MY REDEEMED SOUL REJOICES

Elephants Don't Need No Help

What's your favorite road trip memory?
Submitted by Birch Counseling.

That would have to be the time we were in Yankari Game Reserve in Nigeria when the clutch cable broke on our car while we were going to see the elephants. We traveled for two days from our home in Ukpom to get to Yankari. The first day we took the tour on the "tour bus" or the back of a dump truck - ate dust for a couple of hours but it was okay. We saw a few animals. The next day we show up two minutes late and the tour bus has already gone so I ask the ranger if we can drive through in our car. He says yes, if we will take a guide with us. So, my wife and three kids get in the back seat and off we go.

We were doing okay until I felt the clutch cable break when I changed gears. I figured we would be okay as long as I kept the car in second gear and drove slowly. We were fine until one of the kids shouted "elephants." I popped the gearshift into neutral so we could get a good look and we did. There were several elephants around us. They were mostly just minding their own business and then we saw a young one cross the road in front of us. It was followed by a very big parent. We were ewing and awing until it stopped and turned toward us and flared out its ears. I thought, "That elephant ain't happy and we ain't in the zoo."

Do you know how fast a car goes in reverse when the clutch cable is broken? It doesn't - at all. We were stuck. I couldn't get the gearshift into reverse and the elephant started charging us. He (or she, it didn't matter) would run toward the car, stir up the dust, flare its ears and make this load bellowing noise. Then it would back up and do it again. The guide and I jumped out of the car and tried to push it backwards. My wife jumped in the driver's seat and began revving the engine and honking the horn. The horn had been drowned out back in the rainy season and sounded like a mouse squeaking. Two lessons learned - elephants are not afraid of mice and two men can't push a car backwards in sand no matter how much adrenaline is flowing.

We jumped back in the car. The guide tells us the elephant is calling the other elephants (like it needs help to squash us like little bugs). One daughter is screaming. I tell the other daughter to get the video camera. The guide tells my wife, "You have my permission to make her be quiet." She keeps screaming until the guide says, "She is calling the other elephants." She stops abruptly. My other daughter has the camera going but the guide says, "Forget the camera, we need to get out of here!" Guess he's never heard of a National Geographic moment. I rev the engine and jam the gear and by God's grace it goes into reverse without killing the engine. I back up for a couple of miles before I feel safe enough to stop.

We are finally out of danger. So we push the car enough to get it into second gear to head back to the base. I'm feeling pretty good until the guide mentions that the salt rocks are ahead and there are usually more elephants there.

I Taste, Smell, Hear a Memory

When we moved to Nigeria, West Africa I was pleased to find there were lots of fruits growing all around our house. There were bananas, pineapples, papayas, mangoes and a few others.  One was of particular interest.  Just outside the kitchen window was a cherry tree or perhaps better described as a cherry bush.  It was about fifteen feet tall (that's five meters in Nigerian).  The branches were big enough that the kids could climb up them, which they did when the cherries got ripe.  The cherries themselves were light green as they grew, then turned to yellow, then orange and if they were allowed to get fully ripe, a beautiful red color.  The unusual thing about them is that they were fluted, i. e. they had ridges on them.  Each cherry had eight to twelve ridges.  I don't remember counting them.  I'm relying on my memory here.  Which brings me to my point.

The first time I bit into one of the cherries, I “remembered” the taste.  I had tasted that exact taste before somewhere, but that seemed next to impossible as I had never been to Africa before (except for a quick trip a few months earlier but the cherries weren't ripe then).  I couldn't remember ever having seen a fluted cherry but the memory of the taste was definitely stored in my mind.  The mystery wasn't solved until about three years later when I was visiting family in Alabama and I was telling them about the cherries.  My brother said, “Oh, Aunt so and so had some of those in her yard in West Hollywood, Florida when we lived there.”  Here's the thing.  I don't remember anything about living in West Hollywood.  I only know I lived there because my birth certificate says I was born there and my family tells me we did.  I do have a picture of me sitting on a pony but that's not a real memory.

My point is simply that even though I have no conscious memory of living there my mind had somehow stored a memory of a taste of something and when I tasted it again I remembered.  I think that's fascinating. 

Tastes, sights, smells all stored somewhere in the mind waiting for some trigger to release them.  And so, a little over thirty years after I had a cherry in West Hollywood I had another one in Nigeria and remembered it.

I once wrote an article entitled “I Smell a Memory.”  I wrote it when we lived in Argentina.  Every time I smell bread baking I am reminded of Buenos Aires because the bread stores (panaderias) always grabbed my nose and tried to pull me in to buy something.  I remember Mecha's panaderia where my wife bought our bread and all the good memories of sharing our lives with Mecha and her family.  

