Co-written by: Emily Waito and Raychel Manko, with minimal help by Katie Noble
No, this isn’t just some creative, catchy title. This was our big World Race decision of the day. You see it’s Friday night in Pretoria, South Africa and therefore we are obviously having a Disney movie marathon on the big projector screen at our ministry site. After a long and exhausting week of ministry, all we wanted to do was relax with the familiar memories of our childhood. There aren’t really a lot of familiar things here. Disney movies are all we have.
In order to be as fair as possible, we decided to take a vote. The movies we had to vote on are as follows:
· Hercules
· Hunchback of Notre Dame
· Sword in the Stone
· Jungle Book
· Lion King
· Mulan
· Pocahontas
· Aladdin
· The Little Mermaid
· Tarzan
· Peter Pan
After a dramatic round of voting, debate, argument and conflict ensued. I mean, have you ever tried to decide on three movies between 13 people? Trust us, it’s not easy. The winning movies ended up being:
· The Lion King
· Mulan
· Aladdin
It was in dealing with this conflict that we were really able to learn the meaning of ‘high preference’. Some people had to truly surrender their own will to watch the Disney movies that they had not voted on. Instead, they had to watch the movies of the majorities’ preference, submitting their own will for the sake of being unified.
After the top three movies had been voted on, we realized that they actually encompass many cultural and religious issues that we will encounter on our World Race route.
Ø Rafiki, from the Lion King, displays the concept of a witch doctor (because he’s really just a monkey), which goes on right outside our walls here in Africa.
Ø Mulan displays the idea of ancestral worship, which is also here in Africa as well as in Asia.
Ø Aladdin alludes to Islamic influence, which is portrayed through some of the things the Sultan says such as “By Allah.” We will be exposed to this culture and religion in our Asian countries.
Suddenly, tonight transformed from a fun movie night into an informative research session to help us prepare for the countries we are going to and to recognize the strongholds we may encounter.
Ultimately, we worked through the conflict in a high preference and peaceful manner. Even though we all come from different states, and even different countries, we were able to work together as the Body of Christ. This experience instilled in us a new appreciation for the educational value that Disney movies bring.
Thanks Walt.
In most of this we are being extremely sarcastic and dramatic, however we do recognize there is some truth to this and we really will be praying into the strongholds as we prepare to go into those countries. Please don’t take our silliness seriously.
