you know you are a missions major when...

I sent the following list to my supporters when I was volunteering at an orphanage in Romania in 2006. I thought I'd post it here as a comparison to a more recent list:

You know you're in Romania when...

1. Cold Cereal is a sweet thing of the past.

2. When you ask to put milk in your tea, you get funny looks

3. If you wear a scarf on your head and it's generally known you're not married or a Pentecostal, you get funny looks.

4. It's not unusual to see a Semi-truck parked next to a horse hitched to a wagon full of firewood.

5. No one thinks it's odd to see a guy in 19th century clothing herding his cows or sheep home and chatting on a cell-phone.

6. Most of your friends 30 and over have gold teeth, black teeth, or several teeth missing.

7. It's safer to drive on the wrong side of the road and risk getting hit by an oncoming car than it is to drive on the right side of the road and risk hitting the potholes the size of the grand canyon as you swerve to miss hitting the pedestrians who are casually walking down the middle of your lane, or the gypsy wagon with hand-made brooms sticking out in all directions. (Disclaimer: just for the record I haven't done this as I'm not brave enough to try driving here. But my friend's have)

8. When a person walks out into the middle of a beyond-busy street in the middle of the city with driver's who invent traffic laws as they go, you're immediate reaction is not "SUICIDER!!" but, "Oh good. Traffic will stop for them and I can cross at the same time and get to where I'm going on time instead of being late!!!" (pedestrians have right-of-way and often take advantage of this. Yes, Csaba, I'm talking about you.)

9. "We have to leave right away" really means, "We have to start getting ready and be out the door sometime in the next ten minutes." (in the villiages)

10. Unless it's exams week, getting up at 7 am is the crack of dawn. "Getting to bed late" means getting to bed around 1am.

11. If a friend offers you a ride in their car to church, (thus cutting the travel time from a freezing 40 minute walk to a 10 minute drive) you begin thinking of ways to get the pope to saint them, even though they aren't Catholic.

12. You watch your feet when you walk, because there aren't laws about keeping animals contained, and they (the animals) often leave "gifts' on the ground. If the ground is 'gift' free, the pavement (or lack thereof) is so riddled with cracks and potholes that it sometimes takes talent to keep an even gait.

13. When someone shakes your hand you automatically begin to kiss them on both cheeks.

14. You're guilt-tripped into taking 3rd helpings at mealtime.

15. You have to say "no thank you" at least 4 times before they believe you really won't accept what they are offering.

16. Doing laundry is a 2 to 3 day event. (2 1/2 days are spent geting the clothes dry as there aren't clothes dryers here.

17. You don't find it odd to see a woman wearing a red and white striped t-shirt with a black checkered skirt, brown stockings, berkenstock sandals, and a hand-knitted sweater over it all.

18. You have to budget "eating out" at that really fancy resturaunt, McDonalds.

My two roommates are from Nagaland, India, and I am gathering more and more friends from India. So I decided to make a list of 'you know you have Indian roommates when..." list.

You know you have Indian roommates when:

1. you buy black tea in bulk

2. most meals include large quantities of garlic and onions, and those are the bland dishes.

3. your spice cabinet consists 70% of chili-related spices that threaten to catch Americans on fire simply by looking at them

4. helping verbs or articles are rarely used in sentences. In fact, quite a few sentences consist just of subject and verb.

5. To emphasize something, it is simply repeated twice (it's HOT hot, not just hot.)

6. Most material possessions are not bought but acquired from the Indian or international network. Actually this can be said of most Seminary students as well, just subtract the 'international' descriptor.

7. Chocolate is considered bizarre

8. Bollywood movies and songs are consistent occurrences.

9. Arranged marriages are not considered abnormal, although preferable is a debated descriptor.

10. Grocery shopping occurs once a month, and is done through catching a ride with a friend or walking the 6 blocks to the store

11. You know what Chai is. You also know that Starbucks doesn't sell it.

12. You know three different ways to make chai.

13. you buy the ingredients to make chai in bulk

14. You think people who don't drink chai regularly are abnormal

15. You know five different locations of international grocery stores, and might know their owners on a first-name basis

16. Most of the foods in your pantry and refrigerator that have labels not in English

17. 'Eating out' is Burger King.

