Story 1:

I’m riding down the road in a car at about 15 mph. Kids from every direction catch a glimpse of the mzungu. They run after the car saying Halo, Halo, Halo. Give to me a sweet!!!! A sweet!

Story 2:

I’m walking down the street from the tarmac road to my home about ¾ mile away. After 1^st hundred yards I look back to see I have a following of about 20 kids. They have dropped all they were doing just to see where the mzungu is going. The bravest among them skips up beside me and I say with a smile, Sasa (what’s Up?) The little boy replies poa (awesome) and then giggles. He then looks at me with huge black eyes and says, give to me a sweet!

Story 3:

I’m shopping at the local supermarket and 3 little girls come up to me in the potato chip isle. They stay at a distance at first looking and giggling among themselves. I look up to acknowledge them and I said ,Sasa. They replied, fit (fine, or fit as in healthy) One of the girls looked me straight in the eye and said, buy for me a sweet.

These stories are not isolated events. They occur on a daily basis.

Give to Me a Sweet! Halo, Give to Me a Sweet! Mzungu a sweet??? Do you have a sweet for me? Over and over again these sounds resonate in my ears and break my heart. You’ve heard of starving children in Africa right? Well I’ve seen them with my own eyes and I know with my whole heart that SWEETS are not the answer.

Now if you’ve even been to Africa with candy in hand hoping to bless the socks off of all the cute little kids in the street, this next part may be offensive to you, but I say what I say with no apologies attached. I know that volunteers come with the best of intentions and may even think, what a great way to build trust and earn an ear with the kids. That’s what I use to think too. Unfortunately even the best of intentions do not always translate cross-culturally. In fact they rarely do.

The message we intend to get across with pockets full of candy is this: I love you and God loves you. I want to help you know Jesus and have hope in Him. See this candy? Isn’t it sweet and wonderful? So is Jesus and in Him is a life sweeter than any other.

The message that translates is this:

Wow a white person. They smile all the time and if I get close to them they have great things. They have lots of money… maybe if I say hello they will give me some. Oh, yeah and they always have those sweets in their pockets. All I have to do is ask and they will give me one. I don’t see the white people very often but if I see one it’s a sure thing that they have pesa and sweeties and the ones that smile will for sure give me one or the other or maybe even both. They are so rich and wonderful. I should follow them everywhere they go. Good things are surely to follow.

So here’s the problem with good intentions… they send the wrong message. If our goal is to show the love of Christ… it must translate as the love of Christ. Every time a child comes up to me, a perfect stranger and asks for a sweet, it irritates me. My anger is not directed to the innocent children, but to us who have programmed these children to make such requests. What’s done is done, but my goal is to reprogram the kids that I meet (esp. on my street) to think of the white lady, not as a walking smiling piñata, but as a lady that if you stick around long enough is sharing a gift much sweeter than a piece of candy. Those little sweeties fade away in an instant, but the gift of Christ is far sweeter and lasts forever. Lord I know I can’t change the world, but I can make a difference on my street where you’ve lead me to be a light for you…. May I proclaim you clearly as I should! May these precious little ones find sweetness in you alone!

“How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth. I gain understanding from your precepts therefore I hate every wrong path. ~ Psalm 119:103