The Miss Missionary Pageant
This weekend we had our second seminar of a four part series. I was very keyed up, and the proof of that was my 6:00 am wakeup! I worked over my presentations one last time and then got ready, drinking a Diet Coke on the way out the door at 8:45 am. My plan was to run on caffeine all day, as if that would help the French flow forth from my tongue!
I didn't need it as it turned out. It went fine. I presented the Coran and Prayer as Spiritual Warfare from the first seminar, just in shortened "reminder" format, and then in the afternoon, I did a longer, more detailed presentation of how the prophets of the Coran can lead to Jesus in witnessing to Muslims. All the presentations went fine, and although I made a few grammatical mistakes, everyone seemed to think my personality made up for them, since I kept them laughing and more engaged than some of our other presenters. Nothing like humor to break the ice (or the cultural barrier!)
I was disappointed at first to see that none of our folks from June (the first seminar) had returned to continue the series. But the folks we had were great. There were 11 people from a local church, and 9 of them are the "evangelism team" from that church who do street evangelism every Saturday afternoon in their local neighborhood. Having the team there made for a much more practical dynamic. You could almost see the future plans taking shape in their brains. I think that being there all together helped them to sort of brainstorm on how they can best implement what they were hearing.
So once again, we had 11 people, just a different 11 from the first time. Hopefully, we can keep on expanding each time. Our next part of the series will be in February.
In other news . . . . A friend of mine and I were recently messaging on the internet and he said the women are "high maintenance" while men are "low maintenance." That was his reasoning on why he can roll out bed, brush his teeth and go to work, but I can't. I thought of this on Saturday morning, as I got ready for the seminar. Men have no concept of what women go through to prepare for these kind of events--events that either make us nervous or are something important. I put so much time into my hair, makeup, and clothes for that seminar that it might as well have been the Miss Missionary Pageant and teaching the seminars just my "talent portion." You would think I was going to recieve a sash and and an armful of roses at the end. In case you're wondering, I didn't. But I did order a take-out pizza afterward and that was reward enough for me.
I didn't need it as it turned out. It went fine. I presented the Coran and Prayer as Spiritual Warfare from the first seminar, just in shortened "reminder" format, and then in the afternoon, I did a longer, more detailed presentation of how the prophets of the Coran can lead to Jesus in witnessing to Muslims. All the presentations went fine, and although I made a few grammatical mistakes, everyone seemed to think my personality made up for them, since I kept them laughing and more engaged than some of our other presenters. Nothing like humor to break the ice (or the cultural barrier!)
I was disappointed at first to see that none of our folks from June (the first seminar) had returned to continue the series. But the folks we had were great. There were 11 people from a local church, and 9 of them are the "evangelism team" from that church who do street evangelism every Saturday afternoon in their local neighborhood. Having the team there made for a much more practical dynamic. You could almost see the future plans taking shape in their brains. I think that being there all together helped them to sort of brainstorm on how they can best implement what they were hearing.
So once again, we had 11 people, just a different 11 from the first time. Hopefully, we can keep on expanding each time. Our next part of the series will be in February.
In other news . . . . A friend of mine and I were recently messaging on the internet and he said the women are "high maintenance" while men are "low maintenance." That was his reasoning on why he can roll out bed, brush his teeth and go to work, but I can't. I thought of this on Saturday morning, as I got ready for the seminar. Men have no concept of what women go through to prepare for these kind of events--events that either make us nervous or are something important. I put so much time into my hair, makeup, and clothes for that seminar that it might as well have been the Miss Missionary Pageant and teaching the seminars just my "talent portion." You would think I was going to recieve a sash and and an armful of roses at the end. In case you're wondering, I didn't. But I did order a take-out pizza afterward and that was reward enough for me.