A simple handshake

Today we went to another village to start teaching the oral discipleship curriculum.  Tsumkwe is isolated and we were 50 km from Tsumkwe. As we arrived an older gentleman extended his hand and we exchanged the African handshake and greeted each other in Ju’hoansi. I was transported back to the “old days”.   How I miss the special handshake here, and how you greet. Yes I caught myself wondering is it ok to shake his hand. That thought quickly faded. Today no masks, no social distancing, just good ol singing, teaching, and sweet tea over a fire. So many thoughts about how Covid has “sanitized” us from each other. It had been too long since I had shared a simple handshake.

Yet I’m afraid what I experienced today is just a dream for many of you. Will we ever get our humanity back again or has it been slowly “sanitized” away. The world is broken, that biblical truth I do know. But I know a place that is Covid free, cancer free, depression free, pain free. It’s that place and it’s “owner” that keeps me preaching and teaching the “good news” so that we all can have hope in a “perfect” place and hope in a “broken” world we live in. Here’s to a simple handshake whether it happens on Earth again someday or in Heaven.