There is a passage of scripture from the book of Habakkuk Hosea (NKJV) which goes something like this:
My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.
Now put aside the context for the sake of this blog posting, and just consider that statement. Ignorance can have a profound impact on someone's life, especially when no effort is made to eliminate that ignorance.
Many of the small business people we run into here in Kenya fulfill this verse on a daily basis. They do not have the mathematical skills to make proper change, and quite frequently give too much change in return. Also most of these guys will buy large packages of products from a wholesale store, but then sell each item for less than necessary to make back the money they spent on the wholesale package. They perish for lack of knowledge.
I am not picking on Kenyans here, I know a great many non-ignorant Kenyans as well. I work with a team of intelligent and eager to learn men and women, and the majority of them are Kenyans. In fact if I ever should start to feel superior as an American all I have to do is watch Borat, and that feeling of superiority will evaporate.
I just hate to see people lose out on life just because they don't know something. I also hate to see people develop world view's based on ignorance. One of the girls in our home is convinced that Andrew is European, and therefore guilty of the crimes of colonization. She is simply lumping all white people together, or most likely one of her teachers is lumping all white people together.
We told Andrew not to worry about it. We sometimes are guilty of lumping Africans all together as well, she will eventually learn of the America's and even white Africans.
I am ignorant on a great many things, but hopefully I will remain eager to learn. We are working hard to instill that quality in the orphans living with us, and pray that they develop a hunger for knowledge.
Johnny Brooks
