“African Time”. For anyone from a culture of punctuality and never missing a scheduled time, African Time means frustration, late events, and upset friends and family. When it’s all about your precious time and money, anything that gets in he way of that is a nuisance.
Oddly enough, “African Time” does not exist in African cultures. One of my teammates described it particularly well: “African Time is simply the way in which African cultures place value on their time.” Time is precious to Africans because one never knows if one will see someone the next day. African Time isn’t about the lose of precious personal time and money, it’s about the opportunity to gain time with friends, new and old. They don’t mind being late for a scheduled event, because they were probably enjoying time with people, not watching the clock.
An example of this is pretty much our entire month here in Zambia. We were only “on time” once in the entire month. We only ate meals early if our cooks had someone they needed to spend time with away from the compound. Otherwise, even our classes started late, because the bus was late picking up students, because the students were helping their families prepare for the day, and the driver had been getting his kids out the door in the morning. Or we would start talking with the students about life, and realize thirty minutes later that we hadn’t started class material yet.
This month as taught me something important. People are always more important than time, than being punctual, than running from one thing to the next. People, loving and supporting and honoring them, are always the best option. That could mean being on time for an event, and it could mean missing a meeting because someone needs your listening ear.
God, please change my mindset to honor others’ lives and time above my own. Please grow me into a person who is people-based, not event-based. In Jesus’ name!
#GodIsInControl #redefiningdisciple
#THIRD
