Nelson Mandela made the Xhosa/Zulu word Ubuntu part of everyday speech when he spoke about the post apartheid South Africa. The word roughly translated means “I am because we are.” It expresses the interdependence of human beings rather than their individuality. Clothing Company Mocha Club sold a T-shirt a number of years ago with the phrase, I Need Africa, More than Africa Needs Me which expresses a similar sentiment. We might say of our partners in Africa and Central America, we need Kabala or Choluteca as much as they need us. This could be true if we made it true.
We in North America pride ourselves in our independence. Parents work hard at raising their children so that they are independent as soon as possible. We love the idea of having our own part time job and income, we love the independence of getting a driver’s licence, we celebrate the independence of our children when they can sleep over at a friend’s house for the first time. We do not celebrate our interdependence in the same way, our need for and dependence on each other in the human family. It is true to say that both Central American and African cultures have a stronger sense of interdependence. There people are not afraid to express their need for each other.
We do want to live by that beautiful word Ubuntu in the relationships that we have with our sister schools in Sierra Leone and Honduras and make it true that we need each other. It needs to be more than words on a T-shirt. Though there are many healthy ways that we need to grow up to be independent, but the good world that God created is also infused with interdependencies. It is true that these two schools depend on us for funds in order to operate, to pay salaries, buy learning materials, and maintain buildings. But we also need them. We grow to be richer and better people because of the relationships we have in these communities.
If you added up all the money that goes into sending a team of students and teachers to Honduras or to Sierra Leone you might wonder if it wouldn’t make more sense to just not go and send the money instead. We are confident that the staff at Juan Calvino and Kabala Christian Schools would be disappointed if they could not share in the relationships with us. That is just as, if not more important than the funds. The schools could be burned to the ground one day but you could never take away the Christian Education the students had received and you could never take away the relationships that have been built up over these many years.
Prayer: Dear God of the universe, you have made us for each other, you have made us to live in relationship with you and with each other. We thank you for our partner schools in Kabala and Choluteca. We pray that it would be said of us that we need each other to be more the kind of people you want us to be in this world, interdependent and caring and praying and supporting each other. Only you know what the future holds God and we might very well be developing today the relationships of a future world we are much more dependent on our Honduran and African brothers and sisters. Help us to develop a sense of Ubuntu in our living together at SCS and with our partners across the globe. Amen.
We in North America pride ourselves in our independence. Parents work hard at raising their children so that they are independent as soon as possible. We love the idea of having our own part time job and income, we love the independence of getting a driver’s licence, we celebrate the independence of our children when they can sleep over at a friend’s house for the first time. We do not celebrate our interdependence in the same way, our need for and dependence on each other in the human family. It is true to say that both Central American and African cultures have a stronger sense of interdependence. There people are not afraid to express their need for each other.
We do want to live by that beautiful word Ubuntu in the relationships that we have with our sister schools in Sierra Leone and Honduras and make it true that we need each other. It needs to be more than words on a T-shirt. Though there are many healthy ways that we need to grow up to be independent, but the good world that God created is also infused with interdependencies. It is true that these two schools depend on us for funds in order to operate, to pay salaries, buy learning materials, and maintain buildings. But we also need them. We grow to be richer and better people because of the relationships we have in these communities.
If you added up all the money that goes into sending a team of students and teachers to Honduras or to Sierra Leone you might wonder if it wouldn’t make more sense to just not go and send the money instead. We are confident that the staff at Juan Calvino and Kabala Christian Schools would be disappointed if they could not share in the relationships with us. That is just as, if not more important than the funds. The schools could be burned to the ground one day but you could never take away the Christian Education the students had received and you could never take away the relationships that have been built up over these many years.
Prayer: Dear God of the universe, you have made us for each other, you have made us to live in relationship with you and with each other. We thank you for our partner schools in Kabala and Choluteca. We pray that it would be said of us that we need each other to be more the kind of people you want us to be in this world, interdependent and caring and praying and supporting each other. Only you know what the future holds God and we might very well be developing today the relationships of a future world we are much more dependent on our Honduran and African brothers and sisters. Help us to develop a sense of Ubuntu in our living together at SCS and with our partners across the globe. Amen.