4 Year Long Summer
Thursday, May 12, 2011Now this makes for some interesting things as we think about what to bring with us to Africa, what to leave here and were to put it! Like, I have a whole bunch of winter clothes... and well I like them! So what to do with them all, I can leave them here, give them away, drag them across the country and leave them at my sisters house! And then what about my beautiful 30$ picture that I bought at HomeSense. Then to buy any new things that we may need while we are in Africa. So its a bit of a switch up trying to figure out what a place that I have never been to is going to be like, what I will need, and the heart breaking need that we are going to face.
I am so excited to go to the Congo, but many people ask me if I am scared to go... I am not scared to go to the Congo, every Congolese person that I have met has been wonderful, they are always so kind and always so excited that we are going to their country. But even in those Congolese people there is a sorrow that is almost unexplainable, they all speak about how beautiful their country is, and also about the terrible things that are going on there that and they have no idea what to do about it, other then to just pray... to pray for their country and the people still there. Over and over again I continue to read that DRC is the most dangerous place in the world for woman... and that was even before 2 days ago when I report came out stating that it was even worse then they thought.
Photo cred. Nick Czernkovich |
Click for CBC Article
Click for BBC Article
Now if I am scared I would have to say that is what I am scared about. I am scared that I am going to meet these people that I have already come to love as my own, and see their pain and agony and the only thing that I can do is pray.
But that is why we are going, because here in North America we do not understand that pain, we do not understand living in a country that is groaning in agony from years of war, rape and abuse. I don't expect to change the country, but the bible says to take care of the widows and orphans and well, Congo needs people to just hold out their arms to them and say that we love you so much, and that there is hope! Oh, there is hope!
But I am not that hope, Jesus is that hope, oh my heart cries for the hope and healing that he offers the world that people just push away and say they don't want that hope! They blame him for allowing all this to happen in the first place...
And in part they have reason for thinking this way, but we must understand that God created us and gave us the best, and he also gave us the ability to choose and when presented with the option of Good and Evil, we choose evil, and because God is the essence of Good, the payment of that evil is death.* But Jesus came and he said that he would take that penalty of death that we owe. Even though he never committed an evil act or thought an evil thought, he died that death for us. He died that death for Congo. But he still gives all off humanity the choice to choose if we will accept that payment for our dept. But he not only gives us the option to choose to accept that gift or not, but also to choose the steps we walk and the amount of evil we commit. So people all over the world not only in Congo have chosen the amout of evil that is ok for them, but the hope, the hope is in the choice of saying yes to that gift that Jesus offers us.
Nate Saints Plane |
Romans 8:28-37
Do not to miss the first line where it says that "Of those who love God", that choice we are offered is one that makes all the difference. The option for us to Love God.
Now I may be biasd because I am a Christian,** that this hope that God offers is something that is really worth it. However here is a bit from a article written by a atheist:
"Now a confirmed atheist, I've become convinced of the enormous contribution that Christian evangelism makes in Africa: sharply distinct from the work of secular NGOs, government projects and international aid efforts. These alone will not do. Education and training alone will not do. In Africa Christianity changes people's hearts. It brings a spiritual transformation. The rebirth is real. The change is good..." -Matthew Parris Click for full Article
So I do not know what Congo is going to be like, I don't really know what to bring, what I will need or how I will react when confronted with some of the most terrible evils in our world, but what I do know for sure is that for the next 4 years for me it will be summer.
*I am shorting a very long explanation if you are interested in a detailed explanation please read The Problem of Pain by C.S. Lewis or Cries of the Heart by Ravi Zacharias
**I acknowledge and apologize for all of the terrible things that have been done in the name of "Christianity", please do not blame God for those things, it was not God who did them, but man who made that choice of evil.
2 comments
Awesome Post! I love that scripture, and the issue of "Is God good, and if He is, then why did such and such happen" is something a lot of people deal with. We totally understand the what-to-bring part also, we're going thru it right now :)
ReplyDeleteThanks so much for the encouragement!
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