I went to Asia the first time four years ago. I lived in a remote village (like the one above), and in a two month period, I only went to a town once. I worked outside from sunrise to sunset with my friends. Then after dark, we’d cook and clean up, pray, and go to bed. I worked 16 hours a day.
Except for during Bible training.
Then life went from bone-tired to insanity. We’d work all day in the Mississippi-like-humid heat, then around dusk motorcycles would pull into the village, shoes would go off, and people would stay up studying until the wee hours of the morning. Then everyone would join me where I slept on the left, and the visitors would wake up early (as in 5 a.m.), climb down the loft, start training again, and keep getting trained while I fed the pigs, cut firewood, and prepared lunch.
And then the visitors would disappear around the mountains and take the training to other villages (of the same tribe) in two different countries. Just. Like. Acts.
I was shocked. My definition of church was sub-culture: homeschooling-courtship-veggie tales- WWJD-Jesus-is-my-home-boy-T-shirts.
Their definition of the church was small group teaching and prayer.
Also, I was amazed that these people had never heard of homeschooling or courtship or any of the anything that, to me, represented what it meant to be a Christian. And I slept on the same loft as men. OMG.
And all this meant terrible culture shock when I finished my internship and went to the US. The fact that I had not slept in insulated walls or on a bed was bad enough. But I wanted to bang my head against the wall when my friends said believers must do courtship. I just kept shaking my head, “but my friends overseas. They never did courtship.”
And the stupid little rules that everyone had on keeping guys and girls so far apart seems stiffing. A few days after I got back, I went camping in the high mountains of Colorado with my homeschool friends. It was 25 degrees F at night. And so I announced that I was sleeping outside in the open stairs in front of the campfire, and I invited my friends to join. But, like any good homeschool guy, one of my friends insisted in sleeping in a tent all by himself to keep his distance from girls.
Suddenly my evangelical-homeschool world felt really, really small.
Good for them, and I hope US fundamentalists don’t try to spread it to Christians there in Asia.
The lack of outrageous rules about closeness in relationships, and within the church, probably makes for stronger and healthier relationships. Many US Christians have an unhealthy obsession with sex, imo.
Its ridiculous. If you touch a girl, somehow that equals sex.
I know, I was told by family never to even hug/kiss a girlfriend or female friends. I didn’t follow that, and I still didn’t become promiscuous like everyone thought that would led to, lol.
It all seems to come down to culture yet I am trying to figure out how working all day, doing bible study and praying, what they have to with homeschooling and courtship? You don’t mention that in your story.
What you should expand is the role that these guys on the motorcycles are playing in that village. How are they helping the people or how are they hurting the people.
Your blog article starts out one way but you leave us thinking in a totally different direction.
Ironically, there was a time when I wished my mom would have just set me up with a girl simply because I was so ridiculously shy. I figured it would be easier to go that route than for me to do it on me one and possibly be single the rest of my life. I was very introverted as well.