Being Content from a Missionary Trip to Malawi, Africa

From April 26, 2024, to May 11, 2024, I went to Malawi, Africa, to teach at a Bible college and preach at a pastor's conference. On the mission trip, God burdened me with a sermon about being content, which I preached when I arrived home. Table of contentsThinking About Those with Less Should Help Us Being ContentComplaining in the Book of NumbersWealth in the United StatesWealth Doesn’t Produce ContentmentBeing Content Isn't Easier in a Large, Fancy HouseDiscouraged for the People in MalawiSolomon: A Rich Man with CredibilityWe Often Think We Need MorePossessions Can Cause ProblemsBeing Content Through ChristBeing Content Because the Lord Said, "I Will Never Leave You Nor Forsake You"Footnotes https://youtu.be/IQ0xjm91z5k God burdened me with a sermon about being content during a mission trip to Malawi to speak at a Bible college and pastor's conference. This video will give you an idea of the poverty in Africa: https://youtu.be/cG5PgCh-yiI The poverty driving in Malawi, Africa Mike is our Malawian driver who works at the nursery. Andy asked him if the mouse on a stick was in season. That’s one of the common things people eat during certain times of the year. A little background: There were two teams when we took the trip to Africa. I was on the teaching team with Andy Langdon, Andy’s Pastor, Mark Hoeffner, and Eddie Brzezinski, who had accompanied them on many trips before. Andrew shared in Sunday school about the other team traveling during the day to evangelize and visit people’s houses. For my team, we spent the first week, Monday through Friday, teaching at the Sola Scriptura Bible College, about an hour away. I spoke two hours away the second week at a pastor's conference. Here is a video of the Bible college: https://youtu.be/aHuBqx9YMPg Sola Scriptura Bible College in Malawi, Africa Thinking About Those with Less Should Help Us Being Content The morning Johnny and I left for Africa, the kids cooked on the stove. One left a can of Pam cooking spray on a hot burner. The can exploded. The bottom shot out and destroyed the burner, and the can shot up into the microwave and destroyed it, too. Shards of glass and metal flew out as far as the dining area, so we did two things. First, we prayed and thanked God that nobody was injured. Second, we had a physics lesson about gases expanding when they heat up. I began a claim and left for the airport. When I got to Malawi, I started getting messages from my insurance company that they couldn’t reach me. I would email them back in the evening, but they said they needed to talk to me on the phone. I couldn’t get the claim moving, so Katie couldn’t get a new microwave or stove. I apologized to Katie because I knew this was inconvenient. I sent lots of photos to Katie, and here’s one of them: These wonderful women volunteered to cook our lunch at the Bible college each day. When I apologized to Katie that she had to cook without a microwave and stove, she wrote back, “I won’t be complaining after seeing those women cooking over an open fire.” I hope that’s what these sermons do. I will be transparent with you about something that has happened to me. When I first came back from Malawi, guess how I felt? I was super content. I was super grateful for our house, stores, water, Wi-Fi, electricity, and roads that don’t make me feel like I’m throwing out my back while driving on them. But then, over time, I’m no longer grateful. It is human nature to gradually forget our blessings and take things for granted gradually. Complaining in the Book of Numbers Think about the location of the Book of Numbers. Numbers was originally called “The Book of Murmurings,” you know why if you’ve ever read it. It is about the Israelites complaining in the wilderness. The location of this book is so shocking because it is one month after Israel was delivered from Egypt, when you think they would be super thankful for all God had done for them. Instead, they constantly complained. Wealth in the United States We have probably all heard before about how wealthy the United States is compared to the rest of the world. Let me provide some statistics that make this clear. Disposable income is the amount of money households have for spending and saving after income taxes have been accounted for. Visualizing Countries with the Highest Household Wealth reveals: Russia’s disposable income is less than $17,000. France's disposable income is $60,000. The United Kingdom’s disposable income is $83,000. Canada’s disposable income is $86,000. The nation in second place is Switzerland, with $128,000. The United States is in first place with a disposable income of $176,00, which is almost 40% more than the nation in second place. There are 7.5 billion people in the world. China is the world’s most populous nation, with 1.4 billion people, or 18.6%, and 10.5% of the world’s wealth. The United States