Reflections from Ethiopia by Pastor Jared. Day 3. Today the four of us drove. And drove. And drove. If you never ridden in a car in Africa, it can be challenging. Especially for Americans who dont know the rules. Frankly it can appear as though there are not any. The two lane road that we spent a few hours on today is shared by pedestrians (roughly averaging 100 every mile), cars, small vehicles, huge trucks, donkey drawn carriages, goat herds, at least one camel, cattle, and shepherds. And by the way, the two lanes can easily become three or four depending on the traffic patterns. Here is what I thought about when driving. In America of course that would never do. For instance, you wouldnt even think of passing another car on a two lane if you could see any oncoming traffic. Here they pull around all the time. The best way I could think to understand is that it seems there is a mutual concern that everyone work together to get where they are going. I mean that sincerely. Now Im certainly not saying that selfishness doesnt exist in Ethiopia, it does. But when driving, the etiquette seems to be community centered. In America I think the rules of the road are simply me first. I know I am guilty of driving that way. I wonder in what areas of life you and me could realistically work to be more community focused. It wouldnt be a bad thing if sometimes in life we slowed down and worked for everyones best interest instead of just our own. In other news, finally our whole team has arrived. We are all together and tomorrow morning (which is the middle of the night for you) we will all be worshipping together with our jemo family. Im sure you will see lots of pictures and hear lots of stories. And please know I look forward to being back and worshipping with YOU next Sunday. Be Loved. Go Deeper. Live It Out. Pastor Jared
Posted on: Sun, 11 May 2014 02:30:00 +0000