A Sea Change

My kayak has arrived!!!!

2009-10-03T08:31:00.000-07:00

After six months in the land down under, my kayak has finally joined me. On Monday morning I took her for a maiden Oz voyage around the Busselton Jetty and down the coast a couple of K's. It is so good to have the decent fibreglass hull of a Kaskazi Skua under me again after the tupperware stuff I have been paddling in the interim. I am so over the moon!

Ten Weeks in Oz !

2009-05-24T05:10:00.000-07:00

I want to try and give some news from our first ten weeks in Australia (it will be ten weeks on Tuesday, 26th May), but where do I even begin? In many ways it has been like a whirlwind, in the sense that it feels like things have been happening very fast, as well as a very real sense that much of it has been beyond our control. That is, having chosen to come over, and having crossed the Rubicon (read Indian Ocean), a lot of what has happened since has been happening as a direct consequence of that choice, for better or for worse. So far, it’s been, on the whole, for better.
For example, much of our time has been devoted to establishing an “identity” in Australia. We had to get the telephone, electricity and gas accounts for Unit 2 of 1 Swan Street transferred into our name. We have had to apply for bank accounts, for an Australian tax file number, and for driver’s licences. For my work, I have to get an Australian Police Clearance as well as what they call a “Working with Children” card (nobody can work with children in any way without that card). I also need to apply to become a Marriage Officer and write the test that goes with that.
The problem with many of these things is that when you apply they ask you for at least two and often three forms of identification. They always require a primary form if identification with a photo. Our passports qualify for that. After that, they may require an Australian Driver’s Licence and something with your signature (a bank card will suffice for the latter), and in most cases they will ask for some proof of residence such as a utility bill. Our problem when we first arrived was that we had nothing but our passports. We had to wait for our first utility bills to arrive, and we had to wait for our bank cards to arrive. After four weeks, we finally had enough to apply for driver’s licences, which I have done (Ann has not yet had a chance). As South African licences are not recognised, I had to write the learner’s test and then actually undergo a practical driver’s test, after all these years! At least I passed, so now I am an official ozzy driver :)
Once I had a driver’s licence, I had enough forms of ID to apply for Police Clearance , Working With Children, and Marriage Officer status, all little pieces of paper that are important aspects of being a minister in Oz.
In the mean time, I have done a good deal of travelling since arriving, preaching in Capel twice a month (about 25Km away), and Nannup once a month(60 Km away), and having started a new fellowship group in Dunnsborough (23 Km away) where the Uniting Church presence had basically died out – there is no actual Uniting Church building in that town, so we meet in a home there.
I made the trip to Perth and back four times in the first eight weeks in Oz. The first trip was to finalise a whole lot of paperwork at the Uniting Church Synod office, and meet briefly with the rest of the First Third team (more about them later). Ann and I drove up for that one. The second trip was when Wes Hartley took me up to watch an Australian Rules Football match (fondly known as “footy” and bearing no resemblance to rugby or to soccer or anything else know to civilised man for that matter. It is unique (apparently based on Celtic football), and the Aussies love it. Most people in Western Australia have hardly even heard of rugby, and when they do have rugby on TV, it is Rugby League not Rugby Union, and is just barely recognisable as a form of rugby. There are no rucks, no mauls, and all scrums are uncontested!) My next trip to Perth, I caught a bus up, then jumped on the Perth underground as far as the synod offices. From there I got a lift with Rick Morrell (First Third Co-ordinator) to Greenside United to attend the induction of Jeff and Denise Savage, the other two First Third Team members. Denise, Jeff and I are all designated as “First Third Specialists”. Sounds larny, doesn’t it?  I promised to tell you more about that: First Third is a project of the Uniting Church of Western Australia, focusing on ministry to people aged 0-30. We are called to be resource people, equippers, consultants who will seek out ways of establishing, facilitating and resourcing new forms of ministry that will be relevant and effective for people in their “first third” of life. Sounds amazing, doesn’t it? It’s all very experimental at this stage, and we are working out the details as we go along in terms of what that all actually means and entails, but it is tremendously exciting for me that the church has had the insight to approve this project. Of course, to be introduced as the “First Third specialist specially brought in from South Africa” doesn’t do my ego any harm!!
My last trip to Perth was for Presbytery meetings over a weekend, and Ann took the girls shopping at Harbour Market (a mall apparently full of factory outlet shops) while I sat in the usual boring meetings that the institutional church structures are so good at.
All four of us have done a little bit of fishing off the beach, and Carla and I have been out on a kayak a few times. Kristin has started going to a social dancing group, where kids aged 11-14 learn ballroom and other dances together. She seems to be having a “ball” .
Ann has recently started working part time doing home care for an elderly couple, which is right up her street. She has also started to form what I can only call pastoral relationships with some of the elderly and particularly the lonelier ones. She visits them for tea, generally just chats, listens and encourages them. They love her to bits!
Well, that’s the greatest part of our news for now. It’s been an adventure, and promises to continue to be so!

