Dear Friends,
Let me start with some praises: Early May Chris got his first shot and on the same day, I got my second shot! We praise God for His provision! Over 40% of Hungary’s population got the vaccine already, and we see the number of those in hospital with COVID and on ventilators drop significantly day by day. Praise God!
All of the kids are healthy, and the girls started to go back to school this week, on May 10. They were excited to see their classmates and teachers again.
I would like to share a couple of lessons I’ve been learning with you. The first one is a very simple lesson, yet I tend to forget it often: Cultures differ. 🙂
We have students from many countries every year at our Bible Institute. Many countries will often mean many different cultures. Many cultures often mean someone will hurt someone else unintentionally.
We need to learn to live together and communicate well, otherwise we will cause a lot of hurt.
In some cultures you show you care about the other person by asking personal questions, in another culture it is totally inappropriate to ask personal questions of someone, unless you are good friends. In some cultures you stand close to each other, in other cultures it’s rude to be in other people’s personal space. In some cultures people talk at the same time, in other cultures interrupting someone is a serious offense. And the list goes on. We can’t be oblivious to those around us. We need to learn their culture and respect it.
Just because we were brought up in a culture doesn’t mean that that culture is the best. We have the privilege of seeing a lot of cultures and those are mirrors to us that help us see our faults and the things that we are doing well in. We want to keep the things that we are doing well in, and we want to change the things that our culture is not doing the best. This is much easier said than done, but we are working on it. 🙂
Another lesson I am learning these days is to use my words to build up others, and if I can’t do that, being quiet is the best way to go. 🙂 I tend to use a lot of words, and where there are a lot of words, there are a lot of opportunities for hurt. I try to be a better listener than talker and am learning to limit my words. There are so many Proverbs talking about this, and James is very good at expressing the problems with the tongue. If you remember, I would appreciate prayers that I grow in this area day by day.
I am grateful God is graciously allowing me to see my faults one by one, and not all of them at once, as I would definitely die if I knew all my sins. I can’t comprehend how patient our God is and how He can love me unconditionally, even though He knows my every thought. Nonetheless I am very grateful for it! 🙂
Let us know how we can pray for you these coming weeks!