Days 31-39‏: Poverty vs affluenza

15.10.09: DAY THIRTY FOUR.
Today Joel and I went ‘door to door’-ing round Soweto. Think JWs, with curtains to rap on instead of wood. This seems to be completely natural for the locals. But also I’m feeling increasingly keen on telling people about Jesus.

As it happens, most people we talked to turned out to be Christians! The most exciting encounter was actually walking home. We bumped into Juko, an old pal of Joel’s. And a Muslim. We bantered about his hat, but some quite interesting chat about Jesus opened up as I ignored Joel telling me to preach at him. The guy seemed quite open and even mentioned chatting more, so we exchanged numbers.

I wasn’t shocked by the slum as I thought I might be. Maybe I’m just aware that such conditions exist already. Hearing people’s life stories gets me, though.

Paul’s [none of these are real names] is quite instructive. Growing up in the city on the streets after both his father and stepfather (he was born out of marriage and then his mother got this other guy) refused to support him; now being put up in a cool Christian bachelor pad with the promise of work in a to-be-started Christian media studio, but for the past year unable to do anything except church stuff due to a couple of problems with the computer and Chris having no time to sort things out; just waiting trusting God one day things will open up for him to actually get somewhere. Bit of a metaphor for Africa perhaps – profoundly grateful but completely dependant and just trusting in God that one day things will come ok.

There’s these tough stories everywhere – Chris is separated from his British wife, left with a 10 month old boy, and his mum died in the last year too; Daniel came to know Jesus from a Muslim background, but the time I asked him the details he looked wretched until I managed to get out of him ‘I don’t like to talk about it’; Jonathan and Milton, supported by their uncle through school as their dad seems null and void; Marie kicked out with her two preschool girls by the man who took her out of school and never married her. The older I get the more I realise the whole world, and in fact, the church, is stuffed with stories like these. ‘There but for the grace of God, go I.’

16.10.09: DAY THIRTY FIVE.
Dan arrived from Norwich on Sunday and has been plumbing away since. Really nice to have someone else to talk Norwich with. Most exciting, he gave himself to Jesus yesterday. He’s very matter-of-fact about it, but Elspeth did a little dance tonight just when he said he’d actually contacted his parents. So we’ve been having some good chats.

17.10.09: DAY THIRTY SIX.
Dan said, ‘they worry about things a lot less over here. Life’s a lot less complicated.’ I think that’s really true, and I think it explains a lot. In the UK, we’re kind of overwhelmed by life. Too many choices, too many responsibilities, too many things to do, and we walk round with a perpetual headache. Life and everything we’re doing, even the things we love, becomes a burden instead of an opportunity. I’ve not heard of ‘escapism’ here once. The world catches us up in its craziness over unimportant things like share prices, body weight and how up to date our clothes/electrical goods are. ‘Do I own their latest CD?’ ‘Am I insured for this?’ ‘What happens if any conceivable thing goes wrong?’ And so all our efforts are spent relieving the pressure of our worries. Recognise this?:
WAKE UP -
THINK OF ‘ALL THE THINGS I HAVE TO DO TODAY’-
TRY AND DO THEM -
FAIL -
GO TO BED -
WORRY -
REPEAT.

In Africa they’re always fire fighting problems. In the UK we’ve gone too far – we’re always fire fighting worries. Surely the whole point of forward planning is to save us worrying! The other thing this does is squeeze out the important things in life: understanding who we are and what life is for; loving people; enjoying anything!

So what do we do? We can’t all swan off to Uganda. I think maybe understanding our condition could help a lot (Oliver James calls it ‘Affluenza’… though I haven’t read the book) – make us take our western neuroticism with a pinch of salt. I know I’m guilty of expecting to do too much in any given time, and so I’m always disappointed. Let’s give ourselves a break – no one else around us is going to ease up the pressure on us; at least we can stop adding to it ourselves. I guess that means we should also put less pressure and worries on other people too. I had a great chat with my friend James once (on the way to an all-you-can-eat Chinese) where we agreed it would be much better to never own anything valuable enough to be worth insuring – that’s one less worry that even costs us money! I guess some things - like foreign medical expenses - need covering; but there’s a principle: do less, buy less, email less (ahem)… worry less.

Ultimately though, I don’t think we can live in the UK without having at least a mild case of affluenza. Complete withdrawal from the world is not the answer. Just as poverty is the unavoidable affliction of the majority world, this disease is ours. We can’t get round it; as Jesus said, ‘in this world you will have trouble’. Thank Him it doesn’t have to be that way forever!

18.10.09: DAY THIRTY SEVEN.
All that general stuff I wrote yesterday – I think I was talking about me. Most of the time I perceive life, my day, as a burden rather than an opportunity. Today I’m quite excited about my full day as a chance to do a lot of good, and I really see that difference in attitude. The Spirit met me somehow last night – I heard a wind in the trees and sat out for a while on my front step, actually feeling so glad to be here.

I drove in early with Emmanuel, and he did his pastor’s bit on me, which was great. He said this issue is important because seeing work as a burden makes it just a job and not adventuring with God – and because we don’t have joy in it, the Holy Spirit also pulls out! Serious problem.

20.10.09: DAY THIRTY NINE.
Really feeling overwhelmed today. They’ve said ‘go ahead, write the play’, I’m now up to leading 5 different groups/7 sessions a week, Steph’s told her community workers in Mbale I’m coming to do a play with them, I could fit in speaking at Ezekiel’s youth service in Iganga, and Joel’s heard back from Juko who wants to meet up! Just looked back through my journal and saw Emmanuel told me, ‘don’t fill up all your time with work’. But because of feeling guilty about ‘not working as hard as the others’, that’s what I’m doing. I also saw the pictures He gave me about ‘hanging on’. Help me Lord!

Um, I’d really appreciate your prayers for:
- me to know how much of this stuff to do
- talking to this guy tomorrow
- joy in what I’m doing.

I’ve also had some bright ideas for the next few months/years and would love to hear how much they’re from the Father. If you hear anything from Him for me that could be really helpful as well as encouraging.

Love, Tim