Reflections on my Africa experience
By Tom Yaccino
Over the last couple of weeks we experienced some intense Kingdom connections during a gathering of the Amahoro Africa network, a sister network to the Red del Camino in Latin America. Both networks share a common passion that we believe is God’s dream for all of creation, which is to bring about the total redemption and restoration of all things.
We also had a powerful experience in Burundi, where we connected with Dallas church, Community of Faith and local Christ-followers from the Batwa tribe. Our time in Burundi reminded us again about the power and possibility of God’s vision for a restored creation.
Kingdom Reconciliation in South Africa
RdC Network leaders have been invited to be a part of the African network gathering since it started three years ago. This year, Robert Guerrero and I traveled to South Africa to participate in the network’s annual gathering, “The African Reformation”.
The beauty of these moments of connection within the global Kingdom community is that as we share stories of how God makes himself known and felt in the midst of the suffering that is so prevalent in the world, we experience reconciliation and hope.
Our South African brothers and sisters opened our eyes and hearts to a country whose history is marked by divisions and has suffered decades of hatred, systemic discrimination, violence, and oppression. Even in the darkest times of South Africa’s Apartheid, hope broke through the darkness through faithful followers of Christ who refused to conform to the “anti-kingdom” present in the form of governmental institutionalization of racism. Leaders like Nelson Mandela continue to inspire the world with their perseverance and commitment to justice. As a nation that still struggles with the scars caused by that horrible system, to this day it continues to move forward seeking reconciliation and equality.
During the Amahoro gathering we witnessed the mystery and power of God’s grace and love. A white senior official of the South African national police force, who became a follower of Christ several years ago, shared his story together with his former black maid, two black clergy, and a former white anti-terrorist task force member who later became a pastor and now serves as an international consultant for development and reconciliation initiatives.
After hearing the police supervisor’s testimony, a new friend of ours, Sean, who still struggles with guilt and shame for the dark actions he committed under order from the Police authorities during the apartheid years, confessed to the ex-official that he still harbors resentment and hatred toward him. He publicly asked for forgiveness. In turn, the ex-official pleaded for forgiveness from him. Both, now under the Divine directive that promotes life and wholeness, symbolized their act of reconciliation by washing one another’s feet. It was a Holy Moment–a sign of hope rising up from the ruins left by systemic injustice.
Signs of Hope in Burundi
After we shared a week with our family members from all over Africa who participated in the Amahoro gathering, we then traveled to Burundi where we experienced another powerful Kingdom connection between God’s people from the Batwa tribe and fellow Kingdom citizens from Community of Faith, a local church from Houston, Texas.
During our time with the Batwa, we were once again exposed to a people group who have been experiencing the by-products of marginalization and discrimination since before the time of Colonization. The systemic oppression that this ethnic group has suffered at the hands of the dominant tribes (and afterward, the colonizers) has left them landless and left out of the potential benefits of the educational, health, and economic systems of the nation. Their struggles only intensified during the 15-year period of civil war and political unrest.
As we heard their stories and were confronted by the conditions they live with, what surprised us most were the signs of hope. These humble and marginalized people, many of whom have put their trust in Christ, shared their dreams for their communities that are in alignment with God’s powerful dream of restoration.
Against all odds, Batwa young and old, are sharing their story and participating in God’s plans to make all things new.
The Transformative Power of Suffering
These experiences reminded us once again that even in dire circumstances there is hope because of the One who lived among us as a suffering servant - Jesus, who gives life through his suffering, death and resurrection.
Note: Roger wrote this reflection after a trip to the Dominican Republic where he served with ICC, a Network church in the capital city of Santo Domingo.
Micah 6:8 says: Do justice, love mercy and walk humbly with your God.
My definition of justice had always been some sort of “righteousness or consequence” idea. In leadership my definition was a sense of keeping things going in the right direction, “the rules of community”, or something like that. I think my evangelical background tied justice to God’s perfect justice which was overcome by Christ’s sacrifice of perfect love for us.
But the linkage between justice and mercy in this verse never made sense to me.
But here, at ICC in the Dominican Republic , I saw clearly for the first time that justice was about each of us having the same rights, the same reception, the same love, the same presence with Father God.
We all are sons and daughters of the same King. And if my brother or sister is in trouble, I am to love them with Mercy. I saw it with you, my new Dominican brothers and sisters. I saw you live it in your ministry to the homeless, I sense it in your love for each other. I feel it in your love and acceptance of us, of me, into your community.
