Changing Times and Perspectives

      God has prepared me to do medical mission work in Kenya. The institutionalized “Christian” faith around the world has become irrelevant and, in some cases, worthless.  It has become whitewash for nationalism, racism, sexism, homophobia, and for preserving privilege on the backs of the poor. Christ is absent. The Holy Spirit inhabits individuals, not organizations or institutions.  When we try to encode our own or any version of “Christianity” into law, we keep Jesus out of it altogether and become Pharisees rather than ambassadors for Christ. 

       The Sikhs came to Kenya as servants of the British when England colonized East Africa, as they had colonized India first. Many Sikhs have remained since Kenya’s independence and have done very well financially. They are exceptionally well-educated and run hospitals and large nonprofits like the Red Cross. They care for the LGBTQ+ Community that the Church and Islam have both shunned and actively persecuted. There are three Sikh hospitals here that will treat LGBTQ+ refugee patients. Other hospitals turn them away.

       Likewise, Ramah, an Islamic gay man and a refugee, lives at WOFAR in exchange for his cooking and housekeeping services. He works hard with love, gratitude, and kindness. He is more Christ-like than most Christians. Ramah has no money, but he still shines. Faithfully, he prays five times daily, and genuinely seeks the welfare of others. I strongly suspect that the Holy Spirit dwells in him. To my knowledge, he has not rejected Jesus. His culture is Islam, but Ramah has the love of Christ. 

        Back in 2018, I heard that a woman at my parents’ church in Indianapolis needed a kidney. Her name is Mandeep Dhillon (not the actress on CSI). She had sought out the church, St Luke’s United Methodist, to pray. As she sat there crying and pleading with god/God, the head pastor’s wife came to talk to her and Mandeep relayed her situation. The pastor and his wife assumed she claimed Jesus as her Lord and Savior. But she had come there to seek “the god.” Mandeep didn’t reject Jesus specifically, but didn’t necessarily believe in One God. Coming from a Sikh background in the Punjab region of India, she had come to Indiana to study at IU and subsequently developed systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). This destroyed her kidneys, and she went on dialysis awaiting a transplant. Her two siblings, one in India and one in the US, would not make suitable donors for her, and she languished for a year on the transplant list. 

     My mom told me about her after a church-wide email from the pastor went out. I got tested and matched extremely well! I told her that I was a match and would donate a kidney to her. Later, I learned that she didn’t claim Jesus but fell more into the agnostic category. I considered backing out, but God gave me the sense that I should go ahead as well as what I call my “Don’t Be an A**h*le dream.” I had died and entered heaven when angels sat down to review my life with me. They noted that I should have donated a kidney and asked why I hadn’t done so. I did not have a great reason. I’d missed a very important opportunity to serve God and improve someone else’s life. I asked them if the person got a kidney elsewhere and if they turned out to be alright, but they couldn’t answer that for me. My salvation never came into question, but it troubled me greatly to know I hadn’t done all that I could and should have. Someone may have died that God could have used me to save.  Who knows what great things they may have done with their life? So, I knew I needed to proceed with it. If someone is hungry, thirsty, needs housing, etc., you don’t stop to ask them what religious beliefs they hold. As fellow humans, we should behave as The Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37). Mandeep and I became sisters, so to speak, in December of 2018. We got to know each other better, and there were times when she lived at either my or my parents’ house. I got to enjoy her Punjabi cooking as well! She received her IT and programming degree at IU and went on to get a good job in Boston. Now, she hopes to get her mother into the US from Punjab as well. We keep in touch. 

      Similarly, when I have occasionally had people abuse funds from Acts10, it has not made a difference if they called themselves Christian or Islamic. People on both sides have done this. I stop giving to them and if the guilty party(ies) in the organization remain, I cut off contact. When they leave, however, other opportunities for collaboration may still exist even without direct financial contribution, unless and until trust is restored later to resume financial gifts. I still believe Jesus when He said, “I Am the Way, the Truth, and the Life, and no one comes to the Father except by Me (John 14:6).” But what does that look like? I don’t think it has to look like what I used to think it did. I’m not sure it requires a person to have a specific label. God reconciled the world to Himself through Jesus–the whole world. God crosses cultural and political boundaries. Maybe, God doesn’t even intend us to know or understand. I have confidence that I can recognize the Holy Spirit in others–when I expect to see it. I doubt I look that hard where I don’t expect to see it. That was actually the whole point of Acts10 though–Peter’s encounter with Cornelius and the gentile believers receiving the Holy Spirit. Thus far, the several US Christian congregations I have approached haven’t helped much, if at all. I hope they will, but it looks like Jesus does mighty works through the Sikhs here in Nairobi and East Africa. Thank You, Lord, for opening my eyes enough to see Your Presence here!

 

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