NTM - New Tribes Mission | Planting Tribal Churches

There is feasting, visiting family, and a special tradition of kids going around asking for candy from everyone as the season of fasting for Ramadan ends. Even though we don’t share the same beliefs, it is important that we show a genuine interest in what is going on around us. Friendship is the only way to be able to share our faith and so we need to extend that same courtesy and learn as much as we can about their religion.
So, I decided to help our neighbor prepare the special rice and sauce for the family feast. I have sat and watched a couple of times now because she’s made it for Steve a few times. We sat and prepared vegetables and five hours later lunch was ready. They came over to eat with us and it’s funny to watch the kids try to eat like us. I assure them that they don’t have eat off plates with spoons, but when they are here with us that’s the only way that they’ll do it. Let me tell you, rice goes EVERYWHERE.
After all the feasting we headed out to visit some of their extended family who lives nearby. We had new clothes made for us for the occasion. We had our neighbor pick out some fabric for us and we weren’t quite prepared for what she came back with. It’s a little loud to say the least – even the kids were calling Steve a clown! We went to a village nearby and met the extended family of our neighbors. Everyone was very welcoming and they brought out this row of plastic chairs for us to sit on while they just sat back and watched us. There was a baby there and Ephraim made himself right at home holding the baby. I am amazed that they will just hand over babies to him! We sat for a while, but thankfully we didn’t stay too long because it was extremely hot out and I can only hold off Micah and Malachi for so long when it’s that hot.
We arrived home and the kids were already ready coming by to get candy. They can go around the neighborhood and get treats from everyone. We were glad to have been forewarned about this tradition because kids were coming in groups of 30. We finally just started throwing candy up in the air and letting them get it because they were getting a little too crazy.
It was a long and very tiring day, but it was a day filled with cultural insights. We are thankful that we have host family that shared the day with us and is excited to see us gaining more knowledge about the world we now live in.

Tags: host family, religion

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 7th, 2008 at 12:00 am and is filed under Ministry, News Article. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.