I wish I was black!!

WHY DIDN’T GOD MAKE ME BLACK!!

My Malawian friends say to me, “I wish I was white, I wish I had your skin.”  I look at them and say the same thing right back to them about their skin!!  I think it’s beautiful!!  I love how dark it is, how soft it is.  I love how big Africans lips and noses are!!  I love how their browns eyes look like Hershey’s kisses and I could stare into them for ever.  I love when at night you can only see Africans big beautiful white teeth when they smile in the dark.  I love their thick hair!!  I love to play with it and touch it and make little afros on my friends!!  To me, those things are beautiful.  To the Malawians I talk to, those characteristics describe the ‘poor’.  They say because of my skin color and the fact that I’m American that I am the richest person in the world.  I tell them that I don’t like that they think that and it makes me very sad.  To me, they are the rich ones.  They know what selflessness really is.  They know the core meaning of humble, of thankfulness.  If they are Christian, they know and believe with ALL of their hearts that God will provide for them and worship Him like He deserves to be worshiped.  To me, they get it!!  Some white people get it too, don’t get me wrong, but there is something raw about how Africans live that I love.

I wish I was black because sometimes I think it would make my job as a missionary a lot easier.  I could speak the same language as the Malawians I’m ministering to.  I wouldn’t stick out as a soar thumb EVERYWHERE I went.  I wouldn’t get ripped off with everything I buy.  I could just be known for my good deeds and words I say, not as ‘the white missionary‘.  Don’t get me wrong, I am very thankful of the place I come from, the job I had to provide funds for myself and every blessing I have and have had in my life, but sometimes my skin color gets in the way of my work. 

So instead of complaining about being white, I have to think about it as a good thing right?  This is how God had made me and this is where I am, so work with it!!  I think about it this way, God HAS blessed me and provided for me financially in order to bless my Malawian friends to better their lives, hasn’t He?!  When I go into a village hundreds of children come running up to me and I have a crowd of people before I know it around me who I can preach to, right?! 

I just think to myself sometimes, looking around me, being the only white person and just say, shoot, I wish I was black.  But I’m not black, God has made me white and I have to deal with it, but not only deal with it, like it’s a bad thing, but consider myself blessed and use it to the best of my ability to further the Kingdom.

I get a compliment sometimes that is my favorite to get.  It comes from Malawians and they say, “Your different.  Your a different Mzungu.  Your not even a Mzungu, your African, you’re a MALAWIAN!!!”  I almost cry sometimes when I hear that because I know I am doing my job right when I hear that!!  I know that my friends don’t see me as a white missionary, but a friend, fellow Malawian and someone whom they respect.  I am honored when I hear things like that and it makes me think that even though I have white skin, that I have a little African in me.