When I see your justice practiced with such love and mercy, it is a true gift to me. It humbled me to be with you. I walk humbly with my God, home to Chicago , more rightly motivated to live DOING justice.
Those of us awakened to the reality of the plight of millions of people suffering from injustice often get plagued by one question, “What difference can I really make in this broken and hurting world?” We may say it out loud or in our minds, but the truth is we feel guilty when we sigh at disturbing news reports, ignore heart-wrenching images of crying babies, or hurry by the beggar on the street. And maybe when we look at the world with our eyes riveted on the problems, it is a rational and logical thing to ask.
But, everything changes when we begin to see through Kingdom lenses—even our complacency and doubt.
In a message entitled “The Power of Ten”, RdC DR network leader and pastor, Robert Guerrero, challenged listeners to consider what God meant when He said He would spare an entire city from catastrophic consequences for the sake of ten “just” people.
The teaching has special significance for the small, often marginalized communities of faith represented in the RdC networks that struggle against the tide to make a transformative difference in their neighborhoods, but it has powerful implications for all of us who are stumbling towards Jesus along His Way.
The Biblical text for the message comes from Genesis 18:23-32 where Abraham barters with God over the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah.
Then he said, “May the Lord not be angry, but let me speak just once more. What if only ten can be found there?” He answered, “For the sake of ten, I will not destroy it.”
Abraham was most likely looking out for his own interests (his nephew Lot and his family) and not necessarily the well being of a corrupt and unjust city. But what may have been a selfish inquiry by a concerned uncle is a useful object lesson for us all. The presence of only ten just Kingdom citizens in a city can make all the difference in the world.
Kingdom math takes a linear equation into the realm of infinite possibilities. For God,2+ 1 ”the One” = ∞ “infinity”.
While we often get caught up in quantities, (how many volunteers are there, how much money have we raised, or how many people were baptized this month?) God seems more concerned that those of us who follow Him make His presence known by being truly “present” in alternative Kingdom ways in our towns, cities, and neighborhoods.
God continually reminds us that the mission is His. Our “Kingdom business” is to be about renewing and redeeming everything we can possibly influence.
Our constant struggle as a community of faith is that God’s measurements for triumph, success, power, and influence are usually co-opted by the world’s measurements so that, most of the time, we are scrambling in vain to accomplish plans and purposes that are not part of His mission to restore and transform.
“Hey Wendy, how are you?” I ask when I see her in the lobby after the church service.
“Fine.” She tells me, but I know better.
She looks surprisingly well and typically beautiful. No one would ever know that a few days earlier she had been forced out of her “home” 7 months pregnant. She watched from a distance as her makeshift closet with everything she owned was burned down by police. And later, she found out that their dogs were killed by bullets that were meant for her and her little community — a community that had struggled to help one another survive.
But what some meant for evil, God has used for good.
Let me tell you Wendy’s story.
She and a little band of about 14 others live in caves located on a rocky beach strewn with garbage a couple of blocks from the colonial city of Santo Domingo. She is there because, like many young people, she was having some serious problems with her parents (especially her dad) for unruly behavior and thought it might be better for everyone if she left.
She doesn’t give much detail about her home life but tells of how she is not welcome anymore (admittedly because of her own bad behavior). She had heard of the caves and went down one day to see if it could be a place for her to live, since she knew she could not go home. The group there received her with open arms, fed her what they could, gave her a place to sleep, and above all this showed her acceptance.
Her parents do not know she is pregnant. They have her other three children.
She tries to get money day by day doing odd jobs, cleaning hamburger stands, and asking people for money. Sometimes she is even lucky enough to sell jars of freshly collected sea glass that she scavenges every day from the beach dump.
The man who is the father of her baby (Chino) does the same. When they have enough, they can sleep in a one-room pension for a time. But when the money runs out, they go to the caves. When the baby comes, they are not sure what they are going to do.
“I want to serve God because I like what I have seen in this church.”
Wendy and Chino came to know of ICC (where I was first introduced to her) through the soup kitchen.
The church is located only a few blocks from the caves and when the couple heard that there was a place to get a meal for the day, they started going. Now they both regularly serve there as well. She often says, “I want to serve God because I like what I have seen in this church.”
We all desire to be “successful” in those things that we put our hearts and sweat and time into. We all desire to celebrate when we make it across the river, finish the race, or get good results from the work of our hands. Through it all, we claim God’s grace and miraculous intervention in our lives. We thank God for helping us “succeed.” But ironically, in the vocabulary of God’s Kingdom, the word “success” does not mean what we so often think it means.
Jesus himself would hardly measure up against today’s definition of success.
