I'm starting to get settled a little more into the city. I feel like I'm constantly learning more about the city and the culture here, but still have no idea what I'm doing. I figured out that it's rude to blow your nose in public (after many people stared at me horrified when I was blowing my nose at Pizza Hut- my alleriges are going crazy here because of all the dust). But overall I've heard it's a very forgiving culture, so it's okay if I don't do everything perfectly.
It's funny to me that the workers here at restaurants don't let you open the door for yourself or serve your own food. I keep doing it on my own out of habit, and then they get very embarassed, rush over, and push me out of the way at times. I got to go purchase a traditional Indian outfit that I can wear around the town or if I go out to a village. It was fun trying on all the clothes, especially the poofy pants that remind you of MC Hammer (hopefully I can post a picture of it at some time, but I realized I left my camera cord at home, so I'll try to figure out a way...).
I feel like I'm for sure trying to learn how to communicate with people here. Everyone bobbles their head to say "okay" and I've been trying to pick it up- it's a lot of fun to do. I've gotten to meet a lot of people so far from some many different backgrounds- Christians, Muslims, Hindus, Iranians, etc. I even met an Indian girl named Cristin, except she spelled it "Crystin". I got to pray for her and her mother at Pizza Hut (there's a Pizza Hut, McDonalds, and KFC right down the road from me- I haven't been to the McDonalds yet, so I don't know how they handle the whole no beef thing...)
One cool story is that we got lost the other day trying to find a mall and ended up walking past a hospital. We figured we might as well go inside and see if we could pray for patients. We discovered that it was actually a Christian-owned hospital and there were pictures of Jesus everywhere inside. The administrator that we needed permission from to pray for patients wasn't there so we had to come back another day, but we met a floor receptionist who was a Christian and we got to encourage him and teach him how to share his faith. We went back to the hospital yesterday and talked to the administrator. He couldn't give us permission to go from room to room to pray for patients, but he said that we could go to the Hospital's prayer hall and pray there. We said we'd love to do that and he had one of his assistants escort us over there. We got there and it was this little prayer room for us (see below) and we got to have a good time of intercession for the hospital and the people there. It was so much fun and we really believed that God moved through our prayers, so much so that we gave our phone number to the administrator and told him to call us if any miracles happened, because we have a God who loves to show himself and demonstrate his power!
It's funny to me that the workers here at restaurants don't let you open the door for yourself or serve your own food. I keep doing it on my own out of habit, and then they get very embarassed, rush over, and push me out of the way at times. I got to go purchase a traditional Indian outfit that I can wear around the town or if I go out to a village. It was fun trying on all the clothes, especially the poofy pants that remind you of MC Hammer (hopefully I can post a picture of it at some time, but I realized I left my camera cord at home, so I'll try to figure out a way...).
I feel like I'm for sure trying to learn how to communicate with people here. Everyone bobbles their head to say "okay" and I've been trying to pick it up- it's a lot of fun to do. I've gotten to meet a lot of people so far from some many different backgrounds- Christians, Muslims, Hindus, Iranians, etc. I even met an Indian girl named Cristin, except she spelled it "Crystin". I got to pray for her and her mother at Pizza Hut (there's a Pizza Hut, McDonalds, and KFC right down the road from me- I haven't been to the McDonalds yet, so I don't know how they handle the whole no beef thing...)
One cool story is that we got lost the other day trying to find a mall and ended up walking past a hospital. We figured we might as well go inside and see if we could pray for patients. We discovered that it was actually a Christian-owned hospital and there were pictures of Jesus everywhere inside. The administrator that we needed permission from to pray for patients wasn't there so we had to come back another day, but we met a floor receptionist who was a Christian and we got to encourage him and teach him how to share his faith. We went back to the hospital yesterday and talked to the administrator. He couldn't give us permission to go from room to room to pray for patients, but he said that we could go to the Hospital's prayer hall and pray there. We said we'd love to do that and he had one of his assistants escort us over there. We got there and it was this little prayer room for us (see below) and we got to have a good time of intercession for the hospital and the people there. It was so much fun and we really believed that God moved through our prayers, so much so that we gave our phone number to the administrator and told him to call us if any miracles happened, because we have a God who loves to show himself and demonstrate his power!
Overall, even though I'm still getting used to everything here, I love the laid back pace of life and feel like I have so much grace to deal with the random cultural peculiarities here. And I'm so excited to learn more! Well, there are my random thoughts. Until later,
McDonald's only serves different kinds of Chicken sandwichs, so no need to worry about beef.
ReplyDeleteCristin, I think we're on about the same time schedule - it's good to think of another team sharing the Gospel at the same time we are! We've seen several salvations, and have a possible three house churches - two families and one shop where two old men who have been friends their whole lives choose Jesus.
ReplyDeleteIt's been fun getting to know the Shores, Nguyens and Kat and Glen.
You can't eat beef, and we can't eat pork. A Muslim food seller actually told Jules she couldn't sit at the table behind her stand because she was eating pork (the one day out of all of them that they bought a pork product!)
Love you and I'm going to miss you when we get back.
That was Katie, by the way.
ReplyDeleteyahoo!
ReplyDeleteWe are so glad to hear of the hawks, prayers and sharing the gospel! Know that we pray for you daily and appreciate the updates :)
cat