The Ministry of Presence: Without Agenda in South Africa

by Avis Crowe, Dyckman W. Vermilye

Overview

Live in South Africa? A peculiar choice--foolish even. But it was a natural outgrowth of our experience of recent years, individually and as a couple. Even before we had met, the Spirit was busy planting seeds in each of us for such a journey.

Yet South Africa kept cropping up in our conversation: as John Woolman said about visiting the Indians, our thoughts about South Africa led us to feel "inward drawings toward a visit to that place."

We were not intending to travel officially and just trusted that clearness would come naturally. We talked constantly with each other, with friends and family. We attended a Pendle Hill weekend conference on discerning God's will. We prayed and meditated. We read. We waited.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940157160159
Publisher:	Pendle Hill Publications
Publication date:	03/22/2017
Series:	Pendle Hill Pamphlets , #293
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	134 KB

About the Author

Dyck and Avis Vermilye lived in Cape Town, South Africa, from October 1986 to April 1988.

“On our return to the United States, we settled into a part of the country new to us both. When people learned of our having lived in South Africa, we were besieged with questions, ‘Why did you go?’ and ‘What did you do?’ This pamphlet is our attempt to answer those questions. We have shared our experiences in small group settings, but we wanted to speak to a wider audience. We have not attempted to deal in this pamphlet with the larger issues of politics and strategies, or even describe the complex layers that are the system of Apartheid. We are more interested-and eager-to share the process of our going, and how ways opened for us to become engaged in the lU"e of the community and Quaker meeting; how we came, in fact, to realize that we were engaged in a ministry of presence. ( We first encountered this phrase and experience in the writings of theologian Henri Nouwen.) We also wanted an opportunity to encourage others to consider such an unstructured approach to sojourning in troubled places in the world.”