threads

My sister makes beautiful cross-stitch art; tiny and neatly placed “x’s” coming together to complete a unified picture or pattern. Colors are chosen specifically for the piece, each adding a new dimension to the final product. If you’re not an embroidery aficionado, however, you may not know that the backside of a finished project is nothing particularly nice to look at. In fact, it can actually look quite messy – unorganized knots and lines are not in any sort of pattern. The same threads with the same colors are still there, but they just don’t make any sense when viewed from the backside.

Today marks one month that I’ve been living in Uganda and I’ve been exposed to many of the “colors” here…. Ideas about money, family, health, relationships, music, transportation, dress, education, occupation, GOD…all blend together to make up this unique UGANDAN culture.

 When these things are viewed in the context of Uganda’s history and current situation, the picture takes on new dimensions. I recently heard a Ugandan leader share some statistics about this country:

·       Uganda is home to about 65 DIFFERENT TRIBES, each with its own language and dialect

·       Uganda’s population is approximately 32 million people

·       Of these people, 51% are CHILDREN under the age of 14

·       19% of Ugandans are MALNOURISHED

·       38% still live on less than $1/DAY

·       80% are subsistence farmers striving to live in a cash economy…leading to persistent famines in a rich land

·       In 2007, Uganda was home to 235,800 REFUGEES from Sudan, DRC, Rwanda, Somalia, and Burundi

·       While education is seen as an escape from the cycle of poverty, most families cannot afford to send more than 1 child to school for an elementary level education

·       When looking at the people of Uganda, there is visible gap between those who HAVE and those who DON’T

As if these statistics along were not enough to burden my heart, the speaker then made this comment to the “bazungus” (white people):

“YOU REPRESENT THE AMERICAN DOLLAR.”

Great. Now I feel like I’m swimming in my own guilt, the guilt of being born as a “HAVE” of this world. Not only do I live “in but not of” those who “don’t have,” but they see me as the visage of the dollar sign. Do I have a life response for what this means? A visible reaction or response I should make? Should I feel proud or ashamed? Besides feeling overwhelmed, I haven’t come up with an answer.

I am (as one person put it), like “a firefighter standing in front of a raging forest fire with only a cup of water.”

I look around me and see the hungry, the needy, the sick, the disenfranchised.  On the other end of the spectrum, I see people (both nationals and expatriates) who have committed their ALL to helping to alleviate the pain of Ugandans – people I could only aspire to be like. I feel, all at once, both lavishly rich in heritage and position and grossly poor in my qualifications.

It’s quite possible that moving to Uganda only brought a magnifying lens to what was already present in my life, even as I lived in America – if we open our eyes and really SEE what is around us, we will always find those who need in a way we feel unqualified to help. I’m going to include you, my reader, in this “we” as I say this – We excuse ourselves from responsibility far too often because we believe we could never affect change in such a hopelessly large predicament.

I heard this story once:

"Many starfish washed up on shore.  A young boy started picking them up and throwing them back into the ocean.  Someone saw what he was doing and told him that it was pointless, that there were too many to save, that it wouldn't make a difference.  Throwing another starfish into the sea, the little boy responded, "It makes a difference to this one."

 While I like this little tale of inspiration, I still not sure it moves me to action because it is still “I” who must provide the power and motivation to make even a small something happen.

So, one more quote, if I may, WorldVenture’s Africa director in response to this very predicament:

“we didn’t choose our origins or where we would be born – GOD chose these things for His benefit.”

A sigh in relief. As it turns out, I don’t have to feel guilty for being born who I am – a white American from a middle class family with a college education and a well-paying, respected profession. I do not have to feel guilty, but I must feel and act responsibly with what I’ve been given.

I do not have to feel pressured or under-qualified because I am not the whole picture – I am merely one thread, one color in the whole masterpiece God is weaving in the story of history – past, present, and future. My view of the state of people and this world looks pretty messy from where I stand, but that is because I am not able to see it from the Creator’s perspective…not yet, anyway.

 

 

“we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, 15 but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ— 16 from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love. Ephesians 4:14-16 

“For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face.” 1 Corinthians 13:11a