Getting Personal

I had lunch with a friend the other day. We were talking about the things that must be done to acquire a visa to the US. I told her to make sure she knew the names, addresses and phone numbers to all her former schools, universities and jobs. I started to go on about how she should also have her parents passports close by in order to give their information as well, but she stopped me before I got to that part and said something that got me thinking. She said:

"So Americans don't like to share personal information with each other, but they are willing to share it with their government. strange."

Being one of our better interpreters and having worked with Americans for years she wasn't just referring to something she assumed about American culture, but to something she had experienced and knew first hand to be true--in contradiction to her own culture.

When first meeting a person in the states there are some subjects we know to avoid.

This same friend shared in this same meeting that she had been working on paperwork all morning and as she sat in an office waiting her turn there were several older women sitting around who started telling her all about their lives--what the government was (or was not) doing, how their husbands had mistreated them--nothing was taboo or too personal to reveal to this young lady they had never before encountered.

In some ways this makes being a Christian in Ukraine easier for me. [in others more difficult.] Politics and religion are not avoided as topics of conversation. People want to know what you think and believe. And they want to tell you what they think and believe. [the difficult part being that what people think the believe to be fact and not just thought.]

Several weeks ago I was at dinner with two very close friends of mine and another person whom I know a little bit, but have not spent a whole lot of time with. He and one of my friends, in Russian, began discussing camps this past summer. Then the question was posed to my friend: What was your motivation behind working at camp this summer? My friend responded and then this person who had not really been talking to my other friend and I at all until this point in the conversation looked at us and posed the same question. Neither of us [both American] responded at the time. Later that same evening I did discuss this question with my acquaintance (whom I might add is quickly reaching friend status in no small part due to his willingness to be real), but in the moment I was so caught of guard (even after 5 years in country) by the depth of the question.

My friend who had been engaged in the original conversation at the dinner table later asked why [I] hadn't responded at the initial asking of the question. I explained my intimidation both by the Russian and the sincerity of the question. And though it caught me off guard and I froze in the moment, it is one of the things I most appreciate about the culture I am living in. I don't want to be afraid to be real. I don't want to hesitate when people ask about things I once deemed too private to share.

(And just so you don't have to feel too intimidated to ask...I hope; I hope my motivation to do camp this summer was to bring God glory. And maybe that sounds like the answer I'm supposed to give. But it's the one I hope in my heart that is true. I love loving the kids. But loving them to love them is not enough. I love encouraging the staff. But encouraging them so that they are encouraged is not enough. I love organizing and working in the store and doing anything that needs to be done. But helping to help is not enough. I love, I encourage, I help SO THAT others might know Christ better SO THAT as they know Christ better they might share Him with others SO THAT His name may be known and glorified throughout the earth. I HOPE that above all else THAT is my motivation...not just in camps, but in all that I do.)