Why yes, I COULD write a longer post...

Hiya folks!

Felt it's been a while and I should probably have some sort of update on here. I'm kinda lazy to read over what I've already said, so I'll just start from scratch. Kinda. I'd tell you to bare with me, but I know it's pretty cold up in Canada right now, so you can stay clothed.

I am loving it here. It's great. Time is just flying by and I truly hope I can stay for 6 months. This might be a bigger problem than I thought, but more on that later. (Don't worry Jon and Stef, I'll make sure I'm back in time for your wedding). I'm living on a compound with 5 or so other houses on it, plus the CRC office. There's a couple families, a few couples and a couple singles. Everyone is amazing and has given me a lot to think of. Lots of great people here. Plenty of people to hang out with and lots of things to do! I'm getting my own small taste of Heaven here: different cultures, different nations and different denominations all worshipping the One True God - together! It's Awesome!

At Rurcon (organization I'm volunteering at) I've been doing a bunch of computer stuff. Not exactly what I was hoping for, but it's keeping me semi-busy for now. Next week will be a bit more interesting as I'm going to be putting together a handbook all about Rurcon, rather than deleting viruses and formatting hard drives (well, still doing that). Putting the book together has been giving me a bit more of an understanding of what they do. Allow me to share some things about Rurcon, plus other things that have been on my mind as of late.

A couple weeks ago I went with a group of Rurcon staff members as they went around the city interviewing women stone-breakers. Some of them had been doing this for decades. Most are widows or have sick husbands so no other source of income. They only way they can feed themselves or their family is by getting up every morning, standing out in the hot African sun all day and hammering rocks. They then sell these rocks for a fraction of the price of a company would get had a machine broken them. It was pretty eye-opening. Makes you think about how poverty really is relative. Someone may be poor in Canada, but they can still go on welfare, can still go to school, still have healthcare… these women have nothing. If they were unable to lift the hammer, they would be stuck begging at the market or the side of a road. This is real poverty. I'll see about posting some of the pictures I took soon.

Another thing I've been thinking about and has popped up is that throughout the world, there is a lack of vision in churches to live completely for God. Sometimes people refer to this as being a 'Sunday Christian'. But it's deeper than that. I'm not referring to a person or persons. I mean churches. Church leaders and members often don't recognize that the church is more than a congregation: we are a community, we are part of the Kingdom of God. We can exist socially, politically, economically, environmentally, culturally and spiritually whole - as God intended. We are a part of the body of Christ. This exceeds farther than just the members of a particular congregation. Every congregation of God is a part of the body. We make up THE Church. To clarify: I'm not referring to Burlington South, West and East as being parts of THE Church: Canadian Reformed. I mean that members of the Canadian Reformed in Canada, the Christian Reformed in America, the Baptists in England, the Catholics in China… ALL make up THE Church: the body of Christ. We all make up a part of the body and need to work together as one. Telling one denomination off, saying they are "close to the truth, but not as close as us" or considering them not 'real' Christians is telling that part of the body that it doesn't belong. In my opinion, saying this is the same cutting ourselves off of the body. If Christ is the confessed saviour to a Catholic in China, he/she could very well be praising God right beside you someday in Heaven. I'm not denouncing denominations. We wouldn't be able to get along without being in one. Each part of the body (denomination/congregation/individual) looks and acts differently. We often forget that Christ is the head, not our particular denomination. Here is a quote from The Message (a paraphrased translation of The Bible that I love), 1 Corinthians 12: 27-31a

You are Christ's body—that's who you are! You must never forget this. Only as you accept your part of that body does your "part" mean anything. You're familiar with some of the parts that God has formed in his church, which is his "body":

apostles

prophets

teachers

miracle workers

healers

helpers

organizers

those who pray in tongues.

But it's obvious by now, isn't it, that Christ's church is a complete Body and not a gigantic, unidimensional Part? It's not all Apostle, not all Prophet, not all Miracle Worker, not all Healer, not all Prayer in Tongues, not all Interpreter of Tongues. And yet some of you keep competing for so-called "important" parts.

