Being in Malawi has been a very interesting experience for me, a Caucasian person; however, it is a story I have heard before. A very famous story, in fact. Harry Potter.
Now, I have been rereading all the books while I have been here, so I will admit that the story is fresh on my mind, but the similarities are undeniable.
- I am famous in a world I did not know.
Part of our ministry was going from door-to-door and sharing the Gospel with unreached villages. The first time our team ventured out of our compound in Nkhotakota, Malawi to do this, we received quite the greeting.
Our transportation was riding in the back of a pickup truck (God does answer prayers), so it was easy for the villages to see who was coming to visit them…and boy, they were not expecting us. The moment we drove anywhere near the village we heard them screaming, “Azungu! Azungu! (Which means white man).” Our vehicle was immediately surrounded by people, especially children. Our translators had to push people back just so we could get out of the vehicle. The next 10 minutes consisted of shaking hands with every person there, maybe two or three times, and hearing “Ze como (thank you)” over and over again. When we finally began our ministry, every child in the village (approximately 30) followed us to every house and heard the Gospel about 10 times that day.
Harry Potter experience the same thing the first time he steps foot in the Leaky Cauldron to buy his school supplies with Hagrid. His fame became very apparent and he didn’t understand why.
Being in Africa is like finding out I’m famous. Not only do mobs of people follow me everywhere, but everything I do is recorded on phones (or giant tape recorders in some cases), pictures of me are taken constantly (I wonder how many Facebook pages I am on?), and people thank me for doing nothing.
- My fame stems from something I have no control over.
I am famous here because of my skin color. I didn’t choose to be white (I know I don’t always look like it, but I am). I never got to give God any say in how He made me. However, my skin color has given me fame in Africa, because it’s unusual and new to them.
Harry Potter was famous for something he has no say in, too. In fact, his mother was the one that kept him from dying from the killing curse. He was a baby. He didn’t remember it. He didn’t do anything special to live. This makes Harry Potter famous in the Wizarding World, in part, because him living is unusual and new to the witches and wizards everywhere.
- I brought a message of hope to the hopeless.
The whole point of me being in Africa is to share the story of grace and redemption. This is a concept that goes against everything they have believed. Since most the people here are Muslim they believe their faith is stemmed on the good works they do in their life. As you can imagine, the story I bring them of grace and redemption is the hope they’ve been looking for. It’s the hope we’ve all been looking for. Evil (Satan) cannot win when Jesus so willingly died in order to bring goodness into the world.
Harry Potter brought people the goodness they were looking for. In a world where evil was so prevalent, Harry Potter eventually sacrifices his life in order to destroy the evil Lord Voldemort brings. Good destroys evil and everyone is saved. The witches and wizards no longer need to fear evil taking over everything, because Harry Potter defeated it, in part, because of the sacrifice he made.
