When the Lord first challenged me about missions back when I was on the brink of becoming a teenager, if you had said I would end up as a missionary in Africa, my mind would have conjured up images of a mud hut in a very rural area. However, while Africa is filled with mud huts and rural areas, not all Africans live this way. There are many Africans who live in the city, in modern houses, drive modern expensive cars and use the latest smart phones. In fact apparently 80% of the population of Botswana now live in Urban centres. If these folk are going to be reached with the gospel of Christ, then we have to recognise that some missionaries are going to be living in cities too.....and that's us.
Is it easier living cross-culturally in the city than in rural areas? After all, we have flushing toilets, running water in the house, electricity, phones, internet, supermarkets, banks and most of the 'amenities' of modern life. The truth is that although the location may be different there are still many challenges with developing world city living, just as there are with rural living. It's just that the challenges take a slightly different form. Please don't think that missionaries serving in cities have less stress and don't need prayer as much as rural serving missionaries.
It is well known that the greatest cause of "stress" is change. With change comes the challenge to have to re-think, re-organise, make new plans. That takes extra energy and saps the body of its physical resources. With constant change you can't run on auto pilot. Changes to a routine or plans also involves extra time to adjust to those new plans or do what is required to implement those new plans and that is time taken that can no longer be used for what it was originally allocated to. Why do I say all this?
We have often had said to us, "Maybe it would be easier to not have some things, than to have them unavailable unexpectedly so often." Now, for sure there are loads of advantages in having modern conveniences, and we don't bemoan that. But please don't think because we have them, we have them in the way you have them in Australia, or the USA or the UK.
This is why I write about Garbage Trucks and Power Cuts. What do these two things have in common? - The Unexpected! You see we have electricity in our home - however, without warning we can lose it. Today it might be off for an hour. Tomorrow it might be off for 3 hours. Then we will make plans in case it might go off again the next day. But it doesn't. So on next day we also make plans in case it goes off again. But it doesn't. After a few days of full service power we relax a little and after a week we go back to functioning on a full power basis. But then suddenly 8 days later it goes off in the middle of preparing dinner and keeps going on and off constantly (mostly off) for the next few hours. We just never know. The only consistency of late has been that most times it has gone off right in the middle of preparing dinner! Because it is mostly on, we get used to living with it. Because there is never any warning as to the day or hour when we might not have it, we can't plan for when we won't have it. (Although we have a collection of oil lamps and candles permanently at the ready on the kitchen counter and we are thankful for battery back-up on our laptop computer).......and of course this is not just affecting us as expats living here, it is affecting everyone in their homes and workplaces. (Let us say here that Botswana is working hard to overcome some of these issues by building new power stations, as much of their power to date has been purchased from South Africa and those supplies have been reducing and are about to end. If South Africa need the extra power for their own country, then Botswana suddenly finds itself without its supply, which then has to be shared across the population in load-shedding - a population that is becoming increasingly urbanised and increasingly able to access this power, putting an even greater burden on ability to supply.)
Garbage collection is not so different. When we first came to Botswana, the Gaborone garbage collection was twice a week, mostly regularly on the same days each week. But some weeks the days would unexpectedly change - if you were home and heard the truck coming you could put the bin out, but if you were out, then you just missed it. For about the last year, it seems collection has moved to only one day a week (well at least the truck only now comes one day a week). Our day is Monday. But the truck has only come twice in the past 7 weeks! So life is never boring that is for sure, and the unexpected has become our expected, but we never quite get totally used to it.
These are just two little examples, but multiply this to many aspects of life and your days are constantly in a state of flux and full of the unexpected. This can be exhausting as well as frustrating especially because of how often it happens. These are not things we can change or do anything about. But they are also things that Satan can use to tempt us to ungodly attitudes toward the power company or local garbage collectors and even stretch our patience with each other. Pray for urban missionaries and the unique 'cross-cultural' challenges that are part of our lives, that even in the midst of the unexpected we will keep our eyes fixed on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith who can enable us to respond in God-glorifying ways.
Is it easier living cross-culturally in the city than in rural areas? After all, we have flushing toilets, running water in the house, electricity, phones, internet, supermarkets, banks and most of the 'amenities' of modern life. The truth is that although the location may be different there are still many challenges with developing world city living, just as there are with rural living. It's just that the challenges take a slightly different form. Please don't think that missionaries serving in cities have less stress and don't need prayer as much as rural serving missionaries.
It is well known that the greatest cause of "stress" is change. With change comes the challenge to have to re-think, re-organise, make new plans. That takes extra energy and saps the body of its physical resources. With constant change you can't run on auto pilot. Changes to a routine or plans also involves extra time to adjust to those new plans or do what is required to implement those new plans and that is time taken that can no longer be used for what it was originally allocated to. Why do I say all this?
We have often had said to us, "Maybe it would be easier to not have some things, than to have them unavailable unexpectedly so often." Now, for sure there are loads of advantages in having modern conveniences, and we don't bemoan that. But please don't think because we have them, we have them in the way you have them in Australia, or the USA or the UK.
This is why I write about Garbage Trucks and Power Cuts. What do these two things have in common? - The Unexpected! You see we have electricity in our home - however, without warning we can lose it. Today it might be off for an hour. Tomorrow it might be off for 3 hours. Then we will make plans in case it might go off again the next day. But it doesn't. So on next day we also make plans in case it goes off again. But it doesn't. After a few days of full service power we relax a little and after a week we go back to functioning on a full power basis. But then suddenly 8 days later it goes off in the middle of preparing dinner and keeps going on and off constantly (mostly off) for the next few hours. We just never know. The only consistency of late has been that most times it has gone off right in the middle of preparing dinner! Because it is mostly on, we get used to living with it. Because there is never any warning as to the day or hour when we might not have it, we can't plan for when we won't have it. (Although we have a collection of oil lamps and candles permanently at the ready on the kitchen counter and we are thankful for battery back-up on our laptop computer).......and of course this is not just affecting us as expats living here, it is affecting everyone in their homes and workplaces. (Let us say here that Botswana is working hard to overcome some of these issues by building new power stations, as much of their power to date has been purchased from South Africa and those supplies have been reducing and are about to end. If South Africa need the extra power for their own country, then Botswana suddenly finds itself without its supply, which then has to be shared across the population in load-shedding - a population that is becoming increasingly urbanised and increasingly able to access this power, putting an even greater burden on ability to supply.)
Garbage collection is not so different. When we first came to Botswana, the Gaborone garbage collection was twice a week, mostly regularly on the same days each week. But some weeks the days would unexpectedly change - if you were home and heard the truck coming you could put the bin out, but if you were out, then you just missed it. For about the last year, it seems collection has moved to only one day a week (well at least the truck only now comes one day a week). Our day is Monday. But the truck has only come twice in the past 7 weeks! So life is never boring that is for sure, and the unexpected has become our expected, but we never quite get totally used to it.
These are just two little examples, but multiply this to many aspects of life and your days are constantly in a state of flux and full of the unexpected. This can be exhausting as well as frustrating especially because of how often it happens. These are not things we can change or do anything about. But they are also things that Satan can use to tempt us to ungodly attitudes toward the power company or local garbage collectors and even stretch our patience with each other. Pray for urban missionaries and the unique 'cross-cultural' challenges that are part of our lives, that even in the midst of the unexpected we will keep our eyes fixed on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith who can enable us to respond in God-glorifying ways.
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