Mission Impossible

“What does the Lord require of you, but to do justice, and love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?” – Micha 6:8

God-willing, I will join twenty-five fellow South Africans from over ten different denominations on our way to Uganda for the first international conversation Towards a Post-Colonial Church in Africa in May 2007. Dr. Bob Pyne told me about Amahoro*-Africa while I was finishing my last semester on American soil. This is why I continue to go where Hummers fear to tread:

“12/7/2006: Well, this is my second-last day in Africa, and I’m actually sad to be leaving the country...I have had a phenomenal experience in Moz (Mozambique), primarily thanks to you. You were the first person to tell me about Africa, nonetheless to invite me to come. You were the first to make me aware of the hunger and needs of Christians in Africa – and I will always remember you for this outstanding gifts.
On the outreach itself, I felt like you prepared me as best you could, and I was somewhat comfortable from the start because of the things you told us. I don’t want you to think you failed us at all. While I’ve been here I’ve learned so much from you and your dad. Not just facts, stats and history about Africa – which you know are very important to me, but also about emphasizing what REALLY matters and putting down what is not important.
You and the rest of the group were good at focusing on the essentials – Christ and leaning on Him. Also I think you were a great example of being sensitive to cultural differences and making me aware of them. I appreciate your investment in me very much.
I also think I’ve learned a little about what Evangelism is and about not being pushy and colonial or arrogant on the whole, the entire process of coming and voyaging north with your church has been a wonderful growth experience. I haven’t even said anything about how the people there impacted me. I will miss you very much in the future. Thank you again. Very sincerely, Jesse “

Two years ago in September of 2004, when I first came to Dallas to start my studies at DTS, I taught Jesse and his youth group with a fellow DTSer, Jonathan at a Skillman Bible Church. He is still a mentor to this phenomenal young man.

Jesse was one of the brightest teenagers, always concentrating and asking intelligent questions about life beyond his own world. In 2005, Jonathan and two other Americans joined me in South Africa on a few reconnaissance trips into two other African countries, Namibia and Mozambique.

The Bible records a story, in the ninth chapter of John’s gospel of a blind man who had trouble seeing life for what it really was. He begged Jesus to heal his eyes. God restored his sight and everybody in the region knew that a miracle had occurred. The educated, high society of the day had many explanations.

These skeptics argued that his disability was just consequence of his parents and/or his own sins. Jesus disagreed. When asked to explain the reason for this poor man’s suffering, humiliation and pain during all of his life, the God-man responded: “No, it was not because of anybody’s sins but allowed into his life with the purpose to be set free from it, for the sake of God’s glory…”

On the last Sunday before I left South Africa in August 2004, this passage was branded upon my soul. It defined the unspoken question confronting me as an African leaving for a foreign land in search of greater understanding.
Is Africa poor, hungry and left desolate to suffer alone because of her own sins or those perpetrated by her colonial parents?

I believe Jesus’ reply would be the same: “No, but that the glorious power of the Living God might be revealed to all the earth.”
How will I respond to this challenge?
May each day of my life tell His story of sacrificial love.
May I never cease to inspire every mortal He sends across my path to put their trust in Him.
May I grow in skillfulness and influence to mobilize more souls as part of His supernatural solution to the need of Africa!

“Sixty-five hundred Africans are dying every day of a preventable, treatable disease. And it is not a priority for the West: two 9/11s a day, eighteen jumbo jets of fathers, mothers, families falling out of the sky. No tears, no letters of condolence, no fifty-one-gun salutes. Why? Because we don’t put the same value on African life as we put on a European or American life. God will not let us get away with this, history certainly won’t let us get away with our excuses.
We say we can’t get these antiretroviral drugs to the farthest reaches of Africa, but we can get them our cold fizzy drinks. The tiniest little village, you can find a bottle of Coke.
Look, if we really thought that an African life was equal in value to an English, a French, or an Irish life, we wouldn’t let two and a half million Africans die every year for the stupidest reasons: money. We just wouldn’t.
And a very prominent head of state said to me: “It’s true. If these people weren’t Africans, we just couldn’t let it happen.” We don’t really deep down believe in their equality. I can’t say...but it was a head of state who was ashamed. It actually scandalized him. We have written off Africans. So the next step in the journey of equality is to get to a place where we accept that you cannot choose your neighbor.
In the Global Village, distance no longer decides who is your neighbor, and “Love thy neighbor” is not advice, it’s a command.”
– Bono, November 2002 –

Mission impossible?

In the first chapter of the Gospel of Luke, Mary responds to a supernatural challenge proposed to her by the angel of the Lord: “ For nothing will be impossible with God.”

In Africa we have a saying:
“If you want to go fast, go alone.
If you want to go far, go together”.

The church in Africa needs the church in America to become informed about how their country and her decisions affect African lives and become godly stewards of that responsibility.

Do you have the faith in our God to become personally involved in revealing God’s glory to the entire world, right where you are―in the land of the free?

* means peace in many Bantu languages. When Africans from different tribes greet one another with a hand shake, hug or kiss and say “amahoro”, they are professing their hope for a better future.