End-month news January 2025
jimoharries@gmail.com
Wanted – Book-keeper
First, many many thanks to Peter Stagg. Now retired and into his 70s, Peter has been a wonderful support for over 10 years, in keeping Jim’s finance straight and keeping Jim accountable.
I am looking for someone to take over this role, as from April 2025. Conditions: Pay – out of this world. Hours – possibly 3 per month. Seriously, anyone willing, please come back to me on jimoharries@gmail.com .
Revamped website!
Please visit jim-mission.org.uk, my personal website, when you can, if you want to see that it has been upgraded and revamped! (It is not up to the standard of modern sophisticated websites, but better than it was.) Give thanks for this improved standard, which I could do as a Christian website innovator concerned for global mission was able to help me out. (More changes still coming!)
Tanzania trip.
Please be in prayer for my next Tanzania trip. I am to teach for two weeks at certificate level at a Mennonite Bible college in Musoma, Tanzania, 10th to 21st February 2025.
Transition Event
Our formal transition event, marking the handover of the leadership of the AVM on my part, to Dr. Marcus Grohmann, will be on 6th February. It will be marked by two hour-long events. First, one in English, then later, one in German. The events are invitation-only. (If you would like an invitation to one or the other, please let me know)
‘Don’t Care Too Much’
One thing has often struck me, that is hard to get your head around. … Many years ago, I was with a British visitor, who sat for breakfast with two African boys, aged between 7 and 10. This man had made prior visits to this part of Africa, and had developed some affection for these boys. There he sat between them at the table, fussing over them! He got a slice of bread for one, carefully put on margarine, and then peanut butter (was it?), before passing this to one of them. Then he made a sandwich for the other. Meanwhile, fussing that they eat properly, whether they wanted more, while totally absorbed in the task of spreading more bread for the boys.
Sitting at the table, I was shocked! I was also shocked by the fact that I was shocked! I did not interfere, or tell my colleague anything, but something in me was telling me that what he was doing was very wrong! I think I can explain myself as follows: There is, what would in UK be considered a ‘tradition’ in the Africa known to me, of making sure children were kept in their place. Food and other things are assumed to be in short supply. Adults should be respected. Hence, while adults (especially men) sit at the table, small children sit in a row on the floor in the kitchen. The way they are handed their food, seems from a British way of thinking, paternalistic and uncaring. As if children are a nuisance to be kept down, rather than valued. This means, as a Brit living in Africa, I have to undo ways I am used to wanting to care for children, and force myself to appear to consider them of little value!
The same principle extends more widely. Often it concerns mosquito nets. I sleep under a mosquito net. Whenever I do without one, the chances are that a wee mosquito will buzz in my ear around 2.00am and wake me up. So, it seems to me, that if ever we have visitors, I need to make sure I provide a mosquito net for them also. But others in my home, although they may give lip service to using mosquito nets, don’t really care.
In so many ways, I have had to train myself, to treat people disrespectfully, as it might appear from a British way of thinking, because not to do so would be misunderstood in my African contexts. Is it any wonder that when I come back to the UK, some people may struggle with my behaviours???
You might think, that I am here to teach people how to do things in the right way! (I.e., the British way.) I know that many think like that – the West is the model for Africa to imitate. And many do imitate the West in various ways. Behaving like a Brit when one is in Africa though, soon causes problems. Short-termers may not notice … but those who hang around for longer will. Like, you can become a ‘hero figure’ for the UK, but then have to live separately from local people who can’t put up with how you do things.
Multiculturalism
There is a lot of debate going on these days about multiculturalism, and other contemporary ideologies, as related to immigration, and so on. Most people setting the course of the debates live in contexts governed / ruled by Western people. Things can be very different if, say, one lives in countries where Africans call the shots. Hence the debates are naïve in certain key areas. If they were to become familiar with these ‘missing insights’, their approach would be transformed! Here are some suggestions about some such insights:
Does the West Want to Learn from Majority World (African) Christians? A Puzzle.
https://www.academia.edu/attachments/120685538/download_file?s=portfolio
Priestcraft and Protestants
Many, supposedly Protestant (i.e., not Catholic) churches in parts of Africa known to me, retain a very ‘high’ view of the Priesthood. This is only one thing, that frequently has me question (in discussion with missions’ experts in the West) whether they can really be considered ‘Protestant’. The other main thing – is that Protestants, from the Reformation in the 16th Century on, have believed that people should learn God’s Word in their own languages. Yet, almost all Protestants in Africa today are guided theologically through European languages.
Back to Priesthood. I was very struck by a certain experience I had a few weeks ago. I was invited, with other church leaders, to a certain family home, after church on Sunday. After praying and some polite conversation, we were told that a son of the home had just had a job interview. Having completed college, they now very much wanted to get this employment. So, we had been asked to come to the home, so as to provide the prayers that would make a difference. The said son was far away, in Nairobi I believe. So we called him, were introduced to him on the phone, and he shared his need for prayer, having attended an interview. Two of us ‘priests’ (jodolo) were given the role of actually praying, down the phone to him with others overhearing, in a very formal way. Each of us then received a fizzy drink as reward for our service, which translated from the Luo language, was a ‘Priestly service’ (tich dolo).
Almost-stolen Bicycle
I had parked my bicycle against a hedge across from the church I visited. I had locked it to a tree! When I came out, I could only see half the bicycle – it had been dragged from the other side of the hedge! When I got there, the lock had been cut. Had I been delayed another minute or more … I can only guess that my bicycle would have been gone!
Flooded Harbours
I recently crossed over 6 miles or so of Lake Victoria, to visit the island of Mageta. I note many buildings continue to be submerged. Rising lake-levels in recent years have caught many development planners on-the-hop.
Immigration
Please be in prayer, as I am currently in the process of re-applying for a work permit, to enable me to continue my ministry here in Kenya (Tanzania) for the next three years.
Gratefully,
Jim
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