Matt Schmucker and I arrived in Pietermaritzberg, South Africa yesterday morning. Today we begin the first of two 9Marks pastors conferences--one this week and one next week. I'll try to post several times along the way. Just to get the ball rolling, here are some stats on South Africa that have struck me:

• S.A. has eleven official languages.
• S.A. has the fourth highest per capital income in Africa, but suffers from some of the highest income gaps in the world. In 2000, the average white household makes 6 times as much as the average black household.
• According to Wikipedia, 31 percent of pregnant woman are HIV infected and the infection rate among adults is estimated at 20 percent. This has resulted in many "AIDS orphans."
• Also, there are an estimated 1,200,000 ophans in South Africa (whose total population is est. 43,700,000). According to several conversations yesterday, that number is closer to 2 million orphans.
• Due to the government's present affirmative action policies, many Whites are now emigrating out of South Africa (according to one article in the Economist, there's been a brain drain among both educated Whites and  Blacks.) It's fairly clear that ethnic tensions are one of the most significant factors of life in this country. Just about every conversation we've had so far has focused on this topic.
• The murder rate is 900 percent of the murder rate in the U.S.
• Food prices are up 30 percent since January of this year.
• 79.7 percent of the country is officially registered as "Christian," but our hosts suggest that that's about as meaningful as "Lutheran" is in Germany. Apparently, very few are born again.

Matt and I would be grateful for your prayers. Registration for the first conference begins in fifteen minutes!

(This week, the conference will consist mostly of urban evangelicals. Next week's, apparently, will be for African Independent Church pastors who don't consider themselves evangelical.)