Sunday 10 March 2013

Loaves and Fish and Flying Pigs (Mar '13)

(Andy Read)

By the time you read this we will be in the third month of 2013 and many of us will be saying “Where is the year going?”. As I write this I am still processing the time frame that we called Twenty- Twelve. The statistics for me were something like this. 12 months; 11 different countries visited (two of them, twice – only one for a holiday); around 94,500 miles flown. So, if a few of you wondered why you hadn’t seen me recently, that’s probably why!

The reason for the vast majority of the travel was to carry out my role as the CEO of Links International, a mission and development charity. That amount of travel won’t always be necessary, but it was last year. And please believe me when I say that I’m not quoting the statistics to try to impress you. After all, it gave me a pretty rubbish carbon footprint – and by itself flying over three and a half times around the globe is just… well a lot of jet lag, a lot of in-flight movies and lots and lots of bad instant meals. But I dare to hope that the miles meant more than that.

For a start, it seems to have meant a lot to the partners that I was visiting. In an age of email, Skype, Facebook and so on it would be easy to think that face to face contact isn’t so necessary – but I believe that is a fallacy. Whilst in Kenya I learned a phrase in the local language. “Ndogu ni makinya” literally means “Friendship is steps” – and carries with it layers of meaning about how if we want to be friends with people then we need to actually take steps towards them – literal and figurative – and meet them. I learned a lot just in that saying. And it reminded me about Incarnation and all that our Heavenly Father did for us in The Word being made flesh. We don’t need to travel 94,000 miles to put that lesson into practice do we? Maybe 2013 can be a year of seeing people we spent 2012 meaning to visit.

Often, when I see the huge needs that meet us when we go to the poorest of the world, I wonder if there is anything we can do. We seem to have so little. But another encouragement and lesson takes me back to the title of this piece. Over the last few years we have been training a group of people in Malawi from the village of Chapsinja, just outside of Lilongwe, to form a Community Healthcare Team. These people have been going out into their local area with some simple but life-saving teaching, and we went to hear their report. The story was very encouraging, as they spoke about the training they have been delivering in around 20 other villages. They said that it would be good if we could go to see one of those other communities for ourselves. So we got into the 4×4 and were driven out the 25 minutes or so to the village of Gunde. Quite a short, if dusty, drive for us - but about an hour and a half’s journey by foot, which is how the Healthcare Team travel. It was my expectation that we would go to the village, talk to a couple of people and return. I was wrong. 

We were greeted by about half the village – singing and welcoming us. Chairs were set out for ourselves and eight village headmen from the area under the cool shade of a large, spreading tree. Several people from the village then proceeded to tell us all they have learned from the Chapsinja Team. It was impressive!! They had learned so much – mostly, by the way, without such benefits as literacy, written resources and so on.

Jesus taught a multitude all day and as the sun was about to set, the disciples appeal sounds quite familiar to me. “Where will we get enough for all these people?” But what did it take? Just 5 loaves and 2 small fish – but actually that was all the boy had. Jesus took all he could give – and multiplied it to make it more than enough. In the village of Gunde it felt like we were witnessing that same miracle in operation all over again. In 2013, in whatever situation, let’s bring the little we have and watch Jesus multiply it. And the Flying Pigs? What I would have looked for 3 years ago if you had suggested I would be in these situations! Stay open to new things!