Theological Education in Guinea

While I was in Guinea I had the privilege of visiting a Bible College that was once run by my denomination.  However, over the past few years they have backed away from education in Guinea to concentrate on other ministries.  This has left a gap that others quickly jumped in to fill.  What I saw saddened my heart.
I saw a school that was desperately in need of supplies, books, and more but meanwhile there is building going on to house visiting professors.  Because this other group is funding the building they felt that they had the right to dictate what would be taught at the school.
What I saw was a need to support the nationals in the education of their own people.  We can and should watch what is being taught but we should not dictate the curriculum as if we know best.  We should help them develop curriculum that is needed for West Africa and help them guard against heresy.  I hate to compare countries but the programs that I saw when I visited Ecuador and Uganda made me think about the importance of educating the nationals to do the ministry.  The real strength comes when nationals train nationals.  The people of Ecuador are training church planters for all of South America.  The people of Uganda are training young men and women to be men and women of God.

Kings and Queens

This song by Audio Adrenalin could have been written about the children at the Kids in Crisis Centre in Conakry, Guinea.  Take a moment to listen and think about the children who are just throw aways.

Wagons

We sent three new wagons to Guinea in the container.  Wagons were just a dream but a friend of ours saw that wagons were on sale at a local store so he bought three for us.  When we arrived I had to assemble the wagons and as soon as a wagon was assembled it was full of children, sometimes three, sometimes four and sometimes even more.  They sat in the wagons waiting for someone to pull them.  It was much like most of their lives.  They wait for someone to love them.
The wagons were unpainted so we decided to paint them and reinforce the sides so the children were without wagons for a few days.  When I repaired one I took it to the play area and immediately there was fight to get into the wagons.

Guinea

My wife and I were part of a team from our church that went to Conakry, Guinea. West Africa.  The purpose of our trip was to work in an orphanage.  My wife sorted clothes, painted and cared for children.  In a country that is poor it is easy to see how the poor and marginalized are exploited by those that have money and power.
While we were there one of the local workers was working alongside one of our team who was mixing concrete to repair part of the play area.  He told the team member that they had never seen a white man working like he was, it was always the natives that worked while the white man supervised.  What kind of a testimony is that to the people of Guinea?
Much has been given to us so much is expected of us.  Why do we have a spirit of entitlement?
I am going to write a few more short blogs on our experiences in Guinea over the next few days.

Good Grief

We all remember good ol' Charlie Brown and him saying "good grief".  Paul refers to two types of grief which he calls godly grief and worldly grief.  You may say that godly grief is good grief.  So what is the difference between worldly grief and godly grief?  Paul says that godly grief leads to repentance while worldly grief only leads to shame.  The difference is the centre.  Worldly grief has self at the centre while godly grief has God at the centre.
Godly grief leads to repentance, true repentance.  Repentance is more than saying you are sorry or being sorry for your sin.  Repentance is a radical new way of thinking.  It has moved self from the centre and put God in His rightful place.  Repentance is not being sorry for our sins or saying that we won't do it anymore.  It is not cleaning up our act for Jesus but rather it is allowing God to do that for us.
A friend one time told me that the reason he was not a Christian "yet" was that he struggled with repentance.  He said that he thought Christians made repentance too easy.  Repentance he understood would cost him a great deal.  He eventually changed his way of thinking and today he is a true disciple of Jesus Christ.

Locked out and staying there

In his book, The Call, Oz Guinness gives us three pitfalls that we can fall into when we think about separation.

1.  Privatization.
 When we have a division between our public and private lives we will lack the freedom that is ours in Christ Jesus.
He says, The problem with Western Christians is not that they aren't where they should be but that they aren't what they should be where they are.
2.  Politicization.
 This is a reaction to privatization.  It is wrong to think that we can bring faith into all of life through politics.  When we think in terms of correcting society by political means then the Christian does not understand the tension that comes with living as a Christian in a fallen world.
3.  Pillarization.
This is when the Christian community builds its own network of institutions and organizations.  How then can we be salt and light?

 Paul says, "Come out from them and be separate says the Lord Touch no unclean thing, and I will receive you." 2 Corinthians 6:17.  So what does that mean?  We resist privatization of our faith by insisting on the totality of faith.  We resist politicization by demanding a tension with every human allegiance and association.  We also resist pillarization because we are constantly engaged in society to transform lives.

The girl with the dragon tattoo

Yesterday in class we were studying 2 Corinthians 6 and when we came to verse 17 we somehow got unto the topic of tattoos.  Someone in the class mentioned that in his discussion with one of his children the topic came up and he said that he had thought about how we should not set our standards by the world and there had to be ways that the Christian does appear and acts different from non-Christians.
Tattoos in Bible times and in pagan cultures often are related to pagan worship and in these cases one should not have a tattoo but what about something innocent such as a butterfly or even a Scripture reference?  Since we live under grace and not under law are we free to mark our bodies in any way we want?
After class one on the class members who as a very strict conservative upbringing said that he recently attended a wedding at a church of his upbringing and and a man came in with a tattoo on his arm.  One of the older women made the comment that if they allowed people with tattoos like that then she would not attend that church.  So I ask the question, where is the place for the girl with the dragon tattoo?