Fantastically I’m off for the entire month of January!! Brilliant! Everything you are reading here was actually written last year, spooky?
Anyway, just to say that jonpaulwitt.com won’t be updated until the beginning of February. If you really must read some of my ramblings, and of course you should, then have a look at Kerygma Magazine where latest news (also written in December!) is posted.
See you in February. Jon
There’s an old saying in the United Kingdom, it goes something like this:
“You can’t choose your family but you can choose your friends”
It means exactly what it says. You are born into your family you cannot choose them, whether you like it or not. Your friends however, you can choose. At Christmas time, a time in Europe at least of family, friends and fun, the meaning of this saying is brought home. I heard a comedian say the other day, “Christmas is a time where you family gets together and reaffirms why they do not speak the rest of the year”.
The thing is, yes you cannot choose your family, but neither is it a complete self choice over who is our friend. What do I mean? By moving about a lot (I’m currently looking out of the back window of my cottage in Cwm Penmachno, looking at the rain clad hills!) you quickly realise that unless you connect with people, then life will be very lonely indeed. Unlike the UK, sometimes community is small and there well isn’t as much choice on the friend market. In some ways, you have to get on! So yes you can choose your friends, but be too fussy and you will end up with no-one. In the large cities that many live in, that is a luxury that most people can afford, elsewhere however, you simply cannot.
I’m very fortunate to count lots of people my friends, some of you reading this, farmers, villagers and many more. My life is no doubt richer for them, for you.
I’m about to go off for a new year break with a lot of friends. Yes it’s loud, yes there are too many kids and many things are not as I would do them. However, none of that matters, it is the being there, with those people that counts.
Friendship you see, is not about you, it is about them.
Value your friends like the crown jewels and see whom God brings your way to be your friend, irrespective of your choice.
That way your friends, become your family.
Happy Christmas and New Year!
My favourite Christmas Carol has a fantastic first verse. I’ll share it with you.
“God Rest ye Merry Gentleman, Let Nothing you Dismay. For Jesus Christ was born to us upon this Christmas Day. To save us all from Satan‘s power when we had gone astray. Oh tidings of comfort and joy, comfort and joy, oh tidings of comfort and joy!”
There’s nothing to add to that. Have a Great Christmas!
Now let me say first, I am not a trainspotter. I had a brief phase when I was 8 years old, but I managed to pull myself away from it. I do remember getting excited however at spotting a particular type of train……. enough of that before I vilify any reputation I have online. 
I was flicking through some channels the other day, and came across a documentary called African Railway, filmed by Bafta Nominee Sean Langan. What got my interest it that the subject of the documentary was the TAZARA railway, which runs from Dar Es Salaam in Tanzania to Kapiri Mposhi in Zambia. Those of you that know where I live in Zambia, will know that the railway runs some 3km from my house. I often saw the trains running and had to cross the track every time I went anywhere. So I had a genuine reason to be interested
The particular interest of the documentary was the ‘inefficiency’ of the railway and how it is kept running by the everyday people that work on it. Sean often tries to track down and talk to the mysterious Chinese investors in the railway, and is blocked by that mysterious almost divine power of African bureaucracy.
It was interesting viewing for me, because I no longer have the simple view of a European, I have a fair amount of African mixed in as well. Facts that seemed to be presented as shocking such as lack of maintenance, long hours worked, how things are ‘just’ kept running and the like, didn’t really shock me at all. I actually found it quite amusing that someone would expect these things to be solved and running well at all. It really highlighted to me the chasm of difference between the UK and Zambia, in particular in terms of expectation. Every time a fact was highlighted as surprising, it simply struck me as normal.
In the UK we expect so many things to work out OK. The pensions strike action is a good example of that. Whatever side of the fence you sit on, the driving force is an assumption that life should be fair and equitable. If it isn’t, well we can do something about it. That is simply not the case in Africa. Many workers are not paid on time, conditions can be terrible and life very hard. However, there is a ‘working with’ or ‘acceptance’ of those facts, that is actually admirable. You could call them enduring qualities.
Perhaps an area in the Church where you see this, is where we blame God. We expect everything in our life to be well. We don’t expect anything to go wrong. However, life is not like that is it? And yet, when things do not go well and our expectation is crossed, we blame God. I have never found an African who does this, certainly not openly…… interesting isn’t it?
