Greetings from East Africa! I’m writing you early Tuesday morning as the sun is about to reveal the towering rock known as Kilimanjaro which stands like a giant watchman over the city where we are staying. Only three days into the work here, my senses have been overwhelmed by the sights, sounds and smells of Tanzania – what an amazing place to visit. Life feels like a beautiful collision here where the animal kingdom meets the mechanical kingdom as they are both wrapped around the human kingdom which is woven into the kingdom of nature. That’s the only way I can describe it. There is almost no apparent order to this culture from my perspective but, clearly, those who live here seem to move from day to day with no sense of the chaos. I am truly an outsider who is observing a world for which I have no full grasp. By the way, I am thoroughly enjoying every moment of it thus far.
The poverty is more than I have ever seen. It is actually not as bad as I thought it would be but it is still mind-numbing to people like me who have been born in American privilege. I have seen a legless woman begging on a street full of passing motorcycles, buses and automobiles. Two women were carrying a bucket of dirty water up a paved hill in front of run down shops where men stood outside laughing and drinking. Heartbreakingly, I saw a little 3-4 year old child walking alone in the shade of a storefront in a pair of stained underwear with no overseeing adult anywhere near. While we were singing in church on Sunday I looked out the open window and saw a group of 5 boys who were younger than my own little son chasing a small herd of full-sized cows with sticks – they were laughing and dancing. American grade-school boys play their Xboxes while children in Africa chase cows that could crush them with one quick turn to the left. The Christians here are very warm and receptive. The churches are poor but rich in joy and love. Their hands are regularly dirty but their consciences are clean with simplicity as they live in a “give us this day our daily bread” reality. They have no material wealth – if you are reading this you are likely 50-100 times more prosperous than the average Christian here – but they are rich and vibrant in their worship of Christ and kindness to us. They dance for 20-30 minutes each service and I have awkwardly danced my white-man dance alongside of them. Joy is the rhythm here. When the Word is taught many of them literally move forward to the edges of their seats to hear what the teacher will share. When I finished my message last evening and turned the service over to the African leaders, the people stood to their feet and prayed individually (and loudly) to God for another 20 minutes. There were tears, some were on their knees, others danced as they privately worshipped.
We Americans stood and beheld it all, each of us left to our own processing of the moving scene before us. When we got into the van to leave for the day, I felt very privileged for having been allowed to see and hear the events of the day.
Thank you for making it possible for us to be here. Nick Bell has been in Africa 5 days longer than I and he says that what he has seen and experienced has altered some things deep within him. I have enjoyed watching him as he experiences foreign mission for the first time. Those of you who have sacrificed and prayed for this project to become a reality have put your hearts and hands to a good work. When all is said and done we will have invested in right at 10,000 pastors and church leaders who are being exposed to methods of handling God’s Word in ways that they have never been made aware of. God is among us here and both the conference attendees and those of us leading the conference are being impacted for the glory of our King. Satan is surely fighting as we have entered places where he has obscured bible truth for centuries. Most of these precious people have never heard an accurate sermon which gives the pure word of the Lord. I repeat, they have NEVER heard a verse by verse teaching of a single passage of Scripture. One of the African leaders told the entire crowd at the end of yesterday morning’s session, “Truly brothers, we have never received revelation like this before. We must come back each day as God has brought these men to give us His revelation.”
All we are doing is teaching the Bible. To them it is unprecedented revelation because nobody has ever come here to help them to ask, “What does my Bible say?” And, as with every case, when a hungry heart hears God’s true word, an amazement occurs which is less about information and more about transformation. We have brought sound doctrine to them and they have reminded us of the pricelessness of pure Christian joy. Each group has something the other group needs.
That is how our Father works.
We wait eagerly to see and hear all the experiences you had and took part in and how it has changed your life. We take so many things for granted in America and that is probably why we do not praise and worship our God and Father for the wonderful gifts of salvation and a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Hopefully that will change at Meadow soon and we will truly worship our Lord and Savior!!!
Jeff dancing …
Wonder if Nick caught that on camera?
What a privilege to go and do what you have done though; may the Lord bless the seed sown for the good of the various churches represented over the coming years.
“The Word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword…” Thanks for this report,mJeff. It’s great to hear again that our God does not love with respect to culture. Looking forward to hearing how this trip has affected you.