"the incident"

“I think the novelty of being with people from a different culture is wearing off and it now becomes us relying on God to [show] love [to] these people.” - JS

This a story of what happens when you offend an Arab and can potentially lose a friend:

     This past Saturday morning, our language teacher, Abdul, started class by telling us that he had something non-language related to talk about. He proceeded to tell us a story about how we offended him and that he was upset. Extremely long story short, the day before, we had made some lunch plans that he was unaware of, which caused him to feel excluded and shamed (he also made some assumptions about what we were doing with him later and turned down some other invitations to fit them).

     Typically, in Arab culture, if someone feels offended by another, the offended party doesn’t say anything to the offender, he waits for him to come apologize. It is up to the offender to figure out what he did wrong. Until it is worked out, they don’t talk to one another and this can go on as long as days or years.

     The only reason Abdul confronted us and told us what we had “done” to him, was because a mutual American friend of ours told him he should, that we needed to know what we had done because we are learning and wouldn’t want to make the same mistake again. Although I feel that Abdul didn’t really have a valid reason for being mad at us, even by his cultural standards, I am glad he told us and allowed us to apologize. If he hadn’t, the bitterness would grow in his heart and we could have potentially lost a friend in him.

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PS - I re-ran my funding numbers last night and am at 92% (instead of the previously reported 98), which is still awesome! I will continue to trust that the Lord beings it in.