Amahoro – Johannesburg, South Africa

I am sitting in my room at the YFC camp in Johanesburg, SA. It’s the end of the day (midnight in fact) on the first full day of the Amohoro conference and I am almost lost for words as to how to reflect upon the experience. In case you’re wondering, we have 2 wireless routers on site and I am able to access one in my room which is great because I didn’t expect to have the luxury of internet access while I was away.

I am sitting here staring at the screen wondering whether to launch into this so late in the night or not. I feel I need more time to be able to unpack so I’ll try and give a snapshot and overview of my first 24 hours here.

I am one of 5 Australians here at the conference. The other western countries represented are UK, USA and New Zealand. The rest of the people here are from Africa (large contingent of South Africans – mainly white African). I’ve made new friends from DR Congo, Zimbabwe, Kenya and Uganda among many others and but i particularly have an affection towards people from those countries because of the connections i have made back home.

The content of the conference so far is more than I could have imagined and no one could have predicted how powerful one of the sessions was. I listened to a black South African talk about the theology of redepmtive suffering (which I want to flesh out some more). I heard a theologian from the DR Congo talk about contextual theology (again another blog coming). Then I witnessed amazing history in the making when i attened a workshop on the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in South Africa. This is a story I really want to tell properly and well so watch out for this blog post coming soon. Tonight was Brian McLaren leading us into a new understanding of biblical narrative which was fresh and confronting.

The spiritual discipline and the theological engagement along with the amazing conversations is more than I could have imagined and I look forward to sharing more soon.

Shalom
Mark