Showers

The rest of my time in Africa was spent in Uganda this year. Though the rest of the team had gone separate ways when I went to Kenya, Hazel Bech rejoined me in Kampala, Uganda and we taught a class of pastors and leaders using the training program we'd been using the past few years in Tanzania. It was really well received, and I feel confident that a number of those leaders are going to apply what they learned to make a real difference in their communities.

I think the thing that really made the biggest impression upon me in Uganda was the running hot water. The event was held in a hotel, and we were given nice rooms that had hot running water. I took hot showers every morning and felt like I was close to heaven! It's amazing how many things we in the west take for granted, but then when we go without these conveniences for awhile we realise what a real blessing they are!

I've had lots of different kinds of showers out on the mission field. Sometimes I get the pleasure of running water, but it's ice-cold. In those cases, especially when the weather's already chilly outside, I just jump in under the water and try to keep myself from screaming. After I survive the initial shock without a heart-attack, my body adjusts somewhat to the chill and I get about my business...but I do it quickly.

Another common experience is the bucket and bar of soap. Sometimes I am sent to a small square room with a bucket of water and my soap and told to go at it. The first time I went into such a situation, I looked at the little bucket and asked myself, "Now how do they expect me to get inside that little bucket?" But then in time I realised the idea was that I was meant to pour the water over my head. In time I started carrying a small plastic cup with me on these travels so that I could pour small amo

More about Africa...

When I speak to Americans and Europeans, most seem to have very specific assumptions about Africa and African people. Many assume that all Africans live in extreme poverty and are always being chased by snakes. However, the truth is that the great continent of Africa contains many different worlds, some of them only miles away from each other.

In August, I spoke at a conference in Nairobi, Kenya at Africa Nazarene University. The experience was so different from the work I'm used to doing in the rural African villages that I almost forgot sometimes that I was in Africa at all. We had power-point presentations and modern music, and many of the people I worked with seemed like they came from an entirely different place than many of those with whom I was accustomed to working.

After long days of plenary sessons and workshops, I also spent time with the university students who attended the conference. Large groups of us would crowd into one of the dorms and talk about God and life, and the conversations sounded to me like the same kind of conversations you might expect to have in London or Los Angeles. They talked about the same television shows and movies, and the girls even wore blue jeans instead of traditional African dresses.

One young Kenyan lady told me she thinks God may be calling her to be a missionary but that she's not sure how she would handle living in difficult conditions. "I went on a mission trip to one of the villages on the border once," she told me, "and it was really difficult. There was no electricity and no running water. I mean, I'm used to being somewhere where I can just plug in my laptop!"

It was really quite an eye-opener to realise how much some of the cities in Africa have become so similar to the West whilst in other parts of the same countries people still live with their ancient traditions and cannot even imagine how their neighbours live. This jounral entry is not meant to be a critique of either situation but simply an observation. We live in an interesting, ever-changing world.

World Aids Day

I stood there in the middle of Africa with a child in my arms, and I wondered how many Christians in the West would condemn him to death in the name of politics or religion. As we have been approaching World Aids Day, I have been listening to the voices of many American evangelicals and come to realise that there are an unfortunate many who would indeed do so.

The beautiful child of whom I'm thinking had a big smile on his face. He had just finished playing Frisbee with one of our team members and then had been chasing me around the compound until I let him catch me. Then I picked him up in my arms. As I looked at him and his bright smile, I couldn’t help but to wonder what his future will be like. Will he accomplish great things? Will he marry and have children? Or will he even live to be an adult?

In many East African countries the percentage of people who are HIV positive is staggering. I have held the hands of many children who will not reach adulthood because of this terrible disease. And yet I keep hearing people speak with contempt about the AIDs situation. Some say that AIDs is God’s judgement upon homosexuals and that it is therefore in some way deserved. Others say that it is a problem always brought on by some kind of immorality and therefore not worthy of our compassion.

As I held the child in my arms, I wondered how we could ever have reached a place where we could turn a blind eye to the suffering masses in the name of “justice.” When we do so, we fail justice miserably and instead become collaborators with the worst kind of evil.