has 327 million people, or a little more than 4% of the world’s population, but we have 41.6% of the world’s wealth. In the US, the poverty threshold for a family of five is $30,500, meaning if a family of five makes less than this, they’re considered living in poverty. The official poverty rate in the United States is 12.3%, 39.7 million people. The average global income for a family of five is about $10,500, which means people in poverty in the US still make about three times more than the average for the rest of the world. Even our “poor” people are still three times wealthier than the average person in the rest of the world. Things are more expensive in the United States, but even after adjusting for cost-of-living differences, a typical American still earns an income ten times higher than the income received by the average person in the rest of the world. An annual income of $32,400 in the United States doesn’t seem very high, but a salary puts people among the top 1% of earners worldwide. Wealth Doesn’t Produce Contentment Because Americans are so rich, we would expect to be the happiest and most content people, not just in the world but in all of history. No people who have ever lived should have an easier time being content than Americans because of our wealth. But this is far from the case. Since Americans are so rich, you’d expect us to be the happiest—or most content—nation in the world and throughout history. No people who have ever lived should have an easier time being content than Americans because of our wealth. Although, this is far from the case. A 2019 study published in the Journal of Abnormal Psychology concluded that since the late 2000s, the mental health of teens and young adults has declined dramatically. Between 2009 and 2017, rates of depression, attempted suicides, and “serious psychological distress” among ages twelve to twenty-one have increased by 51%. More than one in eight Americans ages twelve to twenty-five experienced a major episode of depression. The CDC reports that between 2007 and 2016, rates of suicide jumped 56%. Suicide is now the second leading cause of death among people ages ten to thirty-four. We’re rich…and depressed! Wealth doesn’t make people content! Social media is a big part of the problem. Nobody puts up terrible pictures. We see everyone else’s perfect lives, marriages, families, and children. We are flooded with everyone’s expensive stuff, including homes, cars, and vacations. Suddenly, our stuff doesn’t look as good. We were content with our home, car, job, spouse, friends, and vacation, but then we saw our neighbor’s better one, and ours no longer looked good. We are filled with covetousness, and our contentment is gone. The richest country in the world can also afford the most advertisements. Television, radio, Internet, billboards when driving down the road, and fliers in our mailboxes surround us with ads. This also works against our contentment! My undergraduate degree is in business. Marketing 101: “Cause people to feel miserable without whatever you sell. Make them discontent. They will want to buy whatever you are advertising so they can be happy.” Being Content Isn't Easier in a Large, Fancy House After my dad passed away, Mom was lonely, so I asked Katie if she wanted to invite my mom to live with us. We needed a rental to live in while we shopped for a new house that would fit the twelve of us and waited for my mom’s house and our house to sell. We found a house we could never afford because it was so big and fancy, but it worked well to rent while looking for our new (and smaller) house to buy. At first, living in such a fancy house seemed like a dream come true: the well-equipped kitchen, the spacious living room, the comfortable bedrooms, the walk-in closets, the luxurious bathrooms, and the list could go on. But as time passed, the rental began to feel no different than any other house. When we found the house we currently live in, we were eager to buy it even though it was 25% smaller and, say, ordinary. Discouraged for the People in Malawi It is probably not surprising to any of you that the thrill of our large house wore off because we all know that newer, bigger, and fancier wear off. Soon, it is no better than older, smaller, and plainer. But I want to share something that happened in Malawi that did surprise me. When I first arrived, I was discouraged by the poverty and sad for the people and how they lived. But two things changed my view. First, Amy Zumstein and I talked about the trip and what stood out. Amy shared, “Everyone seems so happy and content.” I spent the rest of the trip recognizing that she was right. I had projected how I would feel living in their conditions, which led me to assume they were as discontent as I would be. I could show you many videos of interactions with Malawians, and you’d see their joy and never hear them complain. When I was in Africa,