Growing Up in Africa

Growing up, the official change from a child to an adult, in many cultures requires a ceremony. In many cultures this ceremony includes circumcision. That is not earth shattering news. It is very common.

In Africa, these ceremonies have traditionally included witchcraft. This is also not surprising news to anyone. There are always certain old people whose role is to lead the children through the ceremony, which usually takes several days. These old people are not witchdoctors, but their roles include witchcraft. Witchcraft is used to ask for health, wealth, fertility, strength, a good education - any number of different blessings. In direct relation to this, it is believed that if these ceremonies are ignored then these children will suffer and even be cursed.

Many tribes do this, but the Kuria tribe does it in a much more ominous way. From what we have learned, it is not just simple witchcraft. It is truly demonic. That may sound odd to many ears, but the whole process from the highest to the lowest levels involves ceremonies that truly frighten us. I want to write about this as I learn more, but just trust me. This is not like circumcision in any other tribe I know.

Both churches and the government have taught against total female circumcision and against the unsanitary practices used in male circumcision. Sometimes the parents are convinced but the children literally run away to be part of the ceremony. Sometimes the children are convinced but the parents are adamant that culture be preserved. Sometimes no one is convinced.

But there is great pressure to continue in the old ways. Unless the circumcision ceremony is pursued, these youth will always remain children in the eyes of the community. They will not be given the respect of an adult. Girls may not want to marry the uncircumcised boys, and vice-versa (because the Kuria also practice female circumcision).  They may have to live with the curse of not pleasing the ancestors and spirits by keeping culture. There are a myriad of obstacles to overcome in a life without circumcision.

We have come up with a different idea, though it is not new. It is already done in many places successfully. We want to create a Christian circumcision ceremony that will replace the traditional one. We will take the elements of Kuria tradition that are important but change them to glorify God and add a lot of teaching about becoming an adult who loves the Lord.

The idea is not to tell them to stop having this important rite of passage, but to do it in a Christlike manner.

We are talking with our 3 local Baptist pastors. This is a new idea for them. They are used to attending training and educational meetings, but not planning a whole procedure and then trying to put it into action. This is our action plan:

Step 1

Our pastors decide who to invite onto a committee which will begin looking at the traditional ceremonies and deciding how a Christian ceremony should look. This committee will be made up of other evangelical pastors.

We will also need to make sure that we have good, Christian men and women from various Kuria clans. There are 16 clans. We aren't aiming to have a representative from each, but if only one clan is on the committee then the other clans will be less likely to accept this plan.

We would also like to find a person who once led these ceremonies but is now a strong Christian. This is a strong matter of prayer. Such a person would give us great insight and would help us in introducing the new ceremony into communities.

We will need to have a subcommittee that deals with female circumcision. This is a much more difficult situation because we would want a ceremony, but not the actual physical circumcision. I think that this one will be even harder to accept than a new male circumcision ceremony.

Please pray for Step 1. It is a lot, in and of itself. We so need God's guidance in choosing the right people to invite onto this committee. If the committee does not work then the plan will not succeed.

Blessings.

But We Want to Know Christ

While visiting with Pastor Mwita this week he told us about two ladies who received Christ when our volunteer group came a couple of months ago.

One lady was so excited about her new salvation that she kept coming to Pastor asking to be taught more. She joined the classes that Pastor began for the new Christians. During one class her husband showed up. He stood, arms crossed, watching. When the class was over, he grabbed his wife and began hitting her. He yelled at the pastor, "Why are you ruining my wife? She is not at home cooking for me like she should be! Why are you causing trouble?"

The other lady Pastor Mwita told us about is in a similar situation.

Change is not welcome in the village. Any shift in the status quo is a great threat to stability and is resisted strongly. As a social rule,  people are not allowed to be different. Different is bad. Church isn't necessarily bad, but it is if it causes real change at home.

Please pray for these two ladies who so obviously desire Christ. Pray that their husbands will have a change of heart and allow their passion for Christ to grow. And pray for all the others that we do not know about - women, men, children - who want to be different but are afraid of challenging the society they live in.

Blessings.

Demons among us

It was the day I had been dreading - the day that our kids witnessed demon possessed people. That is to say, the manifestation of demons in people. I know that we interact with people everyday who have demons but who act perfectly normally and no one would know until those demons were rebuked.

In all our years in Malawi only David saw them when he went out to the village for long evangelistic meetings. We just didn't see them on Sunday mornings in church. But Sunday morning seems to be the norm here. I had my first experience a few months ago. The kids' had their first yesterday.

We went to a church that is not actually Kuria. It is Luo, but still in our same association and so a part of our group. Pastor Mwita from Remagwe (leh-mah-gway) visited our church in Shirati (sheer-ah-tee) to teach for the weekend. We took the kids out Sunday morning to join him.

It was a fun day - though, when you go to the Luo churches you have to put aside all concerns of time and agenda. Things happen very slowly and no one really knows what to expect. But their singing is very different from the Kuria. It is lively and joyous (not saying that the Kuria singing isn't) and then a few will come forward and form a tight circle clapping their hands faster and faster. When the circle breaks there just seems to be a feeling of victory in the air.

David did a great job preaching (in Kiswahili with translation into Kijaluo). The Luo are not as reticent as the Kuria seem to be so it is a little easier to joke and interact with them. At the end of the service people came forward for prayer. This is a normal part of church - it is a time when people who wish to be prayed for come to the front. David, the pastors, and I laid hands on them in prayer.

As I was returning to my seat, two of the ladies fell down. When a demon decides to rear its ugly head, the person often becomes violent, thrashing about and trying to run away. They will moan and hiss and sometimes yell. Blessedly, these ladies were fairly quiet. They were surrounded by the pastors, church leaders, David, and I - and we prayed.

The kids were concerned and felt very much out of their depth, but were not scared. We were able to talk to them quietly and explain what we knew of these things and encourage them to pray. Abby said that one thing kept running through her mind: Jesus is power. Jesus is power. Jesus is power. When faced with something frightening, Christ filled her with Himself.

These things can also take a long time, but was, again blessedly, brief. We finished the service, had a great village "lunch" (it was past 3pm), and went home. We have talked with the kids and they have not been disturbed by the experience overly much, but their eyes were certainly opened.

We tend to hear these stories and we have visions of the Christian being filled with power and confidence and the demons immediately obeying and running in fear. But that is not how it always happens. It is disturbing and difficult, even though we are assured of the victory. And I have learned that demons do not immediately run away. They fight to stay. And if the person has willingly invited them into their lives it takes more than just rebuking. The person has to admit to the act in order to break the covenant made. Not what we are taught, is it? It's a lot more complicated than we are led to believe.

But God always proves Himself Good and Faithful. He always takes care of our children. We were together as a whole family, a unit, when my young ones were introduced to this part of the spirit world. And together we are strong. It was a quiet casting, as casting outs go. And it was a short one. It was calm and orderly and life went on as usual afterwards. There were no other difficulties to upset the spirits within us.

I will contend with those who contend with you, and your children I will save. Isaiah 49:25b

I love my God.

Blessings to you all.