The Real World

This morning (Friday) I went to a local cell phone company and got a USB modem that allows me to connect to the Internet from Seed Ministry, albeit at dinosaur speed. At least I can check email, publish this blog, and access Google in an emergency. Otherwise, I'll be going to one of the many local Internet Cafés to do more serious Internet work.

Our second major errand of the day, looking for a motorbike to buy so I can get back and forth to school, was postponed because of rain. It is the rainy season here in Ghana, which makes everything a luxuriant green color, but which also makes for frequent flooding and power outages because in Africa the rain, like everything else it seems, is always epic – larger than life. Inconvenience and working harder for even the simplest things in life is just part and parcel of life not only here, but in most developing countries. But as the Bible reminds us, this is the world we must live in, not some fairy-tale world where things never stop working, or break, or go awry.

My trans-Atlantic flight over here reached heights of 41,000 feet. Even yesterday on the short puddle-hop from Accra to Tamale we reached 20,000 feet of altitude. Those of you who have flown before know that when you get up that high the sun is always shining, no matter what's going on down below. The tops of the clouds thousands of feet below you look resemble a soft, beautiful cotton quilt. There's no indication that somewhere below those clouds the chaos of "real life" is happening: stormy weather, flooding, people scrambling for a dollar, foreclosures, sickness…etc….

The good news is, even though we can't stay up there above the clouds for long, God has come to us here on earth. Jesus came and walked among us and even today he is here by his Spirit, living in us. That's the main reason I'm here in Africa; to help as many people as possible grasp this truth. I figure training pastors as I'll be doing multiplies this effort. Sitting here on a rainy afternoon in Africa I can truthfully say there's no place I'd rather be – not even floating thousands of feet above the fray.