our favorite books on development, "Walking with the Poor" by Bryant Myers, introduced us to the concept of neighbor-ology (he credits the term to Kosuke Koyama, p. 150). In his summary of the Law in Matthew 22, Jesus says:
    You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.  This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets. (Mt.
22-37-40) Loving our neighbors as ourselves is the second commandment. In Luke's Gospel, in chapter 10, an expert in the Law says the same thing. The expert then goes on to try to justify himself and asks, "Who is my neighbor?" Jesus then relates the parable of the Good Samaritan.
Neighbor-ology is, then, the study of what it takes to be a good neighbor.
    We can all be good neighbors to those like us and to those we like. The Good Samaritan parable shows what Jesus means when he says, "Love your neighbor as yourself." It goes beyond what we might feel comfortable with, even helping those we are not generally inclined to
even notice. We will be working with people and churches, helping them study themselves, their communities, and their neighbors, helping them develop ways that they might be good neighbors. Pray for us as this is a simple concept to state but hard to put into practice in a
God-glorifying way.
    As time goes on, we'll be giving you more concrete activities related to neighbor-ology. In an earlier update, we asked for prayer for a workshop for deacons that was to be held on May 31 at CRUMA (Center for Reformational Urban Ministry in Africa). Unfortunately, this workshop
never happened. We hope to reschedule it for August/September. The next few weeks will be crucial in the planning for this workshop. Working with deacons in the church is one way we are assisting the church in being a good neighbor.
    In other news, you may have heard about the spate of xenophobia (fear of strangers/foreigners) in South Africa. The violence was largely directed towards people from other parts of Africa who were living in the slums and townships. There was limited violence reported in KwaMhlanga (as far as we heard) but we do know that the fear of violence impacted some of our friends from Zimbabwe and other places. Please pray for greater understanding among the various people groups in South Africa. We praise God that many churches in South Africa were active in ministering to those displaced by the violence. They were being good neighbors, indeed.
    We are planning on spending most of July in Cape Town, working with Word and Life Ministries. In particular, we'll be working with two churches, one in a community called Capricorn and another in Wes Bank, training their leaders in some basics of community development. These are two small congregations in rather poor communities with young
pastors. Please pray that they will be gripped by the gospel in such a way that it shows in their love for their neighbors.
    Finally, with our move into Pretoria, we have a little better internet situation. We recently were able to get Skype working. This allows us to use our high-speed internet connection for making cheaper international phone calls. Our Skype account is hsw1957. If you have
Skype, we can even talk for free. We are not always online so if you'd like to talk with us, please let us know in advance so we'll be ready.
    Summarizing our prayer requests (and adding a few):
1. Pray for our work with churches in neighbor-ology
2. Pray for the planning of our deacons workshop and the continuing
work at CRUMA
3. Pray for the strangers and aliens in our midst - that the Christians
would love them and demonstrate that love. Thank God for the care He
has shown them through His church.
4. Pray for our time in Cape Town with Michael (Wes Bank pastor) and
James (Capricorn) pastor. Bert will also be working with Johnnie Tromp,
the head of Word and Life, to plan future activities.
5. Nancy's English classes in KwaMhlanga end next week. When we return
from Cape Town, she will begin a new series of teacher training classes
for the teachers at the Orphan and Vulnerable Children centers. This
will be her second set of classes with the teachers but many (about
1/2) are new since the last time.
6. Pray that we would get to know our neighbors. Pretoria is a city of
big walls around homes. This makes it  hard to get to know your
neighbors. We are learning names gradually but wish to get beyond that.
7. Praise God for our improved internet situation. We are glad to have
Skype working and are looking into other things that are possible with
a higher speed internet connection - like sending out some pictures in
these emails. Let Bert know what you think of that.
8. Praise God also for His provision of work and housing for Gregory
over the summer. He is working on campus cutting grass, etc. He is
living in a home owned by a family who attends the church he goes to.
This house is being renovated and they are allowing him to stay there
as the work progresses. It should be completed in July but it looks
like he has a place to stay after that.


    We thank God for your continued support. We are very grateful for the
many ways you encourage us as we are your servants in Christ in South
Africa.

Blessings,
Bert, Nancy, Gregory, and Emily Williams
bwilliams@mtwafrica.org
nwilliams@mtwafrica.org

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