Pay it Forward.

So before we took our 29 hour bus travels across Kenya and into Uganda.  We had to take a matatu from our apartment to
the bus station in down town Mombasa.  The matatu’s stop and go and there is a
conductor that is yelling from the window trying to collect more people and
more and more people pile into this van as it stops and goes and stops and goes
over bumps and swerving all over the road. 
14 passenger vans carrying well over 14 people and with loud music
playing… I will say these are not always my favorite of ways to travel. 

We walked out to the road… there were nine of us and its
hard to fit us all into one van.  We
thought about splitting up but out of the group I was the only one who really
knew how to get where we needed to be so we were all a little hesitant to split
up.  Its dark and matatus are stopping
and going trying to see if they can talk us into their van but none can fit us
all.  This empty van drives by… I jam
over to the window to ask him if he was going to town.  He asked me how many and said ok 100
shillings each. 

Let me take a quick moment and say this… I don’t like
getting ripped off.  I usually would
rather just wait for a fair price than pay double what I should… which is a
daily battle here in Africa with my white skin
screaming to everyone around me that I have money.  (If they could only see my bank account their
thoughts my be changed slightly…)

“No, its 50 shillings to town.” Usually, a back and forth
would begin here trying to find a fair price but I know that this is how much
it should cost for us and I just cant afford to pay more. 

“Ok, just get in.” Really? That easy? Ok… we all climb in
the car and he starts driving.  The music
is turned down low (and is actually African worship music) and the van doesn’t
stop.  It just keeps steadily going
forward.  He doesn’t drive to fast and I
don’t have fear that I am about to get in a car accident at any moment.  This ride in the van is WONDERFUL!

Turns out that the man, Philip, wasn’t even working when I
had walked up to his window.  He hadn’t
been working all day.  He asked us what
we were doing and started talking about being missionaries or whatnot and he
got so excited and started telling us how he is a missionary too! That he loves
God. 

The matatus usually just take you on their route and you hit
the roof when you are ready to have the van stop.  We were planning on getting into town and
getting in one of these smaller taxis and having them take us to the other side
of town to where the bus place was. 
Philip, as he was driving us along, asked us where we were going.  “We are headed to the Akamba.” “I will take
you there.” What? Right there… really? A small thing but a HUGE blessing.  The place where the matatus usually go is
just not the best part of town and I wasn’t looking forward as a group of nine
whities to be dropped off into a part of town that I would rather not be in at
all.  His offer to take us right to the
Akamba bus station was a huge burden removed. 

As we were driving through town, maybe a 20 or 30 minute
drive, I was remembering a time when I was little. My Mom and my Aunts brought
all the girl cousins to Chicago
for a getaway.  I remember walking
through town and this empty bus stopped and offered to take us all where we needed
to go.  Because the man wasn’t ‘working’
at the moment he didn’t take fares from us but as we were getting out of the
bus and saying our thank you’s he told us to ‘pay it forward’.  He had blessed us with the only request to go
and bless someone else. 

This whole van ride wasn’t a big deal in and of its self…
but it really spoke to me. 

I feel like this man showed us love before he even knew who
we were.  He protected us and took care
of us… he stopped going where he was going to take us where we needed to
be.  I was so blessed by Philip.  I feel like God brought Philip right to us
that night while we stood on the side of that road.  I love that God takes care of even the
smallest of details… and that he cares enough to bring someone along side us to
take us right where we need to be. 

I was blessed by Philip and hope that the same as I was once
encouraged in the streets of Chicago
that I can pay this one forward.