God bless,

Brenton

The other side...

2009-03-26T16:01:00.000-07:00

We are here! We have been in Oz just over a week now. The girls started school on Monday and while it is a huge adjustment they are coping well. I do not yet have my own internet access which is why I have not posted on this blog much, but more news will follow. Thanks for all the prayers!

It's starting to rain...

2009-03-12T07:46:00.001-07:00

Yes, the flood is coming for Noah! Abraham is all packed up and ready to leave Ur... Joshua is standing on the banks of the Jordan, contemplating the flood waters, gaze firmly fixed on the new land beyond...
In plain English: THE PRIGGE FAMILY HAVE VISAS!!!
More than that- we have tickets to fly. It's not quite Noah's ark, but Qantas will do just fine, thanks(actually it's SAA flying under the Qantas banner).
We picked up our passports from the Australian High Commission in Pretoria this morning at 08h30. The moment we had them in our hands, and having checked them twice and thrice over, we gave Wes a call, and within the hour he had booked our flights.
We leave on Monday 17h50 (SA time) and land in Perth Tuesday 10h25 (WA time), which makes the flight 9 hours and 35 minutes long. Not bad for an 8,320 Km trip...
Four more sleeps :)

No Key

2009-03-03T22:50:00.000-08:00

I don’t own any keys!!

The realisation hit me a couple of days ago. I have no keys. No house key, no car key, no office key, no boat-shed key – no keys at all.
For the first time since I left home to go to university at the age of 18, I do not have a single key to my name.
“So what?” you may well ask. What does the lack of keys signify? Well, I’ll tell you, because I’ve been giving this some thought. A key signifies independence. It is profoundly significant – just look at the western cultural ritual of “handing over the key” at a 21st birthday, the very birthday such cultures refer to as “coming of age”. From that moment on the individual is considered to be an adult who is deemed responsible for themselves. Parents and guardians are no longer responsible for them. They are independent members of society, with all the responsibilities that go with that. They may come and go as they please, hence the key.
My lack of keys right now is therefore profoundly indicative of a period in my life where I have, in effect, surrendered my independence (and that of my family) on all manner of levels. With no home of our own, we are highly blessed by the hospitality of Rob (my father) and Val, but at the same time that makes us dependant on them. Their daily routine, their life style, their furniture, everything about this house that they have made into a “home” for them – by the very act of making it their home, it follows that it is not ours. Our lack of a car makes us even more dependent on them.

So the lack of keys just reminded me once again that God has led us into a position where we are utterly dependant – to some degree that dependence lies in the care and hospitality of loved ones right now, but ultimately we are entirely dependant on God. We are trusting Him for so much. We are trusting that it indeed God who has led us here, and that if He has led us here, He will lead us beyond this place. Therefore we are trusting Him for this visa that we are waiting for. We are trusting Him to take us on to our next home and all those other “daily bread” needs – all those very things that will result in new keys jangling in our pockets.

God has spoken to me through so many people in so many ways during this time of waiting. Yesterday the local minister here in Krugersdorp spoke of the desert temptation of Jesus. He asked the question: Why would the God who had just expressed his love for Jesus in such a powerful way at his baptism follow this up by leading him into the desert for 40 days? There are many ways of answering that of course, but the point he made that had impact for me was the point that when Jesus quoted scriptures in response to temptations, the power of those scriptures were not aimed at the tempter as some sort of magic weapon, like shooting silver bullets at a werewolf or splashing holy water on a vampire - no, the power of those scriptures lay in their value for Jesus himself. He was not quoting them at the tempter; he was quoting them at himself. They were affirmations of his own trust in the One who loved him so utterly, completely and unconditionally, and affirmations of his complete and uncompromising reliance on that Love - nothing else on offer could compete.

