On Sunday afternoons it is great to go to Tembo Beach with
the Go MAD team and relax. I was happy in my own little world reading my ‘Bible
in a year’ (trying to catch up as I am a few days behind!) when a Tanzanian guy
came and sat with me and asked me to teach him English. As a young white girl I
am automatically suspicious of any guys! I wanted him to leave and told him I
could not teach him English. He then asked what book I was reading. I told him
it was the Bible and from there followed a very intense and challenging
conversation about Christianity, God and the Bible with racial segregation and
globalisation thrown in as side topics! This guy had some really great
questions and I felt so inadequate to answer some of them but just really
wanted him to know the most important thing, that God loves him. God loves each
of us so much that he sent his one and only son to die on the cross for our
sins (John 3.16) I felt so overwhelmed when this guy told me he didn’t really
know how to pray. He believed that you can only pray in Church on a Sunday and
that it is better to pray in English as God will hear you better. It was also
very hard for him to understand that God is never too busy with listening to
other people to listen to us and he never forgets about us. It is hard trying to explain to someone
(especially someone who has English as a second language!) that God is beyond
our comprehension, that although it seems impossible to us, God is all
powerful, He sees everything and He knows everything. God knows and loves each
of us and we are all precious to him, he
even knows how many hairs are on our heads (Matthew 10:30).
I encouraged this guy to read the Bible as it is full of
truths. The conversation then took a different turn when this guy asked me for
money. He said he wanted to buy a bible. I told him I would not give him
money. This may come across to some of
you as very unchristian and honestly it was ridiculously tough telling him I wouldn’t
give him money but the culture here is very much a give me money culture (that
is a blog for another time!). Once this guy finally realised I wouldn’t give
him money he then started asking for my phone number which I also refused to
give. He couldn’t understand that I don’t just give my number to people I do
not know! His friend who had joined us and had sat without saying anything then
pipes up and tells me he has heard what I had been saying and he believed it
was important but he wanted my number so that we could discuss it further. I
knew I shouldn’t give my number and felt that these guys’ motives were not
entirely genuine but I was torn as what if this time I was meant to give money
and what if God really did want me to meet these guys again. I felt no clear
direction from God to do so and in the end I just wanted to leave so took the
guys number and left.
This time chatting to them really stirred up something
inside me. I do not know whether they were at all genuine in wanting to learn
about God or not or if they took anything from that conversation. I pray that
they did and that they will come to know God and his love for them.
Some of the guy’s comments stuck with me and I realised how
much I take for granted all the resources available to us to delve into a
deeper understanding of God’s word. We have so many different types of bibles,
study bibles, guides, daily notes, Pastors with sound training, small group studies
and the internet. When we have questions we have so many places we can go to
for answers and even though God is ultimately the one we should turn to some
people don’t even know they can come to him whenever and wherever. Some people are not able to afford a bible
and others do not even know how to read even if they did have access to one.
Some believe they can go to Church on a Sunday and what they hear there is
enough. But it isn’t. We need to truly believe in God and have a personal
relationship with him, not just on a Sunday.
I have heard it said that the African Church is a mile wide
and an inch deep. This means that there is a massive numerical growth but very
little spiritual growth within the church. An increasing number of people are
calling themselves Christians but they do not have any depth or substance to
their faith. Most of what they learn comes from what they hear in Church. However,
there is a problem with Pastors that have not been properly trained or educated
as they are more open to being led into false teaching. For those people who do
not have access to a bible or cannot read they often take what the Pastor says
as being truth without questioning it. This means that people are not becoming
rooted in their faith and although it seems like many people are becoming
Christians they are not actually rooted in God and do not have a firm
foundation for their faith. Their faith needs to be deepened so that they can
mature and become more Christ like.
This seems such a huge challenge for the Church and I
believe that only through prayer will this situation be changed. The power of
prayer is an incredible thing and God really does work in ways that are far
beyond anything we can imagine. Please pray for Pastors of churches, that they
receive proper training and remember what they are taught and can provide sound
biblical teaching that will enable the Church to truly grow. Pray that people
do not just rely on what they hear in Church but that they continually seek God
and become rooted in the knowledge of his Word. I thank God for the opportunity
yesterday to talk to those guys and for the words that God gave me to say and
that as a result of the conversation my eyes have been opened to a problem
facing the church that I had previously never given much thought too. It is
such a complex problem with no really easy answer. We just have to trust that
if we bring this to God in prayer and place it in His hands He can change this
situation. Please pray for the guys I spoke too yesterday, that they
will turn to God and accept him as their Lord and Saviour and that if it is
God’s will for me to meet them again then he will make that really clear to me.
This is a slightly
different blog from my usual ramblings but it is something that is on my heart at the
moment and I felt led to share it with you.
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