Get out of the bus

A few years ago, Shepherd of the Valley's theme for summer youth mission trips was "Get out of the boat." It was a reference to the story of when Peter and the disciples were in a boat during a storm, and Jesus walked toward them on the water, then commanded Peter to get out of the boat and come to Jesus.

Somehow, Peter had the courage to trust his Lord and stepped out of the boat, and walked toward Jesus. On the water.

Then he must have realized what he was doing, and he had a moment of panic.  The moment he stopped trusting, he began to sink in the water.

Even then, Jesus reached out and saved Peter.

This is Pastor Madembo, the new pastor of Makifu Parish in Tanzania.  He's wearing the "Get out of the boat" t-shirt that our youth wore a few years ago..

In our travels to Tanzania, we don't get out of the boat as much as we get out of the BUS.

A coaster bus like this will comfortably seat about 20 passengers.  We often squeeze in more when we're in Tungamalenga, going from village to village.  

We get picked up by a bus like this when we arrive in Dar es Salaam, we take the next day's ten + hour journey to Iringa in the bus, we make friends with the driver, we bump along over rough roads to Tungamalenga and its many preaching points (village congregations).

One traveler a number of years ago astutely observed that it was when we finally got out of the bus that ministry began.

He was right. Inside the bus, we're still observers rather than partners or participants. Inside the bus, we take photos of people whose names we don't know. 

When we get out of the bus, we are greeted as honored guests and as long lost family.

When we get out of the bus, we are embraced, accepted, welcomed into the community.

When we get out of the bus, we begin to sing and dance with our partners.

When we get out of the bus, we attempt to communicate using our elementary Swahili.  We struggle through meetings. We listen during village visits.  We visit the sick and the new babies born at the dispensary. We meet students. We visit schools and hospitals, we see how the educational resources in our Minnesota homes might be more abundant than the resources available at a highly regarded secondary school in Tanzania.  We see that our own medicine cabinets at home may hold more items than a Tanzanian first aid station.

When we get out of the bus, we are drawn into the complicated lives of our partners. We are present at baptisms, marriages and funerals. We set goals and monitor the previous years' projects. 

When we get out of the bus, we see that American solutions do not necessarily fix African problems.

Getting out of the bus and into our partners' lives is good.

But the analogy of getting out of the boat & bus only goes so far.

When we get back on the bus with our partners, amazing things continue to happen.  We sing. Even when we're tired, we sing until our throats are sore.  We share seats, and sometimes our American travelers give up the 'good' seats so our Tanzanian partners can sit in them.  We transport items on the bus -- bikes, medicines purchased in Iringa.  Then when we leave our partner parishes, we carry items from them to deliver to the orphanage in Iringa -- rice, ground nuts, sugar cane, a goat.

Getting out of the bus, getting back on it with our partners -- it's all about trusting Jesus to bring us together in ways we have never imagined.  What a blessing that continues to be!