Monday, May 26, 2008 

Warm Culture

I met with a couple of friends at a cafe last week, and we had some good conversations as the sun went down. One of my friends told me about how students from this country can go to the States for a summer and work and learn English and all, but they're warned about the different culture over there.

One thing they're told is not to act too friendly to babies in the States. People love kids over here, and it shows. I've walked around with other foreigners and their babies before when the local people came up, made a big fuss about the baby, then yanked the baby out of the mother's hands and walked around for 10 minutes showing the baby to everybody. Then they returned the baby to the mother. If they did that in the States they'd be arrested.

Actually, if the local people did a lot of what they do here in the States, they'd be arrested. This is a warm culture, which means people show their emotions a lot more. They're much more affectionate toward babies, relatives, anybody really. Even the standard greeting around here is to kiss the other guy's cheeks.

They also show their anger a lot more. It's not uncommon to see 2 guys on the side of the street yelling at the top of their lungs at each other. I haven't seen any fist fights here, but I usually see a good yelling match or two every week. It's just part of their culture.

It's a lot different from American culture, where everyone tries to hide their emotions for the most part. Neither culture is completely right or wrong, but it's fun seeing these people that are really different from Americans.

12:18 PM | |

Sunday, May 25, 2008 

More Theater Fun

A friend of mine here is taking a theater class, and he invited me to join in one night. (You'd think after my first experience, I would have learned my lesson.) I met with my friend that night and headed to the "classroom", which was just a big empty room with some pillows and a cd player. About 20 people showed up, and we started the class.

For the first activity, the teacher guy turned the lights out and told us to walk around in circles. Whatever, I gave it a shot. We walked around in circles for a few minutes as the teacher played different songs and messed with the lights.

Then he told us to act like we had some sort of physical handicap as we walked around in circles.

I didn't move my left arm much as I walked around, I figured that was pretty good. Other people were crawling on the floor and shaking and all kinds of crazy stuff. Then the teacher told us to act like we had down syndrome as we walked around. I continued walking around with my left arm problem, while others went all out. It was weird. Real weird.

After a few minutes of that craziness, we all sat down and the teacher handed us photocopies of a newspaper article he had found. The article was about a family with a down syndrome son who couldn't speak or hear. One day he wandered away and became lost. The family searched for years and never found him, and the father died from his sadness. It turns out the military found the son, and since he couldn't talk or hear, they gave him to the state who gave him a new identity and put him up at a boarding house. After a few years someone from the media recognized the kid and got him returned to his family.

For the next 2 hours or so, we acted this story out. It's a really sad story, and acting it out wasn't all that much fun. We split up into groups and acted different scenes out, we made human still-frame "photographs", then we went back to walking around in circles. Only this time we had to pretend we were the son, wandering around lonely and sad and hungry and hopeless.

Then the class ended, we said good night, and headed to our homes.

So my 2 experiences of theater over here have been pretty weird. Is this true of theater everywhere, or just here?

11:25 AM | |

Monday, May 19, 2008 

Another Good Story

This story has nothing to do with me, but I think you'll like it. I met with another worker friend of mine this past weekend, and he told me the story of how a young believer came to faith.

The woman had a dream where she saw an empty grave and 3 guys standing around in white. She asked them why the grave was empty, and they said to her, "If you want to know why the grave is empty, find out about the man from Bethlehem."

After that dream, she went around asking everybody if they knew about the man from Bethlehem. One day she asked my friend and another one of his friends. They explained the man to her and gave her a Bible. She went home and read the entire New Testament in 72 hours, then came back and asked a ton of questions. Then she believed.

2:00 PM | |

Tuesday, May 13, 2008 

A Good Meeting

For those of you that get my emails, I got to meet with Fred earlier this week. For those that don't get my emails, Fred is a young guy who's interested in reading the Bible. I got his name and phone number from a friend, and set up a meeting.

We met at a cafe one afternoon and had a really good conversation. He's a 21-year-old university student who is interested in finding out about the Bible and Christianity. I shared the basic story of the gospel with him, and he had some good questions. He was very honest and sincere, and all in all it was a really good time. He said he would call me when he is free to study the Word some.

Pray for Fred, that he would read the Word on his own. Also pray that we will meet often and study together.

12:21 PM | |

Thursday, May 08, 2008 

A Good Story

Martin is a friend of mine here. He's preparing to enter university, which means he's studying hard for the big test they have here. He goes to a school geared solely toward helping people pass the big university test. We met a couple of months ago and became good friends. Earlier this week I had the opportunity to really share a lot with him. He sat and listened as I explained what I believe and what the Bible says about us and Jesus and heaven and hell. He listened well and had some good questions, and all in all it was a great conversation.

2 days later he called me with a great story. He was in class when his teacher taught on different religions. The teacher said something like a lot of Christians go on pilgrimages just like Muslims do. My friend raised his hand and corrected the teacher, then went on to describe what Christians believe, and how protestants and catholics are different. My friend Martin said after he got done, his friends just stared at him.

Praise God that truth is being shared! Martin is not a believer by any means, but God is using him to spread truth. Please pray for Martin.

10:17 AM | |