The biblical narrative seems to highlight failure unabashedly. The Old Testament relates story after story of how God’s chosen people failed to carry out His plans. They rejected God’s Divine plan to be a people set apart under God’s rule, choosing instead to elect their own national King. Israel wanted to be like the other nations and bought into that view of success. King Saul, whose attributes and appearance had success written all over them, ultimately failed as a leader. Likewise, his popular young successor, King David, was a failure as a parent, husband and trustworthy leader.
Jesus himself would hardly measure up against today’s definition of success. Great numbers of His disciples abandoned Him early on in His ministry when things appeared to be out of control. And after His arrest and crucifixion, His inner circle betrayed, rejected, and abandoned Him. The Bible is riddled with stories of real failure and doubt. “Where are you God?” “Are you the One or should I wait for another?” “My God, my God why have you forsaken me?” “Do you love me?”
Antonio Gonzales says that the essence of the Adamic framework unleashed into the world after the break from unity with God in the garden is this: that we justify ourselves by the fruit of our labors.
God chooses to teach us about real success through the failed, weak, and flawed characters of His divine narrative. The upside-down Kingdom warns us that the glitter and shine that the world calls “success” is nothing more than rust on the surface of our lives and circumstances.
How did we become so captivated by the claims of worldly success?
I recently had the privilege of spending 5 days in Fraijanes, Costa Rica with a group of 10 other pastors and church leaders from RdC networks throughout Latin America. We had originally convened the gathering for RdC / DCC connectors for the end of January to celebrate all the wonderful things God did in 2008 through the networks of churches that we each represent and to look forward to what 2009 might bring.
But, our agenda was altered when we received a call on January 8 from our friend, Roy Soto, who is pastor of Shalom Community Church in Fraijanes asking us to pray because a half hour earlier they suffered a devastating earthquake that measured about 6.2 on the Richter scale. He told us that it quake felt as if someone was picking up the ground around them and violently pounding and shaking off the dirt.
And that is what it looked like when I saw it a couple weeks after it happened. Roads had been cleared and rubble and glass in homes had been swept up, but brokenness could still be seen and felt everywhere we went.
As we entered several houses to pray for the families of Comunidad Cristiana Shalom (CCS), whom we’ve come to know through the relationships built over the years as network family members, we listened to their stories. They shared with us where they were when the earthquake happened, what they did to try to escape injury, and what they were thinking as they were being knocked off their feet for 22 seconds.
I held it together emotionally most of the time, but certain moments in their stories made me enter into their pain and joy in ways I had not expected.
Graciella is the soft-spoken wife of one of the leaders of CCS. She is pregnant with their first child. At the time the earthquake hit (around noon), she was out in the back of her house and heard her mother screaming from the kitchen. When they could finally get to each other, everything on the walls and cupboards and shelves had been knocked to the floor and broken into bits. They just held each other and began to cry and wonder what else happened… to their loved ones, their homes, the community…
The birth of any child is an amazing thing. I remember the events surrounding all four of my children. And I know that if you ask any mother to recount the story of the birth of her children, she will usually be willing and able to tell you all about it–in great detail. I love hearing those stories. I love telling my stories.
You can also ask any mother who is in the last month of pregnancy how she is and she will probably say, “I am ready to have this baby!” I remember when I was in the last month of pregnancy all I could think about was the birth. I would wake up asking myself, is today the day? And I would go to bed thinking maybe tonight is the night…there was such an expectancy. I felt like I was waiting forever. And everybody knows it is hard to wait for anything. It is especially hard to wait for something that you want to happen so badly…like the birth of a new little life.
That waiting—that expectancy is what I want to talk about this Christmas season because we are focused on the birth of Jesus. And if there was ever a birth that was highly anticipated it was His.
Prophets of the people of Israel had been predicting it for centuries. All of the people of Israel had been waiting for the birth of the “Messiah” or King who would deliver them for a long, long time. It was the birth announcement people were waiting for that was as popular in that time as it is to wait for the birth announcement of Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt’s babies today.
The difference is that as excited as we become at the birth of famous babies (or really any baby for that matter), the Messiah’s birth was not the mere announcement of the arrival of a new life into this world. That is, even though wise men and astronomers had been predicting the time and place of the birth of this “King” from the line of David which was to be accompanied by strange signs and wonders and the appearance of a huge star in the sky, and even though the events surrounding the birth of the Messiah were amazing—even miraculous–that is not what made it important.
