Saturday, August 23, 2008 

On The Road Again

I'm heading out early tomorrow morning for our big meeting. Just like last year the company is paying for all of us to meet in a sweet hotel in the middle of nowhere and spend the week together. Though I'll miss seeing some old friends that have headed back to the States already, I'm really looking forward to this week. There are some people I haven't seen in way too long, and it will be good to catch up.

In other good news, I'll finally be able to take a shower. The water in my city has been cut off for a week or so as we're having water shortages. I can't remember the last time it rained here, and we're finally starting to feel it. As you know, August is slap-your-grandmama-hot over here, and not being able to shower makes it that much worse. I go out and sweat every day, then lay down and sweat every night. All that sweat is making me feel pretty nasty. I'm really looking forward to taking a shower at the hotel. On the plus side, my water bill should be really low this month...

8:12 AM | |

 

Quick Update

Hey guys, I got back from the second trip a few days ago. I went to visit another American friend doing the same thing I'm doing in another city. It was really encouraging to see him persevering and fighting the good fight of the faith.

There's a really famous mountain range in my friend's city, and we decided to go hike up in it. Halfway there, we decided to spend the night up there camping. We weren't prepared at all, but we fared pretty well if you ask me.



We found some ponchos, and they ended up being really helpful as the night was cold.

I took this picture at like 3 in the morning. We couldn't sleep at all, but what do you expect? We were using cardboard boxes for pillows as we slept on the cold ground. We heard a bear and crazy guys with guns through the night, but fortunately they didn't hear us.


After I got back home I ended up touring an American group around some, and we happened upon my future resting place.

7:48 AM | |

Wednesday, August 13, 2008 

Yell

My friend told me a story one night last week while we were eating a fancy fish dinner by the sea.

A long time ago people were wondering if there really were aliens out there. So, one bright guy got everybody together in one spot. His plan was to have everybody yell at the top of their lungs at the same time, and the noise of everybody yelling would reach any aliens out there. The guy counted to 3, but when he did not a single person yelled. The guy asked the people why they didn't yell. The people responded, "We all thought everyone else would yell, so what difference would it make if we yelled or not?"



Here's a shot I took in my friend's city of a couple hundred people we can safely assume have never heard the gospel or seen a Bible. As far as I know, there's no one sharing the truth in this city. How many millions of cities are there across the world with no gospel witness? How many millions of cities across the world have no one yelling? Don't be like the people in my friend's story. Yell.

2:57 PM | |

 

The Trip That Was

I just got back into town after visiting my friend and his family in another city for 5 days, and I'm heading out again tomorrow to visit another friend in another city. In the meantime, here's an update.

I had a lot of fun staying with my friend and his family. For one thing, all day every day I was immersed in the language. From the time I got up to the time I went to bed I was talking to somebody or being talked to in the language.

Fortunately for me, my friend's older sister happened to be staying with them as well, and she brought her kids with her. (The husband stayed in the other city because he had to work.) I had a lot of fun playing and joking around with the kids, I don't interact much with kids over here.


Don't let that face fool you, this kid can be a monster. Parents don't discipline their kids much over here, and it shows. Here's a warning to my kids (if I ever have any): I'm not sparing the rod. You'll thank me later.

I got to spend a lot of time with my friend, his family, and my friend's friends. It was nice to not have to try and find people to talk to, my friend introduced me to everybody and we were able to talk a lot about Jesus and the Bible. A lot of people heard truth for the first time.



It was a full 5 days, we packed a lot of living into that time. First up was the traveling wrestling circuit. They made a stop in the city right when I happened to be there. My friend and I headed out and had a great afternoon watching guys try to put other guys on their backs. When some one's back hit the ground, the match was over.




That night my friend and his friends and me headed to the local bar. Though I didn't have fun sipping sparkling water while my friends got tipsy, I did enjoy giving a mini-concert that night. My 3-song set list included "Freebird" by Lynyrd Skynyrd, "I Will Not Forget You" by Enter the Worship Circle, and "There Is None Like You" by Shane Barnard. It's easy to give concerts in this country because nobody understands what you're saying. You can just make words up if you want to.



The next day we took the kids to a local horse farm. They had a blast, and I had fun helping them to have fun.
I thought I'd try a goatee for a while. What do you think?


Besides all that, I got to work at the restaurant my friend's mother owns, pick hazelnuts during harvest time (hazelnut harvesting is big business in my friend's city), and swim in a certain sea for the first time in my life. I also shot a rifle for the first time, and yes, I hit the paint can I was aiming for.

I was pretty bummed when I had to leave, I really enjoyed sharing life with my friend and his family and friends. It was like I was leaving a little life behind, complete with my own family and friends. I didn't expect to be sad like that. As my friend told me when I left, "People get used to being around each other pretty quickly. Our time passed too fast."

One trip down, one to go. I'll let you know how it goes when I get back.

1:42 PM | |

Saturday, August 02, 2008 

A Good Day's Work

The other day I got to try my hand at a real job. A friend of mine is working at one of the local bazaars during the summer, and he asked me to help him out one day last week. They showed up to the bazaar at like 6:30 in the morning, I came a little later :).




When I got there I realized the bazaar they work at is pretty big. There was a covered area that ran for a few kilometers filled to the brim with people selling everything from fruits and vegetables to shoes and clothes. Customers wandered in and out, stopping at booths that caught their eye.


My friend and his boss sell table cloths and those non-slip mats people use in their bathrooms, and it was fun to try my hand at salesmanship. It was hard because first of all I'm a foreigner, secondly it was my first day on the job. I didn't know all the prices for everything, and I didn't understand half the questions old women were asking me regarding table cloths. Still, I managed to make a few sales, and I was pretty proud.

Once the booth was set up, the job wasn't very hard really. We just sat around and talked to each other until a customer came up, and then we talked to the customer. We even bought some bananas and plums from the fruit guy and talked about the gospel and the Lord for a while.

The day passed pretty quickly, but by 9pm I was pretty tired. Right about that time, the boss man said it was time to pack up, so we started tearing down everything. I haven't had a real job in so long I forgot what it's like to have to work for a living. My job for the past 2 years has been to wander around and talk to people. The bazaar job required me packing stuff and lifting boxes and untying ropes. It was fun to actually work, though.

We packed everything up and put it in the boss man's truck, then headed home. It was a fun day, I got to do something new and share truth with people at the same time.

12:25 PM | |