Hello!
I hope you're all well; thank you for your emails again! And thank you (I
think) for all of your peanut butter sandwich concoctions. You're all
quite mad but I still like you. Here's another email to give you some snap
shots of life in Zambia!
One of my hopes in coming here is being met more than I could imagine;
that is, my students are actually teaching me so many things. I am
learning what it is to tell a teenager (orphaned) who sees her hope in
prostitution, about real hope. I am learning what it is to tell someone
dying of Aids about the God of love who does not punish. I am learning
what it means to say 'God is good' to the youth where the only good he has
experienced in life is the stuff he smokes and sniffs at night. I am
learning about courage in the face of fear, about hope in the face of
death, about love in the face of violence, about self-value in the face of
abuse.
When you talk about the God of love here, it seems to mean so much more
than back home. When you live each day on a knife edge, when each day is a
battle, when you're swept up in a wave of injustice and when you have just
lost all self-esteem, to be told that God loves you has the power to break
you and make you whole at once.
But, working against this message, is the belief that God punishes people
today through illness and suffering. 'God' seems to be everywhere - most
noticeably on the backs of buses which proclaim 'Jesus Rules!'. But God is
also in suffering and sickness - not in sympathy with or alongside the
person - but because He is the reason for many miseries - HIV, sickness,
barrenness, failure, etc etc. This idea permeates all of life; it is in
the very fabric of society. In the Newspaper this week, the President was
commenting on civil servants who have stolen money, saying that 'God will
send a bolt of lightning upon you'. So, what does it mean to preach grace?
This has been one of the most hair-pulling and deeply saddening findings
ever that cuts right to the heart. To find so much suffering and pain
here, and then to learn that God is the cause of it. Ah! That idea alone
causes one's heart to break and cry out. Where do I find the God of grace
and forgiveness? Oh, He is talked about, and known, but not quite believed
in.
'I do believe, help me overcome my unbelief' (Mark 9.24) is a verse I am
coming to understand here and in my own life. So - please stand up Mr God
of Grace. Please stand up.
On a more lighter note... The best question I have been asked so far by a
student is: 'Ah, teacher. Please could you tell us when exactly Jesus will
return? I mean, what do we tell our congregations?' Hum, I'll just check
my diary and consult with God. :-) Suggestions anyone?!
I've also taken up football. (Okay okay, I can see quite a few raised
eyebrows and smiles thank you very much...!) Yes, the little boy next door
and myself have set up our own football team, consisting of ourselves and
about five hens. The hens aren't very good and make more noise than
anything else, but Louisa and myself are a force not to be reckoned with.
So much so that no one else dared to join in with us (they obviously
feared for their lives). Louisa doesn't speak English and I speak about 5
words of Bemba, so, football is truly a language of its own. We are also
inventing a few new football moves (I can't really explain them to you;
all I can say though is that you lose all self-respect and pride in doing
them), and we're thinking of teaching them to Sunderland FC. Although, the
hens are often quite important in these new moves, so we might have to
purchase a few for the Stadium of Light. Not a big problem though. Maybe
pigeons would work just as well...?
As per usual, I could just go on and on, but I'd better stop!
Some prayer requests if you have time:
1) One of the ordinands rushed home this week as his father was in
Intensive Care. He died a few days later. Please pray for Isaac's mother,
and for his younger siblings, that they would be comforted and find
strength in the God of hope and new life.
2) The brother of our driver here died this week from an overdose - please
pray for our driver and his family who have suffered much in few months.
3) Thank God for the students - they are just so amazing and wonderful,
wonderful people.
4) Thank God for the good relationships between students and lecturers
here.
5) Again, please pray for those students who have left their wife and
children behind; the prospect of being here for three years (except
holidays) without family must be daunting.
6) Please pray
that God would give me wisdom, discernment and cultural sensitivity when
answering particularly difficult and pastoral questions!
Thank you for
reading these! Have a great week and a good fill of pancakes on Tuesday!
With much love and prayers that the God of Grace may be real to us all, Em
xxxx
|