And in case some people are thinking that the standard is different in Africa somehow than it is in Europe and America, let me also mention that I’ve held a lot of hands in America as well. There are somewhere around a million people here in the USA who are HIV positive. Those statistics may not be nearly as high as in such places as Africa, but they are still disturbing. And these statistics cut into every walk of life. Some people think AIDs is a homosexual disease and that everyone who has it lives a gay lifestyle. This would appear to be very far from the truth however. According to the UNAIDS Report on the Global HIV/AIDs Epidemic: December 2001, as many as 80 percent of people diagnosed as HIV positive are heterosexual, and statistics are also quite clear in pointing out that a significant number of those who are HIV positive have been infected by their marriage partners or their parents. There is no one specific group of people who is alone infected by this disease. However, even if there were we would still have no right as Christians to deny compassion to its victims.

We need to be reminded that there is no such thing as an innocent person, so when we dismiss people as simply “deserving” of this disease we take a moral position that is very dangerous indeed. We make ourselves judges and juries of mankind when we ourselves are judged by Scripture as all being guilty of sin. “There is none who is righteous…no, not one” (Romans 3:10), “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” (Romans 3:23). If it were not for God’s mercy, none of us would stand. The only hope any of us has is to turn to God and accept the gift of His grace. This is a gift that Christianity teaches is available to all people, regardless of who they are.

It seems to me that many of the people who turn a blind eye to the AIDs crisis are people who disguise their bigotry towards certain people groups under a banner of religion or politics. Many who are of certain political persuasions, for example, automatically dismiss homosexuals as being less worthy of God’s grace than other people even though the Bible makes no such distinction. And if they see someone whom they know has been infected by this dreaded disease, they put a label on the person and turn away.

But here is the truth…The truth is that if we are truly to be Christ-like, we need to learn to take people like this African child in our arms and show them love and compassion regardless of where they come from, what they look like, or how they have lived. And here’s the shocking truth…even right here in America or Europe, you may not have to look across the sea to Africa to find someone who needs to be embraced with God’s love as he or she faces this terrible disease. You may only have to look across the street or even across the room.

How will you respond to the AIDs crisis? Will you respond with Christ-like love and compassion? Or will you simply walk away?

Lots of shoes

I have a lot more shoes now than I did a week ago! Why? Because I went to León, Guanajuato!

León, Guanajuato, the fifth largest city in Mexico, is also known as the Shoe Capital, and not without reason! The city features large factories that not only produce shoes, but also boots, belts, jackets, and other leather accessories, serving both national and international markets. People go to León from all over Mexico to buy shoes and other leather goods, and there is even a large indoor shopping mall that is ALL shoe stores! For anyone obsessed with shopping for shoes, León would probably be their idea of heaven. Imelda Marcos, for example, would probably become a Christian if she thought it might get her to Leon.

Of course, I wasn't there just for the shoes. I was there to preach at the First Church of the Nazarene in León. My friend, Daniel Cordoba had been the pastor there previously until his death last year, and interestingly enough another friend of mine, Leonardo Peralta, is now pastoring that church. We had a great week, as a number of people came to faith in Christ, and lots of amazing things happened in people's lives.

The most amazing thing, however, was the opportunity this visit gave me to see the continuing fruit of previous visits. I got to meet with people who had really been impacted by what God had done in their lives in previous visits, and it was amazing to hear their stories about how those visits had lasting impacts on their lives. One woman remembered in detail a sermon I preached a few years ago that impacted her life amazingly. As she told me about the sermon, I didn't at first even remember ever having said the things she repeated to me, but once she finished I not only remembered that I had said them, I even remembered the occasion. After that particular sermon, I had felt like I had done a terrible job and accomplished nothing. Hearing her tell me how the things that I only said that once had changed her life reminded me that we never really know what kind of impact our words might have upon the people we meet.

Also while I was there, however, I got showered with gifts. Among them were 4 pairs of really nice leather shoes and a really nice leather jacket. I actually had to get an extra bag to put the gifts in! It was great! The people in León are so kind and generous. I look forward to going back again one of these days...but of course not just for the shoes. :-)

The cross-dressing drunk

One thing that I really love about the work that I do is that I get to meet many different kinds of colourful characters. Recently, in Africa I met a very interesting cross-dressing drunk.

Now, of course, in some parts of the world such a sight might seem a bit more common, but in the rural villages of Africa it seemed very surreal. A crowd had gathered to hear us share the message of God's love for the village, and while I waited to go up and speak a series of local choirs were singing. As they were singing, at one point a very exuberant drunk man joined one of the choirs and started dancing. The people obviously knew him and simply laughed good-naturedly.

