Experiencing Culture Shock in a Mall

Saturday, February 23, 2013

Hmmmm.... you know something's "wrong" or at least not quite "normal" with you when you go to the local mall and experience culture shock.

This isn't the first time this has happened to me.

I have felt this way when going to a small group at some lady's (from the church I attend) house.

It's this weird feeling of trying to absorb everything and process it all- because it's different than the Chico "I know."

I don't feel the same way, necessarily, when I'm with a group of young people here. I don't know why that's any different. Maybe it's cause I feel like I "fit in" better. Maybe it's because I'm with other people my age and we're just having a fun time, so I'm not worried about "Processing" it all. I'm just living in the moment. Hmmm... I don't know.

It's this feeling, this realization of, "Oh... this is what this city is like. These are its people."

I don't feel this way in Antioch. I'm sure that's because I grew up there. So that is "normal" to me. Whereas- here in Chico, "normal" to me is YWAM Chico and the people, houses, community, and lifestyle there is what I'm used to seeing. Anything different is, well, shocking in a way.

Seems so crazy saying that. I must sound pretty strange to those reading this. Unless you know what I mean and have experienced what I'm experiencing.

It definitely helps me look at this all in a new light... Like this is really my mission field. Maybe.

Or is it? Because I am at YWAM and my ministry is there.

It's also this feeling of, how do I explain it? Some of it's a longing- like a part of me wants to "fit in", wants to have a "real" job where I make a paycheck, have my own car, go to the mall to shop on weekends, rather than go to the mall after finding a ride for the purpose of using relatively decent, free wi-fi.

It's this feeling of- could I say déjà vu? As if I've been here before, as if I at one time did "fit in" and did "belong"- meaning, at one time these same people I'm looking at, was me?

Would I trade what I have?

Heck no, techno.

I'm just realizing something, and it makes me think. A lot.

God's given me the opportunity to "step back" and get an outside view/perspective (in one sense) of my very own culture. Something that, up until this point, I have taken for granted and not paid too much attention to- or at least not in the same way.

I've been given new eyes- to perhaps even see my own people how God sees them.

Living and learning, experiencing old things in a new way,

Brittaney :)

 

 

 

Winter 2013 Newsletter

 

 

The Living Room

I've been wanting to type this up for awhile now...

Every Monday morning, here at YWAM Chico, we have a base meeting where we come together and have a time of worship and a message. It's a great time of "refocusing" and remembering who we live for and the reason why we're here. It's Jesus. Also, what better way to start your week, then by giving the start of it to him?

Usually, I'm doing "tech" (read: powerpoint for the worship lyric slides) or playing djembe (an African hand drum). On one such morning when I was signed up to do tech, I woke up 10 minutes before meeting was supposed to start.

Leaving the house, stressed, worried, and upset with myself for oversleeping, I ran into the hotel (our meeting place). Expecting to find people waiting for me and wondering why I was late (and trying to come up with what I was going to say), I instead walked into the lobby full of our staff members and volunteers, ready to worship- but in a different way this morning.

So, completely unplugged and family style, we sat or stood in the lobby and worshipped while one of our leaders played guitar, his youngest son sitting beside him.

Looking around me, I took a deep breath (more like a sigh of relief) and I was reminded of something that I so very much love about my home- we are family.

We are family, and this is what families do. We worship together, we eat together, we serve together.

And that morning, our hotel lobby was transformed into a giant living room in which we spent time together, drawing nearer to the One who had brought us here.

To be together.