Taking Heat Over The Mission!

"But when we rise up as the church of Jesus Christ and give ourselves urgently, sacrificially, and radically to taking the gospel of the kingdom to all those people groups, we can expect to be met with the might of hell. There will be divisions within us, distractions around us, diversions in front of us, deceptions tempting us, and disease and death threatening us. It will not be easy. And it will will cost. However, truly missional churches and truly missional Christians will set their sights on the world, and they will overcome the Adversary 'by the blood of the lamb and by the word of their testimony' because they do 'not love their lives so much as to shrink back from death."
(Radical Together. David Platt, Multnoma, 2011,pg 89)


AJR The Roaming Nomad

Such a Hip Cool Big Church - At Least to our North American eyes!

Our Church through an Africans Eyes.  This church is meeting all measurements of success by our standards. Big budget, Big new sanctuary, new style music, and a kinda cool pastor too.

Not criticizing them. More power to them and the people they gather. But it all leaves me wanting more. Much more. And it seems Like African's think so as well. I have heard them say this many times myself.
So let's hear our Brother speak, and try not to get angry with me, or questioning my attitude, just because I shared it.
A Friend of mine share this with us in her journal. (shared with permission)

"Friday, Wassi, a Beninois guy i met at the language and culture discussion group at the university on Wednesday, called me. He was wanting to do something this weekend.  So I told him our program for the weekend and he said that he'd like to go to church with us.  I told him i didn't go to the official "service"  but then decided that i probably should go with him, instead of making him sit through two Sunday school classes or go by  himself  with Austin.  I had been thinking of trying it again anyway and thought that today was as good of an excuse as any to see if i am missing something i should be a part of.

This morning i went to pick Wassi up, leaving Damon and Austin at home because they weren't ready.  (And they say it's the girls that take too long!)  It made my heart smile when i pulled into his parking lot and there was his black face, dressed in his Sunday best with the pointy black shoes smelling all like powder and soap and cologne.  Then he got into my car and said "Bonjour soeur" and it just made me want to grab him and give him a big old hug.  I contained myself and didn't tackle him but replied "Bonjour frère" and we went from there, but i sure was happy.  We all chatted in French all of the way to church while Kate kept saying "Can you just talk American PLEASE?!"  It was a really odd feeling.  We've given zillions of rides to Africans where we all sit around in the car speaking French so that felt normal but the American houses passing by out the window seemed really out of place.  I was looking for Africa and could only find her in the front seat of my van.

So we went to church in our big old 4 million dollar cave.  As soon as everyone stood and started singing, (or not) Wassi leaned over and said "Aren't we supposed to sing?  Why is everyone just standing there?  They all look like they are dead."  I had to agree with him.  Nary a head or hip or hand was moving.  In fact, it was hard to detect a lip.  It was pretty humorous.  God love the stoic white people.  So he and i clapped and swayed together and everyone else just watched.  He paid me a great compliment though when he leaned over at the end and said, "Wow, you dance like an African." (I know i don't, but it was nice of him to say so and considering the lack of movement in everyone else nearby  i guess i wasn't too bad.  I just didn't want him to be the only one getting jiggy wid it.)

As soon as Tim started in preaching, i knew i had made a mistake by coming to church. The singing was blah and boring, with lots of key changes and guitar solos. A dandy concert but not great for congregational singing. The stewardship thought was read from a devotional book, long and dry and had nothing to do with communion which we took right after BUT they played a video during communion so you couldn't really even reflect and confess anyway.  They put the Bible verses on the screen with no references so it was hard to tell if they were the words of Jesus, Paul or Walter Cronkite and there was no way you could follow along in your Bible.  No one even lifted a finger to open a Bible anywhere anyway. Not even Tim.  But when he announced that he was preaching on Acts 1:1-11, you know "And you will be My witnesses in Judea, Samaria and to the ends of the earth."  i knew i shouldn't be there.  Of all the people to be preaching a "missions" passage and of all the Sundays to bring it up....uh oh.  Turns out missions was mentioned in 1 minute and 20 seconds of the entire 20 minute sermon so i needn't be worried.



