Learning from Technology

We learn from many sources -- something I love is learning from OBJECT LESSONS - finding things in nature and life that we can hang a spiritual lesson on -- kind of like Jesus with mustard seeds and weeds in the field, or Paul with athletic and horticultural thoughts.  Almost every day I make a short chapel talk - we begin with songs, then a student leads prayer, then another student shares a spiritual thought, usually ending with "and so I encourage you..."  Francis Mbuvi then turns to me and says, "Kulu, do you have anything?"

I use a lot of object lessons and I try to be very practical and use short words and act it out, to keep the kids with me.  Here's my sharing today --

"Two weeks ago when half of you were on the trip to the Indian Ocean coast, the ones of us left in Kamulu had a hard time.  The week you were here and the others were gone was really smooth, wasn't it?  (and they said YES).  But the first week was difficult.  We tried to watch a movie every morning after chapel that would help us understand the ideas from the books "Wild at Heart" and "Captivating." But every day the bulb on the projector would overheat and go off.  We would start it back and it would go off again. We finally gave up on movies!

I thought about it and decided to check the electricity.  So I asked Officer (he's a local electrician who does electrical work for us) to check it out with his meter.  When he checked the voltage, it was 198 volts.  Is that enough?  (I think I heard a yes or two, but most people said NO!).  How many volts do we need?  (several said 240!, which is correct).

So Officer traced the wires back to the boys' property where our electric line begins.  He found, underground, that someone with a jembe (that's a hoe) had dug down and broken one of the wires.  Now there are 3 wires (our kids know almost nothing about things like this) - one of them is "live", another "grounds" the power and the other is a wire that has to be there for the circuit to be complete -- we call it neutral.  It was the neutral that was broken. With a broken neutral you can still get something done.  The motor would run, even the bulb would light, but it would get hot.  That is what happens when there are not enough volts.

Because...the volts are the power, the electric current.  But you can't have electric power without RESISTANCE, and those are AMPS.  Motors are resistant to starting up, kind of like some of us don't want to get up in the mornings - we are resistant!  And bulbs are resistant; left alone, they would stay dark with no light.  Voltage and resistance work together -- but if the voltage is low, the resistance rises -- and that makes heat.  So the bulb turns itself off.

That's a bit like us.  We need to be wired correctly.  We all need 3 wires to work right.  And our wires are all made of LOVE -- love is what makes the world go round, what makes life worth living, what makes us get up in the morning full of joy.  The three wires we need are 1) the love of God, 2) the love of the church and 3) our own love.  If we will open ourselves to God, if we will trust Jesus, if we will accept the love of God, then power flows in us -- we are LIVE!  Without God's love, all good things will die.  But we need more -- we need the love of brothers and sisters, family love in the church.  Without the church in our lives, without the love of fellow believers, we are not GROUNDED.  With the church's love we have a place to be, a place to stand firm.  But even that is not enough for the world to go round - we need our own love.  First we love ourselves, then we love the people close by, then we love the brothers and sisters, then we learn to love the world.  Getting wired up right makes everything work right.

And whatever you think of that, from now on we will sit right here and watch movies!!

Charles