CHAOS AND COHERENCE: REFLECTIONS IN OUR LAST DAYS IN INDIA

Mary Ann and I are entering our last three days of teaching at South India Biblical Seminary, and our last week or so of being in India. I find myself reflecting on how life here seems to move between the poles of chaos and coherence.

Take traffic on most roads, but especially on the streets of megacity Bangalore with its maybe 8 million people. In addition to buses, trucks, motorcycles, an occasional bullock cart, pedestrians, and more and more cars, three-wheeler taxis are everywhere. These agile motor cycle rickshaws slip into impossible little slots between vehicles. It looks like primary requirements for a driver are nerves of steel and excellent peripheral vision. I observed a street sign in Bangalore appealing for “traffic lane discipline.” But it wasn’t working! Traffic seems like chaos. But most of the time it works, especially if you aren’t in a big hurry to get anywhere. But occasionally things grind to a halt. Lots of vehicles switch off their engines and wait till things move again. Seeming chaos, but some level of coherence!

Take politics. These past few days have seen 15,000 plus people from NE states, who have migrated for Bangalore jobs flee the city to their home area, a couple of days away by train. All this was because of some violence in Assam (a NE state) between local tribes- people and Muslims. Retribution was threatened, rumors spread on social media, and central government appeals notwithstanding people began to flee major cities like Bangalore. India is a patchwork quilt of entities, many formerly ruled by maharajahs, put together by the British and now functioning under a federal government. There are at least 15 major language groups and multiplied other languages. It looks like chaos. But it mostly holds together. Who are Americans to critique others for occasional outbursts of violence and increasing cultural and social division?  

The tendency of westerners like us is to think we should fix the chaos and make it work like it does in America. I have begun to say to myself-If 1.2 billion people do it like this and it works at least some of the time for them, who are we to tell them they must do it differently?

Thanks to any who have waded through these thoughts typed under a ceiling fan and with gratitude for electricity on tonight.

Mary Ann and I leave from Bangalore on Sunday for a side-trip to Cochin in far-southwest Kerala state. This is where St Thomas probably came in the first century. It is where Europeans made their 16^th century entrée into India. I am told Vasco Da Gama was buried in a church here. We return to Bangalore early Thursday morning, August 30 and catch an evening plane for home with an overnight in Dubai.

BACK TO INDIA ROOTS

Some of you followed us in thought and prayer when we went to Burundi in January. Mary Ann and I are grateful!
Now, we are getting ready to teach the same classes in August, but this time at South India Biblical Seminary, near Bangalore. We leave August 1, returning back to Seattle on September 1.
South India Biblical Seminary is where my parents spent most of their India missionary career. They helped to launch the present campus outside of Bangarapet, which is about an hour from Bangalore, one of India's hi-tech centers. I started school in a small missionary-kid classroom there. After going to boarding school, this was the place to which I returned home. We have visited SIBS with a couple of mission teams there over the past years. This time, however, we expect to be the only westerners on the campus.
SIBS is a graduate level training center for pastors and missionaries, backed by the Church of the Nazarene and World Gospel Mission. Several of our own Free Methodist leaders are graduates of SIBS. We will spend a weekend in Bangalore meeting with Free Methodist pastors from the Bangalore District.
Mary Ann will teach a class in Child Development, I in Homiletics. These will be three week modules.
At the end of our teaching, we are attaching a side trip to Cochin in the southwestern state of Kerala, where Abraham and Anna Mathan trace their roots. We plan to spend a few days in this historic, picturesque city before returning to the US.
Your prayers will be appreciated.
Mark and Mary Ann Abbott

What Impresses Me About Burundi

WHAT IMPRESSES ME ABOUT BURUNDI

Mary Ann and I are winding up our time at Hope Africa University in Bujumbura, Burundi, returning to Seattle Sunday night. Excitement today on our morning walk involved Mary Ann tripping and falling on her face in the dirt with some pretty big bruises. 2 nurses at our house gave her first aid. She is now holding frozen peas to her forehead.

Here are some things that impress me about this Central African country:

-Burundi is a beautiful country, filled with mountains and valleys, green and lush at this season of the year.  Burundians are beautiful people, warm and friendly.

-Burundi is a fertile country with terraced hillsides and valley gardens. I was amazed to observe coffee, bananas and corn in the same garden plots. Coffee has become something of an export crop. I wonder why it is not the same with tea.

-Burundi is coming alive toward education. After years of civil war and instability, the current government has made primary and secondary education free. As Mary Ann and I walked around the neighborhood of Hope Africa U, we have been amazed at the hordes of uniformed school children heading to school. Students at HAU are very committed to learning.

