Mid-month news 2024 January
Webinar! Welcome!
Webinar, 25th January, free, Andy McCullough ‘Demons Come Back’, details: https://www.vulnerablemission.org/quarterly-webinar
Christmas Day
‘So what was Christmas day like for you’, someone might ask …? One thing that characterises Christmas day around here, is there being a lot of people ‘walking around.’ Many seem to take Christmas as the day to walk all over, up and down the street kind of thing. Kids are often eating lollies, biscuits, etc. Many of the people around do not know me, as they are only here for a week or two every year, from one of Kenya’s towns or cities. This makes my cycling along these roads a particularly peculiar experience. Young people especially, but also old, constantly comment like: ‘there’s that white man again’ or ‘Hi!’ (said mockingly) or ‘White man!’ or ‘How are you?’ or ‘Look at him!’, and so on. People jeer and laugh at me as I go by, as if I shouldn’t be there.
Report
I was amazed to find this report in a newsletter of a medical-missionary friend, who is ministering in my home area:
“An update on a blind lady I mentioned previously: I received a donation that would enable her operation. But Peter’s mum was nowhere. After 2 weeks I went to see her. I was told that she’s moved away. She hadn’t left a phone number. The landlord knew me, knew we were willing to help and said: These people (by which he meant “her tribe”) don’t believe in “just illness” but “there must be more to it”. So Peter’s mum probably went back to where they believe that too. Of course it’s HER life and maybe she didn’t believe our promise to help her, but knowing it would have been so easy to give her eyes back, I found it frustrating. It wasn’t the first time I had experienced this with patients. But even more frustrating because her little son was also “attached” to her. Somehow self-imposed darkness in its perfection.”
The above illustrates the kind of ‘dilemma’ we are often in as we minister in Africa. That is: medical assistance seems the most helpful and the most urgent, but unless people’s faith is transformed (away from belief that they’ve been bewitched), which is what a genuine acceptance of the Gospel of Jesus does, medical services don’t stick.
Ayaan Hirsi Ali
I have recently come across the work of Somali-born Ayaan. Reared a Muslim, she became a Christian in 2023. Click here to find out how she advocates for a re-Christianisation of Europe and the West. I was very glad also to discover that Ayaan echoes my thoughts on anti-racism. Click here to hear her speak on anti-racism as a cudgel being used to bludgeon people into silence. (Click on the image of my book to find out how to get your copy. Click here for some discussion on my book, and here for more on Ayaan and my book!)
Zambian Scholarship
Give Thanks! I am very grateful for an ongoing conversation I am having, that has already gone on for weeks, with a Zambian scholar, living near where I once lived in Zambia. Discussion often brings new things to light. One thing that has become plain to me, is how ‘difficult’ the concept of corruption makes life for Africans who use English. This term ‘corruption’ is widely used to refer to the effect of African ways of life on the way they should be doing things according to the West. In effect then, if using English, African people are likely to have to refer to their own ways of life as ‘corruption’. (The underlying assumption is that British ways of life are the extant global-norm, if only it weren’t for ‘corruption’.)
Departed
A very valued Egyptian friend and colleague, whom I taught Swahili, recently announced that he is leaving the mission field. He recently got married, and now the pressure of the prospect of rearing a family is, presumably, particularly responsible for his looking for ‘greener pastures’. Give thanks for the time that he served. His departure underlines again, the sheer difficulty of ministry in this part of Africa.
Paul Planted, Apollos Watered, but GOD.
Jim’s latest (co-edited) book.
I think this is a fantastic book! (Although, I may be a little biased.) A total of twelve scholars contribute chapters, pointing to the key importance of engaging Christian mission from a position of vulnerability. The book sells for just £24. Kindle price: $10.
Please pray for my home church here in Kenya, for a good leadership team to come together. Give thanks: as I am making plans for two months later in the year doing Bible teaching, mostly at Bible colleges, in Tanzania later this year. Give thanks, that I have taken on another child, to help her finish her secondary schooling. Give thanks for so many wonderful things that God is doing!
Jim