I felt like i was on candid camera or the Twilight Zone or something.  It was the weirdest thing.  I'm sure after preaching for 30 years, one might run dry and not see things in a fresh new way, but that was almost like listening to an Alzheimer's patient preach.  Bless his heart.  It was great confirmation to me though, that i'm great right where i am in Myrlen's Sunday school class.  After it was all over, Wassi said, "I don't think i understood the preacher well because i don't know what his message was about.  It was also very short and no one here looked joyful or like they were praising God. I can see why you don't come here.  I can't find the spirit of God here."  ouch.  They are good people, but something is missing somewhere.  something big.

After church there was a dinner for the college students so Wassi stayed. We ate with him so he wouldn't feel alone.  It was during lunch that i really learned a lot about him, like the fact that he's married and has lived in Atlanta for 2 years and is 28 and is the oldest of 3 and that he does all of his cooking on Saturdays and freezes it for the rest of the week so he can study.  I learned that he thinks America is more messed up than Africa.  He said, "America is more corrupt than Africa and the bad thing is that Americans can't see it." I asked what he meant and he talked about the government and health care and how we have more than enough to take care of our poor and yet we throw food away instead of sharing with those in need because somehow we think that poor people deserve being poor. He talked about how expensive health care is and how we worship wealth and forget God.  It was interesting to hear his "outsiders" perspective and honestly, in some ways, he has a point.  We sat there jabbering away in French until well after everyone else had left.  People looked at us like we were speaking Jibberish from the planet Mars or something.  It was really funny and really fun."

Live Forward!

This seems to apply to the Faith as well.

"Life is lived forwards but understood backwards."
Soren Kierkegaard

Doctrine of Poverty

"...and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness, and your night will become like the noonday."
Isaiah 58:10


AJR The Roaming Nomad

Get Hundreds and Save Lives!

Best way to give clean drinking water to the masses.
So Simple, so Cheap, so long lasting.

Kills pathogens for 1 million gallons of water. (4 Million Liters)
Simply attach to a bucket or barrel.
Lasts for life. $60,
The filter fits in your pocket.

We set these kits up for schools, and family courts in Mali, West Africa.
Donate www.manofpeaceDevelopment.org

Do People Really Want Change?

The last line seems to summarize much of my life experience and work.

"Having been at my post barely three months, more of the obstacles that lay head had suddenly been made quite clear. One issue was the need for cultural compromise, which meant finding a middle ground where the Congolese and I could meet without stepping too far out of our respective comfort zone. Another was to clearly grasp the needs of a given village before trying to affect it. Still another was to identify people who wanted progress badly enough to try something new to achieve it."

(Things Are Different in Africa. Frederick Pitts. Iuniverse 2006. Page 139)

Surviving Africa!

"I was learning that one best survives Third World Africa, when one takes absolutely nothing for granted."

( Things Are Different In Africa. Frederick Pitts. Iuniverse pub. 2004. P 130. PC worker in Congo)


AJR The Roaming Nomad

Alone In Africa!

I experienced a shared understanding with this former Peace Corps workers comments about his life in a rural Congo village.

As we live and work with a people speaking an oral language, and being the first foreigners to live in the region, at times we realize we can only integrate so far and we are still seen as 'From Away'.

"Another two days passed and I found myself struck with a fresh pain of loneliness. As if alone in a big city, I was surrounded by people but somehow outside the perimeter of the circle. Never a part of it when I was inside it, and usually outside except when something was wanted from me, my entire world was one of aloneness."
( Things Are Different In Africa. Frederick Pitts. Iuniverse pub. 2004. P 113)

What is Worth Passing On?

