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 PrintableVersion Hotel Kupendeshwa?Notes from Noel and Margaret Todd's Ugandan adventureSix months managing the Africa Inland Mission Guest House in Kampala in 2002. Fascinating (kupendeshwa is the Swahili). Missionaries are particularly interesting people. . . . Here comes Wayne from Texas. True, he does not have six guns and a stetson. But the laconic drawl and the laid-back ambience are vintage Wild West. He is 'just down from Sudan'. 'To buy a lorry.' (No less). Load it with medical supplies. Then drive it back up through Lord's (Rebel) Army territory which he negotiated on the way down. Inside Sudan, he is getting a hospital up and running for Voice of the Martyrs. On site he can only employ locals vetted by the local warlord. Many of them arrive with 'protective' kalashnikovs. He has left Connie 'running the show' until he gets back. Can he have 'a bath and a bed, Marm'? MennonitesThe guest house is primarily for those working with the Africa Inland Mission (AIM). However, spare space offered to other missions kept costs down. Thus we not only had 'do or die' types, but subdued Mennonite families from Canada. They would gather their families around them for a praise time (part-singing). They read interminable stories to their gentle-spirited children (they were not allowed television). Their own Mennonite school teacher was with them. Mennonites had gone to Canada in the first place after an agreement with the government that they would not be involved in military service, and would always have the right to educate their children in their own schools. 'Do you sometimes take children from non-Mennonite families?' 'Yes, but only after vetting them.' 'What sort of things would the school require?', we asked. 'That the Christian parents did not have television in their homes!'. Round the meal table, respectful children, taking their cues from genial hulking father, Margaret gently teased capable, blue-head-scarfed mother. 'Are you allowed to challenge your husband?' 'We are allowed to put another point of view. Once only.' Ambushed!By now you may be thinking AIM missionaries uninteresting by comparison. Not so. Bill is drawing up in the yard. The one who has bullet creases in his 4 x 4 truck from being ambushed on the Congo border. He escaped unhurt, albeit with some wheels on their rims. Nobody thinks Bill is dull. Nor incidentally, naive. He has identified with many others, that it is easy to get decisions for Christ in Africa. So he is engaged in doing discipleship training. Not only 'getting people into heaven - but getting heaven into people' (as Dallas Willard puts it in Renovation of the heart, IVP, 2002). CongoMissionaries are fascinating people because they also offer fascinating insights. 'From our own correspondent' trumpets the BBC. Well, how about having your very own correspondent . . . who really knows what is going on in a country because they live there with the indigenous people, and dialogue with them in their own language? 'Now about all this trouble in Congo', I asked Greg. 'Well', he said, 'Do you realise that the area you are enquiring about is fantastically rich in minerals? People are digging for gold. Fighting over claims. Roofs cave in and people get buried.' 'Why don't international companies come in and do the thing properly?' 'They did, but pulled out because of the breakdown in law and order.' 'Do individual people still find nuggets?' 'Sure! One day a guy came to me with two plastic bags. He opened one and said: "If you will get that into Uganda I will give you a percentage." I told him I would not do that because it was illegal. Anyway, how did he know whether or not I would just take his nuggets and not come back? "No problem", he said. "I've plenty left in the other bag".' Pastor shotAt Entebbe airport there were men with mobile telephones looking out for folk coming in from the Congo with bulging briefcases. They phoned their compatriots on the Entebbe/Kampala road, and a Dick Turpin-style hold-up occurred. Usually, if they got what they wanted no one was harmed. So missionaries were under instructions not to resist. In the case of denominational leader pastor Etsea, he got out of the car to talk to the bandits and they shot him. He died later in hospital. He had no gold in his briefcase, but he did have documents. Was he shot for gold? Or to silence a reliable witness to incidents in Congo who was about to embark on an international tour? Ron (AIM pilot) and Steve (deputy team leader) walked into the annual conference to explain how they had obtained special permission to fly the body back to Congo for burial. They were visibly upset; seasoned men who know there are Christians of the loaves-and-fishes variety, but pastor Etsea, magnificently, was not one of them. A true disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ, he was loved and respected by all who knew him. Tears trickled down faces. The harvest from initial missionary endeavour in Africa is mind-boggling, both quantitively and qualitively. You have to see it to believe it. By the time our six months was up, and we boarded the morning flight from Entebbe to Heathrow, crawling across the interminable Sahara at 6,000 feet, we knew we had been blessed. Far beyond what we would have experienced had we stayed at home in lovely Northumberland. How do you get there?Firstly, by being available. 'Wherever he leads, I'll go', we used to sing in Male Voice Praise. Get somebody to cut the lawn. Fit a froststat to prevent pipes freezing up. Give the key to a neighbour, or better still, to a missionary on furlough. Secondly (for us), by invitation. In nearly every case we have gone to alleviate a problem. This means we were wanted - as long as we did what we were told and avoided becoming more of a burden than a blessing. People have been wonderfully understanding of our inadequacies. In fact, one field leader said: 'We like oldies. You are easier to handle. You have nothing left to prove.' Thirdly, pay your way. Which, frankly, in a third world country, on a pension or a part-pension, is not difficult. We rode all day on a bus from Peshawar to Lahore along the evocative Grand Trunk Road (Kabul to Delhi) for about £3.00 each. Does it all sound a lot of fun, but too much to cope with? Actually that is how it has been for us two. But then, we were three: 'I see four men walking in the midst of the fire. Did we not cast in three and they are not hurt?' (Nebuchadnezzar to his counsellors, Daniel 3), '...and the form of the fourth is like the Son of God'. In third world countries you pray more frequently than you do at home (in fact, every time you go in a vehicle). You pray more fervently than you do at home (because you are really out of your depth). And you get more wonderful answers than you do at home. It may be for some who read this article that they have retired from a situation that has left them too broken to consider service abroad. Be encouraged. I was so low that I could not face seeing people I loved dearly, and I was quite clear about the fact that I would never get on an aeroplane again! Since then we have been to Kenya (AIM, six weeks), Turkey (Interserve, two weeks, then six weeks), Karachi (Interserve, six months), Kathmandu (Interserve, six months - twice), Bolivia (Latin Link, one month), Lahore (Interserve, six months), Uganda (AIM, six months). What does the Prayer Book say? Something about, 'The Lord desireth not the death of a sinner, but rather that he may live.' Really LIVE! In Uganda, pastors shout: 'God is good!' Noel and Margaret Todd© Evangelicals Now - June 2003 |
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