Of God, Rap Music and Tongues

A few Mondays ago, Johanna and I were on our evening walk, and yet lost in the beautiful Tanzanian sky. As we meander a dirt path, in the distance we hear a cry, of “hello Mathews,” and after some confusion, we discerned the call was from Michael, a friend of ours from the college. He was doing some farming with two of his children and we intersected at a small pond. His kids are adorable, but I have a hard time writing their Swahili names. Good excuse??!!
Michael, (a lot easier), is quite a gregarious, outgoing guy, with a great smile. I immediately took to him, and in this particular instance we started talking and he wanted to show Johanna and me a Church structure that has been in the process of finishing for the past 30 years!!! Money of course is the big reason why it hasn’t happened. The lack of it.
As we were walking away from the site, we started talking about African spirituality and he said something that has really stayed with us. He said, “people in the West want to know who God is, people here in Africa want to know what God can do.” He had surmised his thoughts from his trips abroad, and the statement was quite provocative. Instead of interrupting and maybe arguing, I just had to let it sit. I thought, in many ways that is so true; he went on to say, “we want a God who can provide us with crops, otherwise our people will starve.” His statement was so real and it cut to the chase of what faith means here in Tanzania. The reality of faith not being an appendage, but something so absolutely important to ones survival. We are still sitting with it. Now it reminds me of an essay, I had written after coming from South Africa, some years back. Check it out if you are interested: www.
On Friday afternoon, we had lunch with the students and since we were late, we only got a little ugali (a staple Tanzanian food item) and beans. For the rest of the afternoon, I didn’t have any other food…and it made me irritable. The previous day, one of my students missed my class which was uncharacteristic of him. That same night he came to our house and told me that he had to miss class, because his family didn’t have food and he needed to get to town and send it to them, in his village. The reality of food security is sometimes so stark. It made me think of what Michael said, and it jarred me as someone who has so much privilege as a missionary.
I was part of a team that went to the girls school to talk to the students about speaking in tongues. There was a Pentecostal pastor who had come into the school and taught the girls many false teachings regarding speaking in tongues. He was preaching that one isn’t really a Christian, unless you were born again, in the Spirit. This caused a lot of divisiveness on campus, and was not building up the Body of Christ at the school. If there is one thing we do know, God’s spirit works to build up the Body of Christ not to tear it down and cause division. Of course, we know that in baptism, we have been given the Holy Spirit to guide and lead us in our Christian walk. In any case, because of the teachings there was mass hysteria, fainting and howling. Students and teachers from Msalato college were called by the faculty and administration of the school to come and give the proper biblical instruction regarding gifts of the spirit, as some of the girls were being led in a direction that was not biblically sound, due to the influence of the pastor. Because of their resultant behavior they were suspended and sent home for a couple of weeks. The girls will be ok and to his credit the charismatic pastor came back and apologized for trespassing. He didn’t apologize for his teaching, however.
It was surreal to be part of this particular work, and it reminded me of my experience when I attended George Washington University and how someone had prayed over me, as I desired the gift of tongues. I didn’t receive it, and it just goes back to the bible – we receive the gifts of the Spirit on God’s time, not on our own.
That same Friday, some of us are a part of a team that works to help students learn and comprehend English. One of the mediums our friend Robyn uses to teach is to have them watch ABC news with Charles Gibson and then work to deconstruct it and see how much the students pick up. Mind you, they already speak two languages and are studying to pick up English. Wow. I can barely speak English and Spanish, and struggle with my mother’s tongue of Malayalam. In any case, one part of the news segment was dedicated to a American rap group called, Clipse, and that sparked some discussion. After some discussion about rap music not being so edifying and taking kids in the wrong direction; I was more than happy to give another viewpoint, and then offered a brief history of the genre….and where Hip Hop comes from. I was also able to share about my ministry at Hope in Hollywood Inc. in LA, working with young people through the medium of Hip Hop to connect with them on a spiritual tip. It felt good….to offer a new take, and I might work with some Tanzanian pastors to see how they can use Christian rap to connect with their young parishioners….Nice ....
Next week…will look to dissect some Christian rap….