On the Road to J-village

Day 3
I woke up this morning not know what to expect. Would anyone come to travel to J-village with us? While we were still savoring Sara's and Jessica' delicious breakfast, 5 men showed up ready for the journey. Jessica made us some ham samswiches, chips, cookies, salami...she did not want us to go hungry. Of course Charles, her "Shmoop", was going and she really wanted to take care of him!!

We took off on our 5 "African Kilometers" hike. It was flat terrain, the weather couldn't have been any better. 1 hour and 15 minutes later we walked up on J-village. They had no clue we were coming. The Internet, telephones or any other line of communication hasn't made it that far yet. Many of the believers were out in the fields working.

Prior to our arrival in J-village, there has only been two other times that Christ followers carried the message of Christ to this village. Nine months prior, a Nigerian missionary had showed the Jesus film and 15-20 villagers commit to following Christ. The second time was when a team from GPC went in September and the believers from K-village baptized the J-village believers.

In short, for nine months 15-20 new believers have expressed their earnest desire to follow Christ, but had virtually no one to come and share stories and walk with them in the way of Jesus. When I asked if they had been meeting to learn of Jesus, sing, pray, tell Bible stories, they replied, " We can't because we don't know what to do. " They had the desire to follow Jesus, they want to follow Jesus, but no one was showing them the path of Jesus. I was heart broken. How can these people go the way of Jesus? It's much a like a new baby. Without a model of learning to talk or walk, they never will. How can we expect these new believers to ever function as a church without someone to guide them? They don't have a Bible; they don't have a leader; they don't know how to pray or worship. They don't have a any songs to sing. They are baby believers living in the middle of the bush. How can we ever expect them to grow up and be mature followers of Christ? They don't have the knowledge to follow Jesus, or a model, how will they ever be like Jesus?

I had to ask myself: How can WE help these new believers to survive and not die in their faith out here. They will surely die, give up and stay in there animistic ways. The gospel story will die here and go no further. We gave a quick lesson on prayer, told them a Bible story, sang a few songs that we hoped would be a model for them to meet and worship together. I asked the men of K-village to come back each week and tell the people of J-village Bible stories. The Bible stories that we bring from America to share in K-village could be shared in J-village.

Just as we finished and were about to "ask for the road," all the negative feelings and remaining culture shock melted away. In the Bambara tradition of formal communication they started speaking to one another, one man telling another man, who would tell another man, who would tell another man, and so on - much like the "gossip" game we played as a child except instead of whispering, it was spoken out loud before the entire gathering. The message was meant for the believers of K-village and us, their American guests. The message was that they couldn't wait to tell the message of Jesus that they had learned. They, by themselves, were traveling to B-village every Friday and telling the chief their the story of Jesus. The chief in B-village was expressing his interest in following the road of Jesus.

The chief of B-village's name is Jofolo. I've never met him, but the new believers of J-village know him and want him to take the path of Jesus too. They simply couldn't keep the message of Jesus to themselves but had to make it known!!

Pray for the believers of J-village...they don't have a Bible and couldn't read it if they did. They don't have a leader, teacher or missionary. They don't have the experience of praying and worshiping God corporately, but they do have a faith that compels them to go outside of their own village to B-village in hopes that Jofolo and other villagers will join them on the path to following Jesus.

This was an amazing breakthrough. There was a definite spring in my step as we walked the 5 "African Kilometers" home.

A day to Assess

The cool night under the African moon coupled with about 45 minutes under a mango tree (turned sanctuary) helped me gain the perspective I needed for the trip. The culture shock was gone. Sleeping it off and starting a new day under a Mango tree 100 yards away from camp with only my Bible and journal helped me see K-village through God's eyes.

Day 2

This would be a day of assessment. A day to see where the believers are or are not. A day of the customary go and greet the chief and ask for his permission to stay in the village and tell stories about Jesus.

We were very well received by the chief; in part, because we have spent over 2 years in the village building relationships with the villagers, teaching in the school, helping their sick and telling them stories from the Bible. The chief recently expressed an interest in "going the road of Jesus" when "Bangi" (Bobby M.) came and told stories from the Bible with him in September 2008. The chief was glad to see us, but he was most interested in the well being of Bangi. He instructed us all to make sure and take care of Bangi.

On the way through the village and back to our mud hut (AKA: Grace Point Hilton) we stopped by a circular cage. It was made of 3 inch in diameter posts driven into the ground with a thatched roof over head. The villagers in front of us walked swiftly past the cage, but we Americans, in true American flavor, stopped to admire it and took photos. We were quickly repremanded not to stay there and take photos. After inquiring with some persistance as to the African responses to "the cage" I was told it was a place of African traditional worship. The African man leading us through the village said that people in the village live in fear of evil spirits, disease, and danger and that we as Christians wouldn't understand and we were sternly told by the church leader not to talk about it and to move on.

As the day progressed into the night, we continued to see some disturbing trends with the infant believers of K-village. Very few people came out for our teaching at night. This wasn't the norm. When 5 white Americans show up in any rural bush village, there is always a buzz and curious, friendly interest. We went to bed asking a lot of questions...

• What was the spiritual health of the village believers?
  
• To what degree do the traditional animistic ways still haunt the villagers?


• How could we adjust and help in the spiritual formation process of these 30 or so believers?


• What was holding this church back from taking the message of Jesus to other villages? After all, we want to see many churches established throughout West Africa and the only true way to see such an advancement among a the Bambara people (4 million strong with less than 1% believers) is through a multiplying church effect. We want churches to go, engage, reproduce their faith in other villages.

