Adventures in african time

Being Dutch I thoroughly like organizing and I like to see my plans take shape. Being in Africa now for one and half years I am learning a different way of doing things. Africa in general is a continent that is good at changing plans and having its own way. Africans do not seem disturbed by it. Africa is slowly but surely bending me to step aside from my more scheduled way of life and to become more flexible.

I have visited Swaziland often and it has never been my plan to have meetings with Royalty, chiefs or government people. But to my surprise I find myself meeting them over and over again. I am not a person who likes all these formalities and I certainly do not like speaking in public, but God seems to have other ideas!

My first encounter with one of the Queen Mothers of Swaziland was so unexpected that I had only a one minute notice before I was dragged out of a children’s program, pushed into a car and within 10 minutes led into a house to meet Gogo Zwani, one of the wives of the previous king of Swaziland. I had to represent some other “mulungo’s” (white people) who had just left the country. These people had an appointment with her but since it did not happen on their exact scheduled time, they left in frustration. That is why the chief picked me. I was white and knew these “mulungo’s” and I was available. After a short meeting, she asked me to pray for her and later come back with the team that was with me.

In my second visit I was working in a totally different area in Swaziland. It happened to be Ascension Day and we were invited to go to a church service at one of the King’s premises. I wasn’t suspicious enough to expect anything out of the ordinary so I went happily to the ceremony. My happiness melted like snow before the Swaziland sun just five minutes before the ceremony. One of the people that received us showed us our seats right in front of a crowd of 2000 people and mentioned that I was expected to speak. Being Dutch, I didn’t hide my emotions and showed, instead of the expected joy, a very frightened look. Lo and behold, half way through the ceremony I was invited to come up and speak to the crowd, government representatives and members of the royal household. After the service the wife of the minister of finance invited me to speak in a live radio interview!

On my last visit, in July 2009, I was informed that one of the Queen Mothers was invited to the official opening of Project Growth, which I was involved in. Since there are many Queen Mothers (because there are many queens) I wasn’t sure whom I was going to meet this time. I was introduced once again to the Queen Mother, Gogo Zwani, whom I fortunately recognized. 

Just as I was preparing to leave with my third team to Swaziland, I met Louri, our OM Bookshop Manager by accident. He said “I have a large amount of New Testaments in SiSwati. Please take them with you to distribute to whoever is interested.” So I found myself on a bus with 800 New Testaments, hoping and praying that it wouldn’t cause any trouble at the border. Since I am in the process of learning not to make plans for every possible thing, I had no plan in mind of how to get rid of all these Bibles. But since this was God’s initiative He had a plan in mind. To my surprise we had people from the Mbekelweni community walking to our house and asking for a copy. Some of them walked kilometers to receive a New Testament. In one school we were swamped by at least 500 students wanting to receive a New Testament while only having about 150 copies with us. So no plan was needed to distribute them. God brought the people to us and we were encouraged to see the happiness on their faces.

No wonder the Holy Spirit has a ball in this continent because He has space to move and is not being constrained by budgets, time schedules, goals and other human conditions. Here there is space for divine interactions and I’m sure God often chuckles and enjoys having His way.

OM’s role in the Church is to mobilise people to share the knowledge of Jesus and His love with every generation in every nation. OM pioneers and leads initiatives to redeem lives, rebuild communities and restore hope in over 110 countries.