After doing a bit of a dance, he came up to all of the team members and shook our hands with a great big smile on his face. Then he dance a bit more and left. "Where'd he go?" somebody asked. We guessed that he must have gone away and that we probably would see no more of him that day.

However, 15 minutes later he showed up again. Only now, he had changed into an elaborate African dress. He had a handbag under his arm and was holding a large parasol over his head. He walked right through the crowd, came to us and shook our hands. As he shook our hands this time, he curtsied in exactly the way Tanzanian women always curtsy. Then he sat down with the women and listened quietly throughout the sermon.

I would have loved to have found out his story. He was very different from anybody else I'd ever met in the heart of Africa.

The witch doctor in Tanzania

Right...I promised ages ago that I would tell more stories of Africa. I now ALSO have stories to tell of India, as well as lots of other interesting things that have happened lately, but I've managed to get myself so busy that I haven't kept up on my journal. That has become a habit lately...but once again I have decided to try to write more often. I will begin with the story of the witch doctor in Tanzania...

At one location where we were sharing the message of Christ's love with a community in Tanzania in August, there was a large crowd gathered to listen. As the local African choirs sang and danced, suddenly a man in a long robe walked into the middle of the crowd. Many of the people started to get very nervous, and they moved away from him. For a moment, we thought we were going to lose the crowd.

Who was this man? We found out that he was the local witch doctor. He didn't like what we were doing, so he had come to try to intimidate the crowd and keep anybody from responding to our message. According to what I was told, he was a very powerful magician and a very dangerous man to anyone who called themselves his enemy.

A strange thing started to happen as the man stood there. Not only did the attitude of the whole crowd start to change, all of us on the team started getting overwhelmingly sleepy as the man stood there and stared. Was this some kind of curse? Some kind of magic? I wasn't sure, but I knew I had to take action just in case (and before we all fell asleep!).

I went up on the platform to preach and started praying out loud. I said, "I am a child of God, and I claim the authority of Jesus Christ who lives in me as I bind any evil spirits in this place and command them to leave in Jesus' name." Then I continued to pray for the people before I preached, but as soon as I had said this the witch doctor walked away. We never saw him again, and a lot of people came to Christ. The new church planted in that village is moving along well.

the first two weeks in Africa...

In my first two weeks back in Africa, I met a lot of interesting people, including a witch-doctor and a cross-dressing drunk. In addition to 500 people coming to Christ and two new churches being succesfully launched, I also had the privilege of seeing, however, that a lot of good things have been happening as a result of the training that we have been offering the pastors and leaders in Tanzania over the past few years. Currently, about 50 acres of land are under cultivation in the villages, with food being made available for the people in self-sufficient projects the people can maintain themselves. Also, 68 orphans are being taken care of directly and another 25 indirectly. Also 32 widows are being taken care of by the churches due to all these self-sustaining projects. In most cases the orphans are being put together with the widows, thus creating new family units.

Each church is doing something a bit different, something specific to the needs and cultures of their villages. There have also been a large number of projects started, each one particular to the community. In one case, a church has started raising chickens, some for meat and others for eggs, and they are using some to feed orphans and others to sell and generate further income for ministry in the community. Another community has planted maize and, due to a bumper harvest this year, they were able to feed the whole village with plenty left over to sell.

One village is growing a vast quantity of baby trees, which are being sold to people in the community at a small price, thus giving them the ability to submit to a recent Tanzanian law requiring every landowner to plant a tree. The projects are many and varied, and each one is serving the goal of helping the community and also operating as a self-sufficient ministry project with no needs of continuous funds from outside. In a number of cases, the whole villages are getting involved in these projects, and the word is spreading as people are now saying, "Look now how these Christians love." These projects are relatively new but already a great deal is happening through them. We're looking forward to seeing what happens as these works continue to grow.

I also spoke at a conference in Nairobi this weekend, and as a result of this conference a door may be opening to spread these kinds of projects all over Africa. If that works out, it could really have an impact on a lot of communities all across the continent! In addition to that, also as a result of this conference I just spoke at, another project is in the workings that may go international very soon. A lot of exciting things are happening!!!

At the moment though, I've got a few days off before going to Uganda and training pastors and leaders there. I'm also tired and hungry, so I'm going to go get me some food now. The stories about the cross-dressing drunk and the witch-doctor will have to wait for now, but I'll try to get to them before too long...

(note: the above entry was written on August 23rd, but due to technical problems it was only possible to post it today)