A Chrisitan rite of passage for the twenty first century

Sorry to miss a week or so’s blogging. My excuse is a good one. Where I’ve been there was no running water or electricity, let alone internet. I’ve been living where most of the world lives: in the bush. And- for a few days at least- loving it. When all is good, it is good. You rise with the sun and go to bed with the moon. You eat what you grow and draw water from the well. You live in community with no distractions and few inequalities. It’s the sort of existence, most of the west works all its life for, in the hope that we may have just a few days right at the end like that: albeit when we’re too old and frail to really enjoy it!

Of course my idyllic picture doesn’t tell the whole story. When harvests fail, or sickness comes. When abuse strikes or potential goes unnoticed, then paradise is quickly lost. There is need here. Needs which we can serve, even as we learn from the simplicity of life we’ve lost.

And the truth is if we are serious about reaching this generation for Christ, then most youth still live like this, and we must serve them. There is a spiritual hunger out here. I’ve walked from school to school and occasionally hitched a lift on the back of a push bike. Wherever we went the whole school was quickly assembled to hear our message and we prayed for scores of kids. But all the time my mind was going to another place: to a time when we could have youth ministers based here and serving these kids with true on-going discipleship.

My gut feeling is that those who go will gain much more than they will give. Their lives will never be the same again. In fact I wonder if it should be something of a rite of passage for Christian young adults to spend time in the bush, a bit like Aboriginals go walk about. To be still and know that He is God. To have time to appreciate what really counts and gain a lifelong perspective, which will sow seeds of scepticism when materialism makes its dramatic claims.

Our world is changing so rapidly. As yet the village life isn’t, apart from the ubiquitous cell phone masts and soccer shirts. However who knows where we’re headed and what impact this will have on the rural majority. So taste now, and you’ll see what I mean.