After a long and busy week, we were thankful for a day to sleep a bit longer than normal. We gathered for breakfast at 8:30. We sipped coffee and ate the delicious food that Monica and Val made for us.
We would, in small groups, go visiting various churches in the area. These churches have members with family backgrounds in countries other than the United States, and their services are conducted in languages other than English. Some went to a Fujianese church, some went to an Indonesia church, and some went to a Spanish church.
The churches welcomed us with warmth, hospitality, invitations to return, and, for some, a meal.
After dining, we went to Flushing which, according to some, is regarded as New York City’s “other China Town.” We exited the train station, parted ways, and wound our ways through crowded streets and an open-air market to find coffee shops and other public places where we could complete a guided observation activity that invited us to see the sea of people as individuals made in God’s image.
After we returned to the Center for supper, Jesse split us into two teams: anthropologists and people of an unknown culture. Jesse gave the anthropologists the challenging task of learning how to effectively communicate with a new culture. This activity abounded with perplexed looks and much laughter. It reminded us to suspend judgement and to communicate with curiosity and graciousness when in relationships with people of a culture that we don’t understand.
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