Jinja Road

Moving to Africa has continued the challenging of my faith that God started a long time ago. 

I have had some struggles recently. Anyone else?  

Let me start with our most recent trip to Kampala and Jinja Road. 

 

Jinja Road is a major intersection in Kampala. It is filled with too many cars and too many bodas. There are too many people who are working the streets selling their fruits, vegetables and other wares. There are too many men and women begging for money. There are too many children playing on the side of the road. Too many young moms with babies on their hips. 

 

Too. Many. 

 

And yes, it’s illegal to give them money because some (or maybe most) of the people are there due to trafficking. I don’t know what to do with these people. I don’t know how to feel about them. I know want to get them off Jinja Road. I know we are supposed to be the hands and feet of Jesus, but how does really happen here? WWJD? I have no idea. Probably something I cannot do, because I am not God.  There are a lot of other questions and rambling thoughts that I could include here, but they all boil down to one: Where is the rescue? 

 

I was sitting at the red light on Jinja Road, thinking those thoughts and asking myself those questions when I realized something,

 

We want God to rescue the world, but the world doesn’t want to follow the Rescue from God. 

God created the world and handed us the keys. He told us to care for it and each other.  We barely mumbled “thanks” as we walked out the door, deciding to go our own way before we even reached the car. If it had not started Adam and Eve – it would have been someone else. 

The rejection of God has led to all this evil. Still, He sent a Rescue to our broken, sinful, evil world. He still didn’t force His thoughts and way of life on us. He let us keep the keys and still allowed a choice. Some choose to follow, and some choose to go the other way. 

 

Suffering, injustice, poverty, corruption are reality.  Nothing will change those facts. But knowing the Rescue changes me. It changes my perspective. It does change how I respond to and think about the suffering, injustice, poverty, corruption. He gives me hope. Knowing that this is His earth. He made it. He can work the bad for good. We accept the Rescue and watch how He turns ashes to beauty. 

 

What does this mean for the people of Jinja Road? I still feel like I really don’t know. I hate the reality of suffering, injustice, poverty, corruption. It can be overwhelming. Honestly, I want Jesus to change it all in one fell swoop. I know that He sees them. I know He is working. I bet He sent people there to work and let Jinja Road know there is a Rescue. Those workers will not leave the people on the side of the street. They will show them a way out, physically and spiritually. Rescue brings people into the house. 

 

What does it mean for me and you? I think that it means we keep living the Rescue. 

Those questions I asked myself at Jinja Road are only divinely answered. The physical healing of this earth won’t happen until the second coming. Spiritual healing lasts forever. So --- we keep extending our hands to the world to show them the path Home.  We work where we have been placed and pray for those who are working in other places. We pray for people to see the Rescue and to follow Him. We act on those prayers. We trust the Rescue, even when it’s the hardest thing and we don’t understand anything that is going on or where we are going, and follow Him down the path.