I have been in Pune for almost 2 weeks! wow, can' believe it, time has gone by so fast! It has been such a great expereince so far being somewhere for a "long" period of time... I officially started working at the coffee shop last monday and have been working every morning from 10-4. I am actually getting pretty decent at making all the drinks now! Even the steamed milk and I are becoming better friends! It is funny because one of the girls that works there will say "Good coffee, matthew (matt-u)" if i do it good, but she will say nothing if I mess it up, and the last few days she has said more "good coffee's" than not, so I'd say that means i'm improving! ha! Probably the best thing about working there is getting close to the other staff...they are such fun people and have been SO gracious and accepting of me barging into their lives. Some of the guys have even taken me to their "neighborhoods" and i met their families and they have just been so welcoming! It took some of them a while to warm up to me, but even the one guy who doesnt' speak hardly any english and is so quiet attempted to talk to me with the best english he knew today! I was honored! Even the young bus boy, Sam told me today that we are "friends". They all have been such a blessing in my life already! They all still like to laugh at me and i still think they only keep me around because i am tall and can reach the togo boxes (they just laugh and laugh every time i reach to the top shelf with great ease) but nevertheless, i have enjoyed working there so much!
This past week, I got to do something i wasn't necessarily expecting to do, but i am so glad I got to; the owners of the guest house which i am staying in also help run a boys orphanage for gypsie boys. They were talking to me about it and said they are teaching english to help get the boys more on par with the other students in their school. I offered to come along and help teach, which they were happy for me to come! The first day was great, I had 4th grade boys and we worked on spelling words and they were so amazing and fun. I basically fell in love with them. After our lesson, my guest house owners took me to their friends home near by and we had a very traditional meal at their home. It is customary in india to serve only your guests when you have people over for dinner. You always eat after your guests leave. So it is a little awkward to be eating all this food as the people who prepared it just stand and watch. It got to be prety funny though actually as they would offer us more and more food and even if we said "No" they would proceed to dollop 4 spoonfuls on our plate. Needless to say, i was so full at the end of the night. I went back to teach english the next few afternoons, and it actually got to be pretty hard because they really didn't have any curriculum to go by. I felt rather helpless as i tried to get the boys to show me what they had been working on in school, but the language barrier was just too much. It eventually worked out, but i still left feeling like i could have done more.
Anyway, God has really been teaching me a lot of patience while I am here. I am realizing how much i like to be busy all the time. I am also realizing that many times I want to be busy so i don't have to deal with all the mess that is going on in my life. Being here and being forced to slow down and being relativly alone has made me confront myself and all my brokenness. This is a pretty daunting task, but it has been really good for me just be still and really focus on God and His unconditional love. I still get restless at times, but I feel like I am learning to wait and learning so much about Jesus in the process. I want to leave you all with some quote s from the book Lion and the Lamb that i mentioned in my previous post. This book has been so amazing and fell into my hands just a the perfect time...
"Salvation is joy at the thought of another day to push on into the unknown"
"Becoming a little child means celebrating reality, abondoning ourselves to what is."
"When Jesus 'turns away', it is not rejection but an invitation to follow him to a place I don't want to go. And that place is down a deep well to experience my sinfulness, brokenness, and powerlessness in a way that i had never known before."
"I believe Jesus calls us all to let go of the desire to appear good, to give up the appearance of being good, so that we can listen to the word within us and move in the mystery of who we are."
"Christ lives in us, and our sufferings are His passion continuing in the world."
"Blessed are you who laugh now, because you can bring the joy of Easter to others. But blessed are you only if you can laugh at yourself, if you don't take yourselves too seriously, if human living doesn't revolve around you and your needs. Only if your laughter means that you have let go in reckless confidence all that shackles you to yesterday, imprisons you in your small self today, and frightens you with the uncertainty of tomorrow. Blessed are you who laugh, because you are free!"
That is all for now--much love.
matt-
I just read the last three posts in a row! They are all so awesome. When will you post some pictures? I really want to see the cabin and mountains. I don't know how much CS Lewis you have read, but your adventure somehow reminds me of some of his fantasy novels---a young man swept off to a strange new world, doing all sorts of new and interesting things, meeting new people. It makes me think of The Great Divorce or That Hideous Strength (two books you must read if you haven't before). Keep up the good work! --- Robert
ReplyDeleteHey Matt! It sounds like you are having a great summer. I am a little jealous that you are on such a great trip and not just sitting at home waiting for Mission Year to come around, like I am. Haha. Anyway, I look forward to meeting you in Atlanta and hearing about how India has changed your life!
ReplyDeletePeace.
Kimberly Rixon