Driving As a "Spiritual" Exercise

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08-03
Driving in Bangui is a whole new experience. People line the roads, walking, riding "motos" (motor scooters), pushing push carts, getting in and out of old Toyota minivans that are marked "bus" and are completely stacked to the roof. Take all of that and then pave the road between all of the people on the sides of the road, incorporate no stop signs, speed limits, or lane lines, add in about a gazillion deep pot holes that everyone is trying to avoid and you are in for some kind of ride. Sometimes the traffic on the road acts like it is a two lane road, at other times it's a three lane and every now and then it becomes a four lane road determined by lots of horn honking and some Sango words I decided to not ask Tom to translate.

All of that serves as a backdrop for my morning today in Bangui. This morning I was invited by the ICDI staff to come to a retreat they were having to address some recent developments as of late. Allow me to explain. If you can picture all that I described for you above and then add in the final element for driving gone wild, namely, darkness, and you'll have a bit of an idea of the danger being on the streets of Bangui entails. And that is exactly what fostered the retreat that I was invited to.


In the last couple of months ICDI staff have been involved in three accidents, two of which were fatal. One time, driving along, at night, pitch black because there is no electricity, a man was drunk and had fallen asleep in the middle of road and the ICDI driver simply did not see him and ran over him killing him instantly. A second incident occurred not long after the first with very similar circumstances, again leaving a fatality in it's wake. The third incident was just in the last couple of weeks where a boy was hit, thankfully only a bit scraped up, but none-the-less, struck by an automobile belonging to ICDI.

It is these recent tragedies that have moved the ICDI leaders to come together to ask for spiritual cleansing, and protection for Bangui people and for the missions staff as well. You see in Africa, for example, if you were to hit someone with your car, the one thing you don't do is stop and see if they are okay. In my western thinking that just seemed wrong but then it was explained to me. If you by accident were to strike someone with an automobile and kill them, any family member of the person who was killed that was in the area would be perfectly in the right to come to the vehicle and then admnister the same punishment on you, namely, they could in turn kill you. I'm pretty sure I'm not in Wooster any longer. Instead what the driver would do is drive to a safe distance, get out of their vehicle, listen for wailing that would accompany a death or if none was heard, determine that most likely the accident victim was only injured and then report to the authorities in the next town what had happened. There would then be court proceedings and justice would be served through the judicial system.


Enter in the retreat that I attended today. I sat around the table with ICDI drivers, administrators, financial officers, micro-enterprise leaders, the ICDI representative for the country of the CAR, nurses and staff from the orphanage. As we gathered there was sharing, prayer, singing, and broken hearts before the Lord for the families of those injured and a pouring of emotion in regardless to how these events might possibly inhibit the work of ICDI and the gospel message in the region. It was a powerful time in the presence of the Lord and the deep concern was clearly felt throughout the room. At the end of about two and a half hours we came to a break in which Tom and I had to excuse ourselves as the rest of the team was waiting back at the villa for direction as to the day's events.


How to pray today? Pray along with us as we have prayed today. For the families of those injured, for the hearts and emotions of those who were doing the driving, good and honest God fearing men, and for the ministry presence here in Bangui and the continuing work of ICDI in the future. Thanks for your faithfulness to pray.


Team update: I realize that this blog is the only communication back to the States while we are here so let me give you just a bit of a catch up on the team overall. Today the team went to the local market for groceries where they learned quickly about the African way of life and saw first hand the extreme poverty that besets so very many people. The smells and sights were a bit overwhelming to many within our group.

As team leader that would be my second prayer request that somehow we would not lose heart in what seems to be such totally overwhelming needs all around us. That we would not quickly slip into a closing of our hearts toward the plight of the poor simply because our emotions cannot handle anymore.

We also learned in our crash course of speaking Sango that some words mean two different things depending on your voice inflection. Did you know that the word "ear" and the word "breast" are the same word in Sango? Yeah, neither did we. But we do now!

This afternoon we had the rare privilege of canoeing on the Ubanga river. Not canoeing like you would do at some canoe livery in Loudonville, but canoeing in a dug out canoe crafted from a hollowed out log. It was totally cool, at least until Tom tried to reassure us that the crocodile sightings were at an all time low in this region and that really it's the Hippopotamuses that cause more fatalities than any crocodiles. Did I mention that Hippos swim just down the river a ways from where we were canoeing?

The protection and care that each of us have felt and experienced on this team from the Lord simply cannot be put into words. It is such a blessing for me to know that so many friends back home have joined with and continue to go before the throne of Grace on behalf of our team and the people of the CAR.

Thank-you.
RAD
Blogger's note: This entry was received as an e-mail on Saturday, August 4, with the following note from RAD: "Bro, Sorry I'm getting this off to you late, we had a power black out and hence since the SAT phone is not yet working I couldn't email the blog to you.
Thanks for posting stuff up for us, RAD." Please, remember that from now on, as the team has traveled to the village of PAMA, communication may be a little slower as they will have to rely on a sat phone. They will not be able to e-mail pictures either. Keep them in your prayers!