This weekend three of my teammates and myself utilized some well-needed vacation time to travel to a city 3 hours to the northwest. In addition to getting out of H-town for a few days, we also journeyed with the intention of meeting another worker and his family on the recommendation of the leader of our organization. One of my teammates, Clive, had been in contact with the worker “Jason” and let him know we were coming….but apparently we weren’t what he expected at all!
We got off the train about 1:00 pm and walked out of the station. Now this city only has about 1,000,000 people, a drop in the bucket for this country; the number of westerners can be counted on two hands. So we see this white guy standing outside of the train station, and I think “well, that has to be Jason, right? I mean how many westerners can there be in this city?” But as we walked closer, he didn’t seem to acknowledge us. We were about to walk away when Clive turned around and asked him: “Hey, are you Jason? I’m Clive.” Jason’s eyes flashed confusion and disbelief: “Clive? I thought you were going to be Asian!” All the communication that Clive and Jason had done was in the local language via text message and one short, hurried phone call, so Jason was under the impression that there were four Asian guys, not two American guys and two American girls coming to his city to meet him!
After we all laughed and introduced ourselves we spent the rest of the day with him walking around his city and hearing the call God has placed on his life for and the people there. We later met his wife and their four children. The next day we were able to go to the small fellowship that meets at their apartment once a week. The entire weekend was a wonderful experience for us, but I also feel it was great for this family as well. The fact of the matter is that they don’t really get to interact with foreigners very often, they are pretty much up there all alone. It was great to be able to bless them just by being there and letting them know that they are not alone. I feel really encouraged knowing that sometimes we don’t even have to do anything or be anything special, but when we follow God’s leading, He blesses our steps, and the lives of people we encounter.
McDoogle