...Have nothing to do with irrelevant, silly myths...( 1Timothy 4:7 ESV). Many years a go growing up in one of the districts in Uganda, there was always this one night in the year when people expected the spirit of death to be passing around and taking many with it. How they determined the actual date, I don't know, but on this night, every household cradled together outside in the compound waiting for the right time to start drumming. People from a certain part would start beating their drums, jerrycans, saucepans, etc and the drumming kept going from village to village until the wee hours of the night. This was to make sure the spirit of death did not take anyone from your household. Kids would be drumming too and old people would be brought outside lest they be taken by death from inside.
Then there were sacrifices made to the spirits of the dead ancestors and relatives to appease them. Goats and bulls would be slaughtered during these ritual ceremonies and sometimes people would be smeared with the blood and the dung from these animals so that the spirits wouldn't be angry with them.
However, with time, these rituals and beliefs slowly started dying out as more and more people became Christians and decided to do away with such silly myths and fables. Today, these traditional rituals still happen in smaller pockets of traditionalists. But albeit, it's in great decline. I haven't been to any of these in the last over 15 years.
I remember one time during a live global communion service with my pastor, someone from America called and asked whether Christians should celebrate Halloween. His response was that : " I can't judge other peoples culture that I am not familiar with, but the most important thing that we always ought to have in mind is that, what does it glorify, Christ or satan?"
I didn't know what this hullabaloo was really about until last month, while in Pennsylvania, my sister I law and her husband as well as their two kids took us for a hay ride and pump kin shopping. There in this farm, the spirit of Halloween was manifested in all the scary hangings in the trees. One of them stood out: a man hanging face down with blood streaming from his palms. This ghostly piece scared one girl who kept screaming at the sight of this thing. I kept wondering what is the reason for all this and it's importance. This was just the start. Later on I went on to see lots of scary decorations in people's compounds and lots of scary costumes in the stores. And lots of people were in the Halloween mood. The question in my mind was that of my pastor: who is glorified in all these, Christ? Certainly not! Is there a Christian way of celebrating it? I saw on Facebook how the police had to intervene when one family took it to another level, by hanging images depicting a black family of 5 people hanging in the trees in their compound! I am certainly not in position to judge other people's culture albeit I can give my opinion and comments.
Aside from all the Halloween, today, we are journeying out to Chicago and Milwaukee and yours truly is writing this blog post from the comfort of a car seat with my beautiful wife taking care of the driving. As we started the journey, a few amazing things came to mind from our last visit out to New England. On that trip, I met some amazing and entertaining kids. I must say kids here have much cognitive development at the young age compared to their counterparts in Uganda. I think because of the availability of all these stimulants in toys and electronics. For instance, I have seen some below two year olds using iPhones more than I can to play different games. I personally touched a phone for the first time when I was 18 and it was a very huge Sony Ericsson phone! A few things from these kids that got me giggling heartily are listed below:
1. Sitting next to this 23 months old in the car, she removed her shoes and was fidgeting putting them back. I offered to help her and after I finished helping her put on her shoes, she mumbles, " good job". I couldn't help smiling back at her. After a few minutes I sneezed and this little angel goes "bless you!"
2. While in Boston, our friends' 17 or so months old baby couldn't stop making me smile each time she blew kisses to us and me. Even in the streets, church and train station, she couldn't stop blowing kisses, much to the excitement of the onlookers. This was the youngest person to ever blow a kiss to me. Bless this little princess.
3. While in New Hampshire in a friend's house, this 16 months old beauty kept warming up to me slowly as I kept luring her with my smile. She let me carry, which was beautiful. However, later on as we were seated playing with her older sister, this little cutie ran from no where and gave me a huge hug! I almost cried, just the thought of it going through her mind and deciding I'm going to give him a big hug!
A few days ago while skyping, I was in the bathroom and my wife called me and said Ellie, the girl in number one above, was asking for me. When I joined the skyping crew, she goes :" Uncle Ruudy, I love you!" That started my day!
However, it hasn't all been rosy with the kids here. I got a rude awakening one day from a 4.5 year old. I was looking after him and his 2 year old cousin. The little one started littering the ground with the playing stuff they were using. I thought I should bring in some order and so, I tell the young girl, :" please, I am not going to allow you continue playing until you pick up all that stuff that you have thrown down". My 4.5 year old buddy goes : "Uncle Ruudy, you are lying. You are not the father or the mother, you are not in charge!" If I was a mzungu (white person), my red face and cheeks would have been visible for all to see. I reported to his parents and thank God they talked to him.
That's something that I had never heard from anyone of that age my entire life.
Lastly, I must say thank you so much to all of you for answering our prayers in regards to the furniture and other house items that we so badly needed. We debated a lot on whether to send you emails asking for your little help. One of our friends, after giving us his family's contribution, encouraged us to send the list out to all of you and your responses have encouraged us to keep trusting The Lord and keep doing what He has called us to do, knowing that we have a great array of partners walking with us. May The Lord continue to bless you and provide for you and your families. Thank you so much for your seeds of love, we are proud to be walking this journey with all f you.
Peace and grace to all of you. Keep us in your prayers.
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