"Those holding the baton must own something worth passing along.....Fretting over the merits of those who receive the baton distracts us from asking if our lives offer anything worth passing on......" (
Off-Road Disciplines. Earl Creps, 2006, pg 179,180)

Do Some Older Leaders Want A "Mini Me"? Lack of Trust In Younger Leaders

Gave me something to think about. Certainly does not apply to everyone, but makes one self-examine.

"A middle aged couple approach me in the aisle after a conference presentation wearing earnest expressions and bringing a serious question: 'If the way you describe young adults is accurate, we are concerned about whether we can leave the church (organization) to these people!' During moments like this, I think God, in his wisdom, he created us with a voluntary circuit breaker between our thoughts and our words . In my mind, I shouted back, 'Who do you think you are to write off a whole generation as unfit for duty? I know one of your kids, and I would be proud to have her as the pastor my church!' But out of my mouth came just six quiet words: 'Well.... No one else is coming.'.... Older leaders routinely give lip service to the necessity of developing the younger generation. But when I hear these speeches, I get the sense that we elders often operate from a mental picture of that envisions the new cohort as strikingly similar to ourselves – in other words, a junior version of us." (Off-Road Disciplines. Earl Creps, pg 177, 2006

Sacrifice....Is It Worth Sacrificing For?

"The critical task for organizational leaders involves realizing that their constituents who are sympathetically third culture perspective will indeed opt out if defending the group's identity seems more important than the reason the group exists.....Even an older colleague with a lifetime of service to his fellowship told me with tears, 'If the choice is between the mission and the organization ... I choose mission.' Who could condemn those who decide that their relationship with a certain organization has become the necessary sacrifice if the mission is at stake?

Perhaps at one time mission depended on organization. Today organization depends on mission. Younger leaders need to ask themselves what they will sacrifice for the sake of concerted effort. Order leaders need to ask themselves whether what they represent is worth sacrificing for." (Off Road Disciplines. Earl Creps. 2006' p 172

Too Little Mission -Too Much Division!

"Hundreds of hours of interviewing have convinced me that the majority of doctoral disputes I'm our fellowships represent only symptoms of underlying cultural divisions. Distinctive teachings are a lightning rod for the energy of discontent. Bringing the sides together means raising the profile of mission (not just missions) so that distinctives no longer represent the highest point in the organization, the one attracting all of the energy.
I have seldom met a young leader who wouldn't stick around if this emphasis on mission prevailed enough to achieve practical incomes.....Mission is a powerful adhesive, motivating us to sacrifice preferences in the way that nothing else can. When we demote mission by prioritizing a certain brand of Christian culture, sacrifice dies because no proprietary interpretation of what the church should look like is worth the pain......."

(Off-Road Disciplines. Earl Creps. 2006, p171)

Out of Sync Canadian

I not only get it, I'm living it.....

"This new global citizenship carries the potential for personal confusion. Third-culture people often experience adjustment and identity struggles in their adopted nation and in their homeland, when they returned. Their passport indicates.....citizenship, but their language, perspective, and style all say something else. The greatest challenge often occurs when they return to what is supposed to be there home country, only to feel out of sync in an unrecognizable alien land." (Off-Road Disciplines. Earl Creaps, 2006, p 164)

A Global Vision Worth Seeing

"The unoccupied fields, therefore, are a challenge to all whose lives are unoccupied by that which is highest and best; whose lives are occupied only with the weak things or the base things that do not count. There are eyes that have never been illumined by a great vision...."
Samuel Zwemer

I'm Haunted By An African Banana

I’m Haunted by a Banana. I am not joking. I am literally haunted by a Malian banana from West Africa. Let me share the story.

It was sun rise in Sikasso and I was glad to get on the bus heading back to Bamako, the capital city of Mali. I was ecstatic to have a front seat this time,(The story of the bus trip at night, stuck in the back seat comes later) and by now I had tunnel vision because I was officially beginning my long three day journey home to be with Lynn and the boys. As Dr Phil would say; “I needed a soft place to land”. By the end of my research in rural Mali (and 3.5 weeks in Ivory Coast before hand), I was certainly having difficulty processing more information.

