Rich Man-Poor Man

OR…. WHAT DOES THIS HAVE TO DO WITH THE PRICE OF BEER?

I have been thinking a lot about WEALTH lately. When you go on a mission trip to a lesser developed country you run into a lot of weird situations that make you think. The picture I have attached to this post has 3 men holding up a one-dollar bill. The backstory here is that a few months prior to our going to Tanzania I was telling Charles (on left) that "In God We Trust" was printed right on our money. This was almost unbelievable to him. When I arrived I gave these dear men a dollar and they regarded it as though it was a bar of gold. Charles said, "I HAVE HEARD OF A DOLLAR BUT I HAVE NEVER HELD ONE IN MY HANDS!”

I almost laughed outloud. We are used to thinking of a dollar as weak and a fast-shrinking thing. (There is much truth in these claims!) We are bombarded by ads pushing us to trade in our dollars for something that has more stability and punch. But in Tanzania and many other countries the dollar is spoken of in hushed reverence. It all depends where you are standing.

The church in Mwanzugi as we first found it.

In Tanzania they use the Tanzanian shilling. In Feb 2025 one dollar got you 2,500 Tsh. A day worker makes about 6,000 Tsh/day. (To convert Tsh to $ you move the decimal point to the left 4 places and miltiply the result X 4. 6,000 Tsh = $2.40). Just to take round numbers, if we say that the average American worker makes $200/day this means that an American can produce 80x more wealth (See Deuteronomy 8:18) in a day than can a worker in Tanzania. If you will study my picture of the 3 gents you will see a poster in the background advertizing a certain Tanzanian beer. One beer costs 1500 Tsh. This means that a Tanzanian worker could buy 4 bottles with a day’s labor. But this same bottle costs 60 cents in our money. This means that an American can buy 333 of those bottles with the wealth he earns in a day. This also means that in Tanzania the average American is viewed as fabulously wealthy. Things we take for granted here are markers: a gold wedding band, a watch, leather shoes, showing up to teach wearing a different outfit each day, a laptop computer, pulling a multi-tool out of your pocket! (I name these things because I had all of these things on my person and most of them were commented on.

This also means that a One-hundred dollar bill accomplishes an amazing amount of work over there. If you take the time to check out the blog titled “A church in Mwanzugi” you will see a picture of a church that a little over $8000 built. (It needs a floor yet, but compared to what they had it is a palace!)

My purpose is not to extol the American dollar. It is to point out that the value of money is remarkably plastic. In Tanzania the dollar is like gold. In America the dollar is weak. But get this! In heaven the dollar is nothing! There is a truly amazing story in Luke 12 of a farmer who had a banner year and became rich. Jesus launches the story by issuing this warning: "... a man's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions." (vs 15). He spins his tale of an enriched farmer but ends it with the man's untimely death and an eternity apart from God. What a turn-around! Jesus ends this tale (made to order for our American culture to be sure!) with a soul-chilling epilogue, "This is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for himself BUT IS NOT RICH TOWARD GOD."

Jesus speaks here of the possibility of being 'rich toward God' and He makes it clear that the farmer, even though he had piles of money, was not rich this way. It turns out that he was a fool to pursue land and barns instead of God. I am 72 now and I have been doing a lot of thinking about the shortness of our time on earth. When you combine this with an eternity in heaven , it changes all the equations and price tags here. I said that when you are in Tanzania you have to move the decimal point to the left four places and multiply by four. I tell you that when you are standing on the threshold of heaven we can take our dollars and move the decimal point a million places to the left!

I recentlhy heard Glen Beck say that one of these days we will wake up and find that our dollars are totally worthless. In his view the defense against this dire possibility is to buy gold and silver. I have a newsflash for Glen. One of these days everyone will open their eyes and find that gold and silver are just as worthless as a Tanzanian shilling. Indeed, the only thing of any value will be what we have stored up on the Spiritual side of the ledger. It is the Spiritual side of life that matters the most (see John 6:63). This means that one of the great challenges of being human is to manage the physical side of life well (work, marriage, money, home, kids, health, time...) and yet continue to prioritize the Spiritual/eternal side of life. Jesus says, "So if you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with TRUE RICHES." (Luke 16:11) (keep reading)

Near the end of 2025 Andy, the president of Tanzania Rising (TR), announced that he felt led to begin a campaign to raise $3,300 for Bibles for those who don’t have them (plus those who will come to Christ this year— we have big plans!). The Tanzania Bible Society has good Bibles for 30,000 Tsh. This is a week’s pay. for many Tanzanians. This is like us paying $1000 for a Bible! Too many children are half-starving already over there. Getting a Bible for families is just a bridge too far. It took my dear friend three weeks to scrape together the money (with the help of friends). I have seen the tears of the people who are holding a Bible in their hands who never thought they would be able to own one! I truly do not know the people out of whose pockets this money came but if there ever was a way to convert ‘worthless’ dollars to forever gold, this is it. Of course, we think the money given to build a church, or produce a discipleship manual, or train a pastor are other very good ways! :)

If you will scroll back up to the picture of the three men with the dollars in their hands you will see some VERY rich fellows. They are rich, not because of what they hold in their hands, they are rich because they are filled with the Spirit of the Almighty God of the universe and they have an unshakeable trust in the Son of God’s work performed for them on the cross. They are giving their all to God. And it is fascinating to realize that these poor men are piling up eternal riches 100X faster than any rich man in the news today. Astounding!!

Half-way through our Bible conference we invited the people to hold up their Bibles. Most of them had been purchased by generous people over here.