If you don’t get the title, I’m not explaining it.
I’ve been going to First Baptist for the 11:00 worship service for the past few weeks. Unless I have to go to the 11:00 service at First Methodist to run the sound system or preach, I’ve been taking the opportunity to go to a worship service that I don’t have to be a major part of. For years it’s been a really rare experience for me to be in a worship service and not be either running the sound system or doing one of the various things I do up front. And I’d just stay at my church except I’ve already heard the sermon at that point. Not that it’s not good or meaningful the second time around, but I have the opportunity to maybe get something else out of a totally different service, so why not?
The point of this is that my first Sunday back in the States, I was asked by several people if I would come and speak to one of the Baptist Women’s circles about my experience in Ecuador. Turns out they meet on Monday at noon, right after I get out of class, and they have lunch at Van’s Pizza, which is on my way back from school to anywhere. I have three hours to kill before my Physics lab (which was canceled today anyway) and how am I going to pass up an opportunity to yak for an hour about my summer?
So I printed out 40 pictures and showed up to Van’s with absolutely no plan. That’s how I like things. I have no idea how I’ve developed this, but when I talk off the top of my head, I’m about 10 million times more confident and eloquent than if I have to do something straight off a sheet or some notes. It will probably take me longer to write this blog entry than it did to condense three months into a short presentation for those ten women.
I have one friend in particular (who shall remain nameless) that I can think of who would not only find the invitation something he’d desperately want to get out of, but would just puke at the idea of having to give a presentation like this. I actually had a blast.
I started with a two-sentence or so explanation of the difference between teams and hosts (they all know Ryan and some know Betty or Julie or others) and another super-brief explanation of Youth World and Short-Term/Quito Quest. After that I just went right through our time with the Huaorani and then on to teams and hit the highlights of what it’s all about: partnership, being servants, and letting God work through us.
They asked questions, they laughed, they all freaked out when I showed them the photo of the boa constrictor around my neck. And while they were all so appreciative that a 22-year-old guy would come talk to a bunch of old women, I was thankful to have a non-pulpit opportunity to just talk for more than 30 seconds and not have someone glaze over.
In fact, on a totally unrelated note, I had a similar opportunity with a single person yesterday afternoon. Someone I consider to be a prominent person at my church, and who I’ve actually had some not-so-cheerful arguments with in the past asked me how my “trip” was, and then actually got into the details of the actual job and of the effect of the summer on me. As Colin would say, my mind was “totally bottled.” [sic]
I just about cried twice this afternoon, and for once in the last week, it wasn’t because I couldn’t breathe. Just relaying experiences and observations gave me productive processing time that I wasn’t looking for or expecting, much as I’ve been asking for it. And while people still occasionally say something that grates on my nerves because of lack of understanding, it’s the fact that there are people here to whom I can bring my experience home that keeps me from falling into the lie of “Spiritual Superiority” and makes me love my church(es) here and find my little niche in Elizabeth City.
