Children of Abraham

Goats are comparatively easy to keep in Bardaï, they eat and extract nourishment from anything including cardboard boxes. However, sheep are preferred for the sacrifice and they have a more restrictive diet. Many are brought on the long and difficult journey from Libya. In addition, large amounts of hay bales are also brought down stacked high on the top of already overladen lorries. All this is expensive and as a consequence a sheep costs about three times the price of one in N’Djamena. But it is the essential component of a three-day celebration.

Meals are shared with neighbours and friends, and visits are made. It is just like Christmas but, unlike in the UK, the food market was shut for all 3 days, and even once it opened, there was very little to buy with no basic fresh supplies of apples, oranges, tomatoes or potatoes, carrots or onions for a further seven days. That gave sufficient time for the drivers, who celebrated with family in Bardaï, to do a return trip to Libya and restock the stalls.  Perhaps that’s something we can all learn from our neighbours here in Chad: it is possible for everyone including shopworkers and haulage contractors to have a few days off at Christmas to celebrate with their family at the same time as the rest of society.

Of course, that suggestion, valid as it is, only comes from customary local celebrations and not from scriptures. So, turning to them, in our Christian tradition we often speak and sing of Jehovah Jirah, the Lord will provide I don’t recall similar attention being given to the Lord will test. But this an important point on which both the Hebrew scriptures, Genesis 22, 1 and the Koran 37, 6 agree; God tested Abraham.

The test was by no means a reasonable one, he was asked to sacrifice not only his son but also the God promised future destiny of his family. The question is, does Abraham really ‘fear’ God, is his loyalty undivided? God wants to know the answer to the question and surprisingly it seems that God doesn’t yet know. Can that really be right?   The text reads ‘Do not……do anything to him (the boy) for now I know that you fear God.  Genesis 22, 12. What at first may appear to be a pointless psychological torture with a predetermined outcome, was a real test to answer a real question. And the answer was, after no doubt much heart searching and anguish, a resounding yes.  God finally knew that Abraham really did trust Him with his child and his whole nations future.

Jesus experienced severe testing as part of his faithful life and death. Perhaps that is why he taught us to us to pray “Do not bring us to the time of trial”, he knew it hurts.  Often it is the same test as for Abraham, do we trust God enough to sacrifice our hopes and plans and let Him to provide for our future. As in Abraham's time both individuals and societies can be tested. The children of Abraham today, be they Jew, Christian or Muslim need to faithfully trust God to provide for their future and practice loving God and loving their neighbours as themselves. Sadly, this trust and love is not what we usually see in our world.

At a local level in the Tibesti how is the future looking? Bardaï, mid Sahara, is experiencing a new found, albeit relative, wealth from gold mining. The markets are growing, new homes and shops are being built and at the same time there is increased religious observance with regular calls to prayer, schooling and building of new places of worship. Will the people continue to trust in God, in what has always been a precarious situation, or prefer to rely on their new found riches and place their hope in what appears to be unsustainable growth that gives profound inequality in an impoverished country?

For centuries, this geographically isolated community has not been used to having many outsiders amongst them, and has often been distrustful of those that came.  This situation is rapidly changing as the population has more than doubled due to an influx of gold miners from all over Chad and beyond. Also, lots of traders have come from elsewhere with small lock up shops in the town market and they seem to do well, apart from having many of their stores bulldozed last year in a re-development program. In the hospital we sometimes have patients who refuse to be in the same room as other ethnic groups, but we also see signs of hope with some sharing of food and mutual help across the ethnic divide. Outside of the town it is more difficult for the incomers. We have never visited the goldfields, they are too insecure, but we do see a steady stream of people who have been shot or stabbed. Of the 14 emergency major abdominal surgeries done since we came back to Chad late December, only one had a problem due to natural causes, the rest were victims of violence. All were outsiders. Hospitality to strangers is an important part of the Abrahamic tradition, it needs a rekindling amongst his children here.

It is easy to observe another society and find fault and so it is also necessary to look in the mirror with the same critical eye. What is the situation in the UK, does its population too seek new wealth with unsupported growth and increasing inequality? Are we in the UK welcoming to those who come from overseas seeking safety, help, and a better life, or do we make it hard for them?

It seems that, although in very different contexts we, in Chad and the UK, have problems with common themes. May we be among the children of Abraham who respond to these testing times with repentance and bearing fruit and may his children be as numerous as the stars.

Please pray for peace, justice, compassion equality and above all faithful people and communities to be working for the coming of God’s kingdom throughout our world.

And may you and your families be blessed, so that you too can be a blessing.

Mark and Andrea