Good Samaritans I Have Met

People come to Africa for many reasons – safaris, church teams, World Cup, and business, to mention a few. Many come with skills and experience to bring aid in a wide variety of ways, seeking nothing but progress in ways that will lift the nations. Let me mention three I have encountered so far.

The first was a white gentleman on my flight to Abuja. He was quite well dressed, seemed to travel well, met people easily. I took him for a doctor or professor. Wrong. We met at an Internet café at the airport in Addis Ababa, waiting for the same flight. He too had been on the flight that could take off but could not land.

He works for a global peace festival, centered in Africa. He knew some of the gaggle of men in purple, especially the Primate of Kenya who is one of the major sponsors of this event. The fruit of this peace initiative will be greater understanding among the tribal factions of Africa and less tension between African nations and the superpowers.

Wouldn’t you know it but this guy lives 90 miles from Heathsville! We chatted about a host of things, hitting it off quite easily. Our styles – styles for hustling potential contacts! - were very similar. After a while I asked if he had a church. No, he said, he did have respect for the church but had decided against joining one. A man of peace but who lives apart from the Prince of Peace.

On the long flight to Abuja I sat beside a young Japanese woman who was also quite easy to talk with. She had been living in Ethiopia for about four months, working with the Green Revolution in Africa. The focus of this group is food scarcity and issues relating to production and distribution. Her organization is striving to make a contribution in agricultural techniques and treatment of the lowest and most abused level of food production – the farmer.

She had studied in the United States. I asked her if she was familiar with the Christian Church. She did know St. Paul’s University – Rikkyo - in Tokyo which was founded by my relative, Bishop Channing Moore Williams. But no, her college had been Christian at one point but wasn’t now, and she knew very little about the church. I recounted to her the parable of the sheep and the goats, just to leave with her the priority that the Lord of the Church has for the poor and abused.

The last to mention was a couple from Boston who were at the AABC in Entebbe. Their ministry, which had been going on for 25 years, was in health care. Clearly their health care is a dual ministry with witness to the loving and powerful work of Jesus Christ.

These Good Samaritans would make the President of Uganda pleased. How much better if all of them had seen the deeper impact on society that the last couple brought through the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ.