I recently spent some time reading an email from my squad mentor about a friend of hers named Josh. Josh returned home from the World Race to a diagnosis of ALS. I genuinely cannot imagine the sobering reality of leaving a life-changing year only to discover that a terminal illness was seeking to cut my time short here in this world. Then I was reminded of the beauty of this world and all it has to offer can never really satisfy the deep longings of our hearts. The reason being because we, created in the image of God, were never created for THIS world. Rather, we were created for eternity.
The impression I got from reading Josh’s story is that he was a man of faith who recognized this reality and lived accordingly. Something my squad mentor wrote about him has stuck with me and totally altered my line of thinking for these last three months on the Race before heading home. She described Josh as being “that guy who sees sons and daughters, not strangers.” I was immediately floored by this. It caused a desire for complete perspective overhaul in my heart. How often I pass by others on the streets seeing faces of individuals whose names I don’t care to learn nor stories I care to entertain. An utterly disappointing realization. I am traveling the world seeking to love the sons and daughters of the Most High God, yet all I see are strangers.
I refuse to stand for that. I refuse to continue this race and the rest of my life seeing strangers wandering the streets, unknown faces in car windows, and untold stories sitting next to me in coffee shops. So I decided to start something. I set out to genuinely begin knowing people. Riding in cars with Zimbabweans was a perfect starting point. We take taxis to and from our host home here in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe every day. These men have stories. They have pasts, presents, and futures. They have families. They have dreams, and I want to hear all of them. So without further adieu, here are five stories I have come across so far:
- I’m unable to recall his name, but his story was intriguing. I’ll refer to him as James. James has lived in Bulawayo his entire life. This place is his home and you get the sense that he has little interest in ever calling another place home. A composed man, he spoke of the issues his country faces economically. There was definitely a hint of concern behind his words. Zimbabwe is currently in the midst of a deep financial depression. Perhaps this is why he has taken to driving a taxi in the evenings after work. James also told me of growing up in Bulawayo, though nothing specific. For as composed as he was, he was also quite succinct and reserved. Unfortunately, he spoke very little of his family, prompting me to inquire on his behalf. He told about how he has no family in the area. I wish I had asked him about his parents, brothers, sisters, etc., but before I could, I decided to ask about whether or not he is married. He initially said yes before course-correcting to inform me that his wife passed away in 2014 leaving him behind to care for their three children. James told me that she became very ill before passing. He spoke these words much softer than the others, indicating that this is still something he is deeply processing. My hope and prayer is that he is able to continue processing in a healthy manner while raising their children. I wish I had left him by praying over him, but I got out of the car and instead settled for telling him “I’ll be praying for you. Take care.” A missed opportunity, sure…but a sweet lesson learned regardless.
- Mike: Mike confused me. Half of our ride home was spent with me having to ask him to clarify what he was talking about. Needless to say, I absolutely loved this ride home. Mike was eccentric and boisterous. He was open to my questions and answered with long responses that I wish I could better recall here in this moment. I asked him about what to do while in Zimbabwe, to which he replied that he is a “domestic tourist,” meaning he knows everything about everything in Zimbabwe. He told me all of the best places to go visit up near Victoria Falls. He told me about some game reserves that run safaris for relatively cheap. Just the way he spoke about his country indicated to me that he loved living here. My absolute favorite part of our conversation was when I asked him about his faith in Jesus. Without any further prompting, Mike quickly launched into a full conversation about how he was once lost, but by the grace of the living God he is now a found man. We moved from there to talking about his family. He is married with two children. He has a two-year old daughter and five-year old son. He told me story about how his son is really calm and takes after his mother. His daughter, however, he claims is the crazy one that clearly takes after him. Mike is a man that exudes joy that doesn’t come from the world, but from knowing the Father.
- Tops: Tops was a soft spoken man. He didn’t have a ton to say, but was willing to oblige me in some simple conversation. He grew up just outside the capital city of Harare. Tops told me pretty early in conversation that he moved to Bulawayo about 5 years ago to pursue other work opportunities. Currently, Tops lives with his wife and two kids just outside of town. He spent a few minutes of our car ride telling me about his children, neither of whose names I can recall unfortunately. His daughter is five and his son is eighteen months old. Years ago, Tops was employed in Harare as a truck driver. After the economy fell into bad shape over the last decade, Tops sought other forms of income to help support his family, which is the reason he’s driving taxi in the evenings. He claims that he doesn’t have another job, which I’m assuming means he lost his job as a truck driver when the economy went south. I asked Tops specifically about how he views his home country, to which he replied that he “loves Zim.” He says he doesn’t care if the economy is better in Zambia, because Zim is “very good” and he loves living here. There’s a sense of pride to be gained from listening to him speak about his family and his country.
- Simba: Ok…this one seemed too good to be true even while we were hearing his story. My teammate Zack actually conducted this interview since he was seated up front. Simba (yes, the same as the Lion King) grew up in Harare before moving to Bulawayo in 1993. He worked the local gold mines for some time before taking to taxi driving. Simba is clearly a diversely talented man. Driving taxi isn’t his main source of income. Along with driving each evening to help support his growing family, Simba also works his days as a mortician, which he describes as “an easy job.” While he was working the gold mines, he told us about how he would drive the big trucks hauling materials in and out of the mine, meaning he was likely hauling excessive amounts of valuable gold on a daily basis. I was struck by the irony of hauling such expensive merchandise on a daily basis while likely working for minimum wage. Simba lit up when we asked about his family. He has three children age eleven, seven, and three. You can tell that he loves his children well because of how much pride he spoke with during the course of our conversation about his family. When Zack asked him about his hobbies and interests, Simba told us that he’s a big fan of rugby, which is actually a pretty popular sport here in southern Africa. Our favorite part of the conversation came when he told us about his love for music. He’s a musician when he gets the chance, playing keyboard, bass guitar, and drums. He used to be involved in the church playing with the praise and worship band before deciding to leave. His father used to travel around playing music in churches and worked with pastors in the church, teaching and training them in various locations. We got the sense that Simba fell away from he church. He said he enjoys some “fun things,” indicating that they probably aren’t good for him and that the church wouldn’t like his version of fun things, but he also said that he “knows where he’s from.” To that comment, my other teammate Drew muttered something along the lines of “wow, that’s cool,” which is about the time that the gravity of those words sunk in with me. To know where he’s from tells me that Simba is in relationship with his Creator. He knows the Father’s love. How many of us know that?
- Rogers: Rogers didn’t say much…mostly on account of his poor English skills. Despite our lack of significant conversation, he seemed like a joyful man, which is good because I wasn’t in a good place this morning because of some stuff that happened that morning during church. Fortunately, however, the Lord put us in Rogers’ taxi. He spoke, unprompted, about loving Zimbabwe and being hopeful that the economy would rebound soon. You could tell he was part of the growing portion of impoverished Zimbabweans who are feeling the pressure of a diminishing economy where the rich are getting richer and the poor are growing poorer. Yet still, Rogers had a huge smile on his face throughout our conversation. My favorite part of the car ride was probably listening to traditional African music with him. He tapped his hands on his steering wheel to the beat of the music, smiling the entire time. This car ride might have been the most important for me in this process. I was reminded of a sermon I heard at the beginning of this month. The pastor spoke about how important it is for us as believers to not allow anything to steal our joy as followers of Jesus. We will likely be the only encounter with the Father’s love that many people will have some days and if we are not able to effectively demonstrate Jesus’ love, then we could easily leave our unbelieving neighbors with a skewed perspective on who Jesus is. We carry responsibility with our profession of Jesus as Lord. So let’s act like what we claim. Riding with Rogers reminded me of that, and I’m thankful for him and our brief time together.
So what happens when we stop seeing strangers and start seeing sons and daughters? What happens when we stop seeing projects and start seeing opportunities to love deeply those who also bear the Father’s image? What happens when our stubbornness and fear turns into obedience and adoration? Our world begins to come into focus the way it was intended to be seen. Our eyes are divinely opened and our hearts are made aware of the Kingdom being built all around us. We begin to see God’s Kingdom as our home and resting place. In the midst of darkness, depression, and outright sinfulness, the world actually begins to reflect fragments of the Kingdom as they shine through; a Kingdom waiting for its time to burst through in its fullness. We see our part in all of this as an opportunity to dwell as God’s people, amongst His children, living lives that glorify Him as we love as He loves. The beauty of all this is that it only requires the simplest of efforts on our behalf…a willing spirit yielding to the calling into action by the Father.
