Tag: Lessons and Musings Page 7 of 21

America, you’ve flexed your muscles on social media this week and proven what a difference millions of people can make when they care about something.  Want to consider some of these other issues in Africa?

1.  Tanzania’s Elephants.  So you are passionate about animals?  Great!  How about getting passionate about Tanzania’s elephants?  Tanzania has seen a 60% decrease in its elephants in the last five years due to poaching.  That’s 85,000 elephants killed and left to rot in only five years, fueled by China’s demand for ivory.

2.  South Africa’s Rhinos.  Not too keen on elephants?  How about rhinos?  One rhino is killed every 8 hours for its horn.  Extinction is near.

3.  Zimbabwe.  Maybe, since it is home to famous lions, it’s actually Zimbabwe you care about?  Well, that country certainly could use it’s own media blitz.  After all, 70% of the population lives on $1.25 a day, yet the president recently orderedthe imprisonment of all street vendors.  Meanwhile, his wife held a lavish birthday party.

4.  Burundi.  How about tiny Burundi?  It’s a neighbor to Tanzania but so small you might never have heard about it.  The president decided that two-term limits are so passe, and chose to run for a third term.   Political instability erupted.  Over 100,000 refugees fled in the last few months, most of them ending up in Tanzania.

5.  Malaria.  Malaria kills 600,000 people a year in Africa, most of them children.  That’s about 1,200 people per day.  Vaccine research has been sparse because, well…..no one contracts malaria in developed countries. So far, vaccine trials have had mixed results.  Anyone want to dump a bucket of water over their head for malaria?

6.  Water.  Speaking of water (the clean kind), most people in sub-Saharan Africa still don’t have access to it.  1.5 million children in Africa die from diarrhea each year.

7.  Boko Haram.  Boko Haram Slits the Throats of Sixteen Christian Fisherman.  That happened yesterday.  Remember #Bringbackourgirls?  They never brought them back.  In fact, they’ve killed, kidnapped, and raped so many more people since then that it’s not even news anymore.

8.  Al-Shabaab.  Remember the 147 university students killed in April?  Remember the attack on the mall in Nairobi?  That was their work.  They’re still at it.

And that’s not even getting into the rampant corruption that’s destroying governments, China’s raping of natural resources in Africa, female circumcision, orphans, HIV, lack of schools, or the Prosperity Gospel.

Sometimes, it’s just easier to worry about a lion.

(Yes, Gil took this picture.  We love lions.)

The day started when one of my kids woke me up a half hour before my alarm.  “My bed is all wet,” the child mourned.

And that was just the beginning.

“Mom!  I spilled my smoothie all over myself.”

“Mom!  Look out the window!  Leo chewed up another patio chair!”  Leo is the dog we recently acquired.  He happens to be the Most Obnoxious Dog on Earth.

“Mom! Daddy says he has a migraine.”

Of course, all of these things were also happening in semi-darkness, since we’re having electricity issues (again) and currently none of our overhead lights are working.

“Grace, go get the fan from your room so that we can try to dry the laundry from yesterday.”  “Mom!  The top of the fan broke off!”  Of course it did.

That was all before 7:15…which is also when I remembered that we had a flat tire, which we had not changed because yesterday it was pouring rain.

The kids were 45 minutes late to school.

I’m with Alexander; I want to move to Australia.

It doesn’t help that this comes during a time when I am battling discouragement.  Ministry isn’t going as well as we had hoped; things are hard; we don’t feel good at this; we feel out of our league.  I have been anxious and emotional.

Then this morning I read, Truth affects our emotions when it is believed.

Yes.  What is the Truth I need to believe today?

His grace is sufficient.  Give thanks in all circumstances.  Cast all your anxiety on him, because he cares for you.  In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.*

Some will say, “Well, that doesn’t work for me.  When I hear truth, it doesn’t have an emotional effect on me.  It doesn’t take away my anxiety”…..If the Bible’s arguments are not having an effect on you, it’s because you have little faith in what it says.  Faith is massively important here.  We must trust.  We must believe what Jesus says.  (John Piper)

If the Bible doesn’t apply to days like today, then it doesn’t apply at all.

Here’s to believing.

* (2 Cor. 2:9, I Thes. 5:18, I Peter 5:7, Prov. 3:6)

A friend and I were discussing a new law in Tanzania that could impact how long foreigners are allowed to live here.  It’s not even in effect yet, and we don’t even know if it would impact us.  But it was a stark reminder that we are visitors here.

I thought for a while about where we would go if for any reason we were forced to return to the States.  It was depressing.  I can’t think of anywhere in America that actually feels like home anymore.  My parents’ house probably comes closest–but only the house, not the neighborhood or the city.  I love many, many people in America–especially California–but that doesn’t make it feel like home.

Dar es Salaam is home now.  We’ve lived here 11 years.  For Gil and I, that’s 11 out of 14 years of marriage.  All of our kids were born here.  Dar es Salaam is certainly not the most pleasant city in the world, or even in Tanzania.  I love a lot about it, but there are aspects to this city that I downright hate…yet it is a familiar hate.  My car goes into auto-pilot, even when dodging goats.  I know the secret to finding ravioli.  I’ve planted memories in a thousand corners.  Not much about this place surprises me anymore.  It is familiar.

It’s strange, though, that I’ve made my home in a country where I have to renew my resident’s visa every two years.  I could, technically, be deported at any immigration officer’s whim.  I will never be allowed to own a house here.  I will never be able to vote.  I stick out on the street and am treated differently from everyone else.  A million events could force us to leave:  a serious illness, a closed ministry opportunity, political unrest.

It’s disconcerting to come to that realization–that this is the place where I feel at home, and yet I will never totally belong here.  It’s been the story of my life, starting in Liberia, then Ethiopia and Kenya, and now Tanzania.  My passport says United States of America, and it’s still part of my identity, but I have no idea what I will do when one day I have to live there.

Sometimes it feels like I am floating five inches above the earth, my roots dangling aimlessly.  Then I remember, Fix your eyes on things above, not on earthly things.  My roots shouldn’t go down into this earth anyway.  I am a foreigner in this country, but more importantly, I am a foreigner on this earth.

For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands….While we are in this tent, we groan and are burdened….so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life.  (2 Corinthians 5)

This life is a only a vapor, and when it is extinguished, that is when I will really go Home.