Imagine yourself in a busy city of a foreign language surrounded by people going about there business. When you get off the bus and you are expecting to meet someone there who speaks your language. You find that the person has not made it to the bus stop yet when you arrive and have no clue how to make sure you are in the right place. That was us. Our team was meeting up with our translator's friend who spoke English, and all we were told was to get off where everyone else was getting off. As we waited, looking around for anyone who looked like they spoke English we thought we may had been in the wrong place.
While we were waiting an elderly women carrying two large, heavy backs tripped and dropped her bags. As one of us went to go help her pick them back up we noticed that she was hurt badly. When she tripped, the glass container from one of the bags had broken cutting deep into her leg. We got her to a bench, found water, tied her head scarf around it to help it stop bleeding and realized she needed medical attention.
Meanwhile, everyone else around us is just watching us. We tried to get someone to call the ambulance, but no one did for the longest time. We had no idea what else to do, we propped up her leg, put her bags in a shop and prayed throughout the whole ordeal. When our person showed up we filled him in and he helped us communicate. The ambulance came and our day continued on.
When we got off the bus, we expected to start our tour immediately. Little did we know that our early arrival had a miniature adventure in store. An adventure that would teach me many lessons:
1. How different strengths and weaknesses compliment each other.
2. I also learned that the by-standard effect is universal, despite the hospitable culture. The reality is we are all human, most of us say that we would step up in times of need but few people follow through with that statement.
3. Non-verbal cues and actions are also universal, communication with Dorothy and some of the people around us in order to take care of the whole situation.
4. The most important thing I learned from the whole situation though would have to be staying open to what God has planned and trusting Him to provide the tools and courage to step out of your comfort zone in order to serve those around you.
Don't let the fear of failing, stop you from taking action and caring for your neighbor. It's through God that you have the abilities to serve, love and care for each other, even those who are different than you. The kingdom of God doesn't discriminate nor does it limit itself to live within one community of people. The truth is we are all intertwined and in the end it doesn't matter what how different we are as long as God gets the glory and his kingdom either expands or is shared with those who need it.
[Luke 10:25-37]
