3/16/2014

The warm heart of Africa


One day I was walking down the road close to the house I'm living in. I met a group of schoolgirls and asked them what kind of fruit they ate and it's not quite a suprise that I forgot the name of it already 5 minutes after the conversation... (This girl needs to practice her Tumbuka!) Then we talked for a couple of minutes and later said good bye. So... Why am I telling this deeply interesting story?

Well, a couple of days later when I was going to the Kingdom hall, one of those schoolgirls saw me and started to walk with me along the road. We became friends and eventually we started to study together. Her name is Reshina, she's 14 and loves her bible. And today she attended the meeting for the first time! She liked it, (although it wasn't the easiest subject in the watchtower-study this week...).Yesterday we studied about why God allow suffering to happen and she told me that she got to use that new knowledge already the same day! Her cousin asked her, just that question, and she was happy to be able to give him an answer! 

                     
          (Reshina is the one in pink next to me and the rest of the kids are her cute neighbours!)



Ahh, friends..! It is such a nice feeling to be in an environment, where believing in God is not viewed as strange. Unlike home, this is a place where it is common to have a faith. I grew up in a secular country and I respect that people might not think as me. I do not by any means believe that someone should be forced into have a faith. We all have our own right to think, feel and believe. Right?

But sometimes I get the impression that it doesn't work the other way around (back home in Sweden). For some reason it seems like it's okay to view religious ones in a disrespectful way. As strange, weak, brainwashed or whatever thing someone might say. And sadly I think I let those prejudices affect me sometimes. And because of that, I kind of feel more free in an environment like this. Like if I can breath better here. I'm not getting judged because of what I beileve and carry in my mind and heart. I'm just me, and i'm getting viewed as.. me

I'm longing for the day when it won't excist any prejudices and when we all will view each other as one big lovely family. And until that day happens, let us try to view each other with love and with love only. Let us try to be like the nation of Malawi, the warm heart of Africa.








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