Weaned Children

“Oh Lord my heart is not proud, nor have my eyes been arrogant; neither do I concern myself with great matters or things too wonderful to me.  Surely I have stilled and quieted my soul; like a weaned child with its mother, like a weaned child is my soul within me.”  Psalms 131: 1-2

Well, all things considered, I had a good trip to Gambella rekindling the relationships established on our last visit.  Hopefully, the stage is set to fix a well, restore two health clinics’ power (so they can keep vaccines cold and have some lights so women don’t have to deliver their children in the bush at night) and maybe secure a block making machine – for them to build their assembly hall and make some money selling blocks to the town…we’ll see..

[here is a picture of a delivery room - what you can't see is the bats flying around in the eaves.  What you can't smell.....]

I have spent time with some extremely seasoned, experienced American missionaries – whose personal accounts from decades of living and ministering in “ground zero” places (Malawi, Congo, Sudan, Uganda and Ethiopia) during the worst of what man can do to man – make one feel somehow small and unqualified.  All you can think is why didn’t you get the heck out of there?  Some have had children die in their arms (their own and/or others), some have been shot at, all have been robbed, yet none have run back to the US for safety.  They clearly believe that this life is not all there is.

Though they are careful about their personal safety – it is all within a framework of practical limitations – when your number is up, your number is up – here or there we all die sometime, better to die doing good, right?  They have each received a “call” to stay and love and help; delivering babies, digging latrines, outfitting clinics, teaching in schools, counseling victims of violence and facilitating peace building workshops between blood lusting factions – and above all, explaining and teaching that God Himself will redeem this world – engaging His church to do it and that Jesus will be back – when, no one knows.

Some come from generations of missionary families (“as a young girl, I lived in Burma, until the Japanese came”   - “I met my wife on Mt. Sinai” - “When the Marxists came, they took our homes and forced us to leave”) Though they sound like Americans they float outside our culture – they know little about pop culture, US politics, financial markets – they live on pennies, speak several languages, and have no concerns about what they wear. When asked if they have ever thought of writing their blockbusting autobiographies – they demure – they have little time for or interest in themselves, they have this singular focus on spending it helping others.  “But, it might inspire others to come and help”…They doubt this, and leave a lot unsaid; they resist judging others who don’t do what they do.  They pray all the time – and testify to the joys and miracles they have seen while grieving the ones they have not.  They see themselves as weak and needy. They hold degrees from the US’s top schools (you have to ask where they went to school).  They have their foibles yet invest little time in hiding them.  They know about Evil, have seen it, confronted it and do not think of it as concept but as a physical kingdom that opposes Good. 

They ask African Christians to pray for America and suggest it won’t be long until Africa is sending missionaries to the US to help us regain our spiritual lives. The Ethiopian Evangelical Church now has 5.2mm members and is growing rapidly – up from some 4,000 five decades ago.  Some quotes from conversations I have had:

“People say we pray a lot – when you are poor, you have to pray for everything – you are absolutely dependent on God for everything.  In the US you have the luxury, or misfortune, of depending on other things.”

“When you are a persecuted church, you cannot afford to be careless.”

“Don’t fool yourself, we are only here for a short time, therefore we must always do our best.”

“Perhaps the US Church will become strong again, but only after it becomes marginalized.  That is happening – that can be a type of persecution – and that might strengthen it.”

“We don’t know what God is doing with our histories, but we know that in the end, no one will be able to say it was not good.”

Finally, this quote, from a missionary who was recounting his early days in Egypt; his Muslim dinner host was trying to convert him, to which the young missionary replied that Muslims can believe whatever suites them, and in turn, he [the missionary] could believe what suits him…

“The man slammed his fists into the table so hard that everything on it flew up into the air – ‘How can we have a real dialogue when not even you believe what you say you believe?!!’  He had a point, and it made me consider whether I really was a believing Christian – that was one of those moments when I had to decide if I was serious about the faith.”

 [a literacy class being greeted]

[a Heifer type project being evaluated - i.e. PC USA has given some cows to generate food and income]