Thursday, May 14, 2009

For God So Loved the World...

Two days ago, I returned from a church mission trip to Kenya. I have returned home with my head still spinning. Thirteen of our church members joined with seven other Americans and forty African nationals in an effort to share the good news of Jesus with the people in the area of Makindu, Kenya. The thirty-two churches we were partnering with had prepared well. We saw great results and the hand of God at work in the experiences of each day.

We also saw the third world. Transitioning from the suburbs of north Dallas to that world is strange. Transitioning from that world back to the land of the "rich, young ruler" is stranger still. The people I spent time with lived in houses made of tree branches and mud with thatched roofs. They cooked all their meals over open fires. I visited families within a five mile radius of the Muambani Baptist Church where my efforts were centered. None of them had electricty. None of them had running water or a water well. I found less than a dozen who had ever seen a television, computer, or movie.

The people asked questions about America. "We have heard that the houses are close together in America. Where do you have to take your goats for grazing?" They asked, "How far to do you have to walk to fill water jugs for your home?" and "Do you know Obama?" They couldn't begin to grasp life in America and how dramatically different it is from their own lives. I feel certain that if you dropped them into our culture and took them to a movie with special effects or into a Walmart, their heads would simply explode.

In one day I encountered several of the things typical on the African continent - AIDS, malaria, typhoid, and tuberculosis. Infant mortality rates are high. Life expectancy is low. Education is so far behind the western world is hard to imagine how they could ever catch up. On top of all that, a drought is severe in Kenya with little measureable rainfall in two years. Relief organizations are keeping people alive (especially in urban centers). Animals are dying in rural areas.

The most famous verse in the Bible may be John 3:16. It says, "For God so loved the world, that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in him, should not perish, but have eternal life." For nine days we were on the ground telling that story and loving people Jesus gave His life for. We worked on some of the other things too and there remains much more to be done. An affluent suburban world can't ignore a rural, sick, uneducated, primitive third world. Jesus loves them too.

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