I’ve found that this kind of work is full of “ups” and “downs” — and most of the time it is somewhere in the middle. A good friend of mine who is currently living overseas sent this story which clearly illustrates this (albeit from a slightly different cultural perspective). Enjoy! And be encouraged. . .and if you’d like to check out her blog, it can be found here.

There is a trickster character in my country’s folklore named Jhooha. It’s almost like if the guy in the “So a guy walked into a bar…” jokes had a name. There are tons of these jokes / stories. We have read and heard several of them, and the people here think they are hilarious. Sometimes, the humor doesn’t quite translate, but this one was pretty funny.

Jhooha decided one day to take his son with him to the market to teach him how to bargain for groceries. Theirs was not a wealthy family, and they only had one donkey. The market was far away, so Jhooha put his son on the donkey, and off they went. As they walked, though, they heard people saying under their breath, “Look at that disrespectful son—riding on the donkey while his old dad has to walk!” Jhooha heard what they were saying, so he told his son to get off of the donkey, and he got on instead. As they continued walking, Jhooha heard people saying under their breath, “Look at that merciless father—riding the donkey and making his poor little boy walk!” Jhooha heard what they were saying, so he got off the donkey, and both he and his son walked alongside the burden-less donkey. As they walked, they heard people saying under their breath, “Look at that fool! He has a donkey, but neither he nor his son are riding it!” Jhooha’s blood began to boil. He grabbed the donkey, and threw it over his back—carrying it. “Maybe now people will stop their gossip!” Jhooha growled.

Moral of the story: No matter what you do, people are always going to find fault.

I guess the other moral is (at least for me), when it comes to churches and you’re trying to do something different, there’s always going to be somebody who thinks you should be doing it differently. Just so long as we’re not being different just like everybody else. . .

God bless,

Dave