Dear one,
I’m seated again in the breezeway the Moya’s home: the temperature must be in the 80s; the sky, with some clouds, is milky blue; the palm trees swaying, the flowering jacarandas vibrant; the green hedges trim, among which clucking hens and chicks peck; and always the chirping of birds—all that I see and hear seems idyllic, and yet I know that, only a few minute’s drive from here, the world of Lilongwe and Malawi differs greatly from what my senses tell.
After 29 hours of wakeful travel (thankfully I slept 2 hours on the flight from Addis to Lilongwe), I/we landed at Kumuzu International Airport—our Ethiopian Airlines 727 the only airplane on the tarmac. Upon going through customs, and upon finding that all three checked bags had made the journey, I concluded: “I’m not too much worse for the wear.” This noted, the flight from Dulles to Addis Ababa (13.5 hours) was one of the most wearisome (and worrisome) flights I’ve experienced. Not that the flight itself was turbulent—no, only briefly over the Red Sea did we encounter a few bumps—but for some reason, somehow I felt “turbulent” throughout much of the flight. At moments I began to wonder darkly: “Stan, do you really know what you’re doing? You’re 32,000 feet over the Mediterranean, what if … if your kidney stones …?”
Some years ago I was captured by Paul’s phrase: “from faith unto faith.” As he began to explicate his understanding of the Gospel (it took him 11 chapters to do so), Paul wrote: “For the righteousness of God has been revealed in [the Gospel] from faith unto faith”. As I pondered then and as I reflect now, I believe that that phrase not only suggests that faith begets faith, but that faith supports or carries faith. Counter our strong (blinding?), Western individualism, the Christian Faith and Gospel have also and always been communal—the faith of a community embodying the Love of Christ.
As consider my flight here, and my present in Kaning’a (an area in Lilongwe), I know that I am here, not because my faith is strong—at moments it is horribly weak—but because many others, like you, believe and pray: from your faith unto my faith; your faith buoys mine. Counter our cultural individualism, I am thankful that we are bound together.
Hopefully,
Stan
Ps. It’s now raining, and in this capitol city, we’ve been without the internet all day.