Simba wa Yuda

Yesterday at church we sang a familiar chorus for here:
The Lion of Judah
Has broken every chain
Has given me power/victory
Hallelujah
Day by day/week by week

As we prepare to move ‘in country’, there is a spiritual battle. The days before we moved in years ago, we all got very sick, our flight was cancelled, etc. As one of our superiors put it, “It’s always this way before someone goes in country.”
It’s always this way.
So it was not shocking to us when we encountered every possible obstacle last week trying to get our passports ironed out. Out of gas. No diesel at this station. Parking violation. Machine broken. Pulled over by police. And that is only the half of it. All this to say we feel keenly the unseen battle.

I love that He has ‘given me power’ to overcome discouragement, fear and malice. I also love that He has made himself know-able to all peoples in all generations. Here the title ‘Lion of Judah’ is familiar enough to be highly meaningful. People know about lions. You don’t mess with them!


As a side note, we also had some trouble understanding the preacher, which is nothing new. Minority peoples everywhere have the same problem every Sunday. There are several language groups here who do not have the ‘l’ vs. ‘r’ distinction, or short vowels or adverbs. So we were trying to sort through phrases like, “Our righteousness is like firthy lags.” Or “To be blessed we must leave God’s way.” Or “We should build each other and not tear one another.” Let’s just say our temptation to start linguistic analysis in lieu of worship is great.

So today, I'm singing this song to myself as we pack up boxes yet again to remember who has the power - it's certainly not me!