We were tired and worn out after days of travel that
included a ten hour bus ride, a two hour flight, six hour layover, and seven
hour flight to Dar Es Saleem, but were ready for our 18 hour bus ride to our
ministry site in Sumbawamba.
The American Plan:
Leave at 5:00am and drive 12 hours to Mbeya and drop off two
teams. Continue an additional six hours to Sumbawamba.
The African Reality:
Bus arrives at 7:00am, only to find out it was too small.
Bigger bus arrives at 11:30am. We arrive in Mbeya at 8am after 20 hours. We
then wait for three hours for our new bus to Sumbawamba and embark upon a 9.5
hour bus “adventure”.
Now, let me tell you a little something about the bus from
Mbeya to Sumbawamba. In Africa, they make roads out of dirt and rocks. Dirt and
rocks do not make for a good road, and bad roads do not make for a smooth ride.
Needless to say, the ride was best described as jarring and miserable.
It was somewhere in the middle of the 9.5 hour bus ride to
Sumbawamba that I got really angry. It was right about the time that two 1.5
liter bottles of water fell from the overhead storage space and landed on my
head. It was about that time that I became angry with God.
You see, I had grown up thinking that to be a Christian
meant you had to move to Africa, live in the dirt, and be miserable. God wanted
his followers to suffer. And to get them to suffer, he sent them to Africa.
That mindset is another story entirely. But just know that
this bus ride seemed to be God’s way of torturing me. I mean, what else could
it be?
But then, something changed. I put on some country music and
before I knew it, my ears are flooded with Carrie Underwood telling me that I
can change the world. And in that moment, something snapped. I heard God whisper
in my ear, “Stacy, you wanted to figure out how to help people; to figure out
what problem you want to solve. But how can you ever know the roads in Tanzania
need fixing if I didn’t put you on a miserable bus ride to prove it?”
And then my mind took off. Of course Africa needs better
roads. There’s no telling what benefits would arise from better roads, not to
mention smoother rides for missionaries.
But I didn’t stop there. I spent the next few hours eagerly
writing a business plan in my mind to fix the roads in Africa. I began thinking
of the materials, the labor, the costs. My training in entrepreneurship took
over, and I started processing everything it would entail and everything that
would need to fall into place. The misery of the ride turned into joy as I
began putting all the pieces together.
I’m not sure that I am meant to fix all of the roads in
Africa. I’m not even sure it would benefit the culture here to have better
roads. But what I learned was that if something sucks, maybe that’s God telling
you to fix it. And in all situations, find a way to choose joy.
Below is a short video of our time on the bus. Hope you enjoy!