So here I am - with my whole family - in the desert, without keys. We are convinced that God has led us here, but believe me, it is not a pleasant place to be! So why would the God who loves us so much place us in this position? Again, there are so many different answers one could give to that question, but in the midst of everything there is definitely a question being asked of us right now: You say you trust me, well that’s easy to say when you have all you need and from the comfort and security that you enjoy in such times. What about when those things are no longer there – when there’s no longer a safety net? Do you still trust? Do you still believe that I love you - unconditionally? Is that love enough for you when you are stripped of all else?

Pray for us, that no matter how hard it seems, no matter how weak we sometimes get as the waiting and the doubts threaten to wear down our reserves, that the answer will always remain: "Yes, Lord. We trust. Thank you for your love that never fails."

Back to school

2009-02-26T22:43:00.000-08:00

Carla and Kristin have never left South African soil. They have never set foot in Australia, and have never been anywhere near Busselton. They have certainly never even laid eyes on Georgiana Molloy Anglican School, which is the school they are due to attend in Oz.
Nevertheless, this week saw the girls "back to school". Not quite "back to reality" - in truth it all seems quite surreal - but this week the girls received by email some of the work that their future class-mates are contending with right now in Busselton, and every day for the last five days Carla and Kristin spent a good few hours slogging away at it. It's hard to say whether or not they are enirely thrilled about this development, but I must say they have both impressed me with the dilligence they have shown towards it. Truth be told, I think they have both found it a welcome relief from the boredom of waiting, waiting, waiting...
And yes, we are still waiting. It is proving to be an education for all of us!
As an aside, I must say that it was wonderful to get a phone call from Len Faulkner this week - Len is a parishioner from Busselton - who simply called to say that he was thinking of us during our time of waiting. Once again - to all who continue to support us in prayer and encouragement - it is deeply, profoundly appreciated.

Call me Noah

2009-02-21T04:21:00.000-08:00

Another week down, and before you ask: No, no visa yet.
I am reminded of Noah. It was a big enough step of faith to even build the ark in the first place. Another step to gather all the animals on board. One more step to round up his family, leave the house, and take up residence in the ark itself. But the biggest test of his faith, and that of the aforesaid family? Waiting... waiting for the rain. Have we done the right thing? Did we hear God right? Lord, we’re looking a bit foolish here in the dry heat, er…. about that flood.
Yes, waiting can be the hardest part. We've done all we can do. We continue to trust that we have heard God correctly in all of this. So we wait.

To take our minds off the waiting a little bit, we decided to go looking for the animals. That is, we decided to take one last trip into the South African bushveldt, and headed off to the Pilanesberg Game Reserve on Monday. We could not get accommodation in the actual reserve so ended up staying just outside the reserve, at the Sun City time share complex known as the Vacation Club. It was not quite the bushveldt experience we love so much and had hoped for, but it served well enough as a staging post for expeditions into the reserve. On the Tuesday (17th), Kristin officially became a teenager. Speaking as Dad, I cannot believe my littlest girl is 13, but facts are facts.

All said and done, it was a wonderful break. Thanks, Dad and Val, for the loan of the Prado (travelling in style!) and to Pat and Richard for letting us use the time share points.

Thanks also to Wes for his continued liaison with the powers that be in Australia, who continue to assure us (through Wes) that the visa process is still underway and that it really is just a matter of patience as we allow the process to continue its course.

One last piece of trivia for your entertainment: I have not shaved since we left for the Pilanesberg on Monday, and have since decided not to shave again until we have a definite reply on our visa application. If this serves no other purpose I am encouraged by the fact that it has considerably boosted the passion with which Ann and the girls are praying for this visa to come – and soon!

The "Australia Thing" - a tale of 2 Oceans

2009-02-07T01:12:00.000-08:00

“You are going WHERE? But WHY??“

Many have asked us to “please explain” ! How is it that this little Prigge family has come to this? Why would we possibly consider uprooting ourselves, getting rid of almost all our earthly possessions, and starting all over again in the “Land down under”?

Well, it’s a tale worth the telling, and the story begins about four years ago, when an Australian colleague named Wes Hartley began to correspond with me after coming across the hymns I was writing and posting on my web-site. Wes has his own electronic ministry in which he sends out a complete order of service with a sermon every week – ideal for churches who have no ministers, but also an excellent resource for ministers like myself who sometimes need an idea or a spark to “kick start” our own creative processes. Anyway, in July 2006, Wes sent me an email that included the following lines:

I am reluctant to suggest it to you - but have you ever contemplated emigrating? I know in the "old" days - pre-1994 - "PFP" - on the luggage usually meant "Packed For Perth". We have several South African Ministers in Australia, including several in the West Australian Synod.

