Last "Sleep" in Africa

Oh, Yes, Up Close and Too Personal

It is Sunday evening and I am packing for home. As much as I have loved Africa, I have to admit that I am ready to leave it, get home, catch up with family and friends and fill them in on so much more than I could ever have put into a blog.

This Young Lady Ignored Us

These Decided We Were Too Close! I Agreed!!!

Africa is everything I expected it to be; a fantasy adventure; safaris; wild beasts; strange foods; exotic peoples; cultural barriers; endless open plains, cavernous mountains;  and nothing I expected it to be; walled, barbed wired homes; interstate highways; slums of unimaginable magnitude; metropolitan cities that rival NYC; obviously educated business women walking side by side on the street with tribal women still bearing their children on their backs and their loads on their heads; flat cultivated fields that stretch as far as the eye can see...miles and miles and miles and miles;  driving for three hours and seeing NO OTHER human beings (just wild animals of incredible size; they were the ones who were free, we were the ones confined in a VERY VERY small car); driving for hours and seeing every color of skin except white; Animalist, Hindu, Muslim, Buddhist, Jew, Christian; Afrikaan, Dutch, German, English, Zulu (and eight others) Indian, Pakistani, Chinese; a person can see and hear the world here just standing on one corner for five minutes. Every where there are smiles and friendly welcome. People listen and make every attempt to understand what is being said.  Every where there are committed Christians serving a living God reaching out to those who are blind to Him. Perhaps that is what stands out to me most here, the blindness of those who have never heard of Christ because no one has told them and their willingness to listen. The language barriers alone are daunting. I met a man today who has been assigned a "new" area and must learn, at 58, a new and difficult unwritten oral language before he can even begin to "tell the good news." He is optimistic and full of joy. It will take however long it takes and he and his wife are willing to let God do what needs to be done to accomplish His will through their lives. One tills, one sows, one waters, but God harvests. The contrast I see hear is that in the States, language isn't the issue, hearing isn't the issue, willingness to listen is the issue. Too many have heard too long a message they don't deem important enough to "consider at this time." Nothing is "rushed" here. Bumper to bumper traffic as in any large city, but out in the "real Africa" (about 30 minutes in any direction outside the city) no one seems in a hurry. Perhaps geology, archeology, and eschatology are correct, Africa is the cradle of civilization and time itself is a non issue, but as Christians, we know time is of the essence. The day of salvation is NOW. Tell where ever you are to whoever will listen "the good news" in whatever language you know. In a day when I can write from Johannesburg, South Africa, and be read in real time in Duncan, South Carolina, there is no excuse as Christians for not sharing "the good news of salvation through faith in Christ Jesus." Faith and works, message and missions...God's plan...God's invitation...our decision.