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Uganda, East Africa Missionaries Past & Present June 2012 In the Foreword of a book by the fascinating title of Before We Kill and Eat You, it is
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Missionaries Past & Present
June 2012 |
In the Foreword of a book by the fascinating title of Before We Kill and Eat You, it is said of missionaries Henry and Ruthanne Garlock that they invested their lives in Africa. They were pioneer Assembly of God missionaries in the 1920s. They prowled the jungles before there were roads, airfields, radio or telephone communication, or military protection. They lives in aboriginal housing, battled malaria, and saw others cut down before they had started. They faced the raw power of wickedness, intertribal warfare, cannibalism, the incantations of hell, and the gloom and despair of superstition. |
Missionaries today face some of these same matters, but many of them are no longer issues. We have roads, even though some require four-wheel-drive vehicles to navigate. We have airfields easing access to other areas that are limited to trails, shortening travel time from days to hours. Most of us have access to local or satellite telephone and even internet, shortening communication times from weeks to minutes. There is military protection when needed, and sometimes GPS systems. We may live without electricity, indoor plumbing and running water, but most of us do not have to live in mud or thatched houses. There are both preventions and cures for malaria so we no longer see the rampant death of missionaries as in the Garlock’s day. Wickedness, cannibalism, incantations of hell, and superstition’s hopelessness are still abundant in spite of civilization’s inroads. They are just more secretive now, hidden in modern cities as well as rural jungles and remote villages. Intertribal warfare has often been advanced by modern weaponry, fed by politics and gunrunners. People still need Jesus! |
I came to Uganda in 1999 and lived for a time without a vehicle, a phone, a computer, or the basic amenities of electricity, plumbing or running water. If I had lived in an African city, I could have had those things, as cell phones and internet were just beginning to come to Uganda. It took an average of 6 weeks to write a letter and get an answer back. Even so, I had access to public transportation, a village well for clean water, and a post office. So when I compared my lot to that of the early missionaries, I had much to be thankful for. |
Within less than a year, I had a cell phone and access to internet in cafés in the city, 50 miles away. It was a thrill to be able to talk to my family 10,000 miles away, even on a tentative cell phone connection. So much better than an annual letter brought by boat as in bygone years. And I had a four-wheel drive pickup. I could fly home in about 20 hours of flight time, remembering other stories I’ve read of people who took weeks to get to East Africa by boat and cross country hiking. |
 My house |
I have slowly been building a house in a rural village, living in unfinished construction for 8 years now. Just last summer I was blessed to be able to get solar electricity, which made my laptop and wireless internet much easier to keep charged up (no more charging by car battery), and my house lighted at night (no more kerosene lamps). I am in the process now of putting in indoor plumbing and getting a rainwater catchment system that will give me running water by gravity flow. My house still needs painting and many other things, but necessities come first. |
So as I look back at the stories by the pioneer missionaries, I know that missions has changed dramatically in the past 100 years. Life has become much easier in many ways, and obviously, much faster. But then I realize that we also have struggles consistent with and because of our own era of missions. Sometimes I wonder if being seasick on an ocean liner would be preferable to jet lag. Corruption, dependency, poverty all vie with progress. Christianity has made marvelous inroads, but underneath the old animism, superstitions and witchcraft still lurk, just wearing different clothing now.
Please pray for missionaries everywhere. |
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