The long commute of the extremely poor

I wrote this while waiting for our ticket check in at Air France today. I was hoping to post some pictures but simply ran out of time. I will do so after I get back home. This blog will remain open with new posts for the next few weeks. Please, keep checking!

We made the long journey from Berberati to Bangui in thirteen and a half hours. It took longer than we had anticipated because both cars were having trouble. The red Nissan I was riding on had a radiator leak and we had to stop every thirty kilometers or so to add some more water to it. But thanks to God we all arrived safely and were greeted by a hearty and delicious meal prepared by one of our GBC missionaries here.

We figured we traveled about 2500 kilometers in ten days. I haven’t done the math, but I think it is just under 1800 miles. This may look like nothing to someone in the US who is used to nice roads and rest areas all along the way. But considering the conditions of travel here, this was no small feat. We are thankful to God for all we saw, sensed, smelled, heard, and touched. Our lives will never be the same because of this trip.

Driving into Bangui at night gave us another picture of the daily struggles of people living in extreme poverty. Because of the scarcity of firewood near the city, thirty miles before we arrived in the city we began to see people pushing their carts with firewood (in some cases, entire tree trunks and small logs). Sometimes the volume in the carts rise to the skies as strangely distorted sculptures, a tribute to the injustice that reigns in this world. That is the daily commute of the poor. While we in the US commute to and from work, those in extreme poverty commute from work to work.

Before sunrise they leave for their gardens and as the sun goes down they make the long trek home, often exhausted, often without food in their stomach. Mothers return with small children, all walking single file alongside the road. They have no respite, no one to give them vacations, no hope for a life outside of the one they have known for generations.

The extremely poor know no amusement park; they have no one to entertain them and don’t have time to get bored. Some of the privileged few who have enough in this country see the poor only as masses occupying space. They are a nuisance to be ridden of, no more than noise problem and visual pollution. The poor are like trash that needs to eat and drink and settle somewhere. The poor are a major distraction for those who want to be left alone with their goods. They have no names, claim no possessions, know no ages.

God hates this kind of injustice and He has punished cities, towns and nations in the past because of the way they treated their poor and dispossessed. Oftentimes we think that God destroyed Sodom and Gomorra because of the sexual sins prevalent in those cities. While that is the emphasis in the story, in a way, that was only really “the sin of the week,” as there were many other terrible things happening in those towns, including the way they treated their poor. God gave them time to repent and then suffered their evil no more. The same was true with the nation of Israel. Check out Deuteronomy 15.

We, who live so far removed from the extremely poor in Africa, should not think that we are excused from taking action. As followers of Jesus Christ, we have no excuse. We have become aware of the predicament many of God’s children find themselves in. We have the Biblical admonition to help the poor. God mentions the poor 2003 times in Scriptures. It is one of the major themes in God’s Word. I am convinced that we are running out of time to start caring and sharing from the abundant supply that we have with those who are less fortunate than ourselves.

We are coming home with specific ways we can all help alleviate suffering in this part of the world and give the hope of Christ to a country that has been forgotten by the powers that be in this world of injustices. I hope you will be moved to action. God would be pleased with that.

Pastor Ivanildo Trindade