Five lessons from Africa

January 15, 2014 | God at work in the World
Dan Unrau |
Sister Sophia was full of thanks for the work that Mennonite Central Committee had done in her commu-nity and for the work it would do in the future.

Last year, a Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) Learning Tour group—including the author—visited Ethiopia and Uganda to get a grasp of MCC’s work and its effectiveness in the holy work of being the church as Jesus’ hands and feet in places of need.

• “Oh my God! Oh my God!” gushed Sister Sophia meeting us as we disembarked from our bus.

The nun in her sky-blue habit wasn’t taking God’s name in vain, but was effusively thanking the Lord that the “good people” (her words) from MCC had come to bless her, pray with her and encourage her anew.

“Thank you! Thank you, for enabling 30 girls to be students here, and for the science labs that you built and equipped for us some years ago. And thank you, too, in advance, for what MCC can yet do to help us deliver the next two levels of high school education for our girls, so that they will be able to go to university,” she shouted after us as we boarded the bus renewed in our compassion and faith by this remarkable woman.

• “Have there been any unexpected results from the food security program that MCC has partnered with the relief and development wing of the Meserete Kristos Church here in Boricha, Ethiopia?” someone asked Frew, the impressive, young administrator of the program.

“Besides feeding people, empowering people, educating people, and giving farmers and families new hope,” he said with a smile, “we have planted 11 churches.”

• The shout of “Asante asana”(“Thank you very much”) and accompanying rhythmic hand clapping exploded into the air of the tense confines of the stuffy meeting room. Someone had just said a kind word about the reconciliation work being done in the overcrowded family barracks of the Kampala police headquarters, and the response was spontaneous.

The visiting MCC delegation, with members of Alarm, a ministry of reconciliation committed to bringing some peace in and around the too-often feared and sometimes disreputable police force, not only heard the good news of progress being made in the barracks, but received an invitation to “bring more of your peace” to other police precincts in the country as well.

• Four women, enveloped in their layers of traditional Ethiopian dress, sat against the end wall of a room as our group filed around tables with cups of steaming tea in our hands. The rain beating down on the tin roof tried to drown out the stories of the women, who seemed shy, humble, self-conscious and uncomfortable until it came time for each of them to tell their personal stories.

Then as each of them stood in turn to talk of their experiences of living with HIV/AIDS, they “lit up” as if plugged into a higher power, and told of the blessings of the ministry that had provided them with anti-retroviral drugs that enabled them to rise from their beds and work. They spoke of receiving nutrition counselling and small loans to start their own businesses, all of which allowed them to send their children to school—even college, in two cases—and, what was more, save the equivalent of a loonie per month for future needs. Their eyes reflected joy, and their words of “Praise the Lord” expressed gratitude to God.

• Misrak Addis Meserete Kristos Church began to fill a half-hour before the first note of music sounded. The large crowd made up of people mostly under 30 sat to privately pray while waiting for the service to begin.

And when it did, we sang only one congregational song for 45 minutes! Verse after verse was interspersed with a repeated chorus: “My purpose on earth is to worship you / If I don’t worship you, O Jesus, I have no place on this earth.” We found we didn’t need a variety in songs, for the energy, intensity and emotion rose and fell during periods of lament and joy, tongues and tears, ululating and groans.

This was worship. This was devotion. While we couldn’t understand the words, what these worshippers were saying, feeling, celebrating and crying out for was unmistakable: The chief end of all humans is “to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever” (Westminster Shorter Catechism).

Dan Unrau of Richmond B.C. is a semi-retired pastor.

--Posted Jan. 15, 2014

Sister Sophia was full of thanks for the work that Mennonite Central Committee had done in her commu-nity and for the work it would do in the future.

Dan Unrau

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