Life at 0 degrees 38 minutes North Latitude
Last summer I wrote an article a few miles south of the Artic Circle in Northwest Alaska.
As I write this article I am 43 miles north of the equator on the Kenyan border with Uganda in East Africa.
I have traveled here to visit and teach in some of the churches that Ruth and I helped plant on the continent of Africa.
It has been a very busy time as well as a humbling time for me as I fellowship with these African Christians. These folks come to church with two purposes, to worship the Lord and be taught his Word. They expect no sugar coated gospel because they want to grow and mature in their faith so that one day when they stand before him they will not be ashamed. (A stark contrast to American Christians). They rejoice when the teachings exhort and convict them.
One Sunday morning I gave a very hard teaching on how husbands should love their wives. You may not think that this teaching would be applicable to these folks but in a culture where the husband must purchase his wife from her father, the relationship between the husband and wife tends to be one of ownership rather than partnership. The going rate for a good wife in the area where I am is eight cows plus some cash. The young man must actually buy the cows and take them to the father-in-law to be and present them to him. If the father-in-law lives in a town he then will sell them for cash. Tribal traditions still run deep in that he must receive the cows as a commitment of the young man’s sincerity regarding his daughter. He wants half of them before the marriage and he will accept the other half after the marriage takes place. There is to be no default on the agreement as the tribal laws are all in the favor of the father. Incidentally, a cow costs about $100. They are mostly horns and hide with very little meat under the hide.
The congregation received the teaching very well. I got lots of affirmation in smiles and nods from the women, but it wasn’t until that afternoon that I got any indication as to how the men received it. I was resting in the pastor’s house when the pastor told me that there were about 20 married men waiting for me in the church.
As I walked into the building my heart was humbled when I realized they had been waiting for me for nearly an hour so that I could give them further instruction and encouragement. I got them together in a group and pulled up a chair and taught them for another hour as to what God expects of them as husbands and fathers according to the Word of God.
When I consider that some of these people walk up to 5 miles and some bicycle two hours to get to church, I am taken back. One pastor and his friend from one of our other churches rode their bicycles to the church on that afternoon. As I was talking to them after our meeting he told me that they would have to push their bicycles most of the way home since it was uphill and the walking paths were rough and sandy. It would take them two hours to get home and they didn’t think that they would arrive before 8:00. Half of their journey would be in the dark.
The expressions on their faces as they lean toward me to catch every word is one of almost fear that I may cut my teaching short.
Once a month the churches hold all night prayer meetings to pray for the needs of the people. The pastor told me of the last meeting at his church where some people from a village about 6 miles away brought a young girl who was paralyzed on her left side and blind in her left eye. The congregation prayed for her and she walked home and went to school the next day. Now there are several people who come to the church from that community.
One of the things that sadden me as I get to know these people is their battle with Malaria. We are not far from Lake Victoria, the headwaters of the mighty Nile River. There are lots of mosquitoes in this area and they carry Malaria. Since I will be here for only two weeks I can take a Malaria preventative, but for those who live here they don’t have that option since the preventatives are very hard on one’s kidneys if taken long term. As a result, they all have or will get Malaria. There is no cure once you have it, it tends to reoccur frequently. The symptoms are high fever, headache, and diarrhea. It must be treated with Quinine. It is especially hard on young children with a 50% chance that children will die before they reach the age of 5.
The pastor of one of our churches has two children, their first child died from Malaria at 6 months and the wife lost another while she suffered from Malaria during the pregnancy. During my stay with them, both of his children had Malaria as well as the wife.
One of the things that stands out after having spent two weeks in this city of thirty thousand plus people is that I only saw two over weight people among the thousands I met on the streets everyday.
As I write this article I am 43 miles north of the equator on the Kenyan border with Uganda in East Africa.
I have traveled here to visit and teach in some of the churches that Ruth and I helped plant on the continent of Africa.
It has been a very busy time as well as a humbling time for me as I fellowship with these African Christians. These folks come to church with two purposes, to worship the Lord and be taught his Word. They expect no sugar coated gospel because they want to grow and mature in their faith so that one day when they stand before him they will not be ashamed. (A stark contrast to American Christians). They rejoice when the teachings exhort and convict them.
One Sunday morning I gave a very hard teaching on how husbands should love their wives. You may not think that this teaching would be applicable to these folks but in a culture where the husband must purchase his wife from her father, the relationship between the husband and wife tends to be one of ownership rather than partnership. The going rate for a good wife in the area where I am is eight cows plus some cash. The young man must actually buy the cows and take them to the father-in-law to be and present them to him. If the father-in-law lives in a town he then will sell them for cash. Tribal traditions still run deep in that he must receive the cows as a commitment of the young man’s sincerity regarding his daughter. He wants half of them before the marriage and he will accept the other half after the marriage takes place. There is to be no default on the agreement as the tribal laws are all in the favor of the father. Incidentally, a cow costs about $100. They are mostly horns and hide with very little meat under the hide.
The congregation received the teaching very well. I got lots of affirmation in smiles and nods from the women, but it wasn’t until that afternoon that I got any indication as to how the men received it. I was resting in the pastor’s house when the pastor told me that there were about 20 married men waiting for me in the church.
As I walked into the building my heart was humbled when I realized they had been waiting for me for nearly an hour so that I could give them further instruction and encouragement. I got them together in a group and pulled up a chair and taught them for another hour as to what God expects of them as husbands and fathers according to the Word of God.
When I consider that some of these people walk up to 5 miles and some bicycle two hours to get to church, I am taken back. One pastor and his friend from one of our other churches rode their bicycles to the church on that afternoon. As I was talking to them after our meeting he told me that they would have to push their bicycles most of the way home since it was uphill and the walking paths were rough and sandy. It would take them two hours to get home and they didn’t think that they would arrive before 8:00. Half of their journey would be in the dark.
The expressions on their faces as they lean toward me to catch every word is one of almost fear that I may cut my teaching short.
Once a month the churches hold all night prayer meetings to pray for the needs of the people. The pastor told me of the last meeting at his church where some people from a village about 6 miles away brought a young girl who was paralyzed on her left side and blind in her left eye. The congregation prayed for her and she walked home and went to school the next day. Now there are several people who come to the church from that community.
One of the things that sadden me as I get to know these people is their battle with Malaria. We are not far from Lake Victoria, the headwaters of the mighty Nile River. There are lots of mosquitoes in this area and they carry Malaria. Since I will be here for only two weeks I can take a Malaria preventative, but for those who live here they don’t have that option since the preventatives are very hard on one’s kidneys if taken long term. As a result, they all have or will get Malaria. There is no cure once you have it, it tends to reoccur frequently. The symptoms are high fever, headache, and diarrhea. It must be treated with Quinine. It is especially hard on young children with a 50% chance that children will die before they reach the age of 5.
The pastor of one of our churches has two children, their first child died from Malaria at 6 months and the wife lost another while she suffered from Malaria during the pregnancy. During my stay with them, both of his children had Malaria as well as the wife.
One of the things that stands out after having spent two weeks in this city of thirty thousand plus people is that I only saw two over weight people among the thousands I met on the streets everyday.
posted by Jim Burton at 11:52 AM
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