May God bless us with anger at injustice, oppression, and exploitation of people, so that we may work for justice, freedom and peace.
May God bless us with tears to shed for those who suffer from pain, rejection, starvation and war, so that we may reach out our hands to comfort them and turn their pain into joy.
And may God bless us with enough foolishness to believe that we can make a difference in this world, so that we can do what others claim cannot be done.
This week has definitely been a change of pace for me. I left for South Africa on Saturday morning with the expectations of a short stay and a SAX flight back to the DRC on Monday. That has proven not to be the case. Air Serv was unable to get me on a return flight until this Friday. Usually I would welcome a week stay in a civilized country such as South Africa but this isn’t exactly my favorite scenario. It’s cold, I am alone, I brought one change of clothes, there is nothing to do in Pretoria, and currently I have no Internet connection. On the up side of the situation, I was able to go to the mall and pick up some things that I needed/wanted. I also got to go to a bookstore, do some quality reading and watch a movie at a theater.
Actually, I got the chance to watch two movies: Spiderman and Conversations with God. I never before thought Spiderman to be my type of movie….and it still isn’t my type of movie. Enough said. Conversations with God on the other hand was exactly my kind of movie. In short, the plot consists of an ordinary man who has a little bad luck and finds himself living among the homeless. After many struggles and heartaches, he catches a lucky break and goes on to become a successful, sought-after author. I am not exactly sure that I totally agree with all the theological assumptions of the movie, but I do believe that it is an excellent portrayal of the human struggle faced by those on the fringes of society.
Last year this time God placed a burden on my heart for the homeless in Raleigh. Ethan and I were blessed with the opportunity to befriend several of these beautiful, less-fortunate people. I saw their struggles firsthand. I even tried assist one man in getting out of the shelter and into an apartment, but I gave up after facing the same frustrations that he had been dealing with for the past number of years. About that time, Ram Air relocated me to Baltimore. There I neglected the burden that God had placed on my heart. I found it frustrating to befriend these people and not be able to get them out of their seemingly hopeless situations. And it was also a copout. Someday when I have more time, more money, more influence… Yeah, then I will get involved.
I don’t know why intense human struggles seem to follow me around (or maybe I follow them around) but now I find myself facing the same problems on a much more frequent basis here in Africa. After watching this movie the other day I came to the sobering conclusion that I am becoming increasingly indifferent to these people, and in some cases, defensive.
On Friday I came across an NPR podcast called Speaking of Faith, hosted by Krista Tippett. In her latest episode she interviewed Shane Claiborne, the author of Irresistible Revolution. Although I have not read the book, I have read some of his articles and heard many great things about the guy. There were several things that really stuck out to me in the interview but the most notable idea that I came away with was his explanation of why God, the author of great and miraculous miracles, allows social injustices (specifically homelessness) abound in the world. He responded by referring to a comic strip that he had come across several years ago:
Cartoon 1: You know, I wonder why God allows all this pain and poverty and hurting in the world?
Cartoon 2: Why don’t you ask God that?
Cartoon 1: Well, I guess I am scared.
Cartoon 2: What are you scared of?
Cartoon1: I guess I am scared that God will ask me the same question…
So often we humans try to throw these questions at God and we forget that we are his are his body, his hands and his feet. Somewhere along the line Christians (myself definitely included) abandoned their call to be Jesus to the world. Jesus changed the world - no matter how large the task, we must do the same.
In other news, I got two haircuts today. First one: Congo haircut. Second one: I finished it off.
Yesterday was yet another new experience for me. It all began when customers I was flying showed up 30 minutes late. The plan was to fly them to Pweto for a two hour meeting and then bring them back before nightfall. The plan was good so long as we were airborn by 3:45 PM. When we got to Pweto I told them that I wanted to meet at the airplane at 3:30 so that we would make our departure. They agreed.
3:30 rolled around and there was no passengers. Better yet, 3:45 and 4:00 rolled around with no sign of them. It was then that I made up my mind that we were not getting back in time to be legal. I eventually ran down to the village and met them on their way back up the mountain. They were in a hurry but did not realize that I had made up my mind that we were not going. The long in short of it is that I got to rough the night in Pweto. Since the passengers had no extra clothes, they were much less than impressed. 
The one lady, after seeing that I had brought a change of clothes, actually accused me of planning it this way. I think she was just trying to give me a hard time. They all ended up being cool with it, and we eventually had a good evening out on the town. It was good times.
First, there is a trash truck that won’t start so people are pushing it down the street. A few hundred meters down the road there is another truck that runs but the problem is that it gets lost in its own cloud of emissions. Also, it is missing a tailgate. Every time is goes over a bumpy (which is quite frequent) it loses several kilograms of garbage. Then you have the 15 passenger van with 30 Congolese, plus or minus 15 (always plus), hanging from the doorless frame. Right behind them is a rusted out Mercedes that is two jars away from seeing its last pothole, and again there is way to many people in that car.
Then there is us: two white guys being chauffeured around in our Mazda SUV – not perfect, but worlds better than our fellow commuters. I had just got done thinking, “It sure is nice that we have a nice vehicle to ride around in!” One thing I have learned about Congo: never get too comfortable with your environment because there ain’t 
nobody happy unless your are unhappy.
A greasy ole’ police officer steps out into the middle of the busy road, blows his whistle, and nearly gets run over by our aggressive driver. Apparently, he thought that there was not enough tread on our rugged, oversized tires and that it was in the best interest of safety to get our vehicle off the road. This allowed him to do a thorough inspection of our death trap, but first he wanted us to find our reflective triangle to warn all the other traffic of our stopped vehicle. Oh, I almost forgot, we don’t have one of those! Yet another problem with our vehicle. What were we thinking when we got into the car? Further inspection found a burned out taillight. This vehicle definitely should be grounded, and that is exactly what the police did. We were not allowed to move until we had paid the fine. Alan and I decided that if we were going to get our errands accomplished that we were going to have to walk to our destination and let the driver take care of the penal formalities.
This is why I hate bureaucracy, especially Congolese bureaucracy! They had no problem with our car. They were not worried about safety. They saw two white people and thought that they could get money out of us. In the Congo a uniform gives officials the right to make people’s lives difficult in order to extort a bribe. Much of this warped ideology finds its source in the philosophy of Mobutu who told his soldier that the population was their supplier and their gun was their salary. It is no wonder that the officials of Congo are corrupt. They make a meager living of the backs of the poor. It is a legalized system that allows the poor to steal from the poor. It is not wonder that this country cannot get on its feet!
