9 Oct 23

Stories and parables from the Bible come to life much more readily when you study them with friends who have lived their whole lives in an agriculture-based society, with honor-shame values, where wealth can be measured in livestock and time is measured in planting and harvest, rainy and dry seasons.

Today we discussed how Jesus is the mango tree trunk and we’re the branches. I jumped up off the concrete bench in the gazebo where several ladies had gathered to discuss today’s passage from the Bible. I walked over to the mango tree a few meters from the gazebo and patted the trunk, then walked to a small shoot that had just started to sprout off of a small branch this rainy season. The ladies brightened and watched every move. They might start falling asleep if we just read and discuss, but they always find it entertaining when we act things out.

In modern churches, we often read Jesus’s spoken and acted parables in fluorescent-bulb-lit, air-conditioning-cooled rooms, wearing fancy dresses and suits. We wash each others’ already-clean feet, and the stories feel thousands of miles away and thousands of years ago. Here in rural Chad, though, it feels like Jesus could have spoken them today. "Hey look at this tree, this is how I produce fruit in my followers." "Look at these flowers." "See that guy planting in his field?" "There’s a flock of sheep over there. What would that shepherd do if one wandered off?" And the crowd would watch a lamb start to stray and then the shepherd go after it and lead it back.

Anyone who has wished to go back and experience those stories first-hand might not need to time travel after all. It might just take a plane ticket to Chad and a bus ticket to a village like Béré.