Some stories come to life through experiences. For example, I was reading the novel series A Song of Ice and Fire while in Ethiopia. It's a fantasy series which talks about about castles, kings and knights so when I visited the castle in Gondar, scenes from the novels flashed through my eyes - Bran climbing the walls of the the castles, knights riding in through the gates and people observing from the tower.
Similarly, as we walked on the streets of Gondar and picked up followers, I couldn't help but reflect on the stories from the gospels of Jesus' ministry. I was reading through the book of Mark at the time. It talks about Jesus going from village to village, he would heal someone and ask them not to tell anyone; however, for the most part they couldn't hold it in and large crowds would follow him. We didn't pick up thousands of followers, but 4-5 at a time was enough. Some would follow and listen in on our conservation, others would ask more about us, kids would want their pictures taken, other kids would want us to play or hold their hand or buy them exercise books. I thought it would have been interesting if I was there with a Christian to reenact a parable in a conversation while talking to see the response of people listening in. I could see how Jesus wouldn't need to announce their arrival in a new city - people saw us and would approach us without prompting. It seemed like we were celebrities, people would stare as we walked by and most a lot of people would say hi or wave while we were walking. Not as bad as people lining up to see Jesus and even climbing a tree to get a view. Of course, we physically stood out as different - I'm sure this 1yr old thought Nicole was a ghost since she was the first "white person" that he'd seen. Haha. Priceless look on his face when he saw here. It gets tiring having people around all the time. As Fonda, a physio from the Netherlands said sometimes she wouldn't want to go into the city because she'd know the kids would approach her there. No wonder Jesus retreated to a boat on a lake. What would it be like to have thousands of people wanting to listen to what you had to say, or placing all their hope of having you heal them? In some ways, I'm glad to have some anonymity back now that I'm home.. although perhaps I'd have more influence on strangers as an alien in a country since people naturally wanted to know more about me.
Similarly, as we walked on the streets of Gondar and picked up followers, I couldn't help but reflect on the stories from the gospels of Jesus' ministry. I was reading through the book of Mark at the time. It talks about Jesus going from village to village, he would heal someone and ask them not to tell anyone; however, for the most part they couldn't hold it in and large crowds would follow him. We didn't pick up thousands of followers, but 4-5 at a time was enough. Some would follow and listen in on our conservation, others would ask more about us, kids would want their pictures taken, other kids would want us to play or hold their hand or buy them exercise books. I thought it would have been interesting if I was there with a Christian to reenact a parable in a conversation while talking to see the response of people listening in. I could see how Jesus wouldn't need to announce their arrival in a new city - people saw us and would approach us without prompting. It seemed like we were celebrities, people would stare as we walked by and most a lot of people would say hi or wave while we were walking. Not as bad as people lining up to see Jesus and even climbing a tree to get a view. Of course, we physically stood out as different - I'm sure this 1yr old thought Nicole was a ghost since she was the first "white person" that he'd seen. Haha. Priceless look on his face when he saw here. It gets tiring having people around all the time. As Fonda, a physio from the Netherlands said sometimes she wouldn't want to go into the city because she'd know the kids would approach her there. No wonder Jesus retreated to a boat on a lake. What would it be like to have thousands of people wanting to listen to what you had to say, or placing all their hope of having you heal them? In some ways, I'm glad to have some anonymity back now that I'm home.. although perhaps I'd have more influence on strangers as an alien in a country since people naturally wanted to know more about me.
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