There are many ways in which the African world view differs from the Western.  One major difference I heard about even before I came was that Africans are generally much more aware of the spiritual world than we are.  Witchcraft and worshiping of spirits is much more prevalent here than in the West.  And although we may want to easily dismiss such ideas and practices and label them as unenlightened or backwards, there is some truth in the matter.  I’m no expert by any means, but certainly being in Africa has exposed me to some different spiritual practices and beliefs.

When I first arrived in Kampala I couldn’t believe how many churches there were around the city.  It seemed like every couple of blocks I would see a church.  Even when I was out of the city I saw villagers flock to rundown church buildings or even gather under a tree Sunday morning.  I was amazed and excited about this.  I thought, “Even if they aren’t all true believers, how amazing is it that so many people attend church and hear the Bible being preached”.  Now having been here for several months I’ve learned a lot more about some of these churches and the validity of peoples’ beliefs.

Kampala is a big city new churches seem to be popping everywhere.  I also meet many people who say that they really feel God is calling them to be a pastor and to start their own church.  I wonder how many of them understand that being a pastor means more than standing up and reading out of the Bible.  I’m sure few of them attend a theological school.  So many of the churches here preach the prosperity gospel persistently.  Some of these churches go as far as telling their members that if they want to be healed, they need to bring $100 and not to bother coming if they have less because God isn’t a beggar!  Yikes!  Other forms of false teachings are just as prominent.

With traditional African spirituality there is a lot of emphasis on warding off evil spirits and making sure to not upset the dead.  Many people, particularly children (due to the prominence of child sacrifice) tend to wear beads and charms or having ear piercing.  I was amazed to see in one village that I visited that instead of the traditional beads, most of the children were wearing Catholic saint pendants.  It seemed to just be a new type of good luck charm for them.  Another example happened here in Kampala last month when Kasubi tombs burned down.  Kasubi is where former kings of the Buganda tribe are buried and it has some of their belongings next to the graves.  Although advertised as a tourist attraction, the place also holds a lot of spiritual meaning and is believed to hold power for witchcraft practices.  The actual cause has not been discovered, but last month the grass huts at Kasubi burned down.  The Buganda tribe declared a week or mourning and wore a piece of bark cloth as a symbol of being in mourning.  At the end of that week there was a huge ceremony and people came flocking by the thousands.  Now, instead of just having a small piece of bark cloth, some people had made entire outfits out of it.  The belief is that since the graves had been disturbed, the tribe needed to do something to rectify that or else the spirits of the kings (who never really die) will haunt people and cause trouble.  People, such as shop owners and boda-boda drivers, who can rarely afford to take a day off of work to attend church, felt compelled to attend the ceremony.  The next day, the day before Palm Sunday, I saw many people from boda-boda drivers to small children waving palm branches.  It was as though as soon as one ceremony was done, the next should be started to make sure not to offend any spirit.  It made me sad to realize that so many people are grasping at any form of spirituality and not able to distinguish truth from lies.  My respect and appreciation for missionaries teaching at theological schools has grown tremendously.

Now I don’t want to sound too negative or critical.  Many of the people I’ve met, particularly at UCF have true and genuine faith.  They are unafraid to preach the name of Jesus and serve him whole heartedly.  There is no distinction between their “spiritual” life and their “secular” life; it is all one.  This also is an opportunity for some self-evaluation.  How do we in the West combine the culture around us and our Christian beliefs?  What beliefs do we hold unto not realizing they have nothing to do with Christianity?  I’d love to hear some of your responses.

Whether we know it or not, we have expectations for most things that happens in our lives.  Unconsciously we say to ourselves things like, “I’m going to get up this morning, have a shower, eat breakfast, and go to work.”  But what happens when that doesn’t happen? What happens we are forced to change our plans?  How do you react when you are forced to change your plans?

I’m a planner by nature.  I like thinking about details and knowing what’s going to happen next.  It’s my way of trying to have some order and control in my life.  But I’ve had to learn to let that go.  My days here rarely go how I expect.  Sometimes it is just small things, like planning to go downtown but then it pours rain or the taxi breaks down.  I go to work in the morning wanting to accomplish certain things and meet with certain people.  But when I get there, the people I expect never show up.  I’ve had to learn to just be ok with that.  God has had to teach me a lot of patience and the ability to just let things go.  There have been three incidents in the last couple of months that have really taught me this.

The first one happened in January when I was travelling to Kigali, Rwanda.  I had booked a flight on the AIM Air trip from Entebbe to Kigali for a Thursday morning.  Another AIM missionary brought me to the airport and waited with me for the pilot showed up.  When he didn’t show up for a while, we called him.  He said the flight had been scheduled for Friday morning.  So luckily I went back with my host to stay another night at her house.  The following morning it was pouring rain, which of course meant delays.  When we arrived at the airport, the pilot told me that we still needed to wait for the fuel truck to come (apparently the man didn’t want to get wet!).  While we waited, the pilot got news that his daughter was not doing well and she may need surgery (gall bladder).  So he phoned the only other available AIM pilot to come in from Kenya.  We finally left around 1:30 in the afternoon.  My plans were changed quite a bit, but I knew there was not point in getting upset.  My frustration wouldn’t change the circumstances.

The second incident happened in February when I was expecting to get back into regular routines now that university classes had restarted.  In the second week of February one of our co-workers at church passed away very suddenly.  She was a well loved lady (about 45) who had been with the church for a long time.  The staff and many members of the congregation were shocked and filled with grief.  All regular activities and routines were postponed while we prepared for a memorial service and travelling for the burial.  Even now, more than a month later, I still see my co-workers dealing with the loss.  Instead of getting on with my activities and plans, I see a need to support the staff in any way I can.

The final thing that I’ve had to change my expectations about is the Bible study I had been hosting at my house.  Last semester I invited 4 girls whom I was discipling to come together for a weekly Bible study.  It was never big, but everyone enjoyed it and said they wanted to continue it in this second semester.  So in February I called each girl and they each said they could come.  Every Thursday afternoon I would go home, lay things out for tea and wait and wait and wait.  No one came.  I phoned every week.  I even asked each girl if we should change the time or place.  They still all said they would come.  I finally had to accept that this plan was no longer going to work.  I needed to try something new.

It hasn’t been easy.  But time and time again, I’ve just had to realize that when my expectations aren’t met, I sometimes need to be ok with that.  My plans don’t always work the way I want them to.  But you know what, it isn’t about my plans, it’s about God’s.  When I can submit myself to His will and see what plans He is working on, then I can be a part of what He is accomplishing.

Recently I’ve been studying the book of John.  We read recently the part where Jesus talks about the true vine and how His Father is the gardener (John 15).  We talked about how when a gardener is pruning a plant, he is close to the plant, his hand is right there on it.  Sometimes the gardener takes off a branch that seems to be good and we ask why it was pruned off.  But it turns out that it was for the betterment of the plant.  The same happens with God.  Sometimes He takes something away from us that seems to be something good.  It is not until later that we see that that “loss” turned into a greater gain.

I was speaking to my dad the other day and he told me about his garden.  There is an azalea bush that I pruned last year.  This year it is full of blossoms and more vibrant than it has ever been before.  Are you willing to lay aside your expectations and let God prune you so that you will become more vibrant?