18. Nodding one's head no longer occurs in an up-and-down movement. It is done through making the chin lead one's head in a side-to-side, bobble-type motion. Sort of like the Albert Mohler figurines you buy at Lifeway bookstores.

19. you know saffron is not just a color, you know where to buy it, you have an inkling how to cook with it, and you are considering paying the $5 an ounce for it because its that good.

20. Curry doesn't scare you.

21. your 'Auntie" or 'Older sister' is not biologically related to you.

real live missionaries ...?

See, I didn't consider this a mission trip at all. #1 I'm getting paid. #2 it's in the USA for crying out loud. #3, Missions is 101 ways you realize exactly how much you lack. Working as a camp counselor is one of my top ten ways to get my ego stroked. These kids have star struckedness all over their faces from the second we leaders walk in the room till the second we walk out.
However, the sunday school leader (yes the same one who needed steel-toed boots) confessed at one point in her lesson that she had asked for extra prayer. "I jest had chill-bubs (goosebumps)all over my arms when Pastor announced I'd have real live missionaries in class on Sunday. I mean, who am I to teach THEM anything?" She was referring to camp staff. We all looked at each other like, 'what?'
"Oh don't act so surprised. I mean several of ya'll are in SEMINARY, right?" Anna and I nodded, guilty of the charges, but still didn't see any need to be intimidated.

Out of a cabin of seven girls, ONE knew the story of Esther.
In my cabin of six, none knew the story of Ruth.
Most kids can't tell me the difference between the Old and New Testament. However one little boy explained it this way for me this morning:
"You know. The New Testament is in the Bible, and the Old Testament... is.. well... the other one."

When we tell the kids they must ALL participate or else in the games, at least a handful won't, just because they 'don't wanna.' We tell them their whole group will get punished and they shrug. Doesn't matter. They 'jest don't wanna.' My brain fills with long rants about how our culture has gone down the tubes into individualism and selfishness but I'll spare you at this moment.

So anyways, all that to say that while I still am getting paid and my ego stroked and don't get a stamp in my passport, I'm definately seeing huge needs here in the States. Not that I didn't before, but my brain is wrapping itself around the concept more and more. Kids don't know the difference between the Old and New TEstament. They just know there's "The Bible." HELP!

I still feel called overseas, but I also see huge needs here. So I'm praying about how God wants to use my passion for various cultures, gifts with languages, and skills in making things cross-culturally relevant alongside my burden for my own country.

One more day of camp here, then on Saturday four of us are going to run the 5K (3.1 mile) race with the town and Church. Hehe. Have never run in this kind of race before, although the pastor assures us that we can walk as well as run. Anna and I have been jogging and stretching every night since we signed up. The Pastor wants us to try and come in second place, however I hardly think three days of light jogging and stretching will do much to bring that goal into existance. :-)

