Our 2009 journey to Africa began on Friday Morning Jan 2. We hit the road at 9:00 am. We flew out of Raleigh Airport to a connection at JFK in NY. From there we flew to Casablanca, Morocco. With a 12 hour layover we took in a tour of the city and made our next connection to Burkina Faso in West Africa. From the airport we traveled over 5 hours by bus to the mission house in Diabougou. By the time we went to bed that night we had been traveling for over 50 hours.
Our work week began Monday morning with a one hour ride to the village of Nakar. A small remote village without power or water. A village that has changed little in the last 500 years. It occurred to me that Jesus must have made his was into villages just like Nakar.
Each day began with a worship service and gospel sermon. Each day we saw adults from the village and surrounding villages make professions of faith. Following the service we would see patiences until 5:00 each afternoon and then make the one hour drive back to the mission house.
A typical visit to the clinic for one of the locals was an interview with a nurse with the aid of a translator. They would move from the interview to the Malaria testing station. With results in hand they would move on to an interview with a highly experienced nurse or with a Doctor. Following a visit with the Doctor the patient would move to the pharmacy bench where they would receive a worm treatment, a malaria treatment if necessary and other medicines as prescribed by the Doctor. Some of the most prescribed medicines were OTC pain reliever and antibiotics. Many patients went through a wound care area where major wounds were dressed and bandaged. Several severe wounds were treated. Broken leg, burns, lacerations, and the most abused feet on the planet were typical cases.
We saw patients for five days. Concluding the clinic on Friday afternoon by seeing nothing but infants and small high risk children. It was the toughest day of the week. So many sick and needy people and not enough time or resources to help them all.
Our return trip began early Saturday morning with a return trip of 5 hours back to the capital city of Ouagadougou. We took a short shopping trip for souvenirs and dinner before making our way back to the airport for a 3:00 am flight. We flew back to Casablanca and then on to JFK and back into RDU. Upon arrival in Raleigh we learned that none of our baggage had made the flight. I laid down in my bed at 1:00 Monday morning. The end of about 40 hours of travel.
A quick road trip to Dillon SC on Wednesday secured our luggage and we celebrated our trip with our congregation on Sunday night Jan 18 at Sardis.
On the trip we saw 439 people in the clinic. Treated 152 for Malaria and saw 94 people make professions of faith. I want to thank www.shatteringdarkness.org for planning the trip and for the whole team that went. I want to especially thank Frank and Kim Donohue, Rob and Angela Jackson, and my son Jonathan for being such great team mates.
I love you all. Kenn Hucks
Monday, January 19, 2009
Thursday, November 20, 2008
Affective Humanism
If I were to call you a humanist would you deny it? Would you want to fight about it?
A simple working definition of Humanism is someone who emphasizes a person's capacity for self-realization through reason; while rejecting religion and the supernatural…
According to the Humanist Manifesto of 1933 humanism regards the universe as self-existing and not created... man as a part of nature that has emerged as a result of a continuous process…and that the traditional dualism of mind and body must be rejected.
Now I would bet we have a hundred percent on the “I’m not a humanist list.”
But what if you are more affected by Humanism than you realize? What if while aiming and claiming to be a follower of Jesus Christ and a Christian in the purest sense, you were by action a humanist?
At any point in our lives either privately or in a church setting that we begin to operate in our own strength and our own abilities we become affective humanists.
When we fail to passionately pray for the power of God to be poured out in our lives we are being humanists. When we fail to realize that apart from Christ we can do nothing...we are in being humanist. When we reject the miraculous and the supernatural and the intervention of God we are being humanists.
Christianity has no greater enemy in all the world than Humanism. Humanism is the face and force of atheism. Atheism immediately gets the attention of everyone, but humanism sounds so, so human. And there in lies the danger.
When all we do and all we claim and all we expect is what humans can do, we are affective humanists. When we fail to throw ourselves upon the grace and mercy of God, we are humanists. When everything we design and do can be explained and accomplished by mere humans we are humanists in the purest sense. Whether it is by creed or deed, when we give no room for the power of the Holy Spirit in our lives and in our ministries…we are nothing more and nothing less than Affective Humanists!
As believers we claim the Divine Creator reached down to man as the Suffering Redeemer in order to provide for each of us the Holy Indwelling. And we either choose to live our lives affected by Him or affected by humanism. Reject humanism expect a miracle!