 -In Burundi, it appears to me that so much of life even organizational life is based on survival. As one of the most densely populated and economically distressed countries, many struggle merely to survive. When your goal is to survive, values are oriented around achieving that goal. For example, average family size is 6.8 children. Often some children do not make it to adulthood. Those who do become security for their aging parents. Some of a family’s “children” may actually be orphans of another set of parents who have died of AIDS or in the civil war. The question of whether or not 6.8 children is a good idea becomes less important than the question of surviving.

-In Burundi, the need for flexibility among foreigners who try to spend time and serve here is huge. Expectations about efficiency, being on time, equipment that works, the time it takes to achieve goals like going shopping, all need to be adjusted.  While I’m not sure I adjusted completely I certainly saw that failure to do so results in constant frustration.

-In Burundi, community is a very high value. Students at HAU watch out for each other. In one nursing class, none of the students would accept a text book until all class members had received one. In my class, students already present make space for students coming in late to join the circle. Conversation and greetings are more important than in the end-product, goal-oriented West.

This has been a good time of serving a world away from our home. We are grateful for the privilege of  serving. Thanks for your prayers.

Sunday in Buja

Sunday in Buja began early with the 8 am service at nearby Ngagara FMC. This is a smaller, shorter service in English and French. Power was off to electronic music and PA was absent. I reminded folks that this was Ok. Jesus didn't have amplification when he delivered the Sermon on the Mount. Wore clerical collar and sport coat. But heat and an RC collar that slipped out of place much to the amusement of Americans present, caused a change into Philippino barong for 2nd service which began about 10 (every starting time is approximate). This had a more Congolese flavor (Buja is only a few miles from the border and many Congolese refugees live in this neighborhood. Power came on and so did all the electonic instruments. What resulted was loud, energetic, dancing, shouting in what seemed like a combination of Charismatic and African. Preached in this service also with translation done by a young man who works at the US Embassy teaching Americans French. It was about 1:30 after we greeted everyone, took pictures, and had soft drinks in the pastor's office. Then, after lunch and conversation with another American retired couple who have been coming here for a couple of months for five years, and a short nap, it was on to grading the test I gave on Saturday. Crashed by 8:30 in the darkness since power went out. But before getting to sleep in the heat power returned and so did the fans, enabling a sound night's sleep. We didn't even hear the Muslim prayer call at 4:30
Mary Ann is giving a test today, postponed from Friday at the request of the official class leader. I begin a week of listening to the 13 members of my Homiletics class preach in English or French or some combination thereof. How I wish I had kept up on my high school French!
While Burundi's dense population (somewhere between 7-900 per sq ml) is 90% rural with only two cities, Africa as a whole is becoming more urbanized. Got hold of an English language paper last week which said that by 2060 Africa is expected to be 65 % urban. While Burundi lags behind that trend it is evident here also. I have tried to discuss with students what a difference that makes in how ministry and preaching takes place.
Next Sunday pm, back to Seattle via Nairobi, Brussels, and Dulles. We are thankful for the opportunity to serve, participate in this active university community, and stay healthy while engaging vigorously in a different way of life. Thanks for your prayers.

Pizza and Thunder but no Hippos!

Tonight, all the muzungus (white folks) went out for pizza at a restaurant along Lake Tanganyika. Our regular Hope Africa U group was augmented by the Miller family, 2 young doctors and their 4 children, who have just moved to Burundi. After orientation at Kibuye (upcountry) hospital and in Kenya, they expect to serve at the clinic being built across the street from HAU and live in the house where we are now staying. Our hat's off to them and their willing commitment to move their young family half way round the world to serve in Burundi!
We enjoyed the pizza (ours was Hawaiian!) but the hippos who we were told sometimes come out of the lake along that shore did not materialize or at least we didn't see them. And the pizza was interrupted by thunder, lightning and rain, which is becoming almost a daily feature.
By the way, I was asked this question today by a Rwandan student: If a pastor is called to a house where someone has died in a thunder storm (thought to be some kind of curse) should he take traditional medicine to protect him from danger? We went round and round on that one for quite a while especially since the Rwandan speaks very little English and interaction with her was through French and translation.
Mary Ann's class discussed Kohlberg's stages of moral development and other ethical issues. They also learned a Swahili song which my students think she should teach them also.
Tomorrow, Mary Ann and I both teach for all or part of the morning. I will then help with a choir rehearsal, accompanying Ave Verum Corpus on a keyboard. Sometime I need to finish getting ready to preach at two services on Sunday.

