Sometimes we just don’t understand... Sometimes, we just don’t understand why certain things happen or why other things don’t… Sometimes, the things we hear or the things we see, simply make no sense… Regardless of how much we exercise our ability to reason or stretch our logical legs, we just don’t get it. When the plumber fixes things that were never broken and then returns a week later to sort out the original problem and charges you for the parts… on both occasions… as well as for transport, I don’t understand. When one is asked to pay tourist tax in an active conflict area haha – true story - twice, I don’t understand. When a nation produces some of the most delicious fruit and vegetables I’ve ever tasted, but not a bite is exported, I don’t understand. When one looks around and sees great potential for entrepreneurship, but where fear or war or lack of capital has stunted this kind of development, I don’t understand. When young men are conned into picking up an AK-47 as a way out, or when women remain silent about the most horrific violations, or when villagers starve alongside fertile soil –weary of having their ploughing and sowing and harvesting stolen by soldiers, or when coffee beans... coffee beans are grown, but often allowed to rot as there is simply no market here and no current export market… I just don’t understand!
And I’m okay with not always understanding… I’m okay with the fact that
life immersed in a culture and environment vastly different to the one in which
I grew up is filled with a lack of understanding and I love the process of
learning the customs and traditions that make this culture unique. I’m a
thinker. I’m a ponderer. A questioner (who at school and varsity drove my
classmates mad), but I like to know, to learn, to grow... I like to understand.
And so, not fully understanding is really just a set up… I feel like over and
over and over again as I ‘do life’, I stumble across heavenly set ups,
opportunities for me to start asking questions (and often, as I’m precariously
balanced on the back of a motorbike with no shock-absorbers, speeding over
lava-rock decorated roads, my scarf tightly wrapped around my head to minimise
the amount of black dirt which clings to my moisturiser). Just as discomfort
presses on that part of us which seeks to be comfortable, bringing about an
often very necessary shift; not understanding, tickles all the inward parts of
me that seek to know… And so a series of questions and answers and more
questions and possibilities and dreams begin. The google machine is a great
friend of mine, but has definite limitations (over and above Congo’s limited
connection); Jesus however… He always knows. He always understands. And He
delights to share the strategies of Heaven with those who dare to ask… He is
generous with His answers. He’s generous with satisfying our desire to
understand and He’s generous at pouring out His goodness to alter circumstances
in the natural that they might be aligned with Heaven.
As I sit and listen to the heartbeat of Heaven and catch a glimpse of
what God is doing, as He unrolls the blueprints and strategies, I am reminded
that it’s all for Love. DRCongo is a loved nation, a nation rich (in minerals,
yes, a major contributing factor almost 20 years of the most brutal war), but
also because of the treasures and gifts and talents and ideas which lie within
her people, a people He created for His good pleasure. And though much of this
treasure currently lies dormant, supressed by fear or hopelessness, I continue
to get excited about transformation.
One need only visit one of our schools and engage with our children
as they press through the awkward stages of learning English (for many, their 3rd
or 4th or 5th language) sharing their dreams to travel to
other countries and do business with people who live far away or be teachers or
nurses or doctors. One need only sit with our teachers and observe, they soak
up every word as we dream for the development of critical thinkers and
problem-solvers – raising up a generation of children who are not satisfied
with not understanding, but whose lack of knowledge or understanding prompts
them to ask questions and seek out solutions. One need only stand at the door and greet the 72 boys that showed up, voluntarily, as we launched the ‘Leadership League’ – an opportunity for young men to be discipled, to learn how to read and write and to be encouraged to step into the fullness of all they were created to be – far more than an army could ever offer them – and they get to play football. With real balls as opposed to balls of leaves, sprung with a plastic bag. In uniforms. A very big deal! One need only have lunch with a group of soldiers to know that they’re hungry for more than a meal of beans and rice. They’re hungry to see change. They’re hungry to see war cease and for Congo to rise up and prosper. And though their current strategies may be completely warped, the fact that they’re starting to talk about what life without war would look like. The fact that they’re starting to ask… Powerful! One need only spend time in the hospital wards of Heal Africa, one of our favourite hospitals to visit and feel the atmosphere shift from one of heaviness to joy as Jesus comes in His mercy and in His kindness; bringing words of encouragement to men, women and children – many of whom have been there for so many months that it feels like home – and releasing His healing. He is the answer to pain and discomfort and paralysis and blindness! And we love to watch as the sick encounter His Love and are instantly healed! One need only…
One need only… and you too will be excited for transformation. Expectant
of transformation birthed out of Heaven’s strategies, driven forward by the
Congolese people, and encouraged by those who are unafraid to ask and challenge.
The courage to ask… A powerful catalyst.
Go on, ask Him! And then... once He's whispered His answer, what will you do?
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