First Rain, Mission Politics
(from a letter to Stephen)
Again, the days seem to slip by. Part of the problem is that I always have people around to talk to, especially Inell. I don't like sitting in my room to read, the light bulb in there is terrible. So I come up stairs but then there are people around. This last weekend there was the field meeting. So there were people around Thursday and all day Friday. Then Sat. I slept in because I was up until 3 am the night before reading your emails. Then we had a baby shower for a lady in the church who had twins. Then I came home and needed to study for Sunday school which I led again. I tried to give the job to someone else this week but I was asked to lead next Sunday as well. Another blessing.
We went out to lunch after church got home at 3pm and slept until 7.30. I was feeling terrible, my body ached and I was so tired. I only woke up long enough to crawl upstairs for half and hour and lay in an African chair on the balcony so I could enjoy the rain. The first rain storm. Everything really needed it. The dust was washed away, off the plants, out of the air (the wind that came before the storm clogged the air with dirt), the driveway ran clean. I could see the muddy streaks as the water washed down the drive. The heavens just opened and poured out. The wind kept wipping through the trees. There was even some hail at the very beginning. The whole city was cooled and the fresh air, wow, it was great! Then I slept again. Inell and I watched Oh Brother Where Art Thou. We just finished. It was great to hear the music again. It reminded me of our late summer nights on the grass with the guys.
Oh... we don't have one of the cars. Inell and Brent went out for valentine's dinner on Sat and on the way the car broke down. They made it back home with the help of Robert, the guy who works for your Uncle and for CBI for the last 8 years. Robert is really cool. Pour guy, he is engaged but having problems with the girls family so they can't get married. Anyway, I set up the table really nice with the flowers Brent had bought and made tuna sandwiches for them when they finally got home. It was fun. Tuna sandwiches are still special to them because they couldn't have them very often when they lived up country during the early years.
So that was my weekend. Well, not quite. I did get to be involved with part of the field meeting. I was around most of the day, except for the hour that I left when my mom called me. Had a good talk with mom. She is taking an apologetics class and getting to hear about people like SK and Kant. We had a fun discussion on that. And... David is HOME!! He got in today. Anyway, back to the meeting. Things went well, they covered philosophy of ministry, a large part of which I really liked, especially the desire to empower the Africans to take care of themselves and the focus on not just making life easy but helping people to push through the hard times and do what it takes to care for their own. For example they don't just pass out money but instead they encourage the churches to support their own people when they go to seminary and to really stretch and save money to build churches. There was also some financial talk and I saw the break down of finances, and the way CBI regulates the funds. But then there was this huge discussion about helping to send leaders to seminary. There are two options, one is a Baptist seminary in Jinja the other is the one Brent and Inell helped to start (CBI started) in Kisoro. But when the one in Kisoro was started the mission said they would have nothing to do with supporting it after three years. Hence, the place is the only self-sufficient bible school run by nationals in the country. But there is some inconsistency because they have been supporting a few students to Jinja, which doesn't have as good of an education, but they won't support students to Kisoro because of this rule that was set down. Well some of the missionaries want to start supporting people to Kisoro. Problem is there is no way to only support a few. There would be a snowball effect. And some people are concerned that the churches take responsibility for helping to train their leaders. Some of the churches have done it, with great sacrifice. But the ones in Kabale think they can't manage. So the missionaries there want to help. But that isn't fair for them to only help the people that they know in their own churches. Well, things got pretty heated. If the field won't support these students, then those missionaries might not be able to get their people trained. Well, I was talking to Inell on Friday night and I recommended a half way solution. Why not set up a scholarship fund that runs off of interest. The school would have absolute discretion over it, they could decide who needed extra help etc. She and Brent both think it is a good idea and they are going to present it to everyone and see if it can be looked into. Yet, now those missionaries can't be assured that their people will get the help, and it will take some time to set up so they might have to train their people for a year or so while the church saves money to send them to the bible school. Its interesting to see how things are worked out. There really has to be a willingness to bend and give grace to people and it helps when everyone is dedicated to similar principles. This is something your mom was complaining about. She kept saying that she doesn't want to work with people again who aren't dedicated to the same principles as she and your dad.