walking the Way

While I’ve been traveling through Tanzania over this past month, I’ve had the opportunity to meet several Pentecostal pastors and quite a few Catholic priests. Many of the conversations I’ve been having with these church leaders has centered on my faith journey with Jesus. To give a little background, image is very important in Tanzania and all pastors and priests wear trousers, a button down shirt at minimum and usually a tie and coat even though it is consistently hot (90+˚ F). Pan over to me and I am wearing a t-shirt and shorts, jeans maybe. While I’ve been here I have actually purchased some trousers and button down shirts. Going to church in less would be disrespectful and preaching in less would be unheard of. Needless to say, it’s been an interesting journey.

Whenever I’ve had the opportunity to really sit down with these church leaders and talk with them, I can’t help but to sense that they are very curious about my tattoos. This is only heightened when I tell them that I have spent six years in seminary, hold two Master degrees (one in Divinity and the other in Counseling Ministries) and pastor in America. I just don’t fit the typical pastor mold. Now it would be very easy for me to be offended, but rather then seeing this as an obstacle, I see it as an opportunity to talk about how Jesus saved me and brought me out of darkness and into His marvelous light (1 Peter 2:9). I love seeing their faces light up when I begin to share my story of hope and healing with them because they can’t help but to be impacted by God’s unconditional love, His amazing grace and Almighty power.

But, these situations are nothing new to me. From the earliest days after Jesus saved me, He impressed upon me 1 Corinthians 1:27-29, “But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God” (ESV). You see, a drug addict and dealer are considered foolish, low and despised in the world’s eyes and that’s what I was. God let me know very early that I had nothing to offer Him, which is extremely humbling. But, by God’s love, grace and power, He has transformed me and my life is now a living testimony to the truth of these verses. I am one of God’s many trophies that He wants to show to the world.

It’s amazing the favor God has given me with people and with whom He has placed me in the company of. The more I’ve leaned into God’s grace and relied upon Him to make the way forward, He has opened up opportunity after opportunity for me to preach, pastor and pray for people. It’s funny, by the world’s way of doing things I should probably try to promote myself by hiding my tattoos, dressing the part of a pastor and talking of my degrees and minimizing or even skipping the ugly of my past. But, whenever I am in situations like these, Holy Spirit faithfully reminds me that to do that would be minimizing God’s grace and anointing upon my life. Jesus has captured my heart and place within me this all-consuming passion to worship, serve and make Him known to the world. I truly can do nothing less. As Peter told Jesus, “Lord, to whom would we go? You have the words that give eternal life” (John 6:68 NLT). There is no place else for me to go, but to following Jesus wherever He is going and calling me to follow, so that I may proclaim of His grace, love, mercy and power!

simple Fruit

Over the last several years, the Lord has been simplifying my life. This has been an inward transformative work by the Holy Spirit that is now bearing outward fruit. This simple, yet lasting fruit is allowing me to be content in the midst of a town called Morogoro, Tanzania. I have been here for the last few days waiting on a translator while my friend David is in Dar es Salaam procuring a car among other goods for our journey. Morogoro is a rural town with not much in terms of modern world amenities. It is a simple life here, where the power can go out at any moment (just the other day, January 17, 2011, it was out for nearly 10 hours). Small street side shops line dusty roads while others sell their wares on sidewalks. The larger shops have generators which are a God send when the power fails.

Now what the Holy Spirit has been highlighting to me is that it is by the grace of God I can be content here (or anywhere for that matter). You maybe saying well of course, but the way this grace has been apportioned to me is two-fold. First, providentially there is the inward transformative work He’s done in freeing me from the stranglehold of materialism which has helped me to gain a greater eternal perspective on life in general. It’s sad how much influence materialism has and consumerism for that matter (because you can’t have materialism without consumerism) in clouding a person’s judgment and perspective. Add to this the many years the Lord has impressed upon me the need to live a fasted lifestyle also helps to keep the world at bay. The fruit of much of this good work has manifested itself in the contentment of living a simple lifestyle.

