Photo: The road to La China.

My senior year of college I did my cross cultural (Study Service Term) in the Dominican Republic.

For service, I was placed in a remote village, nearly a two mile hike into a mountainous valley.

The road to the village was literally a cow path with houses intermittently built along the way. I was placed in this village with a Peace Corp worker, Teresa, and it was our job to teach English, as well as help the people learn how to be more self-sufficient.

My first week as we journeyed from school to school, Teresa and I would pass various houses along the cow path.

The people who lived in these homes would always welcome us with words, “ENTRE!” “Come on in!”

Teresa explained to me that it was always the custom to stop in for a cup of coffee whenever you passed a house and that it was considered rude to pass without stopping. But then she would yell out “No, me voy!” “No, I got to go.”

In the six weeks I lived in this village, we never once took someone up on the invitation to sit and have coffee.

We always had somewhere more important to go.

It seems to me as though we Americans always have somewhere more important to go, maybe that’s what it means to be self-sufficient.

We pride ourselves on our work ethic, on our punctuality and on our busy, busy schedules and this can be a problem. When we pride ourselves on the fullness of our schedules then we often miss the opportunities for real meaningful togetherness when it is needed the most.

The problem is that the most meaningful interactions cannot be scheduled. The most formative moments cannot be planned. If the church is to go and join in God’s mission in the world we need to allow ourselves space in our schedules for God’s spontaneity.

I often think how thin our Bibles would be if ancient cultures had our American “self-sufficiency.” Would Abraham have taken the time to entertain the three visitors at the oaks of Mamre? Would Jesus have asked the woman at the well for a drink? Or, would they have had somewhere more important to go?

If the church is to continue Christ’s ministry on earth and embody Jesus’ way in our own lives we need to slow down. We need to make space, holy space, in our schedules. We need to be available.

We need to stop and drink the coffee.