On religion

Zambia is a very strongly Christian nation. Nearly everyone is a practicing Christian, meaning they attend worship regularly and frequently speak of the power of Jesus in their lives. Moreover, the Zambians I’ve met are very evangelical. They have no hesitation in asking volunteers what church they attend back home. In fact, Christopher, whose one of our bus drivers, is going to take us to his Anglican church on Sunday morning.

I’m very comfortable being surrounded by religion here. Other volunteers, though, are not. In fact, the vast majority of the volunteers I’ve met are not religious at all; some are actually actively anti-religion. As guests in this country, most that are not religious do take everything in stride and just beg off questions about their own religion. Unfortunately, some do push their own anti-religion agenda when talking w/ Zambians. To me, that’s unacceptable behavior from our volunteers.

What’s most surprising to me is that so many without any religious conviction still feel called to serve in a place like Livingstone. Personally, I was driven to come here by my faith. Quite stereotypically, I expected everyone to have the same motivation. As such, I’m stunned that those without that drive still come here. What, then, motivates these people? I’m intrigued to keep trying to find out those answers. For now, though, I’m just trying to reshape my thoughts about nonreligious people. Because of my experience w/ the volunteers at African Impact, I see that those with no faith life still have strong values and a desire to do good in the world. What a learning experience!