An Irish Volunteer at St James
We are delighted to hear that through Bishop Cleophas and USPG* and the Methodist Church a teacher from Northern Ireland has been at the Primary School from March till November this year on the Experience and Exchange Programme (EEP)
Nola Nixon has been in contact with Stephen Spencer and the following is an extract from one of her emails – it seems that St James still exercises its magic on people!
I go to Dlula during the week with Sister Itai (a resident nun) to teach those who want to be baptised and confirmed. The Defender that we got from the Friends of St. James has brought light to the people of Dlula. Fr. Albert takes a service there every Sunday. Only this year, 12 people were baptised and confirmed. 8 couples got married, including Naison Dube, Amos Mnkandla and Ellias Sibanda. With God's help, a new structure for the church building is to be put up and, at a later stage, a secondary school. We do ask for your prayers for these plans to materialise. Margaret is doing well at pre-school. The place is about to be electrified**. They had a very good vegetable garden but the chickens flew over and finished them!
* It was through the Anglican mission organisation, The United Society for the Propagation of the Gospel (USPG), that the expatriate teachers went to St James in the 1980s to start the Sixth Form. USPG has given grants for bursaries, arranged for previous EEPs and sponsored David and Elizabeth Wakefield at St James 1996 - 2000.
** FSJMS gave a grant to enable this, and it is now finished. We wonder if the sparks are flying!
