As we left Congo, the people said to us, “Why are you leaving us, don’t you love us? Don’t you love Congo?” but I responded, “Yes, we do and that’s why we must go. We can stay, but then we will be no good to anyone. We need to go away in order to truly be of help to the Congolese people. We need to learn, we need to raise money, we need to go…So that when we return, the will of God can be done.”
One of them responded, “These sound like the parting words of Jesus Christ,” and the others nodded their heads and said that they thought the same thing. They assured us that they knew we would be back and that they believed in us.
That night Andrew and I prayed and marveled on our times in Africa and how much we’ve always loved every moment we’ve spent on this wonderful continent. At that time Andrew said “I feel like the few good friends we’ve made in the past four years are better friends then some of the ones we have known in America for 10 years,” The reason is this. . .
In Africa, if we needed help no matter what was happening our friends there would drop anything they were doing to help us, even at their own expense. In America, most of the time we’ve really needed our long-term friendships… All we’ve ever heard was “we have to work, we don’t have the money or I’m sorry we’re busy.” Sadly, it has been the case more times than not, especially since we've been married… That night we made a pact that we would never propel this western way of thinking in our own lives and that this was one of the good qualities we will take from Africa… Their hospitality, friendship and faithfulness, it’s something the west can learn a lot from. . .
Western culture is often very isolated, formal and polite and shallow. African's find this terribly strange and this is the reason alot of them theat visit Europe and America will sometimes say, "I'd rather go back to Africa... Maybe that’s why," the Africans say, "these rich muzungus are cutting themselves and committing suicide…"
I think they may have a point . . .
One of them responded, “These sound like the parting words of Jesus Christ,” and the others nodded their heads and said that they thought the same thing. They assured us that they knew we would be back and that they believed in us.
That night Andrew and I prayed and marveled on our times in Africa and how much we’ve always loved every moment we’ve spent on this wonderful continent. At that time Andrew said “I feel like the few good friends we’ve made in the past four years are better friends then some of the ones we have known in America for 10 years,” The reason is this. . .
In Africa, if we needed help no matter what was happening our friends there would drop anything they were doing to help us, even at their own expense. In America, most of the time we’ve really needed our long-term friendships… All we’ve ever heard was “we have to work, we don’t have the money or I’m sorry we’re busy.” Sadly, it has been the case more times than not, especially since we've been married… That night we made a pact that we would never propel this western way of thinking in our own lives and that this was one of the good qualities we will take from Africa… Their hospitality, friendship and faithfulness, it’s something the west can learn a lot from. . .
Western culture is often very isolated, formal and polite and shallow. African's find this terribly strange and this is the reason alot of them theat visit Europe and America will sometimes say, "I'd rather go back to Africa... Maybe that’s why," the Africans say, "these rich muzungus are cutting themselves and committing suicide…"
I think they may have a point . . .