It's rather amazing the picture I have in my head of what giving to the poor looks like and the actual way it happens. Even after being here four months before and nearly a week again I still think that people will throw their arms around me and beg me to tell them of the gracious God I know that permits me to do such wonderful things for them. Unfortunately things do not happen this way......Stephen and I have been getting to know this man who has been telling us that he is a poor Christian man and he needed our help to see a doctor to get his arm x-rayed and put in a cast. We have been unsure of his true intentions but we kept thinking that we are here to love the poor, not judge their intentions so we have been helping him out. There are also quite a few women we have gotten to know who beg around our hotel and today we bought blankets for six of them and tried to discreetly give them to them without causing havoc and mass jealousy. In both of these situations where we have invested time and money there is never an expression of gratitude, just another "need" for us to give them more money or buy them more things. At first I thought this was strange but moved past it, but now it is bothering me more and more and I feel like I am seeing the true heart behind my gifts. I know that these people cannot repay me but I secretly want them to be ever thankful and tell me what a wonderful person I am for caring so much about them. I am starting to see past my own facade of giving joyfully with no expectations.
Today we worked in Kalighat, the home for the destitute and dying, again. I gave some long massages and fed the sleepiest old woman I have ever seen. At lunch a nun asked me to feed a woman who couldn't feed herself and usually didn't eat much. Through my broken Bengali I managed to ask her which things she would eat and feed them to her, but she kept falling asleep between bites. It was fitting that I feed her since this sound like something I would do. Stephen got to spend time in the men's ward handing out food and medicine and got quite a surprise when he greeted a man in Bengali and the man answered by asking him in perfect English if he was from Arkansas? It was strange.
The final and possibly most important part of this post. Since we lack modern entertainment our spare time if filled with pointless conversation and wondering, but we have come to something we can't agree on. So we decided to put it to a vote. Which is supposed to have more holes in the top, the saltshaker or the peppershaker? I won't tell you which of us hold which position so you can vote bias free. Thank all of you for your prayer, we are grateful.
Kristen
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6 comments:
I can't decide. On one hand salt is typically more fine than pepper and therefore the salt comes out faster and should have less holes than the pepper. On the other hand people like salt and will use a lot more of it than pepper (thus making more salt holes better than more pepper holes). What a dilemma.
in my experience, i have always seen the salt placed in the shaker with more holes, but i also consume more sodium than should be legally allowed in most states.
Traditionally, the salt shaker in the set can be identified from the pepper shaker as having five holes as opposed from the pepper shaker's four holes. There is a debate, however, as to the authenticity of this notion.
Go have a sharbat for me, and be careful over there...
Aaron
If you look on my salt & pepper shakers...the white one (for salt) has more holes than the black one (for pepper).
Personally I feel that pepper shakers should have more holes in them because you have less of a chance of ruining your food than if you over salt it. Over-peppering is not as much a problem. Well I need to keep Becky updated about PRC and I am sad to say Shaq and Dusty are leaving this week and next week. Shaq is leaving with his brother, so that's good news. But still, our two little chubby favorites are leaving. I will tell them goodbye for you...tear tear...Miss you guys
i agree with katy. over pepper is better than over salting. i think that's why you never see salt grinders. but wait, there are salt licks. so it depends on if you're a bovine or not.
comp-comps i miss yall. luckily i get to visit your place (what's left of it) whenever i feel nostalgic, so take your time over there. i concur with john, it's nice to hear what's going in your lives and how to pray. i like hearing about the people you meet and how the Lord is shaping them, and you, with each other's lives.
and be glad that you arn't trying to fill your free time with trying to figure out how to play the lost board game. haynous. maybe you could fill it a little more by posting some pictures?
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