Africa causes me sometimes to be irritable, but I think I have learned to have more realistic expectations in life. Maybe we all should take that lead and we would spend more time enjoying life, rather than fighting against something to simply being dissatisfied.
So no, I’m not a trainspotter, but I did learn something from the African Railway.
You can now see where Jude, I, the Impact Teams and everyone connected with Dignity work in Zambia. I’ve just posted a map to Kerygma Magazine, the News Magazine of Dignity in Zambia.
Why not have a look? The Map is here.
We have some fantastic news! The number of villages within which we have a Life! Group meeting has reached 100! That means in 100 villages across Northern Zambia there is a group of people meeting together, learning more about their Christian Faith and what it means for their village. They are literally learning to Love God and Their Neighbour.
This is a fantastic milestone and we are extremely encouraged by it.
This vision began 3 years ago in one area, now these groups are spread across 30 areas. We believe very much in the capacity that villagers have to know God and to help others, so all of our effort is placed realising this potential. Through relationship, training, Impact Teams and the like we keep on supplying the correct nutrient for the right attitudes and practice to grow from within Rural Africa itself. From that one group, people now gather over an area of some 2000 miles right across Northern Zambia even into Angola.
This means a lot more people know about Christ, a lot more people receiving love and even orphans and vulnerable people being cared for.
That’s what Christianity is all about.
(This post was also shared on our sister Dignity Zambia specific blog, www.kerygmamagazine.com)
Last Saturday when I was in bed ill, Jude and the kids went down to the local Shiloh Community Centre in Cwm Penmachno to watch “Round the Back!” a Christmas show run by the Aargol Touring Theatre Company. My kids had a fantastic time. For the next day or so, Jacob was full of stories regarding Aargol, Turkey O-Pie-O and Snowballs. They had a great time. They were full of joy that I never quite see them have in Zambia. They get close but not quite.
We’ve now been back from Zambia about 5 days, most of which I have spent sick. When I am ill something less then human replaces me, like most men. However, my humanity is now returning, I think!
It’s strange isn’t it, how perspective and distance give you a whole number of benefits. For my children, those benefits are being in their own culture for a while, doing things that they fully understand. It’s not getting stared at in villages and enjoying Aargol and his friends at pantomimes.
For me, already it is to be more mentally relaxed. What Jude and I do in Zambia is very mentally taxing sometimes. It can be exhilarating, but the constant planning, decision making, thinking and cultural difference do take their toll. So, even though we have a number of challenges, we both feel more mentally at rest. I know people think that normality is boring. I happen to believe it is very underrated!
Another benefit, is just perspective and distance. I recently read an article by the SUMO Guy, entitled, “Riding a dead horse!”. It talked about how we can continually pursue ideas even when they are not working. I think that one of the reasons we do this is lack of perspective. We literally get to the point where we cannot see the woods for the trees. Regular time out is absolutely crucial when you are pioneering work. Without it, you cannot see where you have come from or where you are going. (That;s almost profound!) The thing is, you need to fight the lie that it is time doing nothing. It really isn’t. All of my best ideas have come when I’m relaxed and have a little distance.
It’s also a chance to catch up with friends and family. In 21st century society, these two things, especially the latter are being pushed out at an alarming rate. We’ve got friends in Zambia whom we love dearly, and we also have friends in the UK whom we also love dearly. On that please pray for our respective families. For different reasons, they need it.
There is an idea in the Bible of rest. Time away, time to do nothing, time to take a different perspective and time to see the wood for the trees. Even God rested on the 7th day and saw that everything was good! Likewise, I survey what we have been doing in Zambia and see that it is good, but boy! I need a rest.
Maybe you feel boxed in, have a lack of perspective and cannot see where you are going. One trick in navigation is to get to higher ground and survey the view. One may think it’s time wasted climbing up the gradient to get to the view in the first place. However, that is far better than trudging around, lost, for a large amount of time. The view is where you can see everything fitting together.
If that’s you, take some time, enjoy the view, get some distance and enjoy God. Take some time out on higher ground and regain your perspective. It’s something we need to do regularly. We are literally lost without it.
Some of you may not know, but I keep up another news magazine blog. It’s an online news magazine for the work of Dignity and contains many exciting stories and news of what is going on in Africa!
Have a look at Kerygma Magazine for yourself. You can subscribe to the magazine by using the subscribe me box on the front page of the site itself. That way you won’t miss a thing!
Perhaps one of the most curious and funniest moments I have ever had in Zambia happened yesterday.
