A few weeks ago I switched tukols. One of my coworkers returned home to Kenya and, having lived in the dumpiest tukol for six months, I took advantage of the situation and moved up to a higher standard of living. My first tukol was affectionately known as Ft. Jesus - perhaps because of its meek and humble state upon this earth – and my new tukol has been dubbed the White House because it was plastered with white paste by a previous resident. It is also quite posh – I now have a double bed, a small veranda and, most importantly, I have a small six inch fan which I have wired to one of rafter posts. It blows the hot, dry air around quite nicely and covers the sound of termites eating at my walls with its charming little whirring noise. I also have a mirror – which isn’t exactly a good thing because now I can actually see how awful I look when I decide that shaving is too much work.
My new living arrangements are really quite nice and as I’ve adjusted to the luxury of my new tukol I have even come to a pretty substantial agreement with the resident mouse. Every night he comes in to scope out the room and every night I shoo him out the door and tell him to come back after I’ve gone to sleep so that I don’t have to hear him nibbling on my belongings. If he wakes me up, I threaten him with death and he decides that it would be best to come back later. The other “unspoken” agreement between us is that under no circumstance should he allow a snake to follow him into my tukol – I think we’re on the same page there.
It seems there has been a lot going on around the world this past week – polls, tornadoes, fires, rebel attacks, ethnic fighting, futbol matches and the list goes on. Here, we have had our own share of excitement and challenges. The hospital we operate in town services people from hundreds of kilometers around – including neighboring Ethiopia – so when something goes wrong with the hospital people are understandably upset.
On Thursday I was fixing lunch and re-hydrating myself – it was very hot – when we received a call that our hospital was on fire. We grabbed some fire extinguishers and rushed there as fast as possible, given the state of the roads. When we got to the hospital a huge crowd had already formed outside the main gait and we had to ease our way through the crowd to get inside. The fire had already engulfed one of our main buildings and the only thing left to do was monitor the other buildings and keep the crowd from getting in the way. Thankfully no one was hurt but unfortunately a large supply of medicines and costly equipment were lost to the fire. It spread very fast due to the circumstances and hospital staff had to scramble to get as much as they could out of the building before it was engulfed. After the fire had died down considerably a UN truck arrived with water to finish putting it out but by then the damage was already done. The only work remaining is to clean up the mess and assess the stability of the remaining structure.
This type of situation brings out many of the underlying tensions that have existed in town for some time. There is a lot blame being tossed around and the leaders are trying hard to stay on top of rumors and theories. It is sad that in situations such as this very rational people choose to believe very irrational ideas. It has reminded me of the Church’s responsibility to aggressively pursue reconciliation and peace. Where the Church fails to stand up and declare that it will not be drawn into hatred and slander it has failed to act as the body of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ reconciled us to God when we were his bitter enemy and he has given us, the Church, the job of reconciliation (2 Cor. 5). When the Church does not preach reconciliation, it has relinquished its right to be called the body of Christ because in essence it has said that the Blood of Jesus Christ was good enough for only a few and not everyone. It has shamed the power of the cross and spit on the face of its King who died with his arms spread wide to embrace not one soul but every soul.
Unfortunately, today there are countless examples of the Church failing. If the Church will not stand up for reconciliation then we the Body of Christ have surrendered our number one message to the secular world – a world awash with greed, jealousy and selfishness. Here, or in Kenya, or in Eastern Congo, where is the Church when it is needed most? Where are those who will stand up and say that at all costs they will love their brother or sister who is a different race, or color, or political persuasion? If not the church then who will do it? We are commanded to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us and we have been given the work of reconciliation – it must start with those who follow the King.
Pictures of the fire.
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