I have heard people say that the most important thing in life is what we think about ourselves.For example, if we think we are a piece of junk we will act like a piece of junk.This is true and it is important. But infinitely more important than what we think about ourselves is what God thinks of us. The Bible is raw and honest.God is raw and honest.So, no one needs to be dressed up and on his or her best behavior to make a connection with God.
You were a twinkle in God’s eye before there was anything. Before the creation of the world God chose you. God had all the time in the world to have said, “I know what this person will be like, and I don’t really want them around.I think I’ll make someone else.”So, the very fact that you are here means God spoke your name.He said, “Let there be…you.” He made you and knows you and He has said you are “very good.”God even went so far as to brand your name on his hand.The book of Isaiah says God has a tattoo across His chest with your name on it (49:16).
God created everything. He made novas and dolphins; butterflies and the sea; and these things are wonderful, good things.But none of them are stamped with God’s image.None of them have personality, and language, and creativity, and intelligence, and freedom to choose – like God.
Only men and women can do these things.Only men and women are able to be more like God than even the angels or seraphim.It is men and women who are “fearfully and wonderfully made” in God’s own image (Psalm 139).In fact, God looks at us and sees Himself.We are not junk.Before God, we (both men and women) have equal value and worth.Like an artist delights in his work, or a parent delights in a child, God looks at us and loves us.There is nothing we can do to make God love us more.And there is nothing we can do to make God love us less.
In Jesus’ day people had forgotten what God said about how much men and women matter.Women were treated like property.They didn’t count.They couldn’t testify in a court.They couldn’t worship with men, or be educated like men.Women couldn’t have men friends.And a really “holy” man would never make eye contact with a woman, let alone touch her in public. In fact, there was a group of men who were so committed to not looking at women that they put their eyes down whenever they saw women in the street.Consequently, they hurt and cut themselves running into walls.People called them “bleeding Pharisees.”
How did I feel?
I felt all throwed away
Like an old shoe in the rain
Or a chicken heart in a butcher’s hand.
Was how I felt
And blue as a week of Mondays.
“I felt” she said,
“Shades blacker than my skin,
Like there wasn’t no place low enough
To hide my feelings in
“It wasn’t” she said
“The jail I was in
But the world I was out of
Made me cry.
Not that I was so wrong
But nobody else was right.
Is why.”
“You don’t know
What a bad time is
Girl, you living child’s play
Til they sweep you under the rug
And you feel all throwed away.”
Have you ever felt like garbage—all used up, swept under a rug or thrown out and left on a pile to rot? Have you ever treated someone else like garbage? I think I have run the gamut of human emotion trying to come to terms with my own self-worth or lack of it. I also think I have done more than my fair share making others feel worthless or unworthy. What does that say about me? What does that make you think about me?
This was a theme shared over a year ago by friends from a church serving in the Dominican Republic. Little did any of us know how God would continue using “garbage” to help us see the beauty of His message to make all things new.
May this season be the reminder you need that, no matter what you have done, no matter how you have been treated, no matter how badly you have treated others, no matter what anyone says about you, no matter how often you have failed, or how small, forgotten or unworthy you have felt, you are not now nor will you ever be “garbage.”
a former white anti-terrorist task force member who later became a pastor and now serves as an international consultant for development and reconciliation initiatives.
During our time with the Batwa, we were once again exposed to a people group who have been experiencing the by-products of marginalization and discrimination since before the time of Colonization. The systemic oppression that this ethnic group has suffered at the hands of the dominant tribes (and afterward, the colonizers) has left them landless and left out of the potential benefits of the educational, health, and economic systems of the nation. Their struggles only intensified during the 15-year period of civil war and political unrest.
While we often get caught up in quantities, (how many volunteers are there, how much money have we raised, or how many people were baptized this month?) God seems more concerned that those of us who follow Him make His presence known by being truly “present” in alternative Kingdom ways in our towns, cities, and neighborhoods.
ky enough to sell jars of freshly collected sea glass that she scavenges every day from the beach dump.
I recently had the privilege of spending 5 days in Fraijanes, Costa Rica with a group of 10 other pastors and church leaders from RdC networks throughout Latin America. We had originally convened the gathering for RdC / DCC connectors for the end of January to celebrate all the wonderful things God did in 2008 through the networks of churches that we each represent and to look forward to what 2009 might bring.
I held it together emotionally most of the time, but certain moments in their stories made me enter into their pain and joy in ways I had not expected.
This was a theme shared over a year ago by friends from a church serving in the Dominican Republic. Little did any of us know how God would continue using “garbage” to help us see the beauty of His message to make all things new.