~PrincessOuch~

Amongst the hillbillys

I'm not sure if I'm violating political correctness by having that as my post title. However, as the Sunday School leader announced, "I need steel-toed boots when I speak. I'm so busy steppin' all over my own toes, I'm sure I'm stompin' on ever-body elses." I chuckled a hearty Amen to that.
We spent last week in a small town located about five minutes from the Cumberland Gap National Park. Can't post pictures right now but hope to soon. It was GORGEOUS. Although one of my teammates who is originally from Oregon and I kept looking for Lundy Taylor, Fairlight and Miss Alice from the "Christy" book and movies. She (teammate) and I also wrote down "Southernisms"- words like "Chillbubs" (we say "Goosebumps") and cute little phrases one wouldn't hear spoken west of the Mississippi or on the other side of the Mason-Dixon line. My favorite was when a little boy was telling me a story about his red cowboy hat. Apparently a friend of his put his Bible on his head then the hat on top of the Bible. "And that thar hat popped off his head jes' like a chicken's does afore you stuck it in a pot pie." Gruesome, yet humorous. We did a three day 'camp' (glorified VBS) and then went exploring during our extended weekend. We saw Cumberland Gap, Cumberland Falls, and I was able to make a quick two hour visit to my Grandpa and his wife Corrine in Knoxville on Saturday evening. The visit was really nice and ended in several invitations for me to return and go hiking in the Smoky Mountain National Park, which was visible from their kitchen window on clear days. My room mate and I discovered that we have no plans for fall break besides work, and as she's from India, I think it a very important cross-cultural necessity that she come hiking with me. :-) Can't wait for October :-)
We are currently staying at a disaster relief center whilst putting on a five-day 'camp' in a more flat area of Kentucky. It is still beautiful, although the way our previous hosts described it I was sort of prepared to enter desert-land. The hill-folk still sniff with some disdain at the 'flatlands' I guess. Anna (Oregon friend) and I have been trying with little success to eat healthy but brownies, homemade cookies, coffee, and noodles have been bombarding us every time we turn around. We had hot dogs two meals in a row yesterday. The potato salad at dinner seemed a healthy alternative. Don't get me wrong, I'm thankful for the food. However, Anna handed me a chunk of raw broccoli for breakfast and I ate it. LOL never thought I'd be doing that.
Well, must run.
Thanks so much for your prayers and supportive notes etc! Our Internet accessability is slightly greater here, so I MIGHT be able to post more often. But don't hold your breath. :-)
In Christ,
Princess Ouch.

brief update

Well, once again I must hurry with the update. My apologies. One day I shall return to the blogging world.
In brief, the last three weeks have been amazing, exhausting, inspiring, depressing, energizing, and bewildering.
It shocked me how little so many of the campers knew about the Bible. Most didn't know what the difference between Old and New Testaments was, out of a cabin of seven only one girl knew the story of Esther, out of a cabin of six none knew the story of Ruth. One girl asked what kind of mother would name her son Ruth. I said well, Ruth was a girl and then they became more interested.
The last camp of kids was the most challenging but the most spiritually rewarding. A girl came forward on the last day when I caught her eye and told me she wanted to receive Christ as her Savior but didn't know how. She started crying when she told me she knew she was doing bad things that made God sad. So we prayed together and I asked her if she recognized she was a sinner, there was no other way to be saved except for Christ, and if she wanted to ask Jesus to be King of her life. She said yes, and I told her once she became a Christian her life wasn't her own anymore; it belonged to Jesus. She was a soldier waiting for orders from now on. She nodded and I told her to go ahead and tell God everything she just told me. After she prayed I said "Guess what! Now we're sisters. Did you know that?" Her eyes lit up and she shook her head. "How?" she asked, her tears drying. "Because once you become a Christian you join the family of Jesus, and I'm part of that family. So we're sisters!"
After the service she ran around asking people if they were saved and then joyously proclaimed, "Then we're sisters!" or "So we're brother and sister!"
It was really cool because one of the leaders had led FOUR girls to Christ the first week, and I had prayed, "Lord, I've never led anyone to You. I don't need to if that's not what You have for me, but I'd really like to if that's Your will while I'm here." And the last week my prayer was answered. Yay!!!
Tomorrow we hit the road as a team traveling to various Southern Baptist Churches in Kentucky who have requested that we run day camps for their kids. I've been told these are a breeze compared to the campground camps.
I should have more regular internet access. Hope so.
Happy Independence Day, by the way!!! celebrated by going to church, drinking tea with my Indian friends, exercising in my apartment, then my good friend picked me up and we watched x-men 2 and Hogan's Heroes whilst drinking milk and eating fresh brownies. She is knitting socks and I'm working on a cross stitch. Yeah, we're nerds. :-)

~Princess Ouch~