GlocalNet

I don’t want to go to Africa--everyone is going there! There’s no real need for me to focus there. Everyone will follow Rick Warren or Bono there--depending on your flavor. I like Africa. I love Kenya. My wife is going to Kenya in December to speak to pastor’s wives. I’ve been to the Serengeti.

I don’t have time to go to Africa--too much going on in other places. Glocalnet guys are in several nations and I’m mentoring and connecting many. It isn’t a priority.

A man wants me to meet a US Senator that has a heart for Africa. I’m learning to say no these days--too much going on. I say “no.” Deep breath--it’s okay to say no. That wasn’t so hard!

A very wealthy man I know in our area wants to meet with me--the same day I say no to the Senator. Out of the blue, he asks me to help with an orphanage he’d like to see in Nigeria. I explain I don’t do Africa. If, in the future, some pastors want to go, I’ll keep it in mind.

A man who works in Nigeria who is a doctor, veterinarian and a classic “nation builder,” without knowing the lingo or concepts, wants to meet me. He happens to be in the States and is the one who would oversee the orphanage. If he’s goofy, a nut, not solid, I won’t do it. I halfway expect him to be. He isn’t! He’s sharp and the real deal! He’s developing a cattle ranch for the people there. He’ll be hard to say no to.

A man who works with orphans in another nation our church works with regularly calls me--we’re partnering on a project. I ask him if he knows about Nigeria. He says, “Sure--35 years ago that was the first place he visited and he’d love to do something there with orphans.” Wow! He says there’s a Senator that lives two houses down from him that has a heart for Africa--you guessed it--the guy I didn’t meet.

OK God. I’m no idiot--I’ll go. The man has paid for my way to go. Another man I helped bring to God is the one who wanted me to meet with the man who wants the orphanage in Africa. I called my friend, “I love you, Andy, but there’s …

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High up in the mountains of North Vietnam people live as they have for a thousand years, or more. Many kinds of Hmong, Dao, Kai, King, and other tribes all wear their ethnic dress and sell their crafts and wares on the streets of Sapa. Ten years ago, I remember only two hotels--the Victoria and the Auberge-— everything else was not there. Now, maybe 2 dozen hotels dot the road in Sapa with 5 more being built. I can check my email in the internet café and rent a Russian jeep to go down in the valleys--or my favorite--ride a motorcycle!  I’m not so skinny of a guy, but I jump on the back and the driver takes me wherever I want. My wife loves it, as well. She loves to ride those motors and trek in the mountains where the villagers live. The Lord has laid on my heart that I need one to minister to motorcycle people in the DFW area, but my wife is quenching the Spirit. Pray, friends, pray!

We go to one particular village--one I went to years ago. I love the place. We trek up the side of one of the mountains and see an old man outside. He’s sitting on a stool with straps freshly cut from a bamboo pole. He evens them out and then begins to weave them back and forth for a basket. He smiles and keeps working. He wears the ethnic black outfit and small black skullcap. His face is wrinkled and worn. His eyes squint even more as he grins. I ask someone how old he is. They say, “80.” Wow! What has this guy seen? That means he was born in 1915. Two world wars, Ho Chi Minh, the French defeated, the American War (as they refer to it). We are not nearly as much in their mind as they are in our American psyche. They fought the Chinese for 1000 years and booted them out. They fought the French for 200 years and booted them out. We were there around 15 years-—not much. But the fact that they were not over-run by the American Military Machine, the greatest the world has ever known, is an issue of pride for them.

I approach this man with awe and wonder wanting to get nuggets of wisdom from him. So I ask him, “What is …

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I am sitting on a stool overlooking Hanoi in the Melia Hotel. It’s a 20- story high-rise with all the conveniences of Manhattan. I’m working on my second book when I hear someone singing traditional Vietnamese music outside my window! That can’t be. I walk over and open the curtains. It’s a window washer!!! He grins. Five ropes are tied to his contraption. He sits on a little wooden bench with ropes tied to it. He has a sponge and a squeegee. He takes tremendous care in his work. He swings back and forth around the window, first he washes, he dries, he misses a spot, but he goes back and gets it. His work is perfect—flawless--but who the heck is going to inspect it from way up here!!!
He’s barefoot and perfectly content. He’s at home. I think about that Proverbs about dwelling in a house with a brawling woman--he really has escaped! He doesn’t seem fearful, but once you get used to it--what a view! How many Vietnamese get to see the city from way up there like him.
There’s another guy below him--he keeps wringing out his sponge and the water hits the other guy. I think he must be cussing in Vietnamese while my window washer is laughing! I would love to be out there with those guys--my luck I’d start laughing, not pay attention, and kiss the pavement!
Here comes another guy slowly descending and washing the windows to the right of him--he’s whistling--gives me a toothless grin and keeps going. I love the Vietnamese--there’s just something about them. Even the poor have this sense of nobility about them. They walk with their backs straight and their shoulder’s high. They have a belt attached to them in case they fall, but man--how would you ever get back on that stool? It looks confusing--the rope would catch you and hold you, but how would you get down?
Now I can see all four of them. They’re young--must be 20’s to 30’s. One has sandals that say on the thong part, “I love. ” I wonder if he knows what they say? He’s talking up a storm to the young guy. The younger guy beside him seems fearful--I would! Their toes keep balancing them on their chairs as well as serving as guides for them to sway back and …

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