Goings on

 I first started this blog when we were just getting to know our neighbors. Now that we know them much better, and interact with them regularly, it is hard for me to remember to update you guys on how everything is going because it's not that big of a deal anymore.

Yesterday I was unloading the dishwasher and I was thinking about sharing the gospel with our Indian neighbors. We have not laid it out for them yet. We do not understand how we should approach it. They are hindu, and they believe in many different gods. They go to the temple to worship, and they pray in the mornings. Then I was thinking, however we do this, it is going to step on their toes. Our interactions might be awkward for a while afterwards. They might get offended and not be our friends anymore. 

And then I was thinking about overseas missions. I usually have this inaccurate picture in my head that I am just going to go overseas and tell people the story of God, and that it is going to be such music to their ears that they all fall on their faces in worship of the One True God. But I forget that before I (when I say "I", that includes the team of believers that I will be a part of) will be friends with the people when I move to their country. I will have lived with them, learned their language, and asked thousands of questions about their culture. I will have cried with them, laughed with them, and we will be friends. I think about sharing the gospel with them then. I will probably loose some friends. That is okay. I must tell them to repent because I love them. Dude, I love them already, and I don't even know them yet. I pray for them, and so my heart is already attached to them. Please pray for the people that I will be living among in a few years. Pray that their hearts will be opened to the gospel. 

Ok, but back to being a missionary today... sometimes I just really enjoy being friends with my neighbors and I just get comfortable around them. But then yesterday happened, and I remembered how exciting it was to watch God move in the beginning. 

Mike and his son, Alex, live in the apartment below us. A few weeks ago it was Alex's birthday, so we gave him a card with some money in it. When we gave it to him, Mike was blown away. He could not understand why the heck we would do something like that. 

Fast foreword to last night. We borrowed Mike's broom to sweep off our porch. When we brought it back to him, he handed us a brand new broom! He was so stoked for what we did for his son that he wanted to do something nice for us. Wow.   (Plus the fact that through him, God provided a broom for us!)

After this, we were feeling good, so we walked the 6 feet across to the neighbors who live directly across from us. They are a bunch of Indian bachelors, probably in their early 30's. We haven't really had any good interactions with them, hellos and how are you doings, but that is about it. Their door was open because they were cleaning, so we poked our heads in and introduced ourselves again. We had such a blast trying to say each other's names and invited them all to dinner on Friday night. We are inviting all four apartments in our block, and we hope that not only will we get to know all of the neighbors a little bit better, but hopefully they will get to know each other. Please pray that they see God in us, and not just think that we are good people.