Getting and Giving
It was the early days of our time in Japan … those days when my emotions ran from mountaintops of wonder to those low places when, if I could have FOUND the airport, I would have been on a plane headed for what I still considered “Home”. Most of my frustrations circled around the Japanese language, and my lack of it. Why, WHY wouldn’t these people just stop blabbering gibberish and start speaking English?!? And then, when I began to dare that I was indeed starting to pick up what a 17th century Franciscan monk called “The Devil’s Language”, reality would blindside me like it did on that Sunday morning. The ladies were talking at great length about … well about SOMETHING. There was a lot of smiling and pointing to the Bible, so I surmised we were giving our testimonies. “Got it!” I thought to myself. I had prepared one in language school and it was in my purse, just waiting for this moment. Sure enough, one of the ladies turned to me and asked sweetly, “Ikaga desu ka?” “What do you...