Jude and I are currently packing up all of our worldly possessions into boxes and storing them at our friends Carel and Hemine’s (very nice people by the way!). Lurking beneath my desk for about 2 years has been on old Epson Inkjet printer. We’ve owned it since 2007 and we have carried it from place to place. The problem is that the electronics are shot. It simply doesn’t work!
We had kept hold of it because in my true wisdom, I thought that it may be useful one day. I’m afraid I have caught the African bug of not throwing things away. Some of my packing boxes are full of old car brake pads and the like. This is simply because sometimes it is really very difficult to get hold of something. So you hold onto something simply because one day it may be useful and you may be able to make a plan with it!
Anyway, yesterday came and I took a good long hard look at it and thought, “It’s really time to get rid!”. I called Moses who works for me and asked him to take it to our little tip that we have. He looked at me and smiled. He didn’t want to take it to the tip, he wanted to keep it.
As he held it, his eyes lit up. He was looking at it the same way I may look at the latest Apple gadget. He told me that it looked very nice and that it would look great in his house in the village. (Moses doesn’t have a hut, he in turn also employs 3 people, there is a definite hierarchy in the villages).
Now I must admit to this wrong footed me slightly. “It doesn’t work!” I protested, “Are you sure?” I asked. The thought of my old Epson printer becoming a piece of decorative furniture had never really occurred to me! I shrugged my shoulders, and told Moses of course he could take it……………
I walked out of my office some ten minutes later and saw Moses proudly showing of his new acquisition to Lasford, who also works for me. They were pressing all the buttons, lifting the scanner lid and placing it down again. They had the look of one man showing of his new car to the other. A small smile crossed my face as I walked past them, still not quite believing it. When I told Jude, she simply burst out laughing.
The thing is, maybe it isn’t so ridiculous (or maybe it is!). Some people like collecting little carved crystal figures and placing them prominently throughout he house. For others, they collect wood carvings, and for more still it is having the latest gadgets, which with ordering the latest iPhone I definitely fall in to.
Most of those objects that we collect have about the same aesthetic and functional value as an old Epson printer. We buy them, put them on the side and leave them there. Perhaps Moses wasn’t being as ridiculous as I think, at least he got it for free. We pay for most of our old junk…..
Making decisions is often difficult, is it not? You evaluate the options and plot possible consequences. If it involves money you check your bank balance…..often….. Jude and I have been making a few decisions lately as well. One of them has an immediate consequence for us. We’ve decided to stop renting our current house in Mkushi. We returning to the UK for 3.5 months and it didn’t make sense to spend lots of money on wasted rent. This is a late decision, but one which saves us quite a lot of money. So, sensible, even if makes things a little heart wrenching!
We have also been talking to some friends here in Zambia for a few months about the possibility of getting some land. We’ve decided to go with that. Last monday we spent some time using a GPS and other handy equipment to mark out around a hectare of land in virgin bush in Zambia. Scary monsters! This means that when we come back next year, we don’t actually have somewhere to live, but we will also be building a house. We don’t have the money at the moment and it’s all a little different from the UK, but we are doing it nonetheless. As if we didn’t have enough to do or worry about
This is a fantastic decision. We both decided to take January off. Absolutely brilliant decision! I dole out advice to people so often about getting some perspective from a different physical and emotional place. It’s time we took some of our own advice. The bottom line is that so often, you get to a point where you can’t see the wood for the trees….. this year we have definitely been there sometimes.
There are also some big decisions regarding the kids education. How to do it? Where to do it? As with most things here in Africa, there are no very simple answers to anything. You make a best fit. If we then add in all of the decisions we need to make with our work, phew! it can get more than a little taxing and complicated.
Making decisions, especially lots of them can be quite overwhelming, especially if there are complicated interactions between those decisions. The only thing we can do is to pray. The ‘unknown’ is a constant companion in the battle to make decisions and guess what! you can’t know it, because its’ the unknown. You must make the decisions not knowing everything. It is a great help being able to appeal and talk with a God who is above all.
Psalm 37 verse 5 says,
“Commit your way to the Lord, Trust in Him and He will act!”.
That is the bottom line. When the decisions are flying, when the unknown seems to be crowding in, you simply have to commit your way to the Lord, and trust in Him. There are no shortcuts, no magic answers but these words are tremendously freeing and faith inspiring.
So next time you need to make a decision, do all you can and leave Him to do the rest….
