Wrapping Up

Well, I'm busy packing up and finalising the last bit of business at the Dormitory. On 29 June 2008 I will be flying to Heathrow, and then if the friendly officers at the British Imigration and Border Agency allows me to, I'll fly onwards to Belfast in Northern Ireland. I will be settling in a small town Banbridge and pastoring two congregations for a few years.

I have been so busy packing and making arrangements that I have not had a lot of time for reflection on my time at Helderberg. I will try to make some time to write about that shortly before I leave, or perhaps when I adjust to my new, hopefully slower paced life.

There has been many farewells. Last night the high school learners organised a fabulous programme to celebrate the fact that I am leaving and Dr. Letseli was there to take some photos. He promptly posted them on Facebook.

We got a photo of several members of the team that has done such a fabulous job of runnign the dormitory. From Left to right: Peter Webster (Resident Assistant), Simone (my wife), Myself, Mrs Isabel Louw (The fabulous new girls dorm dean), Salvador Cena and his wife Luciana (Adventist volunteer workers from Argentina who are helping out in the dorm), Pastor Eddie Appollis (Chaplain), and Dr. Letseli (Vice President for Student Services).

I want to thank the dormitory students for being so kind to my wife and patient with my daughter.

My closing thoughts were that the dormitory job taught me that a person should have a sense of humour about life. This is also a strong theme in scripture. We just should not take ourselves too seriously. When we worry, scripture says that the Lord will provide, When we think that we have arrived, Paul reminds us that this righteousness that we are so serious about is really just filthy rags. And when we think too seriously of ourselves as important people, we are reminded to have the attitude of Christ who thought nothing about becomming a servant who died on a cross. These values all set the basis for a wonderful sense of humour. I ended of with the joke of an Irish painter who was used to cutting corners. Until one day in a terrible thunder and lightning storm the Lord spoke to him and said: "Repaint! Reapaint! And thin no more!". And then Dr. Letseli took the photo.

A few weeks ago the entire RAD team and Worship Committee met at another restaurant to say good bye to us.

What is going to happen to the blog? If I find any more information that is relevant to Salisbury House I will update it. The College is busy migrating to a new website and that website will have some functionality that will allow the new dean to post relevant information there.

It's really been great to work at Helderberg. I have learned so much from the students and the staff. I am going to miss the place.