A simple working definition of Humanism is someone who emphasizes a person's capacity for self-realization through reason; while rejecting religion and the supernatural…
According to the Humanist Manifesto of 1933 humanism regards the universe as self-existing and not created... man as a part of nature that has emerged as a result of a continuous process…and that the traditional dualism of mind and body must be rejected.
Now I would bet we have a hundred percent on the “I’m not a humanist list.”
But what if you are more affected by Humanism than you realize? What if while aiming and claiming to be a follower of Jesus Christ and a Christian in the purest sense, you were by action a humanist?
At any point in our lives either privately or in a church setting that we begin to operate in our own strength and our own abilities we become affective humanists.
When we fail to passionately pray for the power of God to be poured out in our lives we are being humanists. When we fail to realize that apart from Christ we can do nothing...we are in being humanist. When we reject the miraculous and the supernatural and the intervention of God we are being humanists.
Christianity has no greater enemy in all the world than Humanism. Humanism is the face and force of atheism. Atheism immediately gets the attention of everyone, but humanism sounds so, so human. And there in lies the danger.
When all we do and all we claim and all we expect is what humans can do, we are affective humanists. When we fail to throw ourselves upon the grace and mercy of God, we are humanists. When everything we design and do can be explained and accomplished by mere humans we are humanists in the purest sense. Whether it is by creed or deed, when we give no room for the power of the Holy Spirit in our lives and in our ministries…we are nothing more and nothing less than Affective Humanists!
As believers we claim the Divine Creator reached down to man as the Suffering Redeemer in order to provide for each of us the Holy Indwelling. And we either choose to live our lives affected by Him or affected by humanism. Reject humanism expect a miracle!
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
a call to prayer
“Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.” Abraham Lincoln, November 1863.
And here we are 145 years later and a man who then would have been nothing more than a possession is now able to become president of the United States of America.
For all the things that can be said to describe President Elect Obama, he is a man. Equal to and with all other men. Regardless of race, religion, or nationality he has taken the powerful words of Abraham Lincoln to their highest potential.
Regardless of your politics, prejudice or passion we are Americans.
If you are a part of my intended audience you are a Christian. You are a part of the most noble and honorable and compassionate people upon the face of the earth. You above all others understand that we are, under God all created equal. Because of our place at the foot of the cross and our position in the Lord Jesus Christ we all inhabit the highest and most lofty position possible.
It is in that place of high esteem and great expectation that I call upon you to engage in a great war, a war of prayer. Now more than ever we need to pray for Mr. Obama. He now holds the most difficult position in the world. And added to the pressure that comes with the office he now bears the burden of being the first black man to fill the position. He faces a level of expectation and criticism unlike any man before him.
We must pray for him with all of our hearts. Not that he will do the will and whim of a party or people. But that he will be able to hear the voice of God and yield to the Spirit that alone can turn the hearts of great men. We must pray for his safety, his health and his wisdom.
We must claim as our prayer the words of Lincoln, “that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom— and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”
And here we are 145 years later and a man who then would have been nothing more than a possession is now able to become president of the United States of America.
For all the things that can be said to describe President Elect Obama, he is a man. Equal to and with all other men. Regardless of race, religion, or nationality he has taken the powerful words of Abraham Lincoln to their highest potential.
Regardless of your politics, prejudice or passion we are Americans.
If you are a part of my intended audience you are a Christian. You are a part of the most noble and honorable and compassionate people upon the face of the earth. You above all others understand that we are, under God all created equal. Because of our place at the foot of the cross and our position in the Lord Jesus Christ we all inhabit the highest and most lofty position possible.
It is in that place of high esteem and great expectation that I call upon you to engage in a great war, a war of prayer. Now more than ever we need to pray for Mr. Obama. He now holds the most difficult position in the world. And added to the pressure that comes with the office he now bears the burden of being the first black man to fill the position. He faces a level of expectation and criticism unlike any man before him.
We must pray for him with all of our hearts. Not that he will do the will and whim of a party or people. But that he will be able to hear the voice of God and yield to the Spirit that alone can turn the hearts of great men. We must pray for his safety, his health and his wisdom.
We must claim as our prayer the words of Lincoln, “that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom— and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)