The Call – Rachel Vandevort Weller

Coming out of the notorious Kibera Slum in Nairobi a few weeks ago, my Kenyan host, who grew up there, commented: “God has really blessed Africa.” The three square kilometers crammed into the center of Nairobi is packed full of dwellings, erected by whoever showed up there using whatever they could find or afford. Going to visit his neighborhood, we picked our way over rutted paths, crossed eye-stinging streams of raw sewage, skirted piles of laundry and basins of laundry water, passed sellers of what one might want to eat – samosas, boiled beans, fried potatoes, fresh vegetables. On the only flat piece of ground beside the donated water storage tank, we stepped carefully over a game of marbles – the intent players hardly noticing the strange white lady walking past. Up water-formed steps, around the corner of a home, we stepped onto a cement walkway – a veranda of the line of rooms there. At one door, we stepped inside. This and one other room were the home of my friend’s project assistant where she raised her four children and is now where some of her grandchildren call home as well.

Along the way, my host greeted every other person we passed, asking about family, friends, or business issues. Sitting  in the tiny room, stuffed full with the amenities of life (I noticed plastic basins of clothing hoisted up to the ceiling by a rope away from trampling feet, rats, or other nuisances) he frequently interrupted our short visit to greet people walking by or invite them in to greet me. We prayed together, thanking God for his goodness, asking for guidance in bringing the Good News of Life to the many around who haven’t understood.

As one who was strictly there as an invited guest, with no intention of getting involved in any way, I was free to notice what was noticeable. I saw happy kids playing, I saw acres of rusty rooftops, I saw a concrete water tower with faucets at its base, I saw-smelled-felt the sting of garbage where children played. I felt the warmth of community. I heard the frustrations of a mother of a teen boy. I saw the marks of deep faith on wall décor, in the eyes of community, in the voice of family. I heard a lot of words in a language I didn’t understand. In my language, I heard one say, “We cannot raise our children alone, we need each other’s help.” And then I heard, “God has really blessed Africa.”

For several centuries people have heard and responded to God’s call. In recent years, especially through the immediate availability of worldwide eye-witnessing accounts, Christians (and others) have responded to tragedies and unacceptable life-situations. We have responded to the call to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, and set captives free. And most of that has been done far away, by sending money …  or on short term mission trips, so we can be personally connected, so we can have a relationship.

But I wonder about our idea of relationship. I wonder if we are missing the call.

In preparation to set my thoughts about being called to print I began reading the Bible looking for God’s call to individuals and groups. We have clearly been instructed to solve immediate problems – hunger, nakedness, injustice. But have we really responded to God’s most persistent call? Reading various stories of “call” throughout the Bible, the most repeated call was to come, follow, be with …. God has called us first and most importantly into relationship with him – an overwhelming honor. And then he has called us into relationship with each other. Once a person understands the free, unconditional acceptance he has in God, that relationship is easy – amazingly easy. Interestingly, it is harder for us to live in relationship with those who are like us: people. And the more they are like us, the harder it seems to be, but it is in those relationships that we learn to see God, where we develop a deeper understanding of God’s relationship with us.

In the West, we have eased our guilt of plenty by using our plenty to carry stuff across oceans and continents to solve problems. We enjoy the hospitality of those we have come to help. We laugh, we share stories, we cry together. We pray. We leave. Sometimes we leave after a week, sometimes after some months, sometimes after some years. We come planning to leave. We leave behind relationships. And I wonder if this is what God has called us to.

In the developing world, in Africa, relationships are permanent. There is little poverty of relationship in Africa. My African friends easily rise from bed early, stop what they are doing, rearrange their plans, sleep late to sit with someone, to eat with someone, to dress someone’s pains, to counsel someone, to pray through injustices with someone, to be there together with someone.

God has given the Western world the gift of organizing, planning, and doing. They are good gifts. As we consider what God has called us to do, let us give more priority to things that are more difficult for us. Let us hear and respond to God’s call to build relationships – with each other, with neighbors on our street, with our families. When we plan travel across time zones to organize rescues and to do mission – let us pay attention to our call to relationship and let us think. What will it take to develop that relationship? How much money, how much time, how much effort? And let us remember Who it is who is the source of all those things and Who it is who will provide for all our needs, all our children’s needs, all the needs of our aging parents.

And when you plan a trip to your Africa, to that place whose problem you are helping to solve, open your eyes, your ears, and your mind to the relationships in front of you and see how richly God has blessed Africa.

Rachel Vandevort Weller has served since 1994 as a PC(USA) Mission Co-Worker with the Ethiopian Evangelical Church Mekane Yesus.  Currently she serves as Health Coordinator with the East and West Gambella Synods in western Ethiopia.  Rachel was born and raised in Ethiopia, where her parents were missionaries with the United Presbyterian Church. Returning to the States after high school, she earned an R.N. from West Penn Hospital School of Nursing in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.  She is married to the Rev. Michael Weller, who serves as the PC(USA)’s regional liaison for the Horn of Africa.