Chicken plucking & other welfare issues

2009-04-19

Saturday is the day for baptisms in Lusaka. It is all we can do to break away from our schedules to attend baptisms, but we have been determined to do it. We have been surprised at how informal and disorganized most of the services have been. On Tues., at District Development Meeting, Rand and I talked to the missionaries about the importance of the event of baptism. DAAHH! They all looked a little sheepish and today the Elders tried a little harder, but the forces of poor tradition were against them and the services still left much to be desired. The Branch President showed me the baptismal clothes that the Elders had left wadded in a wet heap on the floor after the last baptism. Three of the outfits were ruined by rust from the drain. 3! Baptismal clothes are not easy to come by in Africa. There are moments that the possible lynching of Elders crosses my mind.

Rand has been concentrating on welfare training even though it falls outside of our area of office responsibilities and causes him late hours playing catch up in the office. Pres. Lumbama called a District Welfare Training Meeting today. Of course, the District had to pay for transport to get the Welfare Committee Members to attend, and some of the members could never be reached by phone, as is always the case.

The new Church-wide, Welfare training video was shown. Once again in Africa, I sat in a room full of black Saints and watched a Salt Lake-based production which overshot the African reality by about a century. The General Relief Society President, Sis. Beck, whom I love, was talking about the necessary skills of self-reliance and said something like: “Gratefully I’ve never had to kill a chicken and pluck it myself for dinner, but. . . .,” and she went on to tell of other more pertinent skills. I bet most of the humble women I was seated with had killed and plucked a chicken within the last 24 hours. One woman, I know for sure, kills and plucks many chickens daily and sells them for a living. It is good to know that Elder Sitati from Kenya will now be in the 1^st Quorum of the Seventy. Maybe he can drop a few “world-worthy” hints about those Utah-based presentations!

It is such a problem in Zambia, overcoming the sense of entitlement to church commodities. During a serious drought a few years ago, the branch presidents in Zambia were each given sizable funds to distribute food to the drought-suffering members. Membership in the church soared. (Oh, really?) When the drought was over, the rice and beans were withdrawn and the active membership of the church fell by almost half. It is interesting that the Stake President in Zimbabwe at the time told the Area Authorities that if they went thru with the said program, it would ruin the church here. He was just about right—and again we see that the messages from the people on the ground don’t always get thru to the people in the control towers. So . . . back to the welfare meeting, there were many questions about that program, thinking it constituted the welfare program of the church. One Brother said, “We all really liked the church then. We still need the church’s help.” Many agreed. Pres. Lumbama said, “No, you should be asking, ‘What can I do for the church,’ not ‘What can the church do for me?’” He continued, “Fast offerings do not come from The Church, they come from us—you and me—the members of the church!” To give the welfare video due credit, the Spirit did prevail as we discussed at length how the welfare principles can apply here and now in Africa. It was amazing to feel the Spirit take over and the enlightenment settle in.

This has been transfer week, the potential deal-breaker or maker of this mission. It is a mammoth strategic feat to move missionaries in and out of three countries every 6 weeks. The work permit/visa antics are only manageable with divine intervention. After feeding 10 missionaries who were all going one way or another, we took Sister Voss to the airport for her exit flight home via way of the Zimbabwe Mission Home. The employment permit stamp on her passport wasn’t clear enough for the immigration officer. He wanted further documentation. We resorted to begging that she be allowed on the flight. We surrendered my passport and a credit card as credential that we would return with the documents if they let her on the flight. If the documents weren’t clear, we would have to pay a 2,000,000kwacha fine. When we got home, we realized the documentation wouldn’t be accepted. Prayer was our only hope. After our prayer, we received a call that the flight had been canceled. We drove back to collect Sister Voss and she is spending the night with us. Tomorrow is Monday morning and we will be able to get the proper stamp and she will be on her way, fine-free. It’s too bad that all those people on that flight had to be delayed for the Lord’s higher purposes here. But it happens!

We leave for our South Africa training and debriefing this week. How we will ever disengage for those few days is still a mystery.