I must admit that at the time I hardly gave it a thought before saying, “no thanks!”
Soon after that we moved to Cape Town and I forgot all about it. However, I don’t think Wes ever quite abandoned the idea, and by January 2008 he convinced me to at least fill in the ministry profile form and submit it to the Secretary of the Synod of the Uniting Church of Western Australia. I discussed it with Ann, and we both eventually agreed to take at least that step and to begin praying about it. “Let’s just see what God will do with this,” we said.
I submitted those forms in January, and then basically never heard another word until about June. I had it in the back of my mind that somewhere before the end of 2008, I would get an invitation to come over around the start of 2010, and then I would have some time to think it over and pray about it and consider my options. An unexpected phone call in June 2008 changed everything.

A number of situations had converged to bring my profile into sharp focus.
a) Due to unforeseen family health issues, Margaret Hodge, who was working part time as Community Minister at the parish of Busselton (where Wes Hartley is the resident minister) decided to retire.
b) Wes Hartley’s church leadership were growing more and more concerned about the fact that (as the mayor of his town!!!!) even working 90 hour weeks, he was not coping with the pastoral work load, and suggested upgrading to a second ordained minister.
c) The Synod of the Uniting Church of Western Australia agreed to launch a project called the “First Thirds Ministry” – in essence the project will employ ministers to focus on ministry to people in the “First thirds” of their lives (0-30) in an attempt to revive that sector of church membership in an ever-shrinking and aging denomination.
d) Wes Hartley and the parish of Busselton saw their chance and jumped – they applied to be a guinea-pig church to host the project, and Wes suggested that they would need a “young” minister with new ideas, a passion for youth work, and preferably some musical ability. That’s when they phoned me, and said, “Providing everything falls into place, and we can satisfy all the relevant people that this can work, how would you feel about starting in January 2009?” It took a moment for the realisation to sink in that 2009 was less than six months away, but along with the shock came a real sense of excitement about the sound of the project; not to mention rather flattered that they were looking at me and saying “this looks like the best guy for the job”.

A lot of red tape had to be cut on the way. A committee from the Synod sat down with the leaders of Busselton on Thursday, 2nd October, to evaluate whether Busselton really can support two ministers and whether the work load there justifies it. I had a telephone interview with the Placements Committee, and their job was to assess whether my profile does match the profile of the envisaged position at Busselton. Another committee had to decide whether Busselton will be allowed to host the pilot project for the “First Thirds” scheme, and whether I was the right person to be the minister with that portfolio. Only then would we face the final hurdle – the visa.

Through, it all, Wes Hartley was full of confidence about the process – enough so that he and Beverley personally paid up front for our tickets to go and see Busselton and get a sense of the place and the ministry and meet the people – long before we had any definite indication that we would indeed be offered a firm invitation to minister there.

Please understand that by this point Ann and I were still a long way from having any certainty about this whole “Australia thing”, but after much prayer and discussion, and having had some good soul searching conversations with wise friends, Ann and I basically adopted an approach in which we placed the ball in God’s Court. Our mantra became: “It’s in God’s hands.”
You see, there seemed to be so many hurdles between that point and some dimly envisaged day about six months later when we would actually board a plane with visa-loaded passports. To our human eyes, it all looked rather daunting, and the idea that it could all come together in time for an early 2009 start in Australia just seemed nigh on impossible. So we prayed like this: “Lord, this move seems more and more to be genuinely something that you are guiding us into, but we’re not 100% sure. So if this is wrong in any way, all you have to do is close the door at any one of those hurdles (how’s that for a mixed metaphor!). It is beginning to feel “right”, and even though we at first baulked at the very idea of leaving our beautiful country, the opportunity and potential for ministry that you seem to be offering us is beginning to fill us with excitement. BUT… Your will be done. If it is right, show us by overcoming every obstacle, whether it be constructed of red tape or some other equally fearsome substance.

In spite of our uncertainty, we were becoming keen to go, and began to view the whole “Australia thing” the way we are still viewing it now: an exciting opportunity and an epic adventure for us as a family, with the potential for ministry that would use my gifts (as well as Ann’s, as it turns out – but more about that later) more fully than they have thus far been used.

We began to feel then already what we now feel all the more acutely - we would be bitterly disappointed if it were to falls through at any point in the process - but if it did, we would then at least know that we had explored the possibility to the full, and that God has something else planned entirely.

