Guysssssss I'm hoooooome and it's so cooooooolllllld
The Rogue Wolf said:
Does this mean we get to ask about the missionary's positions? Heh heh heh.
Sorry, I'm still a virgin, with no end in sight on that front.
Every religion seems to have its own subdivisions, sects, what have you. What made you choose your particular one over others?
I grew up in it. Now that I'm old enough to look more critically at Christian denominations, I'm not sure I'd really identify with any of them, as the differences are marginal at best and heavily divided over relatively few issues at worst.
Mezahmay said:
Have you heard any interesting expressions or idioms in your travels that have stuck with you?
"ОЙ! БЛИЕНЬ!" ("Oi! Blien!")
It's just a general cry of distress, but it's very, very close to the Russian words "OI! PANCAKE!" and it was always translated as such. And for whatever reason, I've adopted it.
Beyond that, most idioms don't translate well and so I haven't held on to them.
Ambient_Malice said:
What are your thoughts on Gospel for Asia, and their idea that the ideal long-term course of action is to train missionaries to minister to their own people instead of importing foreigners to run things?
I don't think it's ideal, if only because it would take longer than importing foreigners (plus, I've found that foreigners in some locations, like Keshtapoor, Calcutta, where we were, have a wow-factor that makes our job easier). But as long as they're not advocating shutting foreigners out, I don't have a problem with them. Asian Missionaries For Asia certainly have their advantages as well, since Christianity is supposed to be worldwide but it's been delegated by the world as a whole as a "Western Religion" (which is hilarious if you check out where it came from), and having a strong Asian missionary presence would certainly help overcome that barrier.
thaluikhain said:
lacktheknack said:
Oh dear. No, we're very thoroughly prepped on how to not be an ass overseas, and all the other missionaries we met were also with YWAM, so everyone behaved themselves.
Oh, what sort of things did this preparation include?
I've always been interested in how groups train people to go overseas and play nice with the locals, possibly because of all the times you hear when someone should have had more training.
Crash courses in Hot vs. Cold Culture, days spent researching the culture and situations of the countries we were going to head out to, a crash course on culture shock, and constant reminders that we're heading out to interact with people, not automatons/inferiors. Even a little bit of prep and research goes a long way to avoid "hilarious" misunderstandings and clashes.
someonehairy-ish said:
Well, I once had a street pastor type (he said he was a Christian Monk but I don't know what denomination) chat to me for a bit and when I mentioned that I wasn't religion his response was "oh? You look spiritual". To this day, I still have no idea whatsoever how somebody can look spiritual.
So I guess my question is, can you usually tell by looking whether someone is likely to be religious or not? I certainly can't unless they're wearing an Atheist t-shirt or something.
I have no idea how to tell this from a first glance. I can usually make a good guess after interacting with you for an hour, but I'm really bad at figuring people out, so I'm probably not the best person to ask.
