a beautiful day...
it has been a whirlwind since our last post. We have welcomed numerous guests in the past week, including our missions minister and his wife, and took them and our summer interns to the airport, while another visiting team doing survey work south of town departed for Uganda. We have looked at a couple houses, and suffered through respiratory and stomach issues that, after a few weeks, are finally starting to leave our team.
I have had some depressing days. While there are some positive indications of late, like the receding famine that afflicted the region, slightly improving economic trajectory, and increased availability of mosquito netting, I am starting to see why so many people are terrified at what the future holds here.
To put it bluntly in the words of a tanzanian teacher, "Satan is using HIV/AIDS to destroy the youth of Africa." While all our national attention seems to focus on events in the middle east (another development that grieves me deeply), there is a ticking time bomb that we are sitting on here. Africa is a collection of people that have sustained themselves for thousands of years with elaborate social traditions and rules, and a distinctive orientation toward family and tribe.
As the 30-40 yr. old generation is decimated by HIV, and the youth increasingly turn away from traditional values to the individualism and materialism idealized and marketed by the west, the seeds are being planted for a future social crisis.
And there is no tangible solution.
Also, a partnership we have been working to bridge between a university Physician's Assistant program in the States and the churches we serve here doesn't seem to be materializing. We knew it was a long shot, but we still hoped.
So, why the title of the post?
One, there was no vomiting today, no diarrhea. Two, no mosquitoes inside the net. Three, Josiah and Sadie got along without fighting.
More significantly, for the first time ever, our team here got together to hang out and talk, as we are all free of the guests of summer. We shared our dreams, our resolve to find a way to help the people here better face the poverty around us, and set our eyes to the future.
And I found a great new restaurant here, the Kivulini Kitchen (a swahili word, google for translation). The Kivulini is a women's rights project here in town initiated by a man from Switzerland. The place had real yogurt. I have missed yogurt more than you know. Plus, french bread while we waited. I have missed bread in restaurants. Jason and I sat and waited for the dinner that we were taking home to the families, and dreamed about partnering with organizations like the Kivulini.
BUT, the real reason the day was beautiful:
We shared with Matayo, one of the emerging church leaders here, about the lack of news about the partnership we have been hoping for. We wished he hadn't asked, as he speaks for a people of desperate medical needs, and we knew his discouragement would be hundreds of times greater than our own. But his response--insightful, convicting, persevering, genuine--both humbled me and gave me hope:
"someone will come. our churches have been praying for months. someone will come."
Oh, that I might have the faith of this man. A man with nothing, but with so much to share.
it has been a whirlwind since our last post. We have welcomed numerous guests in the past week, including our missions minister and his wife, and took them and our summer interns to the airport, while another visiting team doing survey work south of town departed for Uganda. We have looked at a couple houses, and suffered through respiratory and stomach issues that, after a few weeks, are finally starting to leave our team.
I have had some depressing days. While there are some positive indications of late, like the receding famine that afflicted the region, slightly improving economic trajectory, and increased availability of mosquito netting, I am starting to see why so many people are terrified at what the future holds here.
To put it bluntly in the words of a tanzanian teacher, "Satan is using HIV/AIDS to destroy the youth of Africa." While all our national attention seems to focus on events in the middle east (another development that grieves me deeply), there is a ticking time bomb that we are sitting on here. Africa is a collection of people that have sustained themselves for thousands of years with elaborate social traditions and rules, and a distinctive orientation toward family and tribe.
As the 30-40 yr. old generation is decimated by HIV, and the youth increasingly turn away from traditional values to the individualism and materialism idealized and marketed by the west, the seeds are being planted for a future social crisis.
And there is no tangible solution.
Also, a partnership we have been working to bridge between a university Physician's Assistant program in the States and the churches we serve here doesn't seem to be materializing. We knew it was a long shot, but we still hoped.
So, why the title of the post?
One, there was no vomiting today, no diarrhea. Two, no mosquitoes inside the net. Three, Josiah and Sadie got along without fighting.
More significantly, for the first time ever, our team here got together to hang out and talk, as we are all free of the guests of summer. We shared our dreams, our resolve to find a way to help the people here better face the poverty around us, and set our eyes to the future.
And I found a great new restaurant here, the Kivulini Kitchen (a swahili word, google for translation). The Kivulini is a women's rights project here in town initiated by a man from Switzerland. The place had real yogurt. I have missed yogurt more than you know. Plus, french bread while we waited. I have missed bread in restaurants. Jason and I sat and waited for the dinner that we were taking home to the families, and dreamed about partnering with organizations like the Kivulini.
BUT, the real reason the day was beautiful:
We shared with Matayo, one of the emerging church leaders here, about the lack of news about the partnership we have been hoping for. We wished he hadn't asked, as he speaks for a people of desperate medical needs, and we knew his discouragement would be hundreds of times greater than our own. But his response--insightful, convicting, persevering, genuine--both humbled me and gave me hope:
"someone will come. our churches have been praying for months. someone will come."
Oh, that I might have the faith of this man. A man with nothing, but with so much to share.
posted by Kevin at 11:17 AM
2 Comments:
Kevin,
Everytime I read your posts I am left feeling heartbroken and humbled, and jealous. I hope this finds you well, I can't tell you how much I enjoy reading your posts...it helps me still feel connected. Email me your cell phone number, I have an internet phone that will let me call you.
Kevin,
I really appreciate your honesty in blogging. I'm hoping to help some with the university program you mentioned, and I'm sorry for you and the people of Mwanza that it won't be there (but hopeful for the good it will do in its new location). I hope your longing for being active and productive is assuaged one way or the other. God bless!
Post a Comment
<< Home