Lessons in Culture

We were incited to go to a Christmas music festival put on by some of the churches. It is a big thing they do every year I guess. We asked Kiruban about it and he said they sing songs. He said they do not want to sit all day so it will be a short meeting of only 4 hours. Rob and I laughed. No church meeting in America lasts four hours without some complaints. I wonder what a long Indian church meeting is. Keep in mind this was the third meeting scheduled for us that day so it was a tiring day...
Anyways, today I went with Ernie to a ladies meeting where they were going to pass out sarees to the widows who need them. We showed up but no one was there. It turns out that the pastor was embarassed that he had to reschedule it and did not want to call us to tell us. We finally tracked him down and through poor communication due to a language problem we learned that he was scared we would be mad. It makes me sad that they fear us. I think we finally communicated that it is always best to call us and we will never be mad about changed times, places, cancellations and stuff. We are here to serve and bless them. If we are upsetting them then that defeats the purpose. In India it is against the culture to be blunt or straight forward so it always takes time to figure out what the problem is but I think today we were really able to find the root of the issue and address it. So we did a lot of driving and didnt really do anything but we at least learned a valuable lesson in culture:)