Africa: Home to the Rich and Famous

I have copied a message from a recently forwarded e-mail. This one got my attention for reasons that will be obvious to you. The quoted text was followed by a series of beautiful photos of some of Africa's glorious scenery and several of its magnificent resorts, but I've chosen not to use precious megabytes to show them. They are beautiful indeed. From these, the "author" drew an interesting conclusion. (I promise that the spelling is not my own.)

"I love this and it's the truth....Did any of you watch the Bachelorette this last time??/ will guess where most of it took place ....Yep your right Africa and the most beautifully places I have ever seen and have never seen resorts like theirs in USA. So why are we feeding the people over their ?????? They can feed their own better than what we can. Or have you though where is the money really going. Think people all the church's and all the things you see on TV asking to feed them . We have our own here in USA that need help and food. So let us start here at home first." The tragedy is that we reach such conclusions by watching the "Bachelorette". What price truth?

FOUR DAY REFUELING

by Doug Roland

We planned for months and months to receive 8 members of our church (Hyde Park United Methodist, Tampa) and one exceptional friend of the church for a four day experience with us at the seminary. The verdict is out on who benefitted most.

It was on just this kind of trip that tilled the soil of South Africa that we might later plant ourselves here. But like any plants, we need to be nourished to bear fruit. That has been well supplied by the seminary, its staff and its seminarians. We have grown immensely.

Still there is nothing like mom and her apple pie. Though we have been lifetime members of churches in Indiana, Ohio, it is our training in discipleship at Hyde Park that has given us the the courage to take a three year plunge. Not that our childhood Sunday school teachers, youth leaders, and role models were insignificant. Rather, they supplied the bedrock of faith, a faith to be shaped and put to action.

And so we have enjoyed a feast of friendship with our friends of many years who have come here for many reasons. By their mere presence, we have been refueled, reminded with clarity of the congregation that sends us here and supports us.

Our prayer is that through this experience, God will direct them in ways they might not otherwise consider. May they too be refueled to take on the though commands of the Gospel and enter into the next level of their servanthood.