New Service Year, New Goals

I have lots of "down time" living here.  Just unaccounted for time.  Mostly traveling from here to there, walking, riding the bus, etc.  It's been my goal from the beginning to try to use this kind of time wisely and when I say wisely I want to be able count it up and add it to the end of the month tally, if ya know what I mean.  I want to use it to preach.  MUCH easier said than done, mostly because of the language.  I mean it's hard enough just happening to strike up a conversation in your own language let alone one that you're still working all the kinks out of...that's the nice way of saying it.  The real way is "train wreck".   But, it's a new service year so I am ever more determined!  And I've had some pretty good success.

Yesterday I was on the bus, on my way to meet some friends for lunch, and was sitting next to a nice looking lady who had some stuff written on her hand one thing of which were the words Ingles - Miercoles.  So, perfect - Step 1 - look for a conversation starter.  I asked her if she knew any English and she said none but that her kids were in classes.  From there the conversation just flowed because Ecuadorians are some of the friendliest people ever.  Step 2- Keep the conversation going.  If you could just talk long enough the conversation will eventually get around to a very important question..."are you married and are you going to marry an Ecuadorian"??  HA!  Just kidding!  While that is a VERY popular question, the question I had in mind was "So....what are you doing here"?  At this point you've already arrived at Step 3 - Give a witness.  The nice lady on the bus and I chatted a while about what I was doing here and later she mentioned that she used to study and even go to meetings.  I encouraged here to start up again, told her where the KH is and meeting times so...mission accomplished.

By the time I arrived to meet the girls for lunch I was on a hot roll!  So, I decided to strike up another conversation with the woman who served me who was very obviously pregnant (do not try this if you cannot say VERY OBVIOUSLY).  I asked her how many months she was and she said she actually only has a few weeks to go and was super nervous.  We talked a minute more, I offered the family tract and no sooner did she have it out of my hand but was she asking where my church was (she also mentioned something about her husband going before but I didn't quite get it all but there was definitely a reason for her asking me).  I tried to offer the location of the closest KH to where we were at but she stopped me and said "but I live over by Juan Jose Flores".  And what do you know but that is my KH so it was super easy to tell her meeting times.  She said hopefully she'll see me up there.  We shall see.  Woo-hoo let's keep this momentum going.

Finally today I was sitting on the bus in the very last and extremely crazy row.  Crazy for multiple reasons.   I was in the middle seat so I was facing the aisle which means there's nothing to hold onto and I usually have the feeling that I could go pitching forward at any given time into the mass of people holing on for dear life as the bus driver goes whipping around the turns.  Also crazy because you feel every single bump in the road and if the driver hits them hard enough you will, for a fact, go flying off of your seat about 6-8 inches and land smack down on a plastic molded seat which is exactly what happened to me today which apparently is big fun for the Ecuadorians because I was the only one back there not laughing hysterically after it happened (I still don't understand this one).  But I'm getting away from the story.  There was a cute little girls also in my row who kept looking at me and smiling so I smiled back but was kind of tired so didn't say a thing.  Finally she started talking to me (by the way her mom, not so friendly, was in the middle of us).  She wanted to know where I was from and where I lived and what I was doing here.  I told her I was here to teach the Bible, especially to the Chinese people.  And then she asked if I was a Witness.  Turns out that she's not studying with anyone but that she's been to the Kingdom Hall a few times.  I asked her mom if she's ever been and she said no but didn't expand on it but sill didn't seem to mind the little girl talking to me.  In the end, I gave the little girl my number on a tract and said that if it was ok with her mom, she could call me and we could talk about the Bible.

Just thought I'd share these little experiences because they've given me a lot of joy over the past couple of days - guess it always pays to mix it up.