A poem from Debbie Blane in Sudan
African Drum Beat: September 1, 2010
For Philip
Drumming
The African continent
Is bound together by music,
Drum music,
Primal music,
Village building
Beat
Beat
Clapping
Clapping
Becoming one
Becoming the African heart
Of millions
Beating as one
With the beat, beat, beat of the African drum.
I find that out of the African village
Five hours walk from medicine
Five hours walk from outside contact
African village
Sorghum and milk
Births without midwives
Births without medicine
Births with the drum
In the heart.
I find that out of that African village
Walked a young man,
Like many young men and women
Walking out of many African villages.
This one is MY student.
This one is MY honor and privilege
To serve.
I find that out of that particular African village
Walked a young man
With a heart after God.
This young man
Loves Jesus
He loves his wife and children
He weeps at the dangers
And he accepts his own powerlessness
For the time being.
This young man
Knows
That life is in God’s hands.
This young man
Walked out of an African village
In the South of Sudan
Because God’s call to him
Was so mighty and so powerful that he knew
He was to learn
About life, yes,
And more about Jesus the Christ
From books, and teachers
And from growing deep and gnarled roots
Into the vine and into the body.
This young man
Walked out of this particular African village
And walked into my heart
As I saw his intellect being used
For his God
His heart being broken
For the wife whom he loves
The kind of person God is forming in him.
This young man.
His heart is the heart of God
In an African drum beat.
The 2010 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 47
