But the burnt offering I am referring to had Lynn and I in fits of laughter as the meat I was supposed to be barbequing melted into the fire leaving a few shards of charcoaled bone! Anyone who knows me and my propensity for conversation rather than attention to the barbeque knows that well done meat is not unusual for me. But I have to admit, this was a first. Lynn’s comment was, “Well I hope God appreciated the burnt offering!”
This past week visited us with a few much harder experiences. The first was when we heard that the very very sick baby that was brought to us last weekend, although she survived a few days in hospital, passed away on Wednesday. Although the family, very committed to their African traditional religion, would not let me pray for the child, I silently prayed God would have mercy on them and the child. And maybe He did, but the family sure grieved. What is hard to come to grips with in this climate is the cruelty at times, even to those in grief. We had provided funds for the grand-father to transport the baby home for burial, but I guess because the taxi’s often charge more for the transport of a corpse, he did not tell them the baby was dead. Somehow, however, by the time they arrived at the destination, the taxi driver or collector of money had figured it out. Well the result was not only the higher (10 times) cost for the dead baby, but a fine of that much again on top of it all. All one can do in these situations is do as much as possible to show grace and care for those grieving.
The second tough one was that we found out on Friday that one of our graduates, Pastor Pedro Rede, who had become the national leader of a local denomination of churches, suddenly passed away. Just prior to my departure for Canada, he had visited and invited me to participate in one of their conferences since he wanted us to see “the fruit of the seed we had planted in him” (were his words). Pastor Pedro was a young man in his thirties. Apparently he came down with a sore stomach at 17:00 Wednesday evening and by Thursday evening had passed away. We still do not know what caused it and likely never will because the diagnostic abilities of the hospital in the city are as bad as its treatment capabilities. Pastor Pedro will be sorely missed because he had made a significant impact in many areas where he enabled the planting of churches, and the encouragement of their leadership.
Tying the tragedy and humor together is a verse of Scripture in the book of Romans that Paul wrote, “Therefore I urge you…in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices…” The idea here is that God never really ever wanted “burnt sacrifices” (cf. Isaiah 1:10-19), He only wanted people who willingly responded to Him (in obedience); people who were willing to lay down what they wanted, so that God could give them what they and others really needed. Living for what we want, does not really get us what we want. Giving ourselves to God and to others however, brings fulfillment and joy like nothing else can and ensures that regardless of how long or short we live, we make a difference.
Pastor Paulo (not Paul who wrote Romans) lives in Honde and is living the “living sacrifice” thing. His service to the other pastors in his community and to the orphans there has been very inspiring. A pastor from Canada who visited recently and had the privilege to attend Paulo’s church cried as he shared the amazing generosity he had experienced at this church of poor people who had nothing but were willing to give so much.
It is because of this kind of leadership and example that the mission launched on the purchase and rehabilitation of a building for food storage (a food bank) and to accommodate the leadership training and orphan feeding program in Paulo's community. We anticipate this is going to bring much critical help. 
Our ability to live and work in Mozambique where we have so many opportunities to laugh and cry, is because of people back home who are willing to give of themselves. We received two emails this week that are such examples of this. One from a couple who have offered to serve the mission in Canada to achieve some of the strategic initiatives we as a mission have identified, and another email from a couple who single handedly have financed (this past week) the construction of a new health post.
The harsh realities of life humble and challenge us, but beauty and joy can still result as we give of ourselves and laugh amidst the ashes!
1 comment:
oh dad, it was just a matter of time before you forgot the meat on the braii, heh heh.
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