When I was little, my home was very atypical. It had its moments of normalcy but it was odd in ways that sometimes I was embarrassed of, and empowered by. My mom never made your typical comfort foods, no brownies, no casseroles and nothing cheesy. Her comfort food was kimchi pancakes. If she was trying to cheer me up, its what she always defaulted to. I never thought it was odd or weird, I liked it. In the same way, I never thought it was strange to help my mom. If she had a Dr.'s appointment, I had to go to make sure she understood what the Dr. said. If she brought home a job application, I filled it out. If there was an important meeting at her church with the American church, I went. I was there to make sure the Koreans understood what the Americans were saying and the Americans understood what the Koreans were saying. I was always in some way or other working as a bridge between two cultures. I actually loved that.
I didn't know it then but I have always viewed the world through a lens that accepts differences and doesn't expect people to be just like me. I thought I was very open minded and flexible when it came to different cultures. The fact that I could munch on dried squid at home during a movie or eat popcorn at the theater made life just that much more fun. I knew there were certain things that my American friends had a hard time with, and sure those things embarrassed me. Like the big jar of pickled baby crabs that sat on my kitchen counter. Like my mom singing and praying in Korean so loud that you could hear it three houses down the street. However, I've come to really love all these things that were so odd growing up and in the end I think I'm better for it. You can imagine my shock when I met my future husband to be and he was even more open and understanding of other cultures than me. Of course he had taken some missions classes and I had not. I remember the first time I commented on how I thought a food from a particular country was disgusting and he corrected me saying,"not disgusting, different." When we went to Korea he was more accepting of the customs and idiosyncrasies of the people than me. I had to keep telling myself, "accept the culture don't criticize it". Everyone is open minded till they come up against the things that challenge their particular beliefs or how they were raised. I'm not talking about morals but about things like, personal space, manners, cleanliness. We take for granted things like chewing with your mouth closed, not spraying everyone when you speak, but in other countries these are acceptable. I'm sure in Africa there will be things we do that will unintentionally offend and there will be things that are done to us that we are offended by. Yet I take comfort in the scripture that says love covers a multitude of sins. See if I love you, I over look minor things and concentrate on the love I have for you. We are setting our hearts to love the Africans we will be living with. With God's grace love will flow both ways and perhaps I'll introduce them to kimchi pancakes.
I didn't know it then but I have always viewed the world through a lens that accepts differences and doesn't expect people to be just like me. I thought I was very open minded and flexible when it came to different cultures. The fact that I could munch on dried squid at home during a movie or eat popcorn at the theater made life just that much more fun. I knew there were certain things that my American friends had a hard time with, and sure those things embarrassed me. Like the big jar of pickled baby crabs that sat on my kitchen counter. Like my mom singing and praying in Korean so loud that you could hear it three houses down the street. However, I've come to really love all these things that were so odd growing up and in the end I think I'm better for it. You can imagine my shock when I met my future husband to be and he was even more open and understanding of other cultures than me. Of course he had taken some missions classes and I had not. I remember the first time I commented on how I thought a food from a particular country was disgusting and he corrected me saying,"not disgusting, different." When we went to Korea he was more accepting of the customs and idiosyncrasies of the people than me. I had to keep telling myself, "accept the culture don't criticize it". Everyone is open minded till they come up against the things that challenge their particular beliefs or how they were raised. I'm not talking about morals but about things like, personal space, manners, cleanliness. We take for granted things like chewing with your mouth closed, not spraying everyone when you speak, but in other countries these are acceptable. I'm sure in Africa there will be things we do that will unintentionally offend and there will be things that are done to us that we are offended by. Yet I take comfort in the scripture that says love covers a multitude of sins. See if I love you, I over look minor things and concentrate on the love I have for you. We are setting our hearts to love the Africans we will be living with. With God's grace love will flow both ways and perhaps I'll introduce them to kimchi pancakes.
