Mix of cultures
I want to write to you about one of the shocking and most memorable elements of my trip to Asia. It was more shocking than going to New York City or even Haiti, for the first time. Because this was our Asia summit, we had such a diversity of cultures there, that is made my head spin! Talk about getting out of your comfort zone! My gut ached because there was no place to settle and get used to anything as solid ground.
Right when you finished twenty minutes of listening how someone lived in their country, and before you had the chance to digest it and test your own fortitude to see if you could survive that way, someone else, from somewhere else would introduce themselves, and fill your gut with twenty more minutes of over the top indigestible experiences of survival … making you light headed in your thinking of who am I that I could take all this yet alone survive a portion of it!!!! Aurge! Stop-Lord-I-can’t-take-it-all-in type feeling while trying to keep composure through it all. Ok, now I think I am gaining on it …. then I meet this Husband wife team.
After trying to remember the Filipinos, Burmese, Nepalese, and Pakistani natives, this husband and wife team clearly are not native of the same country. In fact, turns out he is Indian, and she is Filipino. He is introduced with a name I still can’t remember (as well as her’s), but I do remember him being introduced as our Asia Director’s God-father. (Ok, go figure this … how did our Filipino Director (Ghie) get her God-father from India. Never did figure it out but before I even had time to try, he was going off on one theological subject matter after another, at a NASCAR’s pace in and out of the turns, twisting from one lane to the next without a breath (did he breath? I was wondering) yet so fluid I understood everything he was saying and we all were so mesmerized by it all I couldn’t tell if I was breathing … it all sounded so familiar yet I didn’t know this guy. One matter after the mind blowing next, my head is already a fully fueled tank and yet I am hungry to hear more and more yet I am full. Are you as exhausted as I was yet Mike? I managed to ask someone, what’s this guy do? Then someone (can’t tell you who it was) told me, “oh, he teaches at the Alliance Graduate School down the road” (formerly called the Alliance Theological Seminary). But it sounds so familiar to me and yet blowing my mind …WHO IS THIS GUY?? I asked. I heard someone tell …. His close cousin is Ravi Zacharais … NOW THAT EXPLAINS A LOT! WHAT IS HE DOING HERE IN OUR OFFICE AT OUR SUMMIT!!
[Our Director’s God-father, his wife, and Pastor Jomesh of Nepal at the Alliance College]
At this point my mind is mush …. and it just day one. Day ONE! So now I am gun shy of everyone wondering what Christian giant is going to walk in this room next? What I didn’t know at the time was that everyone in that room were to God His chosen Spiritual Christian giants and they were there as part of GYMN. Wow why us? I am going to write further in the coming articles about each of these Godly giants and the stories they told me of their lives and their ministries. I pray to God that I don’t exaggerate nor hold back a mite of truth. They are forever imbedded on my mind and heart. I hope they will be for you and whom ever hears these words also.
Matt Pounds
