SIM SA Publications

There have been several issues of SIM South Africa’s magazine SIMnow that I produced but never posted here. I’m going to post them now to celebrate what God has been doing through the ministry He has continued to entrust to us throughout these many years. This post was actually published Aug. 22, 2023, but I’ve dated it by the magazine issue’s publication for the sake of issue order.

Early 2021 was a season of transition for me and for SIM South Africa. Whereas I had been working on SIMnow as a consultant on loan from the Southern Africa regional office, I was invited back to form and head the newly reestablished communications team for the South Africa country office. Before I could do that, though, I was required to take a home assignment. Between those factors and SIM SA having a new director coming on board, we decided to skip the Winter (June) 2021 issue and go straight to this Summer (December) 2021 one.

Articles included:

• introducing the new SIM South Africa country director and his vision for changes;
• unveiling a new strategy for ministries and evangelism, which included selling our existing office and relocating to another part of the country (this gave me a chance to use some beautiful photos I had taken in that region years before);
• a Peruvian worker talking about God showing His faithfulness even amidst unrest both in the community she serves in South Africa and in her home country;
• some lingering effects of COVID on ministry and on international travel;
• a missionary sharing how her cross-cultural service had caused her to rethink how she defined herself;
• a Books feature that Tracy quickly contributed to help when the original writer fell through;
• me writing the “Food from Afar” cross-cultural culinary feature about learning to make biltong (a South African preserved meat snack) and then sharing it as an icebreaker with people there and here in the US

Photos again had to rely heavily on stock images and old material from my archives (I was grateful to still have so many good options), but colleagues helped by providing their own photos, too.

This was a satisfying issue to produce, both for how it turned out and because it was my first one officially, fully back on the South Africa team as a member instead of as a guest consultant. Two years later, I’m still very grateful and glad to be in this role for another term.

You can read or download the magazine at SIM South Africa’s website.