In the United States it's generally frowned upon to pick up hitchhikers. Picking up hitchhikers is not new to us but I generally don't do it anymore by myself. I remember the time Russell came home late at night, 1 AM, getting off a job and picking up someone who lost his car at the gambling casino in Kansas City.
The Hitchhiking Taxi continues here in our village. It is very common for young adults and others to not have vehicles. It takes 35 minutes to walk up to our town from the gare (train station) so we see working women and men and young adults or teens hitchhiking.
We've been working very hard, as well as many others, to get ready for the annual trek to the community center for Association day. Lots of clubs and small businesses have a booth to sign-up everyone for activities they want to be involved in for the year. Saturday was a very busy day talking to families/singles, hugging children & speaking about our English and art.
I was "too pooped to ponder" (as Russell says) on Sunday and yet there was another Association day in the next town over. My trojan horse, or "ma honey" put on his hat and road off into the sunrise next door to sit with some of our friends at a table and pass out flyers and talk to people once again about English and art.
I want to back up a bit to give you an idea of what we've been doing after finishing up the last school year in July. We were getting ready for traveling, meeting and working in the US (MO, KS, IL, IA, CA) arrived July 22nd returning to France Aug. 20th. Early morning, the 22nd of August we left to drive to Budapest (fortunately with teammates helping with the drive heading through Austria, Germany & Hungary) . We had 6 days of European team training with all of our teams represented to study up on Leadership Development and a lot of other "good stuff". In other words, what do we look for in men and women leaders and how can we develop them on their journeys PLUS keep ourselves accountable with our teams. It was a great time getting to meet others, not only from Europe, but further away.
Needless to say we were tired when we arrived back to get ready for these association days. Saturday was completed with new sign-ups for our classes and we were hoping the next day would be too. Russell enjoyed meeting new people. One young man came to the table saying he was searching for something. More conversation was had, a Bible was shared and an invitation.
The end of the long, tiring day ma honey walked out and got in his car across the street near the gare. A young man in his 20s had his thumb out. The taxi driver opened the door and conversation flowed as they travelled up the hill. "You are a pastor? I've never met a pastor. And certainly not one like this, in a car." He was fascinated by what we are doing in our church planting and spoke very good English. The young man told Russell that he thought they were destined to meet. All of a sudden Russell was revived. ......Carol
No comments:
Post a Comment