Today, I learned so, so, so much from you!
We publish an excerpt of a message from E.H.K., who lives in one of the African countries where spazio + spadoni also operates and whose name we cannot reveal for security reasons
(by Stephen Matcovich)
The government does not like news leaking out about the situation in the country, how people are living or trying to survive.
The political and economic situation is very complicated, and often the actions of normal daily life are punctuated by times and ways that are hard to imagine in the Western world.
Food, clothing, medicine, raw materials, fuel, transportation,… everything is subject to galloping inflation, scarcity of supply, and the cleverness of those who can manage goods for their own personal benefit.
And, sometimes, to buy things you have to stand in line for hours….
“Today, I stood in line at the gas station from 12 noon until 6:30 p.m., when I finally got gas… it was a special day, I was in the car for a long time in silence. So many things were going through my head: joys, sorrows, responsibilities, questions… Sometimes I listened to the radio, sometimes not.
I could not use the cell phone because at the appropriate time I would have to use an app that we now have here to be able to get gas. So, I was afraid that the cell phone would be dead when I got to the pump.
At 2 p.m., a cab arrived and pulled in front of me in the line…. But I didn’t say a single word to him or try to argue. I had tried to let him in without touching my car….
After a long time–3 hours or more–around 5 p.m., that cab man came up to me and said in the local language, “Sir today I learned so very very much from you! I walked in front of you in the line and you didn’t say a single word to me,
I felt bad for so many times when I argued with someone who entered in front in front of me! Of course, I didn’t expect this from him, but I told him what I try to live in these situations-universal brotherhood, doing to others what you would like to be done to you-and that I could see that he was a taximan and needed the gasoline for his work.
Nice little moment with him….
Once again I feel that you can communicate God even in silence, in serenity.
I returned home with a full tank! Tired but happy!”
We thank E.H.K. for his testimony but even more for how he tries – day after day – even in difficult situations, where everything gets enormously complicated and one can lose even an entire day for a full tank of gas, to live the love that Jesus
asks of everyone: love one another as I have loved you!
Source
Image
- digitally created by spazio + spadoni