This is not to say that I don’t need or want things because I do, but these desires no longer control me. Pressing into the Lord is becoming more and more of my first impulse rather than a second, third, even last resort. Case and point, I’ve spent a day fasting and praying alone in my room while here in Morogoro because seeing the Father’s Kingdom agenda happen has become more important than sightseeing or eating out. Again, I give all praise to God for this because it is by His providential grace of transformation through the Holy Spirit that this is now my passion and reality. Secondly, I would add that God is continually lavishing His grace upon all people, but it is His children who have learned to more readily receive and depend on His grace. Compound this with the prayers of my supporters and I truly am blessed. His grace truly is new each and every morning and I feel His grace through their prayers. If this is you, THANK YOU! Together we can by God's grace!

African Time

Integrating into the Tanzanian culture has meant accepting the reality of African time. Simply put, African time is the understanding that life happens, so delay happens. So far, I see two contributing factors to “African time.” Firstly, because the majority (89%) of Tanzanians are living on less than $1.25 a day, this means their access and means to things is limited. Hence, walking everywhere is commonplace which creates delay. Secondly, in my last post, I described the importance of knowing another’s life news. I believe this also feeds into African time. Greeting people is so very important to Tanzanians and spending a few minutes greeting someone is commonplace. Now put these two scenarios together and you have African time. On the one hand, you have people walking everywhere and as they are walking along they are spending a significant amount of time greeting their friends and neighbors.

Currently, I am reading this book called “Soul Guide” by Bruce Demarest. In this book on spiritual direction he makes a fair observation of the current Western culture that people are seen more as obstacle then opportunities. Let me explain, Westerners like to fill their days with appointment after appointment (yes, I am guilty of this) and when we encounter people throughout our day, they become more like obstacles to get over or around, so that we don’t miss our next appointment. Now, the challenge the author puts to us is this: rather than seeing the person before us as a hindrance to our next appointment, see this person as our next “divine” appointment. Maybe a good lesson we can learn from African time is that we need to slow down and take the time to greet one another. Who knows the next person that “gets in your way” maybe the very person in whom you can impact for all eternity with the good news of the Gospel?

Habari Yako?

Over this past week, I had the opportunity to visit some friends who were called by God two years ago to share Jesus with the Zanzibari people. My initial experience of the Zanzibari people was that they see “wazungu” (white people) or “watlii” (tourists) as $$. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been harassed to look at this or to buy that or beckoned to come over here or there. Now I fully understand that from their perspective that’s why the “wazungu” come to Zanzibar, for tourism. I found it interesting to watch the Zanzibaris interact with my friends who are fluent in Swahili. They would walk up to them just as they did me and say a greeting in Swahili, but whenever my friends greeted them back or asked them questions in return in Swahili, they would simply walk away. Hence, I couldn’t help but feel like most of the time, they were simply sizing people up. The saying on the island is that there is the “wazungu” price and then the “Zanzibari” or “real” price. Now, if that’s all the interaction I had with Zanzibaris, my conclusion would be that they are no different than the locals in any other touristy city I’ve ever been too.

But, because my friends have been living on Zanzibar for two years, they have made some “rafiki” (friends) in which they are in genuine fellowship with. It is through seeing their interaction that I’ve come to see the heart and beauty of the Zanzibari people. Relationships are so very important to Zanzibaris and knowing the “news” (habari) of one another’s life is crucial. Whenever I was walking with my friend around their home, it was imperative that she greet everyone and ask of the news of their life. At any given encounter these and many more questions would be asked: “Habari yako? (what’s your news?) Habari nyumbani? (what’s the news of your household?) Habari mama? (what’s the news of your mother?) Habari baba? (what’s the news of your father?) Habari Dar? (what’s the news in Dar?)” and so on and so forth. Granted though the answer to these questions was almost exclusively “nzuri” (good), what stuck me was the importance in asking about the “news” of one another’s lives. So let me ask you: Habari yako?