When we travelled to Australia in mid October, we were full of hope that we would come back with a clear answer from the Placements Committee, and that we could at least begin the process of sharing our plans with the people of Sea Point Methodist Church and preparing them for my possible departure. As it happened, we only received that answer on 9 December, seven weeks after our return from Busselton, and those seven weeks were a really difficult time of “limbo” for us. There was literally nothing for us to do but wait and see, nor could we talk openly about our plans. Then came the email assuring us that we had a definite position waiting for us at Busselton and in the First Thirds ministry, and the very next day we heard that the Uniting Church had been granted “Sponsor” status, which was stage one of the visa process which had been started at the end of October.
Stage 2 was for us to submit all our papers to the Cape Town Visa Office. The only problem with that was that we did not yet have all our papers. Home Affairs was proving to be a tough nut to crack. Papers that we had applied for in July were not yet forthcoming! We had begun a process of lodging queries at the Home Affairs Customer Services department, but were getting absolutely nowhere fast. By the time Home Affairs closed for Christmas, we had no progress getting the papers we needed.

After my Christmas service at Sea Point Methodist Church, I flew to Jo’burg to spend what was potentially my last Christmas in South Africa with as many of my family as possible. Dad and Val were the hosts in their lovely new home in Protea Ridge, and among the guests were my brother Tim, his wife Andrea and their three boys, Cameron, Ryan and Benjamin, as well as my youngest brother, Terry, and his wife Cynde. Also there were Pat and Richard, Val’s sister and her husband, and when I shared my sorry tale of “The Impenetrable Fortress of Home Affairs”, Pat mentioned that she had come across a very helpful individual at the Krugersdorp office of Home Affairs. What did I have to lose? Without much optimism, I went with Pat to meet this individual, who immediately confirmed my suspicions: “I can’t help you”. But then (against all policy) she gave us a direct number of a man in the head office in Pretoria. It took some effort to get through, but when I did, he took down all our ID numbers and told me to call him back in four days. Eveybody else, especially the Customer Relations department had been adamant that we should never call within 3 weeks of a previous call! Bearing in mind that a public holiday (New Year’s Day) was looming in between, I did not expect much. You could have bowled me over with a feather when I called him back on Friday 2nd January to be told “All your documents are waiting for you in the Cape Town office”!

We were able to lodge our documents at the Visa office by the 7th of January, underwent medical examinations by the 9th, and are now awaiting the final outcome of the visa. Once again we are in a state of limbo. Both Ann and I have finished up at our previous appointments, we have sold the car and all our furniture, moved out of the manse at Sea Point Methodist Church, and as of 1st February have been staying with Dad and Val as we await the visas.

We have left the cold Atlantic Ocean at Sea Point, but are not yet at the Australian side of the warm Indian. We pray and expect to hear news of the visa by mid February. It is important for us that the girls don’t miss too much school, especially as they will be entering an entirely new educational system, so from that aspect alone we are anxious to get over as soon as possible. More than ever before, we are in God’s hands.

Here we go

2009-02-01T08:34:00.000-08:00

At 07h30 this morning, 1 February 2009, we said goodbye to Cape Town. As our plane left the ground we got one last view of Table Mountain, and embarked on the first leg of a journey that promises to be a life changing adventure. Behind us, the bridges are burning. Until our visa comes through and we actually land in Australia, this branch of the Prigge family are now officially unemployed and homeless. Thank goodness for family, and for the fact that Dad and Val have plenty of room for us... and big enough hearts to put up with us for what we hope will only be two or three weeks at most. The top photo is a view over their lovely pool, and below we enjoy the hospitality of their table.
To all our friends in Sea Point and the fairest Cape - thanks for everything. We will certainly miss you. Keep praying for us, as we pray for you.

Right now, all we can do is wait and pray and hope and trust. We do not yet have the final visa clearance but we expect it in the next week or two. God has been so good to us and has openedevery door - including a few really tough Home Affairs doors! It's all in His hands for this last hurdle.

A sea change

2009-01-29T16:01:00.001-08:00

Soon now, very soon, we will leave this Atlantic and dawdle in the Highveldt for a couple of weeks, whence we hope to take an epic journey and settle on the far side of the sea (a biblical place alluded to in Psalm 139) where the Indian Ocean meets the pleasant shores of Western Australia. Destination: Busselton, Geographe Bay. Pray for us.