chris and becka warner

This week is the last of everything: the last week of the English school, my last week in Africa, the last of good-byes to good friends and coworkers, the last few rides on a dalla-dalla, and the last tastes of Tanzanian-style chapatti and Ugali.

The English students are finishing up their final presentations; each person has to speak for ten minutes in English on a topic of their choice. Most of them have chosen to use their new language skills to communicate different aspects of their culture. We’ve tasted food from the Chagga tribe and heard how it is prepared in special pots; there have been talks on the various aspects of Maasai culture: living in the bush, the style of mud huts, the differences in the work of men and women, and clothing. One woman came beautifully dressed in a traditional Maasai outfit, including $300 worth of fine beads! We’ve also learned about how to plant, harvest and prepare maize and bananas, as well as the origins and culture of the Ngoni tribe. (These are just a few of their projects!) All of their hard work and creative props are making for a very memorable week that will hopefully bring a sense of accomplishment and closure to this time. The students have come so far in just three months; it’s hard to believe that some of them didn’t know any English when they first arrived. We will have a graduation ceremony this Friday to celebrate all that God has done during the school, and then we say our final goodbyes! I’ll try and post some pics from graduation before I leave.

This is also the last week for Chris and me before we are separated for over a month. Please pray for Chris and he travels to Burundi and Rwanda; especially that he will be led by God as he teaches and encourages in Burundi. Please pray for me as I travel back to the US and prepare to do the TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages). I’m looking forward to seeing many of you soon!!

Hell is an eternal dalla-dalla ride

For an individualistic American who values their personal space, using public transport in Africa is a truly traumatic experience. If you are even remotely claustrophobic, a dalla-dalla ride will either cause you to shrivel up and die, or shrivel up and find a place in your mind you did not even know existed. I guess it’s like all suffering; it either breaks you or you come out on the other end a different person. This is what I was thinking as our dalla-dalla bounced and thudded its way toward our destination: the rural town of Mokuni. I was balled up into the fetal position; boxed in on every side by people, luggage, and the seat in front of me, which was mocking me for not being shorter. Every few minutes we would stop and vomit up a few passengers from our depths, and swallow some new ones. Each stop caused a convulsion of hope and despair: hope that this might be our stop, and despair when it was not. As the minutes passed, the pain and mental anguish increased, until finally my eyes glossed over and I slipped into a coma of indifference. The blaring music, the landscape flying by, the hot mass of bodies, the smells, the bumps and crashes of each pothole-it all meant nothing. I was there, but I was a million miles away, in a trauma-induced world of numbness and mental coping. I might as well have been sucking my thumb. Time lost all meaning, and I was unable to imagine that anything else existed, or had ever existed, except this dalla-dalla thudding along in the darkness.

A few months later, I was sitting comfortably in a friend’s car; enjoying a brief but blissful respite from using a public bus. We came up behind a dalla-dalla, and as we went to overtake it, I noticed the slogan painted across the back window in big, bold, broken-English: “Man Born to Suffer.” I lurched forward, looked more closely, and collapsed back into my chair stunned. This was not irony; no, this was something far more profound. This was a moment of prophetic symbolism; a voice was crying out in the wilderness declaring humanity’s need for redemption. As we passed the thudding death-machine, I looked inside and saw the jumbled mass of souls trapped inside. My ears caught the sound of blaring rap music. In that moment, I finally understood why Jesus had to come to earth and die. And why all the missionaries drive Land Rovers.

What is poverty? Is it about money, or is it about they way we think? Is it about resources available, or resources created and managed? Does material poverty reflect spiritual poverty? Or does material wealth reflect spiritual poverty? Are they connected? How are they connected?

Why do most of the missionaries in Africa drive nice Land Rovers, live in nice houses, eat at nice restaurants, and generally live grossly disproportionate lives from the people they came to serve? Would Jesus drive a Land Rover? Would Jesus give to the beggars? Would Jesus give money at all? Does Jesus change our standard of living, or does he change the way we think? What standard of living should a missionary have? Is it okay to replicate our life in America in Africa? Why or why not? How can we be wise about cross-cultural financial issues? What if America was totally unreached, missionaries came, and the vast majority of them were extremely wealthy? Would this affect our ability to know God? Would it cause confusion, or unrealistic expectations? What if the missionaries to America were extremely poor? Would this effect how we receive their message? Is this happening in Africa; is the message being confused with the materialism of the messengers?

Why do I feel like I’m an ATM here? Why does “white” equal “rich” here? Why does “black” equal “poor” here? Why am I more respected because I’m white? Is that about money, hospitality, or colonialism? Is Jesus white? Is Jesus black? What would an African Jesus look like? Does anyone know? Why do people from first-world nations think Africa is poor? Why do most Africans think they’re poor? Who told them? Is it true? Why? What are the criteria for this? Can there ever be pure relationships between rich and poor? Is the presence of wealthy missionaries a stumbling block to the African church? Are we ultimately helping, or holding back? Do Americans know how to show love in any other way than materially, both in our own nation and in others? If so, what is it?

