African Cats

We saw the preview for the new Disney Nature movie, "African Cats", today, and it really stirs strong feelings.  They say it was filmed in the Masaai Mara, which is where we were when we went on our safari in Kenya.  I can not wait to see this film when it comes out in April.  The beauty and wildness of the Mara is incomparable, and to see it again on the big screen is exciting.  I am not sure if this feeling is just due to a fond memory, or if it is a call to return to Kenya.  It is almost a homesickness for a place that has not been my home, yet.

Amy and I are taking a class right now, "Perspectives on the World Christian Movement".  I am going to quote from one of this week's readings. The author is Samuel Zwemer and this was written in 1911 in an article called "The Glory of the Impossible".

"Is there a more heroic test for the powers of manhood than pioneer work in the mission field?  Here is opportunity for those who at home may never find elbow-room for their latent capacities, who may never find adequate scope elsewhere for the powers of their minds and their souls.  There are hundreds of Christian college men who expect to spend life in practicing law or in some trade for a livelihood, yet who have strength and talent enough to enter these unoccupied fields.  there are young doctors who might gather around them in some new mission station thousands of those who 'suffer the horrors of heathenism and Islam,' and lift their burden of pain, but who now confine their efforts to some 'pent-up Utica' where the healing art is subject to the law of competition and is measured too often merely in terms of a cash-book and ledger.  They are making a living; they might be making a life."

Wow.  That is as applicable today as it was 100 years ago when it was originally written.  One of the things Amy and I discussed after our trip to Kenya was that, although it was certainly stressful, I felt like I was practicing real medicine and was fulfilling something of what I had spent the last 14 years training to do.  Certainly what I currently do is too often measured "in terms of a cash-book and ledger".  Perhaps I need to consider more often lifting "the burden of pain" of those who may not have ready access to healthcare.