ISP intensive training

This last weekend was nuts. I had an all day class on Saturday (now i'm CPR certified), was a part of an ISP worship band, led music at my church on Sunday, and all of this was on top of the already INTENSIVE training that lasted from Friday night to Sunday evening.

The training was definitely intense. Some things we did:
- I had to literally beg for my dinner Saturday night. I was given a bowl of rice for me and 4 others to share, then we had to beg from the rich people who ate huge dinners at nice tables for food; only, they weren't allowed to give the beggars food. I was hungry: catch 22 as Michael Scott would say ...

- Sunday morning I was awakened by yelling leaders demanding we get dressed in 3 minutes and go outside for prayer. We couldn't even brush our teeth. As I walked outside I heard an Islamic call to prayer being sung ... I felt like I wasn't at CBU anymore. I was scared I would have to bow and pray to Allah. We were led in a prayer that Muslims would pray, only we prayed to Jesus (so I bowed).


- Sunday all the girls wore coverings over their heads. They couldn't walk in front of us guys, sit down before us, eat before we were served ... they couldn't even look at us. The guys were told not to look at the girls and that we would be making all decisions, and have to be served by the girls all day ... not bad huh? It was terrible. It was eye-opening. I felt like a jerk all day.

- I went to my church on Sunday ... I had to slip out of our training for a little while. I didn't feel American at church. It was weird. After worshiping God like different cultures do all weekend, I was forced back into American worship. There was literally a 2 minute transition from an Islamic church service (again, we worshiped Jesus) to an American Christian church service for me. Even though it hadn't been but a few hours into "Islamic day," I experienced culture shock going back into American church. It was more than a culture shock too ... it was spiritual shock. It kind of messed me up on Sunday when I was at church.

I'm super excited about my trip and my team now ... I can't wait for June.