Life with Jolly George

Now that my roommate has come things are a bit lively. Dr. George Mitchell is a pastor and Bible scholar from Glasgow. You can tell by his brogue. When Greg Okesson, dean at the college here, announced that George was coming back, the students clapped. He asked some of them, “What do you like about Dr. Mitchell?” “His jokes.” “Can you understand them?” “No—but they are funny and we laugh with him.” Some guys get all the breaks.

George always has a story. And he always has a handout. He gives the kids balloons. He collects scarves and ladies head scarves and men’s ties and all sorts of bric-a-brac that he gives to students, faculty and wives, to gatekeepers and grounds men and the like. He brings Gideon Testaments and Bible study guides—just about anything that can be used. And in Kenya everything can be used (even if it is used) and given a lot of mileage.

He even brought a bunch of books by a world renowned AIDS specialist. And that reminded Gregg that some doctor from the USA left 200 condoms at Scott for the new clinic on campus. Hold on! This is a Christian college training pastors and church workers. But these students go out on the field every weekend and over semester breaks. And we all know about Africa’s AIDS problem and the thousands of kids either diseased or orphaned.

But this is a shame culture. There are things that go on you don’t acknowledge and certainly you don’t talk about. This contributes to the epidemic. Gregg decides to take them to the clinic guy. “Here’s a box of 200 condoms.” No reply. Just a fleeting bulging of the eyes. Pause. “OK, you can put them over there.” This man is not about to discuss it. Will these just sit there for years? Will someone discuss it at a pastor’s conference and see them go to where they can do some good? Stay tuned.

Here’s George again dispensing joy wherever he goes. And he has a big challenge, teaching the first years (freshmen) the Gospels. A big class of over 40 students. I think he’ll handle it OK.

He handed out the Gideon books – a nice leatherette version with gilt edges and a place ribbon: New Testament and Psalms—to his class. (More bribery?) When some straggle in late he says, “Sorry you’re coming in late—I’ve just given out the last of the Bibles. I expect you to be here on time.” Atta boy, George. You tell ‘em. But he says everything with that big toothy smile and lovely brogue. He’s built like Santa Claus—not for speed but for comfort, as portly Brinley Evans used to say. (Brinley was a West Church missionary from England serving in Nigeria who used to teach our kids “Jesus loves me” in Hausa, supported by his violin. My children and I can still sing it, some 40 years later!)

So here is one of George’s stories.

A lad in Glasgow, Gordon Thompson, has an alcoholic mum and no father at home. Living in worst areas of Glasgow, he drops out of school at age 14. With help of his brother he talks his way into being a dishwasher at a restaurant with permission to sleep on the floor. He’s not going home again. This is in a notoriously bad side of the tracks.

He’s a good worker and over time he learns all the jobs in the restaurant and ends up being the chef! Now he is making money for the first time and he decides to go buy his first suit of clothes.

He asks a waitress where he should go to show off his new suit. “O,” she says, “when people want to show of their clothes they go to church. You can go to the one right down the street.”

So Gordon goes to the Baptist Church, hears the Gospel and gets saved. He decides to go back to school. He goes to a Bible College and has a hard time due to “poor learning skills.” Enter George Mitchell who teaches Bible, Hebrew and Greek in a nearby seminary. Testing Gordon they find he is dyslexic—and no one in the Bible College caught it despite several years of his study there. Now George has lectures on a CD. “Here,” he says, “play this over and over until you have in down pat.”

Eventually Gordon graduates and is ordained a pastor in a church in the tough district that no one will take on. He gets a car and puts a big cross on the boot (trunk) so in a few months every one knows the Baptist pastor’s car. He dives into the problems with the Gospel message and people get converted and baptized. George keeps contact and brings in clothing for Gordon to give out. One was a fur coat someone donated. So a woman in that neighborhood is walking around in a fur coat.

“Can you use a wedding dress, Gordon?” “Oh yes—some of the couples I marry use borrowed clothes for their wedding.” So a wedding dress gets recycled gain and again.

But the church is being vandalized. He goes to a man in the tenement that overlooks the church property. “John, where did you get those running shoes?” “From you, Pastor.” “And what about that suit over in the closet there?” “From you.” “OK—do you think you can help me?” “I’ll see what I can do.”

This man finds a woman there who is mostly at home. She gets involved in the church. So whenever she spots hooligans in the area she throws the window up, sticks out her head and yells at them: “you’re not invisible—I know what you’re up to.” No more vandalism.

But the flat roof of the church leaks. Gordon starts a fund to raise the 75 thousand quid needed for a pitched roof. Lady X often plays the national bingo. She calls Gordon: “I’ve just won 120,000 pounds. Can you use it even if it comes from gambling?” “If you want to donate it, just put it in the offering when you are ready.” So next Sunday Gordon has the money for the roof repair.

By now Gordon is getting calls from other churches, upscale. But he sees that the deacons are fighting the pastor and the pastor is fighting the flock. “I want no part of it. This is where God is doing a work!”

So tomorrow when George preaches in chapel no one will fall asleep. No way!

Speaking of chapel, the opening of the term today was graced by a fine message by Gregg Okesson on II Peter 1:3-4. “His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness…. Through these he has given us very great and precious promises, so that through them we may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.”

African theologians make a lot of the idea of participation. Rather than seeking knowledge through detached objective analysis as westerners do, they stress that we learn by participation in the lives of other people as well as in nature (through working in the fields and forests or herding animals). Life is relational. And that includes participating in the divine nature of God, the creator of all that is. God came into the fragility of humanity (where life is threatened by powerful forces we have little power over) in order to redeem us and ultimately deliver us from our vulnerability. The incarnation exposed God to the vulnerability of being a helpless baby, a country rabbi, and a condemned malefactor. Thus God is able to provide all we need until we share his glory in the resurrection to come. Our humanity is no barrier between us and God but is rather the vehicle by which we come to share in God’s divine nature. In Him we live and move and have our being!

This is another example of how we can learn from another cultural perspective and enrich our understanding of the life God has given us.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch….

It’s 5 am Thursday January 5. A voice in the wilderness calls from the next room. “Brother Jim? I canna find me torrrch and there’s no power. Can you help me?”

My trusty shake and bake flash at the ready, we stumble downstairs. “George,” says I, “we are like the foolish virgins—we forgot to get oil and trim our lamps!” “Aye, you are spot on, brother,” says he.

George remembered there were two candles on the coffee table. “Do we even have matches?” I tell him where they are in the kitchen. So that’s a start. We unwrap the shrink-package from the brand new hurricane lanterns and go to the porch to pour in some kerosene. Soon we have two lanterns aglow.

But there’s no power and George is preaching chapel today, hoping to use PowerPoint. Plan B?

So it’s a cold shave and shower today. No tea either as the pot is electric. Thankfully, Kim Okesson gave us some hard boiled eggs yesterday.

So I’m up stairs doing Bodylastics exercise. George is in the lav singing from the Messiah the aria “The People Who Walk in Darkness Have Seen a Great Light.” So I join in a bit. In these concrete houses we sound like a couple of basso profundos at the Met.

As I said, it’s always an adventure with Jolly George—Dr Mitchell the Glaswegian scholar.