“With a little (or a lot) of help from my friends …”
I would think that I might learn: with each of these little forays to Africa, you’d think that I might know what I’m doing and what I might expect, but evidently not so:
Last year, for instance, when I visited Malawi, you might recall that I almost immediately entered into the world of Malawian “wakes” and funeral services. During the first of the funerals, I felt as though I had committed a horrific cultural fax pas: when a collection was taken for the grieving family, I had not given an appropriate sum. In reality, my “faux pas” was not as horrific as I had assumed. Throughout the second of the services, mine was not so much a faux pas as a humbling; I provided the major, pastoral eulogy for a man I did not know among a people whose ways are not mine. Nonetheless, God’s love was evident for us all.
This year’s return—not that this adventure is at an end—has presented me with something altogether different: feelings and thoughts that have cast a shadow over my heart and mind. Again, these thoughts and feelings are not particularly new, but how they have arisen and with what intensity have greatly surprised me. Only today, at the conclusion of our pastors’ retreat—which in truth ended well, and which I’ll share with you more fully in a day or two—did I feel “comfortable,” but only with caution do I make such a statement. Nonetheless, I was most amused, when a pastor (i.e. an abusa) approached me with these words:
“Next year, when you return … will you teach us … the Book of Revelation?”
I smiled and then laughed. He returned my amusement.
“Yes,” I said, “I’ll give serious thought to the Book of Revelation—even though to do sowill stretch me well beyond my comfort zone.” I then proceeded to tell him that I had received the same request in July from a Ugandan pastor.
And that is my growing realization: upon this trip I am being stretched beyond my comfort zone, not by Malawians or by long-distance flights, but by our gracious Creator, who has not finished reshaping and refashioning me. The marvel is that He can express His loving character through one like me, who is still under reconstruction.
Hopefully,
Stan
Ps. At nearly sixty-nine, how long should reconstruction take?