Malaria and a Theology of the Future

Oren and David on retreat.

Monday morning 4am.  I am having trouble sleeping tonight.  One reason is because I did not get anything posted on Sunday about the past week which really was quite full.  I can't believe what a shift in gear this has been from the week prior when it seems we were obsessed with election results.  Although the issues as far as elections are still very much unresolved, life, for us, did not wait for any outcome.

Last Sunday I mentioned Rebecca not feeling well and skipping our weekly pizza outing to Ubuntu.  On Monday morning she woke up feeling dreadful, weak, sweaty, like something she had never felt before.  Although I had been sick the week before with a nasty virus, we suspected this was not the cause.  We had malaria test kit that we decided to administer.  A drop of blood on a test strip gave a very quick positive result.  We called the doctor who confirmed that her symptoms were consistent with the test and she began treatment.  The next 2 days she might describe as some of the worst of her life.  We Americans just do not really have any idea how debilitating these virulent tropical diseases can be.  Despite beginning treatment, she could not get out of bed or barely even move.  She described headaches that felt like her brain was splitting in two.

Malaria is a terrible affliction even with good treatment, it is hard to imagine that there are children here that may contract it 12 or more times per year.  It can also be fatal, and often is if untreated.  For us though, the great challenge that this brought for us was a retreat we were planning to lead in Rwanda for our Burundian and Rwandese partners.  This is an annual event that takes a considerable amount of preparation, then a lot of energy to lead and facilitate on over the 3 days it happens.

Rebecca fell ill Monday and we were scheduled to head to Rwanda with 28 people in tow on Thursday to lead a 3 day conference.  It was a dilemma as no option sounded good.  Canceling seemed almost unimaginable after having made such extensive preparation and work to get everyone available for the date.  I considered going alone and leaving Rebecca with the kids, but in her condition that would have not been much better than being at the conference with childcare.  I even considered taking the kids and just leaving Rebecca, but I could not see how that would be possible either if I was to be the sole leader.

We decided the only thing that we could do was to pray and wait until Thursday morning to make a last minute decision based on how Rebecca was feeling.  I spent much of the rest of the week preparing to leave in many ways.  This included getting materials printed and photocopied, and solving the massive logistical puzzle of how to get everyone up there using 3 vehicles and asking some to take the bus.  (We sent the SALTers on the bus with a couple of other young partners.)

By Thursday morning Rebecca was very weak but feeling considerably better.  She was very weak, but the headache and fever were gone.  We decided that in many ways, going to the retreat was the least exhausting option as she would be able to sleep much of the time since we had 2 childcare people coming with us.

Mercifully the trip was uneventful as far as driving.  We all got across the border without incident.  This included our whole MCC team as well as many Burundians.  The place we stayed was in a town called Butare, closer to the border than Burundi. There is a beautiful Catholic monastery there called Guhindamuyaga.  The guest rooms were modest, but the grounds felt a bit like the palace of Versaille, with enormous lawns and gardens.  We got there and by 8 pm the people from Rwanda arrived there as well.  (They were delayed when the wheel of the car they were riding in fell off and rolled down the road beside them.  You get used to these kinds of things around here.)

I will try to do a synopsis of our time together, but long story short, we really had a great and meaningful time together, especially the MCC team for whom this was probably the last time we were to be together as the SALTers leave in July.  Ruth was looking great and about ready to pop from her pregnancy (they head to Nairobi soon), and it was great to have Zachee and Bridget with Timmy with us as well.  The growing MCC kid family included, Oren, Jal, Timmy who played together as well as the son of one of our partners Joshua, while David and Ella, the young kids enjoyed each other as well.  (Although Ella's favorite game seemed to be to push David down when he ran away from her.)

We try to have a theme around which we organize talks for this retreat, and this year I called it Developing a Theology of the Future.  It was a theme that I felt has relevance cross culturally because I feel the Gospel critiques both my own culture as well as contemporary African culture in an interesting way in this regard.  I will describe the summarize the premise briefly:

Normally I begin a critique of culture with my own.  I used the passage at the end of Deuteronomy where Moses is on Mt. Nebo, just prior to his death, looking over the Promised Land which he will not enter.  I considered how Moses might have felt and suggested that the view was one of great comfort to him, because his faith taught him that the best things were prepared for a future generation, not his own.  Thoughout the Bible we find this 'theology of the future.'  The hope that the best is not in the present but rather, the future.

I told my Burundian colleagues that the generation of my grandparents and even parents believed this fervently, having lived during the Great Depression and World War II.  I believe that my grandfather's maxim in life was that his children would have a better life than he did.  That kind of thinking changed at some point in the 1970s.

My generation, by contrast, believed that the best things should be ours in the present.  We were even told and assured that getting what you want now was actually a good thing, that it drove an economy from which all would prosper.  Savings was disparaged and borrowing became a moral virtue.  In the past decade, for the fist time in our history Americans have more debt than savings.

I look at us now, we are might be compared to a generation of locusts, the current financial crisis is a result of our massive wager that borrowing from the future to have it all in the present is a virtue.

This obsession with the present is not only evident on Wall St. (take what you can and get out) but is also a part of Christian Faith.  I am referring to a Gospel of prosperity that tells us that 'God wants to bless you right now abundantly, and all you have to do is ask."

But that was not the faith of my grandparents.  Certainly they believed in God's blessing, but they also believed that "I am sure that this present suffering is nothing compared to the glory that is to come."  In other words, even in our faith lives many of us have rejected the belief that the best is prepared for a future generation and not for us.

Burundi also suffers from a theology of the present.  But it has different roots.  It is based in a kind of fatalism.  After years of trauma from war the sense for most is that they have no control over what will happen to them and they and their families could be dead tomorrow.  There is no hope that a future generation will have it better than the present.  People don't think ahead, beyond finding the next day's meal or other need.  (Interestingly, the Prosperity Gospel, which we export wholesale is widely popular here as it offers a false hope that God is going to come in and solve all the problems of poverty and despair without them taking any action to change behavior or patterns of living.

In both our cultures we suffer from a sense of hopelessness (or disinterest) in the future.  And as Christians that is really tragic, because we have historically put our hopes and dreams for a future that is better than the present as a key element of our faith.  I personally regret that the word 'sacrifice' in terms of doing without or saving was really seen as 'quaint' or 'ignorant.'

I challenged our partners, in their organizations to think beyond the present or even their own terms as leaders of their organizations.  (I gave the example of my dance company, which existed for 20 years under the name Paul D. Mosley Dance Inc.) I joked that it was certainly not very future looking, as once I quit, it ceased to exist.  But I asked them to what extent their own organizations, though not bearing their names, were essentially the same thing in practice.

The talks and debates over the weekend were very interesting as well as the time to relax.  I enjoyed walking with Oren and David in the morning before breakfast.  Rebecca recuperated and by Friday was able to lead us in some times of prayer and worship with the guitar.

By the time we came back on Sunday we felt exhausted but satisfied with the work we had done.

We had dinner on Sunday with Zachee, Bridget and Tim at Ubuntu in the pouring rain.  (A surprise in this season) then we prepared for our next adventure...

We went to the airport about 7:30 pm to pick up Don and Rosaura Andujar McNeil and daughter Gabriella from Poughkeepsie, NY!!!  (For those of you waiting to hear, they did get here safely but I will write more about them next week.)