Getting ready for this trip back to Africa is causing me to think back on last year’s trip to Ghana. Last year my aunt was going to Africa on a military-related trip. She was taking air war classes at a nearby air force base and invited me to join her one day. The class was amazing! I learned so much about the African culture and of the civil wars that had recently occurred in West Africa.
The man had talked basically the whole class about how these wars had ravaged many countries. He talked of the horrors they inflicted on the people. He talked of the hopelessness the people were left with. I was able to talk with the professor after the class. I was eager to ask the man about the culture of Ghana and the things I needed to expect, hoping to prevent a little culture shock; but I left his office in shock of my own culture!
One of the first things he asked me was what I was going over there for. I told him that I was going on a mission trip. His mouth contorted into a disapproving smirk, and he chuckled and shook his head. The words he said next will stay with me forever. He said, “Just promise me one thing — Don’t change their culture.”
His words took me aback. After telling story after horrible story of the dark practices of many places in that continent, he had the audacity to want me to promise not to change it. These people live in fear! They are without hope! And we are to strive not to change that! This is the world’s perverted ideas of cultural diversity. I can’t change it. But I cannot promise that God won’t.
It is the people’s choice whether their culture is changed or not. My job is simply to tell them that Someone loves them and wants them to come to Him. I’ll leave the rest to God.
