Orientation Week

What an unforgettable time here in Akron, Pennsylvania with 5 days of orientation completed.....two more to go and then Indonesia bound.  

I have never been in a place where young adults with a passion for serving God come together from over 25 countries of the world.  I love this so much!  I have not stopped talking to people from countries such as Jordan, China, Laos, Kosovo, France, Columbia, Lesotho.  We have also not stopped dancing, singing, playing frisbee, playing dutch blitz and eating together.  

I arrived here and I met my roommate Ashish from India, whom has made me laugh so hard over the last few days.  Not only does Ashish make me laugh lots, his living habits are what you may say are opposite of me.  He wakes up at 5am and works out.  I wake up at 8:30am and working out is furthest from my mind ( as many of my King's friends know).  He has the extraordinarily neat half of the room and I have well......dumped my backpack out and live out of relative disorder compared to him.  

I live in "Asia House" which means that I live with the other SALTers going to Asia and also those whom have come from Asia and are spending the next year in North America. (they are know as IVEPers)  We eat lots of noodles, play dutch blitz and share stories from our lives with each other.  The idea is that SALTers are able to meet IVEPers from the country they are going to, but the Indonesian IVEPers could not come to North America yet due to their visas.  That would have been really nice....you know, to help out my Indonesian which has a total vocab of 5 words right now.  

One of the best ways I have ever spend my mornings in life has been this week's morning routine.  We worship in Albanian, Chinese, Swahili, Spanish, Arabic and we worship in the style that coincides with different areas of the world.  Love it!  

This has really been about meeting people from around the world and hearing slivers of their life stories, but there has also been a few excellent sessions.  One was the three keys to a successful cross-cultural experience.   

1. Humor

2. Lower expectations 

3. Ability to fail repeatedly 

I found these 3 points fascinating and I hope to reflect on how true I find these things while I am in Indonesia.  

ANOTHER, great thing was the time the SALTers going to Asia and the IVEPers coming from Asia discussed cultural differences and similarities.  One hilarious difference was that in South Korea the men shower together and they wash each others backs.  This came to the shock of myself and everyone else....however, I commented how I can never wash my entire back and that the way Koreans do it would be very useful.  A North American rebuttled asking me why I would ever need to wash my back....and I gave up my argument, but I am now curious about Indonesian showering customs...haha.  

Today we watched a video clip called "The Danger of a Single Story."  It is an excellent talk that can be found here.  It is a incredible reminder to myself about the stories that I carry into my year where assumptions, stereotypes are held.  We cannot help but hold onto stories, because it is how we make sense of the ourselves and the world.  However, it is when we start with a single story and we hold onto that story no matter what alternative stories exist, that undignifying actions arise.  These dangerous single stories occur when the mega-narrative of God's world being made new becomes out of focus.  It has been a beautiful thing this week to listen to and embrace the stories of the global church.  For example:

--Talking to Shenouda from Egypt who belongs to the Coptic Church and whom protested in the Egyptian Revolution and speaks passionately about it.

--Albert from Kosovo whom has witnessed his country being liberated and explains how the economic struggles of the liberated Kosovo are worth it because of the freedom gained.

--YuShan from China whom I stayed up to 3am talking to about how she came to Christ 3 years ago and what living as Christ in China looks like.

--And talking to Diego from Brazil whom is going to Edmonton for his year.  Among other things, I instilled a fear of the upcoming awful Edmonton winter.  

I will embrace the next few days here, however odd it is to be with people whom I will not see for a year.  I had my prayer card photo taken today, so if you would like a prayer card and you are not in my support group or church, then let me know by emailing me at jason_k_horlings@hotmail.com.  

Thursday morning I go to Indonesia......finally!