Joining Hands welcomes new Companionship Facilitator

by Susan Vlcek, South Africa Mission Partnership member

Joining Hands partners in South Africa and Lesotho will soon welcome our new Companionship Facilitator, Bridgette Hector, as she begins her mission service there later this May. For her and the members of the Western Reserve South Africa Mission Partnership team (SAMP) to get to know each other before she sets off for Africa, Bridgette recently visited the Cleveland area.

An Introduction

Bridgette shared with us that she had felt her calling to ministry and mission just one year after completing her bachelor's degree in finance at Howard University.

God filled her with the message from Isaiah 61:1-3, which affirmed her call to "preach the good news to the poor, bind up the brokenhearted, and proclaim freedom for the captives." She is anxious to see how God will reveal this calling to her over the next three years.

During her seminary studies at The Interdenominational Theological Seminary in Atlanta, Bridgette opened herself to numerous ministry and study opportunities at home and abroad. Inner-city youth work as well as mission and study tours to Europe, Asia and Africa transformed her and awakened a calling to better understand justice in a theological context. Over the years, Bridgette’s experiences in Africa have included twelve weeks with seminarians, pastors and professors in Ethiopia and a partnership between African-American and African seminarians in Kenya.

Bridgette also holds a Masters of Divinity, an MA in Christian Education, and is an ordained pastor in the PCUSA. Most recently she has served as the Chaplain of Women’s Services at an Atlanta hospital, caring for women who have suffered profound loss. She often found herself serving women whose babies had died.

New and Renewed Connections

This Companionship Facilitator position was vacated nearly two years ago at the end of Susanne Carter and Ken Jones’ term. At that time, Lesotho CF, Cindy Easterday, graciously agreed to additionally serve as an interim liaison with the South African network while the PCUSA looked for the funding necessary to fill the position. Eventually our Church had to resort to combining the two positions because funds could not be found to carry both. Cindy completed her call to both networks in the summer of 2008. After this successful “trial union,” it was decided to combine these two CF positions.

One of Bridgette’s challenges will be to further define this role as she feels led by God and her partners in both countries. Bridgette told us she “intends to do a lot of listening and understanding” as she spends her first weeks and months in the role.

Sending off

During the visit, the members from SAMP commissioned Bridgette with a laying on of hands. She will soon travel to California to also meet with the Lesotho Joining Hands partners of Los Ranchos Prebytery.

Lionel Derenoncourt will accompany Bridgette as she moves into her new role. There are plans for them to attend a joint meeting of South Africa’s Sisonke Masilwe Indlala network and Lesotho’s Kopano Ke Matla network in order to more clearly define this new relationship.

In July, SAMP is sending five travelers, led by Ken Jones and Suzanne Carter, to South Africa. Our new Companionship Facilitator will be accompanying the group as they cross the country meeting the Joining Hands network partners.

Transitions

“Transition” applies to many aspects of this new role. Bridgette will be leaving behind two young women, Courtney and Rosie, whom she has welcomed into her life and accepted as daughters. Courtney has completed her education and enlisted for military duty, while Rosie will finish her bachelor’s degree shortly before Bridgette leaves for Africa.

South Africa is also going through great transition. Presidential elections are looming, the face of the political parties is changing, and there is much uncertainty. Sisonke partner Phillemon Talane shares that “we are in election fever and excitement is very high, just like the first general election in 1994. However, there are serious problems we are witnessing; … votes are being bought with food parcels and low-cost housing being built in a week.”

Accompaniment with prayers

Yes, it is a time of transition for Bridgette, for the Lesotho and South African partner networks, and for the countries themselves. She asks for our prayers for her family and friends, particularly her parents and daughter Rosie, who are struggling with this transition. May all of us lift all of them in faith, in hope, and most deeply in the Love that always sustains.