The Scenery on the Savanah was nice, though vegetation and people were sparse compared to Ivory Coast. In each village the bus picked up a woman with a chicken under her arm here, a few men with sacks of manioc there. Each village stop also produced dozens of young women and children who filled the windows and bus aisle shouting loudly to drown out the competition so they could sell the most munchies to us ravenous travelers. Actually, it is a great service, the only way to eat on the journey. I bought a small sack of peanuts and four bananas from one smiling and pleased young lady.

As I prepared to eat, I broke off one of the bananas from the bunch, and the tip opened up to expose the tasty snack inside, but it slipped, and I dropped it on to the aisle floor. The very aisle where chickens were sitting; where there was goat and sheep droppings carried in on shoes from every village. The isle was red with dirt and this “other debris” and the red dirt illuminated my yellow banana quite well. I picked up my banana, and sure enough, the exposed tip was covered with a surprise candy coating, compliments of the aisle floor.

What do I do with this banana now I thought? The people of Mali are the poorest people in the world. I looked at the dirty flesh of the banana, looked around to see eight pairs of eyes watching for the resolution to the “White Man Banana Show”. Should I throw the banana out entirely as I wanted to, or just break the dirty part off? I could not bring myself to throw out the whole banana, so I broke the dirty tip off and tossed it out the window on to the road. I looked around at the sets of eyes and knew instantly I had made the right choice. I could see all eight sets of eyes diverting their gaze into the village outside, now distracted by something more interesting.

So I sat back and began to enjoy my bananas. As I ate, I stared off into the sights of the village. I noticed an older man weaving between mud huts in his long robe. He climbed up the side of the road and continued to walk by the bus, but he unexpectedly stopped in his tracks. He noticed something on the road and bent down, picked it up, looked it over, and then put it in his mouth, and disappeared into the village. My jaw dropped open……. The old man just picked up my dirty little lump of banana off the road and eaten it. In all my years in Africa, I had never seen anything like this happen.

Poor- We can’t process the word poor, because we are the top 4% of the world in income. Mali is the bottom 1%. I began my day craving a soft place to land; I have a soft place to land. However, soft is not a word I would use to describe the life of any Malian I know, because they do not have any soft place.

To this day, every time I see a banana I am haunted by the image of what happened to my banana on my journey to my soft place. Just when I thought it was impossible to ram one more memory into my congested brain, God arranged room for one more essential memory of a Malian man and a banana.

I wish I had thrown the whole banana out the window. No! I wish I had thrown out the whole bunch.

Thank you for reminding me of why I am to love as Jesus loved. I’m afraid that this west African banana may continue to haunt me for the rest of my life, and it should.

When Leaving Hurts.

Commenting about her approaching end of service.

"In some ways, I cant believe I keep putting myself through this. I put myself in these situations with an expiration date and then complain as I suffer through the countdown. I guess my fear of commitment comes from somewhere in my heart though, where I know there is more world and there are more people that I want to love so much that it pains me to say good bye."

(Kristin Richards. Peace Corps worker in Mali. July 31, 2011:
http://kristinrichards.blogspot.com/2011/07/saying-good-bye-part-1.html)

Legal Wife Limits.

"'Kokoko', someone called at my door the Lengala equivalent of 'knock knock'.

Because my guest was another stranger, I braced myself for another dose of Congolese culture and went grudgingly out to greet him. He was a fiftyish man who announced that he had five young daughters who would make fine wives and he wanted me to go with him across town to meet them. I could pick up to four them, he explained, because that was the legal limit. 'Legal limit', I thought. Back home that would refer to deer hunting or snapper fishing. Thank goodness for limits in central Africa. "

(Things Are Different in Africa. Frederick Pitts. 2004, p 29)

Mali & Moringa

The moringa tree originates from India but is widely promoted in Malian development for its tolerance for arid conditions and high nutritional value.

