What I Love About Being Back in America

I am very excited to be home for three weeks. And in just the little time that I’ve been here, I’ve been asked what are the luxuries that I plan to prioritize during my time here! And, well, the things that I appreciate about being home are different then what most would think, so here they are…..

Paved Roads – My number one favorite thing about America! Paved Roads represent the very definition of convenience. My first couple days here in Portland, I have had moments of confusion on what to do with myself because I had accomplished my “To Do List” in record time! My two things that I thought would take me all day, only took half the time that it would take me in Africa. I credit this primarily to paved roads and an organized road system with lights and stop signs.

Talking on the Phone without a Delay – When every conversation for six months includes a two second delay, you can never get into a good “flow.” In fact, you can ultimately end up having one conversation about two topics simultaneously – the topic you are responding to and the topic they have moved onto. My friend Chad was so nice has to offer to delay his response by two seconds in order for me to feel more “at home,” I was happy to refuse!

Stumptown Coffee – a stumptown, vanilla latte provides a great happy feeling, even if it is completely superficial I missed the joy it brings. But, even more importantly, I don’t miss the actual coffee so much as the “Coffee Culture” in Portland. I have had so many deep, meaningful conversations in a coffee shop that it now represents a comfortable, desirable place. Ultimately, Portland coffee shops represent quality time building quality relationships.

Chocolate Chip Cookies –Every American I run into on my travels that live long term in Africa, have people bring them back Costco size bags of chocolate chips. And, I have discovered that you can not get a bag of chocolate chips even such developed places as South Africa or England. In fact, surprisingly, chocolate chip cookies are a distinctly, American institution that I am happy to return too.

Shoes – so I’ve always had a bit of an addiction. My closest is literally “overflowing” with all sorts of styles and colors of these magnificent creatures. However, I went to Uganda, with very few, partly because of space and partly because I just couldn’t provide that kind of abuse to these companions of mine. Simply put, I just didn’t think my shoes weren’t cut out for the mission field… and the fact was they weren’t. But, now our reunion has been both sweet and bitter. My feet unfamiliar with these enclosed and somewhat high shapes, have been longing for the dirty flip-flops now resting in Uganda…. Nevertheless, I look great!

High-Speed Internet – You don’t realize how much your life revolves around the internet until you don’t have it and when you do have it, it takes five minutes to send an email out. It menas that when you are on the internet that you drove 45 minutes to get to it and then are paying $3-5 dollars an hour for it. It dramatically changes the culture. In Uganda, if you see someone on the computer, it is polite to check if they are on the internet before engaging in a conversation. It changes your work behavior. I spend hours getting ready to be on the internet with pre-written emails and a list of information that need to be acquired. There is no time to waste just browsing while you randomly remember what you should get off the internet. I do not miss the frantic feeling that overtakes you when you get onto the internet. I’m happy with my constant and direct access!

What Key Is That In?

The best part of Africa is the people in the churches. These are the best people that you will every meet. Friendly, loving, joyful, and their worship has such a posture of devotion, you can’t help but be in awe of the authenticity of it. However, the flow of worship can be extremely awkward. Here in the United States (and all other countries I’ve been too) in a worship service, the songs are chosen beforehand and the keys they will be sung in, in order that band and leader can work simultaneously together. However, this is not true for most churches in Uganda. When they actually have a keyboard (and often they don’t), the worship leader begins singing a song and while the congregation joins in, the piano player keeps hitting different keys on the keyboard in order to identify the key (C, Em, G, Bb etc) that the song leader has randomly started singing in. And this goes on song after song. No plan, no flow, just constant distraction during the first minute, while you wait for the keyboard to finally find the right key! I feel bad for the musicians who must operate in this environment. The church could sing the same song four weeks in a row, but each time it could be in a different key, depending on who the leader was or whether they had a cold or not that week! But, ultimately, they always do join in and impressively, the congregation seems to not even notice the off-key plunking that happens at the beginning of every song.

Resurrection through Baptism

On Easter Sunday, we went out to Bwerenga Hope Village. There is currently a village church on the property, which is an outreach of RUN Bible Church. The property rests right on Lake Victoria. And, very appropriately, they had a couple baptisms scheduled for that day – where they would bury their “old man” within the dark depths of the lake and be resurrected out into the newness of Christ. I thought it a special significance to do it on Easter when we are celebrating the Resurrection of Christ. And even more significant is the fact that, the water of Lake Victoria is both cold and completely unsanitary. When I spoke to the church before-hand I told them about City Bible Church’s baptismal tank, which is more like a nice bath with its heated water. Before, they walked into the water; I prayed that God would guard their bodies from the many diseases that water carries. But, I respect their commitment to taking the next step in their walk with God with so much faith.

Generosity of Christians

Nevertheless, I would not be able to be here, if it weren’t for the extraordinary generosity of people in the United States, who despite their inability to walk away from their responsibilities, still participate at a sacrificial level with their financial support.

Once again, amidst my travels around the world I realize how rare and awesome the generosity of Americans really is around the world. At the core of every American is the mentality that tomorrow can be better than today. This vision, allows us to invest in the futures of not just “our” next generation, but the next generation of the “world.” It is this same ideology that we share despite religion, age or ethnicity. It is this vision that motivates us to invest in people. As soon as we as Americans begin to loose this perspective, we will loose a large part of what makes America great.

In this blog, I group all Americans together, in one homogeneous observation. And, we know that generalizations are just that; generalizations. And, maybe, your personal experience tells you something different about the generosity of Americans, but facts prove my observations to be true. America is the only country whose charitable contributions equal 1% of its GDP (Gross Domestic Product).

But, I do want to note that the largest part of my personal experiences and personal observations of “generosity” in Americans; are primarily of Christians. Thank you to all those generous people that have supported and continuing to support sacrificially so many great humanitarian causes, including the one I’m working on now. I really hope that people, even those that don’t share the Christian faith will also see Christians as generous people, and I hope that I will always be known as a “Generous Christian.”