Well I debated for a brief moment whether or not this week's blog
should be about our citizenship in the New Jerusalem (in other words, an
elaboration on Sunday's sermon - click here to listen to that sermon) or about my trip to Uganda. But after a brief
bit of internal debate I decided that the two were really one and the same. My
trip to Uganda actually demonstrates the points made in the sermon that all of
us who are in Christ are really one people.
The people of Bwera, Uganda could not possibly be more different
than you and I - at least from the world's perspective. We live in modern homes complete with every
essential and just about every available amenity. They live in mud huts not usually larger than
300 square feet in size - many without doors.
We have jobs and 401ks - or if we don't then we have welfare. They are for the most part subsistence farmers barely surviving and the average person on welfare in
America would be considered wealthy in their culture. We turn on the kitchen sink and
flush the toilet without thought. They
hike roughly a mile one way to the river for their water and we will not even
discuss their sanitary situation except to say that the best case scenario is a
hole in the ground separated from the rest of the home by a bamboo
partition. Many do not even have that
luxury. We drink our water without thought of its cleanliness - and when we do
get sick, we have ready access to medical care.
They are a people who suffer from many (preventable) sicknesses. Most of
their sicknesses are related to contaminated water, general unsanitary
conditions, and malaria. Unfortunately,
regular affordable medical care is simply unavailable. And it is not that the care is too
expensive. Very small amounts of money
to you and I bring untold medical access... The problem is that they don't even
have that small amount of money.
Why is it so bad? I will
get to that in a moment...
But first, let me say that despite these drastic worldly
differences, I've never felt so welcome and at home as I did with the believers
in Bwera Uganda. We have everything in
common. Our common love in Christ made
for an immediate bonding and affection between us that was just as shocking to
them as it was to us. Bishop Tom Kiiza
told me that his people just kept saying how kind and loving and accepting we
were - while our team kept saying the same thing about them. Our oneness in Christ created an immediate
bond between us. There were no civil
rights stigmas between us, so there was no white or black, no African or
American, no rich or poor - just Christians ministering to one another. We were one people- the people of God. We were just as blessed by them as they were
by us. The unity among the diversity
was to me an example of what it will be like in the resurrection. Together we were a foreshadowing of the City
of God.
So why are they still in such horrid physical conditions? Because they are exiles and sojourners in a
hostile world. Enough money has been
poured into Africa over the last half century to more than solve world poverty. The problem is that Africa is part of the
world system, full of human failings such as corruption. If America had not
been founded on Christian principles, we might be in the same boat as
they. How does the proverb go? There but the grace of God....
There are lots of good, Godly people in Africa trying to make a
difference. They are being salt and
light in their dark world. They promote
spiritual growth, education, sustainability, and the common good - all
Christian principles- but they are doing so in world that is by nature hostile
to God and the common good in general.
Our team from Designs for Hope (www.designsforhope.org) did what we could do in a small amount of time with a
relatively small amount of money. We did a free 3-day health clinic to ease
some of their sicknesses. We provided
water filtration to help them avoid some of their future sicknesses. We visited schools to promote education and
share the gospel. We provided bicycle
generators to help their pastors and evangelists further the gospel. And we held theological training to foster
ongoing spiritual discipleship.
As fellow workers in Christ, this is how two drastically
different people work as one people to advance the gospel of Christ. We may be citizens of the US while they are
citizens of Uganda. However, that is secondary
to the indisputable truth that we are first and foremost a single race - the
children of God - citizens of the City of God.
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