2: curtained in incense.

SARA UNDERSTANDS THE NECESSITY OF SHARING JESUS WHILE STANDING UNDER A 50 FT. STATUE OF THE BUDDHA.

after leaving honduras i became somewhat depressed. one might say that i was overwhelmed with opportunities.
the needs of this world are many and i was finding that i could not commit to seizing all of them. i decided that i would have to pick and choose my battles. so, i started to weed through the things that were most important to me. first i became a youth group leader. in my mind, if kids are not made to feel special in their younger years they won't give a damn as adults. through ice skating adventures, corn field mazes, scavenger hunts, bowling competitions, and small group sessions i gained the trust of a few thirteen year olds and befriended them. i think we all started to feel special. next, i joined the social justice committee at my church and began the difficult task of trying to lure christians out of the pews and the safety of their own homes and into action. i was most involved in helping immigrant families in the GR community. many of them were illegal which meant that many christians did not want to help them. (no matter your views on illegal immigrants...they are here. many of them suffer.) when christians i admired would tell me that they could not support immigrants b/c they were breaking the law i wanted Jesus to come back, right then. if you've seen poverty, if you've REALLY seen it, you'd understand why these people risk their lives and the lives of their children to come to a place where they aren't even wanted. i became fairly disillusioned with my church's social justice team and decided that i could fair better on my own. since then i just do things when i have time between school and work. but something always seemed to be missing.

then last summer i went to mongolia. i had the unique experience of helping my boss teach a class of university students about journalism ethics. mongolia holds a long communistic tradition. some of the students couldn't believe that bribes weren't "normal."

mongolia is quite possibly the end of the earth. it seems untouched by the outside world. it is beautiful. it smells fresh. it is very welcoming. the green land reaches forever until it hits the soft sands of the gobi desert. then right there in the middle of it all sits the capitol city. its streets fade into dirt paths, then horse trails as soon as you reach the city's edge. it is a land steeped in traditions and superstitions. the people seem eager for something.

while i was there i visited a number of different attractions around the capitol city. i saw some of the last remaining statues of Lenin. i visited the central plaza where a replica of Lenin's tomb has been erected. i worked out at one of the small outdoor gyms and visited parks where all of the play toys were small statues of khan. i even got a chance to drink the national drink, fermented mare's milk. after that me and the toilet in my hotel room became good friends. but the most impressing experience for me was visiting the largest buddhist temple in the center of the city.

It was my first time in a buddhist temple and it was gorgeous. i think that anyone could appreciate its ornate beauty. it had that distinct asian style roof. there were prayer wheels with cryptic golden prayers etched into them. and bald child monks, dressed in the familiar red robe of the dhali lama, were walking around with mischieve in thier eyes. it was all very enchanting. then i went inside.

standing before me was a fifty foot golden statue of the buddha. it had many arms with each hand twisted into the sign of a buddhist blessing. there was incense curling into the air. prayer wheels lined the walls and were kept in a constant spin by the people performing their daily rituals. the back wall was filled from floor to ceiling with smaller buddha statues. i watched as people filed in and bowed before the great statue whispering their requests. unheard prayers. suddenly the place felt so empty and i was finding it difficult to breath as though i was being suffocated by the mere thought that these people were without Jesus.

i haven't turned televison evangelist or anything. i'm not going to be seen handing out tracts on the street. in fact, i once even burned a tract given to me by an old person as a tip for their sunday morning breakfast...it had been my sixth one that morning and i was upset. didn't they know that jesus tracts wouldn't help me pay for my christian college tuition? didn't they know that i was a pk? anyway, that was before i knew better...kind of. i believe that it is intrusive on somebody else's culture and beliefs to push my own beliefs without knowing anything about him/her. the thought of missionaries going to the third world with nothing but a Bible in hand bothers me. Jesus never really pushed himself on people. He fed them. He clothed them. He taught them. He healed them. He got his hands dirty. But Jesus had the advantage that he was, well, Jesus. i, of course, do not have that advantage. i have the desire to feed, clothe, teach, and heal. but now i see that just doing these things are not enough. along with my dirty hands i must also have the name of Jesus readily poised on the tip of my tongue.

it took travelling to mongolia, and a fifty foot golden statue curtained in incense surrounded by unheard whispers to convice me of this. sometimes i'm a little slow. -SN