What is the gospel? Does it have anything to do with our material resources? Can money confuse the gospel message? Can money advance the gospel message? Can the gospel ever be preached materially? Is the gospel really the gospel if it is preached materially but not relationally?

Why are American churches so naive with their money? Why do people keep giving money with no accountability? Do they know that it is causing division, corruption, and greed? Do they know that pastors fight each other for the almighty American dollar? Do they know that it is crippling the local church? Do they know that people here are putting their hope in money and not God? Do they know that giving money, building churches, and doing projects can all be done and received without knowledge of Christ? Do they know that if money is present, but relationship is absent, these things go bad and do more damage than good? Do they know that Africa will never send out its own missionaries as long as they believe they are poor and dependent on the West?

Why do first-world nations dump their crap on Africa? Do they know that they are crippling the local manufactures, flooding the market, and generally destroying any incentive for African nations to be independent economically? Why do so many people build churches, orphanages, hospitals, and roads, but so few people actually try and address the deeper social problems? Does building a hospital stop the things that cause malnutrition and AIDS? Does replacing a road destroyed after a war make it less likely that people will fight again? Why do people develop buildings, and not the people that manage and sustain the buildings? Why do people do things for Africa instead of with Africa?

Is giving financial aid good? If so, why has $500 billion over the last fifty done next to nothing? Why are some countries worse off today, after all this aid money? Is giving financial aid bad? If so, what can we do to help? What can we do instead? Why is it bad? Is it about management, or is it about being fundamentally a bad idea? Does money help in the short-term but cripple in the long-term? How can we partner with Africa? What about the urgent, immediate needs that Africa is not able to meet? Should we meet these needs, even if it is creating a cycle of dependency? Is it our responsibility? What are we to do with despotic leaders who run their countries into the ground? How can we answer the cries of the poor without enabling dependency and corruption in these situations? Do our countries really want to partner and help, or do they just throw some money to Africa out of guilt?

Do we owe Africa? If so, why? Are we profiting from Africa’s poverty? Are we treating Africa with dignity, respect, and honesty? Are we contributing toward Africa’s economic independence and integrity, or are we making it more difficult? Are we trading fairly? Are we contributing to Africa’s identity in Christ, or are we criticizing and stripping Africa of identity? What would an economically stable Africa look like? What would a mature “Christian” Africa look like? Are we praying for this? Or are we more comfortable with a “poor” Africa? Do we want Africa to succeed? Are we partnering, or are we patronizing?

What would Jesus do?

I’ve been meaning to post this for a while now, but time has just been flying by. How did it get to be June already? Our year in Africa is quickly coming to a close. We have a busy couple of months coming up, and we would definitely appreciate your prayers for all the details and travel plans to come together. We’ll be separating for a while to accomplish two different goals, which is always a challenge. Here’s a (very) rough outline of our plans:

June 29: English School graduation
July 2-July 20: Becka flies to IL and stays with family
July 3-20: Chris in Burundi teaching, catching up with friends at Philadelphia Church
July 20-August 13: Becka travels to Montana (yes, Montana!) to get her TESOL (English teaching) certification. But we’re still working on the application process for this.
July 21-26: Chris travels to Rwanda to meet his dad!
August: Chris returns home to meet Becka, catch up with family, etc.

This weekend Chris and I were invited to the home of one of my students to meet her family and have lunch together. In typical African fashion, the hospitality was absolutely amazing. A hired van came to pick a small group of us up and take us to their house in the hills. When we arrived we were given drinks and provided with plate after plate of wonderful local foods. After the meal, we all talked for several hours; it was interesting to get to know them outside of class and meet their spouses and children. Afterwards, we when we tried to thank them for their hospitality, our thanks were shrugged off and we were told, “Guests are a blessing to our house, so we are the ones who should be thanking you.” What an incredible value to have! It really shook my western thinking of, “you scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours” or “don’t expect something for nothing.”

On the walk home, one of the ladies in my class stopped every few seconds to greet people. It seemed like she knew everyone in the three different villages we passed through. She greeted some girls and told us their life stories; she introduced me to people she works with. This woman has a heart for the children of Tanzania. She is not rich, but she has a simple farm nearby the school. Despite her limited finances, she is already doing so much to lift up those who are suffering or destitute.

Please keep the English students in prayer; they only have three weeks left before graduation! You can also pray that they would continue to step out in their dreams and would not be afraid to trust God to do anything He puts on their heart.