In Minnesota, I never ever really got to know my neighbors. It's in our nature to keep to ourselves, and even though we've lived next to each other for years and years I still might not know their names. How pathetic is that? Now I have an excuse, I haven't really been home for the past three years.
Now I have a new home in a small city in Western India. You can't really avoid your neighbors here. They're always around and love to talk. I've been certainly blessed with neighbors who mostly speak English and I'm sure they're also more apt to get to know me because I'm the foreigner living next-door. Little do they know, I'm the one who's blessed when I get to know about them more. I find myself thinking about them often. It's very different in America. Not just culturally, but let me try to illustrate it for you:
My land-lady and her two sons live above us. They are strong Catholics. The neighbors on one side are Hindus and a big family that lives in a small shack on the property of a bigger house. I believe they are caretakers of the property while the owners live mostly in Mumbai or Pune. They do not speak English so I have not gotten to know them so much, but I love their daughter. She's about 14 maybe, her name is Pooja and she does not really speak English, but we always say hello to each other when we see each other. Her father comes home every night at exactly 11:00. The reason I know this is because at eleven o'clock every night I hear a bicycle bell ring twice as it enters their house.
The neighbors on the other side of me are Jehovah's Witnesses. We call them Aunty and Uncle. I only actually know Uncle's real name, but it doesn't matter because they're simply Aunty and Uncle. They have a little shop that sells cookies, milk, eggs, chips, and other necessary things like laundry powder and toothpaste. I know them the best of all my neighbors. I often stop over and drink some chai and chat with them. I tell them when I'm preparing for and teaching different books of the Bible and wish I could go to their meetings once in a while just to see what it's like, but unfortunately they only hold their meetings in Hindi. I see Uncle always studying his Bible and last night came up to the shop as him and Aunty were just finishing up a prayer. They are really two great and wonderful people.
The people that live just on the other side of Aunty and Uncle are Muslims. Yes, I know, I live in quite the "diverse" neighborhood, it's true. They speak English also and I've only actually talked to them once when the dad of the family told me his daughter's name is also Sarah even though I had no idea how he knew my name was Sarah. Then I remembered I live in India and gossip travels like wildfire.
My desire is to get a nice camera while I'm home this winter and come back and take so many pictures of my wonderful neighbors in the hopes to be invited into their lives a little more. The best way to open doors here is with a camera in your hand. You can take pictures of anyone, but if you print them out and actually give them to them you're like some super special being to them. I've been feeling like I'm almost becoming a hermit over the past few months. I rarely leave the house. I remember when I used to go into town almost every day, but now it's been probably more than a month since I went into town! Yikes.
Jesus never tells his disciples that the people would know they are his disciples because of their doctrine or theology. He never says that his disciples would be known for their many denominations and differences and beliefs. But that is what his disciples are known for today it seems. Hatred, differences, disunity, disagreements, money, money, and more money. Jesus said that the world would know his followers by the love they have for one another (John 13:34-35). If I can be known as the girl who loves, that's enough in my book. I just want to love people, and that's it.
Now I have a new home in a small city in Western India. You can't really avoid your neighbors here. They're always around and love to talk. I've been certainly blessed with neighbors who mostly speak English and I'm sure they're also more apt to get to know me because I'm the foreigner living next-door. Little do they know, I'm the one who's blessed when I get to know about them more. I find myself thinking about them often. It's very different in America. Not just culturally, but let me try to illustrate it for you:
My land-lady and her two sons live above us. They are strong Catholics. The neighbors on one side are Hindus and a big family that lives in a small shack on the property of a bigger house. I believe they are caretakers of the property while the owners live mostly in Mumbai or Pune. They do not speak English so I have not gotten to know them so much, but I love their daughter. She's about 14 maybe, her name is Pooja and she does not really speak English, but we always say hello to each other when we see each other. Her father comes home every night at exactly 11:00. The reason I know this is because at eleven o'clock every night I hear a bicycle bell ring twice as it enters their house.
This is my land-lady, one of her sons and her brother with us at the wedding!
This is Aunty and Uncle's shop, they let us take our engagement photos in and around it.
This is Sarah.
My desire is to get a nice camera while I'm home this winter and come back and take so many pictures of my wonderful neighbors in the hopes to be invited into their lives a little more. The best way to open doors here is with a camera in your hand. You can take pictures of anyone, but if you print them out and actually give them to them you're like some super special being to them. I've been feeling like I'm almost becoming a hermit over the past few months. I rarely leave the house. I remember when I used to go into town almost every day, but now it's been probably more than a month since I went into town! Yikes.
Jesus never tells his disciples that the people would know they are his disciples because of their doctrine or theology. He never says that his disciples would be known for their many denominations and differences and beliefs. But that is what his disciples are known for today it seems. Hatred, differences, disunity, disagreements, money, money, and more money. Jesus said that the world would know his followers by the love they have for one another (John 13:34-35). If I can be known as the girl who loves, that's enough in my book. I just want to love people, and that's it.
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