We concluded the evening by issuing a challenge to the men. We asked if they were willing to walk to the next village, J-village, tomorrow. If so, we would leave the next morning with them.

J-village has barely been reached with the message of Jesus. A handful of people in this village recently became believers and wanted to continue to learn the way of Jesus. The problem was, the believers of K-village weren't going to J-village and instructing them. We went to bed wondering if any men would return tomorrow and walk to J-village with us.

Beginning the New Year in Shock

I started 2009 in one of my favorite places on earth...the bush of Africa. There is no place more simple, serene, or sincere. The pace of life is simple. There is no doubt that basic, everyday tasks take more time to accomplish; but who cares about time, schedules, or agendas when you are with great people. The experience and the people become the focus not the agenda. Everyday involves a prayer to God "God in whose life are you at work today? How can I join you?" Then I watch to see the simple hand of God at work, and try to join Him. The serenity of Africa, with its distinct aromas, amazing sounds, and breath taking sunsets, causes me to stop, turn off my ipod, and absorb it all. Enjoying the serenity of my surroundings with all five senses, soaking it up and trying to capture some of it to bring home with me becomes the goal. The people of this village, we call K-village, are so loving and sincere. It doesn't matter if you are talking of Fumba, Zan, Ingee, Jaco, or Manata. When you are with the people of this village, you know they sincerely love and will care for you. The barriers of language and culture run deep and wide, but their loyalty and love penetrates it all. Oh, the joy of being back in Africa.

Day 1

Over the course of the next 4 days, I want to turn the pages of my journal and let you travel with me day by day through God's beautiful work in me, around me, and prayfully through me. You will read of my lows and highs; about set backs and breakthroughs.

I must confess the first day in the bush was the worst for me. I was quickly hurled into culture shock. My mind said, "culture shock happens to everyone else, not to an experienced traveler or or a missionary." Wrong! Culture shock happens to everyone to some degree and intensity whether you live internationally or simply visit for a couple of weeks. No drug will cure you. Only time, rest, and perspective. The real problem with culture shock is if you don't identify the shock, you can't get past it. The result is crippling. I faced the shock to the point that I was regretting taking the trip. I was thinking of my family back home, all the work I needed to do on my doctorate, etc. I just wanted out. I didn't eat dinner the first night in the bush. I said I was feeling nauseous...actually I was nauseous of Africa.

I don't know what triggered my shock exactly, but I know the language barrier was hard for me this time. I am a communicator and communicators communicate...but I couldn't communicate. Was it the constant dirty, gritty feel from the Sahara winds, jet lag (30+ hours of travel time), or all the above.? My response: I sat silently in the hammock until bed time and could only pray that the a good night sleep outside under the moon and stars would bring a brighter tomorrow.

Excited about the economy!

I don't know about you but I am excited about the economy. I certainly don't think my Introduction to Economics class in college constitutes me as an economist, so I will not pretend to be something I am not. However, since my last blog on the economy, nearly 1 1/2 months ago (I warned you from the outset that I wouldn't be blogging a lot, but that I would be thoughtful and brief with my words. Proverbs 10:19 supports few words), I've had some time to reflect, watch my 403b go to pot, and see - even with the hopes of a new president - little change in the economic perspective.

However, I am hopeful. I am very optimistic with our economy that things will turn around and we will be strong again economically on a global scale (I am not promising the the top of the economic super powers, we'll have to prove ourselves again). I am hopeful for a couple of reasons...

1. History is on our side for recovery. I was encouraged when I heard my trusted podcast financial advisor Dave Ramsey say a few days ago that over the course of the past 38 years there have been 10 major economic down turns that have resulted in a loss in the markets value of 10% or more. 100% of them, 10 out of 10, of the down turns, turned around the very next year with average gains equaling 34%. If our market is at the bottom, it may be time to reenter the market and buy low and prepare to sell high. The big question is "if our market is at the bottom?"

2. There needs to be a downsizing of "giants" to make room for new, younger, visionary emerging innovators. Innovation is born in crisis. We are in a crisis. If small or large business, schools, churches, aren't reinventing, down sizing and adjusting, death is certain. If GM and Ford can't make their bottom line black, being the giant of a company that they are, we don't need to bail them out. Let's pour our time, money and attention into innovation and make room for an entrepreneurial car maker to emerge that will make a profit, provide a fair wage (without union intrusion), and put America back on the road to success (sorry for the pun).

Sears and K-Mart had to make room on the stage for Wal-Mart; IBM had to make room for Dell; Microsoft is having to make room for Apple, the traditional church has had to make room for the contemporary church (you knew I would have to bring the church into the blog :) ).

A warning to Wal-Mart, Dell, Apple, contemporary churches, etc.: if you don't stay dynamic and fluid you will become the new "has been." Embrace change for the sake of change.

3. I really, really hope that America will take a serious look at their debt issues through this crisis on a national, corporate and domestic level. When we take two or three serious steps back and take a hard look at what has brought our economy to its knees, it comes down to one four-letter word: DEBT. Too much of life fueled by insatiable greed that causes us to spend money we don't have, on things we don't need, to impress people we don't like.

I enjoy my freedom as a country but I really enjoy it as an individual. I don't want to be anybody's slave, but when we live in debt we become a slave to the one who is our lender (Prov 22:7). No longer can we get up every day and go to work because we want to, because it's our calling, but we must because of debt. It's like the revised song of the seven dwarfs (politically correct: "seven vertically challenged men") might sing: "I owe, I owe, its off to work I go...I owe, I owe, I owe."

Rise up, entrepreneurials, with a respect for God and a sense of sound financial stewardship, and lead us forward.