A hundred grams of its leaves has more Vitamin C than 7 oranges, more Vitamin A than 4 carrots, more Potassium than 4 bananas, and more Calcium and Protein than 4 glasses of milk!

Also, it’s seeds and pods are strong in fiber and can help with intestinal troubles, including bacterial infections and worms. Moreover, its deep taproot and little use of lateral roots means it can be planted in farmer’s fields without interfering with the topsoil needed for crops.

Good Night In Mali

"Allah k'an kelen kelen wuli."

May we rise one by one. Blessing said before you go to bed in Mali.

About Needing Change

"One day in 1992, fed up with the pressure and the lack of personal satisfaction from my achievements, I made a profound decision. I decided to give everything I owned to my three children and then I traded my comfortable lifestyle for a two-year hitch in equatorial Africa.....I needed the change." (Things Are Different in Africa. Frederick Pitts. 2004, p 1)

It's more than just needing change. There is a purpose to go greater than ourselves. However, to a certain degree we can relate to the sentiment. We have come to believe that our rutines and luxury are the goal, the right of all good sensible folk. I'm tired of managing "stuff", both my own and that of others.
Give me no roof, but real relationships, any day.
I'm glad there is a greater purpose to bring us to Africa, than simply 'we require change.' But I must admit, I like the change too.

African Transport Deja Vu

"Every vehicle in the country that could move, and many that couldn't, was on the road, carrying a full load - there were cars literally held together by string. If you popped their hoods, what you saw made you believe in miracles."​
(The Unheard: A memoir Of Deafness and Africa. Josh Swiller, pg 51)

With Full Understanding I Read..... Africa in 5 Second Bites

"I lived in Africa almost half a lifetime ago. I was very young when I went, not just in years, and I return home feeling prematurely aged. For months after coming back, like the ancient mariner with his gray beard and glittering eyes, I cornered anyone half willing to listen and try to describe what I had seen and done and been over there. I would tell the story......and the sympathetic nods would last about 5 min. before my quarry's eyes shifted toward the exit......the experience proved as incommunicable as the need to explain was urgent.

Family and friends waited for me to resume normal life, but I seemed unable to complete the trip back. Part of me remains stuck in Africa,..... I missed the intensity, the surprise, the sense that life was real and heard and lovely. Nothing in America made me feel as alive as I felt in Africa..... And yet I can't shake the sense of having left behind Africa and obligations I can neither fulfill nor escape...... The book was supposed to provide a resolution, but in some fundamental way my time in Africa remains unresolved. And, of course, Africa itself is unresolved,....."
( The Village Of Waiting. George Packer. Farrar, Strauss, & Giroux, 2001, pg 317-318)

An Old Man And Memories of War!

"What is your name Kanei asked the old man. He smiled as if he knew that one of us would ask this question. 'There is no need to know my name. Just referred to me as the old man who got left behind when you get to the next village.' He looked at all our faces and spoke softly, with no sadness in this voice. 'I will not be alive to see the end of this war. So, to save the place in your memories for other things, I won't tell you my name. If you survive this war, just remember me as the old man you met. You boys should be on your way'..... Before the village disappeared from our sight, I turned around to take one last look at the old man. His head was down and he had both hands on his staff. It was clear to me that he knew his days would soon be over, and he didn't bother to be afraid for himself. But he was for us."

(A Long Way Gone: A Memoir of A Child Soldier. Ishmael Beah. Pg 56,57, 2007)

Burnout Is Not From Too Much Work???

"After ten years he burned out. People say, 'Well he wasn't fit for the job'. The reason the guy burned out is not because it's too much work. You burn out because it's too much work that runs counter to your conscience. I'm doing stuff I'm required to do, but that doesn't seem to be helping the people I'm with."
(Wayne Jacobsen, The God Journey.)