I. Am. Sleepy. I had a busy weekend. Saturday, I went with some people to a Caribbean music festival in downtown Richmond to share the Gospel with people there. We did the same thing yesterday at a nearby mall. It was hard at first because that's a big stretch for me, but it got easier as the day went on. I'm so glad I went! But I still shouldn't really be sleepy. I slept in Saturday (I won't mention what time I got up... but let's just say it was close to lunch time!), Sunday I got up just before house church, and then I got eight hours of sleep last night. (I wasn't supposed to get quite that much, but who needs breakfast, anyway?) So I had a pretty restful weekend. And still, I feel like I need sleep! It's probably because we sit in sessions almost all day, every day. I actually really enjoy the sessions--I like classroom settings, and I like taking notes! But it still makes us all feel kind of lethargic. Really, it feels like all we do is wake up, eat, sit, eat, sit, eat, sleep. It's hard to find the energy to exercise! But I'm really trying to get into a routine this week.
need... sleep...
Author: Abbey /Speaking of eating, we did something fun for lunch today. We had our first "special meal." Today, it was a Moroccan meal. We could only eat the food they gave us. It was actually pretty good. There was a salad type dish, which was mostly just a bunch of cubed vegetables; olives; some meatball-type things; and some delicious bread to eat it all with. We could only eat with our right hands, since that's considered the clean hand in most African cultures. It was neat. The point of the special meals is, of course, to experience food in a different cultural setting, but it's also to teach us to be thankful for what we get. One of the leaders of orientation told us a story about when she was working in Africa. There was a volunteer team coming in during a time of famine, and they had told this woman that they would like to experience what a meal is like in an African setting. When the village people found out, they insisted on cooking for the volunteer team. Many of the people in the village went without food for days at a time so they could provide food for this team. After the volunteer team got there, though, and saw what the village was like, they refused to eat there. They insisted on leaving. It sounds unimaginable, but I can see many Americans (myself included) doing something like this, just because the people there live differently than we do. So we were all grateful for that learning experience at lunch today!
Oh, and another thing we do differently here that I really enjoy is church. Instead of gathering together, we meet with people in our affinity groups. The European affinity group is split up into two small groups. I'm with five other people and two adorable little boys. We're going to Macedonia, Bulgaria, and Finland. The point of our small group meeting time is to model a house church, which is what church will be like for most people on the field. I love house church. It's easier to pay attention (at least for me), and it's a really intimate setting. Plus, all the people going to Europe just happen to be amazing. :)
Thanks for all your encouragement! I really feel like I'm learning a lot here, and I'm still having a great time!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
0 comments:
Post a Comment