SOUNDS OF BURUNDI

Since I can't play you a tape, let me try to describe some of the myriad of sounds to which we are treated here in Bujumbura.
At night about 11 there's the sound of the fan stopping, indicating that the regular night-time power outage is in effect. After all, who needs fans at night? And since the water was finally on after being off part of yesterday, we should be thankful for what does work. I have come to the conclusion that to expect everything to work is just too high an expectation for Africa and maybe elsewhere too!
While last night was quiet, in some nights we are treated to spectacular thunder and lightning plus torrential downpours. This is the beginning of the rainy season. Seattleites aren't used to thunder and lightning that almost makes you jump through your mosquito net.
By 4:30 or 5 am, there's the Muslim prayer call and sometimes broadcast prayers which follow.
Then, the birds take up the song. By 6 or so the fan comes on again.
Out on our morning walk, there's the cacaphony of street noises. "Bon jour!" or "Hello!" kids say with big smiles. Sometimes we hear "Muzungu!" (white people) being shouted behind us. Not many non-Africans around! This morning we passed a primary school and witnessed uniformed children being drummed into their classes-big African drum, marching students.
While we eat breakfast, we hear the chair scraped on concrete floors as classroom at HAU are readied for the day. Then we hear students singing western praise songs to practice their English. 1500 new students are on campus every day for intensive English classes.
At 11 am I join a prof from Roberts Wesleyan working on developing a choir for a concert a week from Sunday. I help by singing bass and accompanying on "Ave Verum Corpus." Why teach Africans Mozart? They want to learn how to read music. And a little bit of Mozart doesn't hurt anyone. Oh, by the way, at yesterday's choir I enjoyed the great voice of Methuselah, sitting next to me. Other interesting names we've heard: Good Idea and Number 7. Read what you want into that!
In the afternoon, as I am endeavoring to communicate with my Homiletics students in their 3rd or 4th language (English) I hear Mary Ann loosening her class up with "Heads and shoulders, knees and toes!" I am exploring a translation option via internet so that I can allow some students to submit sermon manuscripts in French.
Enough for today on the sounds of Burundi.

HOPE AFRICA UNIVERSITY-TRIUMPH OF A VISION

HAU started in the late ‘90’s in Kenya, where now Free Methodist Bishop of Burundi , Elie Bucinyori, was exiled from his native Burundi. Back then, leading his denomination’s churches in Kenya, Bishop Elie started Hope Africa with a handful of students in an airplane hangar. Today HAU, relocated to Burundi where Bishop Elie now leads FM churches in this country and has some 4000 students from a number of African countries. About 1500 new students for the next semester beginning in February are on campus now for intensive English classes.

Some years ago, a piece of property was given to Bishop Elie as the Rector (President) of HAU for the university’s use. Because of financial pressures the school was unable to develop the property. It was thus returned to province. But Bishop Elie said: “Do not worry. It is for the best. I believe God will give us a mountain!” In Burundi communities cluster around the many hills or mountains. The name of the community comes from the name of the mountain. More recently, in recognition of the good work started by Sister Connection among Burundian widows, the Muslim provincial governor gave an upcountry mountain to be divided between Sister Connection and Hope Africa University. It is now called Mount Hope. There, Sister Connection has a teaching center where widows learn sewing and other skills. HAU has the beginnings of an outlying campus. Last week our group of 11 visiting faculty were able to go to the top of Mount Hope and celebrate not only the beauty of the surrounding countryside but this triumph of hope.

HAU is not organized in ways we may think essential in the US. American visiting faculty can think of multiple ways we would do things differently. Structure seems to lag behind rapid growth. In a culture geared to survival, some of the standards we Americans regard highly are not a priority. But great things are happening regardless. A campus with large and attractive buildings has been built. A clinic across the street is under construction to serve along with the upcountry Kibuye Hospital as a teaching center for the Frank Ogden Medical School. Friends of Hope Africa University is the American support group which serves as a conduit for capitol and screening for potential American teachers. The reputation of HAU is excellent in this capital city of Bujumbura.  Students are eager to learn. HAU is moving forward because of a vision for Christian education in Central Africa.

Bishop Elie leads the Burundi FM Church, is President of the World Free Methodist Conference, is Rector of HAU, and friend/consultant of Burundi’s President, a committed believer. While adjusting organizational expectations I am amazed at the triumph of this man’s vision! I salute the perseverance of American friends of HAU, many of whom have come for several years in a row for a month or two. Wayne and Barb Vibbert, formerly missionaries in Burundi, now retired, return regularly for several months and serve as teachers.

I am challenged by this triumph of vision.