We usually associate memories to things we see but I'm convinced that some of our strongest memories are not sights but smells and sounds and tastes.  Not all those memories are good ones but the best ones remind us of home and family and friends.  God is good.  He made our brains in such a way that they can store things up only to surprise us with a deja vu moment years later and miles away.  Wish I had a fluted cherry about now.

God Is Great, Fear Is Good and People Are Crazy

I like the song my title is based on because it reminds me that someday my millionaire friend is going to leave me an inheritance.  Not something I deserve, he (or she) is going to do it just because they are gracious.  And I will use it to honor him (or her).

I like the three points, too.  God is great.  I've talked about it here on my blog.  He has helped me in so many different situations that I cannot believe how much He cares.  Its pretty amazing to think that the creator of the universe would have any concern for little ole me – but He does and I know it. He is great and He's proved it multiple times to me in my life.

But why would I say that “fear is good?”  For one, fear keeps us out of trouble sometimes.  It might not keep us from doing something thrilling (like skydiving) but it makes us be more careful if we do that thing that might otherwise be dangerous.  There is such a thing as having a healthy fear of God. There is a warning that God gave us that goes something like, “If you are considering hurting a child, it would be better for you if you would tie a huge stone around your neck and throw yourself off a very high bridge.”  If people really had a fear of God and what He said wouldn't they reconsider doing anything that would harm a child – from child pornography to molestation to even getting a divorce if it was going to harm the children?  Granted fear isn't the purest motivation, love is.  Love would accomplish the same thing but in a much better way than fear but if fear is all you have to work with – use it.

People are crazy about a lot of things.  People are crazy about money, crazy about love, even crazy about beer (remember the tastes great vs less filling commercials?)  People are crazy about God, too. Why would anyone refuse to have a relationship with someone who could and would be happy to give them immortality?  Isn't it everyone's dream to live in a perfect place forever?  And if you are thinking about sitting on a cloud strumming a harp and singing hymns you have a wrong concept of immortality as God wants to give it.  Do I know what its going to be like?  No, but I can imagine that someone who can make a universe like we live in just by speaking it into existence can probably create something in which we can be eternally happy and never bored.  I look forward to finding out what He has in store.

Meanwhile, I'm waiting on that millionaire.  There are children to feed, school uniforms to buy, medical clinics to run and a hundred other works to be financed.  I'm looking forward to helping them.  While I'm waiting I can use what I do have – my hands, feet and my back to deliver food, build houses and schoolrooms.  God is great - all the time, fear is good - sometimes and I am a little bit crazy - all the time.

Nigerian Heroes

I saw some great heroes in Nigeria.  Chi was one of them.  She cares about her own people.  Even though she had a PhD from the USA and could have had a financially successful career she decided to return to her home country and help by establishing Right Steps.  Chi saves women who have been cast out of their homes.  She takes them and their children to her compound and begins to teach them how to make it on their own.  In a country with little economic benefit she still teaches these women how to start and build a business.  Chi gives them lessons in parenting and life and helps them believe in themselves.

Another hero is a man named Friday.  He was the electrician on the campus of our school.  He had the ability to  repair many of the machine problems we had on campus.  After he graduated he began a program that would help inmates re-unite with their families.  Often, an entire village would join together to forbid a former inmate to return home.  Friday meets with the inmate's family, then with the village elders and convinces them to allow the inmate to return home.  One of the ways he is able to do this is by telling them that the inmate has graduated from a series of courses he has taught. The courses cover topics such as parenting, anger-management, how to be a good husband and many other topics.  Friday even provides the inmate with a change of clothes and shoes so he can return to the village with some dignity.  

Another hero is Cliff.  He is an American who began working at a hospital in Nigeria several years ago.  He and his wife could never say no when an orphan was brought to their home.  One by one their family continued to increase and there are now over twenty children being cared for.  Unfortunately, Cliff's wife, Pam, died a few years ago of cancer.  Cliff has continued to care for the children and as each one grows he or she is given the best opportunity that Cliff can afford to give so that the child can be successful  in life.  It has been a struggle for him in many ways but his love for the children continues to make a difference.

Each of these people do what they can to make an impact on the country of Nigeria.  There are many people throughout the world who need help.  Chi, Friday nor Cliff throw up their hands in exasperation and say, “What can I do?”  They do what they can for whom they can.  Just like the starfish story, it makes a difference to this one.

I hope I can be like them in Honduras.  I want to make a difference in the lives of those who need help.