The Real African Experience

Why should I have been surprised? I have been here before. Unless you are sporting a tourist badge and wear a Tilley's hat, you are called into service. This really has something to do with a disproportion in certain types of resource. For us, it is education and preaching. If you are ordained, you are quickly recruited to "minister the Word" over and above the task you came to do. Glen and I have been honoured to share in this way. But we are constantly aware that we are trying to bridge into another culture that is different in so many ways. All of this, of course, makes the schedule very full and little respites scarce.
As I see the rich life and resources of this continent, and yet it is so scarce in a certain kind of resource (money and education) that would fit it as a major global player, the immediate feeling is one of frustration. It came home to me more than once this week in conversations with church leaders, when I saw the deep hunger for learning and no money or opportunity to acquire these riches so street-common in the West. This is why our exploratory trip makes all the sense in the world. We just need to see if this little idea will get legs!
Now, to more mundane things. Someone should have warned me what a bad driver Steve is. After only one week, he has acquired a reputation of being the original Rough Rider. It's enough that we are in an antiquated Land Rover that rides on what feels like iron wheels and no springs. But he is magnetized to find bumps and pot holes. I finally blurted out that if I wanted my internal organs massaged, there are more humane modalities. His learning curve on this one hasn't changed a centimeter since we arrived. What is remarkable and relieving, however, is his steady cheeriness.
Glen had his African experience immersion this weekend. Friday evening I laid on him some ghost stories (based on some documentary work I am doing). Guess who didn't want me to turn the bedroom light off! I just prayed that he didn't want to climb under my mosquito net with me. When he gets home, of course he will tell you all that it was a joke...and it probably is. But it was fun. The next day the subject came up with some leaders regarding the African experience of spirits and the ancestors. Glen was getting lesson 2! Then he got recruited for assisting in this evening's healing service. For those in the know, the last drip of Dispensationalism was finally wrung out of his soul tonight!