Visits

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Created on Saturday, 01 October 2011 01:00

Written by Richrad Chidlaw

Early in September, my brother-in-law and his wife came to stay with us overnight on the way to a wedding in Bath and they brought with them a Ugandan man called Sam. My brother-in-law and Gareth, a retired doctor, run a charity to help the development of a rural area of Uganda. They support the building of churches, primary and secondary schools and the digging of bore holes for fresh water.  They provide medical support and my sister-in-law and Gareth's wife help by selling Ugandan products in this country to enable the people to develop their economy. Sam is their "agent" and he arranges things very effectively.

Sam is a very well-educated man and what he knew, and what he was surprised by, was most interesting. While supper was cooking, we went for a walk around Stinchcombe Hill, because he wanted to see Wales.
When the monument at North Nibley came into view, he had no trouble about who William Tyndale was, (although he had assumed it was pronounced Tyne - Dale). When we got round to the view of "all that tract which fronts the setting Sun" and we pointed out the Sugar Loaf at Abergavenny and the near-by Holy Mountain and all the silver Severn beyond the two bridges across the estuary, he felt that he had achieved that Pisgah experience!  We then arrived at the stone from which George Whitfield preached to "thousands" in the early 18th century. He had no problem identifying this famous figure and I wonder just how many locals could do the same. He had photographs taken of himself standing on the stone, arms lifted in imitation of Whitfield's famous pose, to take home and show his people.

What he found amazing was trees.

The fact that the hill slopes of the Cotswold escarpment were all thickly-clothed in trees astonished him. He immediately saw the advantage for his home area. "We could do this also." The land could be developed and benefit could come. Sam was quick to find how things he saw could be adapted for his own area and how the government could be encouraged, or persuaded, to support this. The fact that apple trees grow wild on the hill (from a carelessly-discarded apple-core?) gave speculation about useful fruit trees, rather like the American folk hero, Johnny Appleseed, and his work in planting apple trees in the American Wilderness. Not that apple trees would grow in the heat of Uganda - but something similar, perhaps. He found blackberries to his taste and even had a go at sloes (despite our protests, but we covered ourselves by offering sloe gin later in the evening.)

What we take for granted (and ignore) and what we take pleasure in (and share with visitors) is instructive. Sam's visit made us see our area in a different way. Yes, we enjoy walking on the hill and seeing the view and picking blackberries and sloes etc. We enjoy the historical associations of the area. Sam's question, "Who owns the land? How is it cultivated and by whom?" were questions not easy to answer. There are things which we don't think about, because they do not impinge on us. Perhaps they should? "What is the coal in your gas fire made of?  Why doesn't it burn away?" I don't know the answer to that. (But I expect that many of you reading this will know!)

An outsider's questions and responses challenge us to think in fresh ways and the experience need not be uncomfortable nor threatening. It can be amusing and it can help us to value some things and to see the limited value of others. (Sam, like many of his people, has no interest in alcohol. Our sloe gin was not greatly appreciated, only the generosity of the offering.) The value of the Gospel for us has many similarities to this. Jesus is the outsider and what He has to say to us about our lives and our values is fascinating. Sometimes it can knock us off our feet, but at other times it is neither "uncomfortable, nor threatening". So many of the gospel stories about Jesus with people suggest to me that their experiences were a little bit like ours with Sam. Eyes are opened; possibilities are realised; the mundane is transformed.

We might expect that we would have to go to a far country, like Uganda, to learn about ourselves and different people and that is undoubtedly true,  but we learn a lot about ourselves by having a visitor come among us. Our familiar life is observed and questioned and what and where we are is under observation. This benefit is open to the Christian daily as the Holy Spirit's grace "visits and redeems" us. May this be your experience also.

Richard Chidlaw