South Asia Trip: Day 2

Sorry, went to a friend's wedding this weekend, so I haven't had time to keep posting our trip journal!

Here's Day 2:

Today we decided to take it slow in the morning in order to get as much sleep as possible. We woke up and had our bible study. We talked about our insecurities and how God should be the one to shine through us, so ultimately we should just set aside insecurities about ourselves. He will use us if we are willing. That’s the most important part about serving here. God will orchestrate everything if we let go control.

We ate a really good lunch and then met up with Lud’s friend Nemo, who was going to help us find phones. He had to meet up with a professor, so he handed us over to his friend Oscar. Oscar is timid, kind, and loved getting to practice his English with us. For the first time, we got a public transportation bus, and he led us to the main shopping district. There were like 30 different phone booths set up in this part town and we started shopping. We tried to express that we just wanted a really cheap phone, but none of the vendors really wanted to show us any. Finally, we found this nice man with a wife and little baby girl who was happy to sell us his cheapest phones. He was really friendly offering Lud a cigarette (which Lud of course declined politely) and handing me his baby to take a picture with her. I wish he could have texted me the picture because I would like to have it. We walked around the rest of the busy shopping district and found some American movies that we bought to watch while we’re here. Apparently it was Children’s Day in the country so the shopping district was crazy busy full of parents buying their children gifts.

By the time we made it back to the university it was time to eat. Oscar helped us order at the restaurant and we talked about differences between Americans and his country’s people. After dinner he invited us to an end of the year party, which ended up being kind of like a Senior Follies. There were at least 30 acts and it lasted 3 hours! There was mixture of dancing, singing, and skits. I found it very interesting how much American music is a part of their culture, but they also had traditional and modern music of their country too. Jetlag hit me during the middle of the party and I headed back to the room with Elena. After the party Lud, Evan, and Kayla were walking and started talking to a couple of girls. One of the girls said that she had met Lud before in the cafeteria. She said that he said a statement about Jesus and that it had really stuck with her. In fact, during a rough time in her life, it led to her to believe in Jesus. How amazing is it that they happened to run into her when there were hundreds of students present at this party?! Lud says it over and over that God really shows himself here. He definitely orchestrated that meet up and the girl becoming a Christian. Hopefully we are going to meet up with her today.