Remembering The Gambia Visit
by Amelia
Tom and I took two trips to The Gambia with other members of the Network of Biblical Storytellers, International. It was over a dozen years ago and one of the great experiences of my life. All thanks to the vision and leadership of Network member, Juliana Rowe. Juliana and her husband, residents of New York City, are from Sierra Leone with connections in The Gambia that made the trip possible.
In September this year Tom and I went to Montgomery, Alabama to visit the Legacy Museum sites memorializing the incredible story of the millions of Africans who were kidnapped, transported down the Gambia River, and shipped to the Americas like cargo. This transatlantic slave trade produced great wealth for the British, and built the coastal cities of the British colonies in North America.
The men, women, and children who survived the journey across the Atlantic had homes, families, culture, stories, ancestors in Africa all of which they lost, living in exile in a harsh and strange new land where they and their ancestors were enslaved for centuries.
We may know a little of the story of African descendants in North America, but we often don’t think about their ancestral home, as if they came from nowhere. Too many have justified their kidnapping and enslavement as some sort of benefit–“saving” them from a primitive, godless, “dark” continent. This summer our church studied seven of the great kingdoms of Africa and learned at least a little about the people and cultures of that great continent.
Our trip to The Gambia connected us with one of the predominant places from which Africans and their American descendants came. Anyone who watched the TV series Roots will recall that it began in The Gambia.
So this brief video from the Spring of 2008 has new meaning for me now, as well as precious memories of the people with whom we traveled and those we met, and the rich experience of sharing biblical stories in such an extraordinary context.
Monday with Jesus: Beginning a New Liturgical Year
You are invited to view our “Monday with Jesus” videos on YouTube. They feature a telling of the upcoming lectionary Gospel followed by Q&A commentary. We send out emails on Monday morning with a link to the video along with some brief comments, a verse or two from the story, graphics, and sometimes a bonus item.
If you want to be on the elist to receive “Monday with Jesus” emails, send me a message: amelia@gotell.org. Our YouTube channel is GoTellStory. Most of the videos were produced in the last cycle. We are filling in gaps this time around the lectionary (big gap coming up after Epiphany). Here is the video for the first Sunday in Advent.
Story Page for the First Sunday of Advent
Start a new month and a new liturgical year by visiting the story page for the first Sunday of Advent (Dec. 1 this year). Click the scripture reference below.