Mid-month news May 2024

Mid-month news May 2024
By Jim Harries, 10th May 2024 jimoharries@gmail.com

See this video https://youtube.com/shorts/mYqXzRtICtg?feature=share for dramatizing of Palm Sunday at the Coptic church in Maseno. I often teach the Bible to many of those involved in this drama.

‘No Bible Schools in Kenya’

‘There are no Bible schools in Kenya at which I can teach God’s word’, I explained to my colleague. He looked puzzled. I was partly reflecting, and partly explaining to him, why I brought children I had reared in Kenya to a Bible college in Tanzania, rather than to one in Kenya.
‘The difference is, that here we teach using Swahili.’ (Even in Tanzania, we are only allowed to do this, because the academic level of the bible college is low. By law, all accredited higher education in Tanzania also has to be in English.) ‘When I teach God’s word using Swahili, then it becomes possible for me actually to teach God’s word.’ I explained.
My friend was still giving me blank looks! I went on explaining. ‘I am an Englishman. English is my native language. But, life in England is very different from that in East Africa. When I use English, then I cannot help but speak ‘from’ the English context. East Africans don’t know about that context. So … I end up either confusing them, or constantly explaining why I say what I say as I say it. Doing the latter is not teaching the Bible, it is teaching people about England!’
After more blank looks I went on: ‘I bring children here who I have reared in Kenya. At home, they know me as if (as much as possible) I’m their African father, but with a different skin colour. Were they to find me behaving like a white man, like teaching using English, and other ‘’European behaviours” that I won’t mention, frankly I think they’d be shocked. Shocked, that is, at how “strange” I am, or will have become. That might be, just by my behaviour if I am with fellow Brits. But also by the strange things I say, that won’t make sense without long explanations. Those explanations, things I’d have to say for them to understand how I was presenting God’s word using English, would be all about English language, culture, traditions, history, and so on.’
So, because all Bible schools in Kenya operate using English, which would force me to teach about England, the place I have found where I can actually teach about God, is Tanzania.

The larger picture

While I write many and diverse things … I do not want to fail to make supporters aware of the ‘large issues’ which I and others in the AVM (Alliance for Vulnerable Mission) are facing, fronting, and confronting.

These days many people make a fuss about issues like human rights. Sometimes or often this, to me, is like raising a smokescreen that will prevent people from realising other things that are happening. I write much about Africa, in relation to the West. Some people find I am too quick to criticise the West. Well – much credit is due to the West, but that doesn’t mean they should stop listening to others, and it is time for them (us Westerners) to get our heads out of the sand.
Secular liberal Godlessness is a big fat lie being perpetuated by many. Perhaps some of the big players naively think they are doing the right thing? Some are likely to be more aware than others of ways in which global policy is ringing the death knell for Africa. But they stay silent. This silence shouldn’t be allowed.
Human rights, financial donations, globalization, are all being used to conceal the very real issues that continue to beset Africa, that are mostly not being addressed at all. That is issues of worldview, culture, religion (you might say), superstition (perhaps), tradition. Vast barriers African people constantly face that prevent them becoming partners in global affairs, are being kept out of sight by constant prohibition of honesty in the interest of not being racist or politically incorrect. The African man-on-the-ground suffers. (While his leaders are being paid hush money.)
You sent me to be a missionary to Africa. Myself, and a growing team, are constantly trying to bring correction to the above terrible driving on the side of global governance. More influence needs to be brought to bear. I am sorry if this ‘clashes’ with the more comfortable understandings the West has put together about the future for Africa. An urgent return to Christ, to God, to the Bible is needed – not while ignoring, but in the light of, things going on globally today.

Anti-Racism

I in my last news mentioned my basic aim in my missionary work: not to be racist. Anti-racist efforts in the West actually make it very easy to be racist as a missionary in Africa. That is – to come across as very superior to indigenous people. (In the West African people’s weaknesses are hidden. This helps people not to be racist about them. Meanwhile, Western people being in charge, things still run OK. In much of Black Africa, we discover what happens when African people ARE in charge. This can make Westerners glow by comparison. So, ironically, anti-racism in the West, creates gross racism in Africa.) Westerners learning about the practices that lead to sin, such as people wanting to listen to the dead, helps them to understand what is going on in Africa. This can help missionaries to know how they should be doing their ministry.
To illustrate this: If one says (in the West) that African people cannot do rationality because they are caught up in fear of spirits, one is considered racist. So, instead of fear of spirits being addressed (for example, by faith in a loving God), this fear is ignored. When so ignored, it continues to handicap African people, especially those in Africa, who cannot benefit so directly from the largesse of Western people in the West. (Earnings in Africa tend to be between 1/10th to 1/40th of what they are in the West.) This is like intentionally keeping African people poor and ignorant! I believe as Christians we should not be doing this!

Maybe I can share something of the challenges I am facing here …

I arrived at the Bible school here Sunday evening without a clue as to what I am to teach. Now I have been given 2 courses, each meeting 3x per week, for 50 minutes, for 5 weeks. One is on the Torah (the first five books of the Old Testament). The other is on the Minor Prophets (the last 12 books of the Old Testament). Teaching was to begin the following day!
Not much time to prepare … but maybe that’s best? It is very tempting to get a book on ‘the minor prophets’ written in America, and teach it. So also for Torah. But that’s likely not the best strategy. It results in teaching these books as if one is in America. Here in Africa, I should be teaching that which is relevant to the African context …

14p – the smallest currency

Intriguingly to me, both Kenyans and Tanzanians, are refusing small currency! In Kenya, most businesses refuse to buy or sell anything for less than KSh5, which is about 3p. Now in Tanzania, everything seems to be priced in multiples of TSh500, which is about 14p. There are exceptions … but most things, whether they are worth 3p, 10p, 14p, or 20p, are simply sold for 14p. The reason, presumably, to avoid faffing around with small change, and to keep life (and maths) simple.

To see this news online go to: jim-mission.org.uk

Jim