How the Sand Bridge Was Built

A bridge engineer I know went to Ethiopia to build a bridge for a small village. To create the pylons, he needed molds and supplies, neither of which were available. Under some inspirational spell, this engineer corralled the village men to weave baskets as molds. Every day the village children would walk home from school; and picking up a handful of sand from the river bank, they would walk it to the building site where it was put into the molds the men had woven. Handful by handful, the “sand bridge” was formed, spanning a distance in many ways impossible.

With ingenuity and a commitment from an entire community, an impossible bridge was built. But in order for that to happen, a community and an engineer had to consider that building a bridge out of baskets and sand was entirely within grasp; it just took a long-term commitment of small steps. Were there no naysayers mumbling about this project being impossible?

I am fascinated by this sand bridge. I’m amazed that an entire village built a bridge by handfuls of sand, and I can’t imagine anything like it happening here in North America. Apparently, the Ethiopians just took it in stride. What would it take to approach life in a similar stride? How many tasks have I laid aside as impossible? How many could have been accomplished with a long-term commitment of small steps?

Hi. My name is Kim, and this blog is my attempt at building a sand bridge, one handful at a time. I am married 17 years to my best friend, and we boast 4 kids and a mental-case of a dog we adopted in a moment of weakness. For now I work in a very small but very cute 1939 brick colonial with my family, but I started writing this blog to keep bridges of all kinds up and running, bridges to the future, the past and maybe a bridge from me to you. I am a work in progress and so are my bridges, but I’m curious to figure out exactly what I can build with a keyboard, a cup of coffee and a little stolen time. I hope these sand bridges connect to someone’s heart out there with something meaningful, maybe even inspirational, and I hope that Christ, the true Bridge, is visible.