We may never outright speak out against another denomination, but we often think it. It ends up being reflected in our lives, especially our church lives. For example, you might hear about someone from your congregation who is attending a different denomination's services. And what do we call this? 'Leaving the church'. Not just our church (a congregation), but the church. Could this not be a time for (dare I say it) rejoicing? This person has found the part of the Christ's body he can be an active part of! He realized he wasn't a toe, but actually a thumb. It very well could be that he, by joining this other church, is now able to grow in his faith in a way that he couldn't have otherwise. This goes the same for someone who joins our church, she may never have achieved the faith life she now has without being a part of this church. Now, before I get hate e-mails or something, let me say that I'm not saying ALL denominations are fine. Also, I feel I should say that I love the Canadian Reformed church and am in NO way saying another denomination is 'better'. But I'm not saying CanRef is either… That being said, back to Rurcon.

Rurcon's staff is a group people of different denominations who aim to have Africa transformed through the church. They hope to have churches realize the impact they have to reach poor and marginalized communities. They are mainly a consulting agency who work to teach other organizations, businesses and churches how to live with their entire lives devoted to God. This is a problem that exists in Canada too, but in Africa it's a bit different. The African culture and religious background is one that has a focus of their entire life revolving around their belief. When Christianity was introduced, it wasn't always done well, and people went back to doing things the way they always did Monday to Saturday because they couldn't understand how they could put this 'new' religion into practice in their daily life. This isn't an African problem, it exists across the globe but its cause is different in Africa. We also struggle to have God shine through in our daily activities. Every single thing we do must be centred around Him. We cannot blame the way we act, the things we do or what where we go, etc. on the country we live in, the job we have, the neighbours beside us… none of this should be an excuse for failing to live a God-centred life.

An interesting thing I learned about Nigeria is that it's FULL of resources. It's the 5th largest producer of oil in the world. It has enough building materials in one small area to satisfy the entire country. If invested properly, these could generate huge income for the country. But because of corrupt governments (and a large chuck of the population being unaware of their rights), a lot of money goes into their pockets and resources are exported for the good of few, rather than used for the good of the country. Just today Ben, a staff member of Rurcon showed me where he had started to build a house a few years ago just outside of town. It's unfinished. Why? The area is too nice. Sound weird? Yeah. Turns out the area is so nice, the government decided the homes they were living in at the time weren't good enough and now plan to live there. So they took over the area and stopped the work going on. Ben's fighting it of course, but he's lost a lot of money in the process. And the houses the government members live in now? Beautiful. They would stand out anywhere. They're big, well taken care of, powered… but still, somehow not good enough.

But another problem of was in the churches. Leaders often taught their congregations they were not allowed to farm or make more money than what they absolutely needed to survive. They told them that to have a big field is a sign of greed and therefore a sin. So people starve not realizing they have the resources and ability to thrive. With half of the population being Christian, that has a large impact on the country. This wasn't an on-purpose thing, the leaders had no benefit of doing this, they had honestly felt it was the right thing to do. Sometimes I wonder if we need to take a more drastic approach to the way we run business… Rurcon runs a two-week course every year for leaders to properly show pastors/managers/organization presidents/NGOs how to properly analyze and effectively develop relief (and I get to go to it!) God has gifted them with the ability to farm resources and they can glorify God through it! A bigger business can mean sending your children to school, eating healthy, strengthening the community and the economy, helping someone in need - things that would give God pleasure.

Like I said earlier, I hope to stay the 6 months, but there's some complications with that. Turns out Rurcon wasn't actually expecting a volunteer right now. They had asked for one a while ago, but had then hired someone for that position, so when I came along they were sent scrambling to make work for me. I've been told that I will get busy, that the stuff they have for me is coming soon. I hope so, it's been almost a month now and I've basically sat on my laptop all day, every day. I'm not complaining (ok, I kinda am) it's just not what I'd like to be doing. Not the reason I came. I came with the intent to be able to somehow figure out where I fit into God's plan. To find out where I belong in His world and how best to serve Him with the talents and abilities He's given me. No big revelation on that yet, but I know it'll come. I should find out by the end of this week if Rurcon wants me to stay the 6 months here, but I'm not sure if I'll want to… I want to stay in Africa for the whole 6 months, but if I'll be doing computer stuff (something anyone could do) I'd rather find another organization I could help out for 3 months. And there's lots here in Jos. I just feel I have more to offer than tech support. But that could just be the hubris talking.

So yeah, that's just some stuff that's been on my mind. It's kinda all over the map (geography pun!) but I think I made some sort of point in there somewhere.

But hey, I could be wrong about stuff. Humans are like that.