Unfortunately, there are also Christians who do not have this sensitivity or do not know the missionary dimension of the Orthodox Church and live in their own “Christianity” cut and sewn to their own measures…
Many times we have made, sometimes briefly and sometimes at length, references to the humble effort of all of us to evangelize one of the very difficult corners of the African continent, North Africa. Cameroon.
A life in the swamp
The peculiarity of B. Cameroon is the difficult climatic conditions and its geographical position… six months of rain, six months of drought and extreme heat, …desert on the verge or at the end of the vast Sahara Desert…
These difficult conditions and the complete flatness of the place – because it turns into a vast swamp during the rainy season – make the implementation of development programs unfeasible for the current economic situation of the country…
Thus the Orthodox Mission – the only one that has been active for more than thirty years in the regionas other Christian denominations have left the region and are settling in the big cities which provide them with some relative comforts and more security – has to contend not only with the confrontation of the Gospel with the ancient African belief in evil spirits, but also with the objective difficulties of the place and what they bring to the population of the region: malnutrition, limited nutrition, poor water quality, diseases from the above-mentioned, lack of large-scale sanitary care, lack of medicines, malaria and a host of other tropical diseases, poorly organized educational system, language difficulties and difficulties of great distances, which make the missionary work necessary while developing all its charitable aspects…
Hands empty
This whole work is based on the donations of various Missionary Associations and essentially friends of the Mission and Christians who still possess the saving sensitivity of the Good Samaritan of the Gospel Word… – because unfortunately there are also Christians who do not possess this sensitivity or do not know the missionary dimension of the Orthodox Church and live in their own “Christianity” cut and sewn to their own measures.
If you study carefully the story of the Good Samaritan and imagine that this man – the Good Samaritan – does not meet on his way not only a wounded, naked and half-dead person, but he meets thousands of people in this situation… and he sees that the “oil and wine” that he carried on his journey for some need turns out to be too little to be able to help these thousands of people… just as his clothes are not enough to dress the wounds of all…
If you can approach the wonder and the inner heartbreak of the good Samaritan in the face of this situation … then you will have approached our daily difficulty too … because neither wine and oil nor our clothes are always sufficient to stand close to these people according to the Gospel word…
Nor do we have the magnitude and richness of this faith of the Apostle Peter to tell this world: “There is no silver or gold for me, but I have given it to you, in the name of Jesus Christ rise and walk”… (Acts 3.6-7)
Samaritans wanted
Thus we always turn to our brothers – of the ancient churches – and we beg their love and mercy to overcome the dilemmas and help us… to help this world…
For this world receives the word of our Lord as the dry earth receives the rain… and the seed of faith grows in it and forms evangelical communities of believers… …where the name of God is glorified and fervent prayer is offered for the salvation of the universal world… and these Churches are the future “Inns” of the evangelical story of the Good Samaritan who will one day take care of the “nearest” places and people…
Pray for us, brothers saints, as we humbly pray for you in our ecclesiastical communities…
† The Cameroon Gregory
