Mid-month news July 2024
Dear Friends,
Give thanks, that I have travelled safely back to my home in Kenya, despite rumblings – as you probably know, there’s been a lot of unrest around the country as a protest to tax-hikes. I look back on a very fruitful 2 months in Tanzania, and thank you for your prayers. I have found that all are well at home.
Speaking about Job
My attending an indigenous church the other day, better helped me to understand the book of Job in the Bible. Job, in the biblical account, when we’d already been told he was very righteous, refused his friends’ attempts at explaining the calamity that befell him with reference to sin they told him he must have committed. Things were very different in this church. The church in some ways resembles a hospital: it is favoured by people with deep problems. Whenever a troubled person stood to be questioned, I found that they would accept every accusation made against them. They would then chase away that ‘bad spirit’. (I very much value attending indigenous churches, especially when they use a language I understand – the Luo language! Sometimes this is because they do things well and in a right way. Often it is because the way they operate clarifies their need for a deeper engagement with the Christian Scriptures! I hope, by God’s grace, to be providing just a little of that ‘deeper engagement’.)
Webinar!
See here for details of our upcoming webinar, 25th July, and to register: AVM Webinar with Natalie Leisher Tickets, Thu 25 Jul 2024 at 14:00 | Eventbrite
‘Always be Ready’
The context is a bit complex, … but let’s say I turned up at an event where the body of a friend of mine was being picked up from our local mortuary to be taken home for burial. I was not on any ‘programme’ … Out of caution, I locked my bike, dug my Bible from deep in my bag, re-attached the bag to the bike, having already prayerfully planned a message to share ‘just in case’. While still locking up my bicycle, a lady whispered ‘no other pastor has come so you will pray’. 2 minutes later I joined them standing around the coffin, and was giving an encouraging 15 minute funeral address to 30 or 40 people.
Why Vulnerable Mission?
Many of you will know that I practice ‘vulnerable mission’. Here is some justification for vulnerable mission, that I recently posted on a church site on facebook:
I wonder, if I offered you £1000 as a reward for doing so, whether you would agree to agree with me in everything that I said at a certain meeting, whether you actually agreed with me or not? If you agreed to take the money, then you would be reflecting a kind of behaviour that is quite common in Africa. The problem is, when a white man is known for having money, so that everyone (pretty much!) may be ready to agree with him so as to get the money, how does one know what people actually value, and what they actually think? How does one know the truth?
The answer is – that you have to work with them without offering any rewards. This is one side of vulnerable mission. Not that you never give anyone anything. But that, when working with key people you permit them to be honest, by not offering any kind of large reward for their agreeing with you. (You will appreciate that working with people who are dishonest is difficult!)
Some things we say in Africa sound strange in English. Like by a widow: “I agreed for him to live with me so that he could build my house without my getting chira, then I will get rid of him.” Widows are unlikely to say things like that in English. Partly this is because they learn English in school, and it is for things like economics and getting a job, not for explaining what is happening in your family. Partly because there is no English word for chira. Partly because they know that in English speaking (Christian) circles having a man live with you temporarily will get you into trouble. Yet, this practice, whereby widows must be inherited by an in-law (after being cleansed sexually by a ‘mad man’ of sorts), needs to be addressed and not ignored by the church, and so by a missionary.
In order to discover that this kind of thing is happening, and then in order to help people to work out solutions to it that make sense to them, one must know the local language. To really know a local language is hard – it requires one using the language at every opportunity.
A problem then arises, if someone uses a local language with one person, but English with another, that is a way of saying that the first person is a bit dum, but the second one is educated. (Education is all in English.) So as not to be judgemental in this way, someone might have to use the local language with local people all the time.
That’s why (well, just a few of the many reasons why) we advocate that ‘some Western missionaries use entirely local languages and resources in some of their key ministry’. This is vulnerable mission.
Plus more …
Once having written something … there is always more to write. One reason I really like to do vulnerable mission, is to avoid racism.
Go to this link for singing at the funeral I recently attended: https://youtu.be/p5HFHdce4MI
It is, frankly, very hard for a person from Europe (typically white) who visits Africa not to become an important dominant person. There are MANY reasons for this. Partly, our history has given us a love for others that is exceptional the world over. Partly, this kind of love gives us connections to people that render us well-to-do.
So, even without wishing it, a white person’s visiting Africa becomes like a racist statement. The visitor ends up better, say, at almost everything (except at understanding and interacting with what is local, which is rather a BIG thing, but local people often cover over this weakness because they hope to get financial reward from you). Remember that Africa imitates Europe! What ‘everyone’ in Africa is imitating … is kind of ‘you and me’ (addressed to Brits). Imitators always tend to be behind. The people imitated ahead …
One way to at least minimize this ongoing superiority and being treated like a god, is to make yourself as not-powerful as possible. Avoiding use of English, and not giving people money (i.e. vulnerable mission) is an important part of this. After all – there are plenty of other people already teaching English, and there is already a vast amount of money coming from the West to Africa all the time. So, why should I join this, a result of which would be all my friends are money friends?
If I was to act like that, it would confirm, yet again, that white people must always live superior lives. This is racism of, really, a very unpleasant if very common kind.
The Happiest Church?
Give thanks for the church that I preached at on Sunday. It was some distance from home. Only one person there knew me. A large church (perhaps 60 adults) in a rural area, following an Anglican tradition. What amazed me, was how joyous was the church! From when I arrived, and chatted to some men standing outside the church. To when we were waiting for the service to begin, and women were breaking out in song. A long healthy service … and then afterwards, people stayed sat in church talking animatedly and laughing … It was quite mind-blowing.
For Prayer
Please do continue to pray for my planned South Africa (Cape Town) trip, from around 22nd August to mid-September. Apart from the conference that I hope to attend, two doors so far have opened for me to give lectures.
Jim
