Preguntas

I recently posted a list of questions that I ask in the DR that I never had to ask in Arizona. All of them pertained to humidity, something that I am SO unaccustomed to as a girl who, up until this point, had lived in Arizona for my entire life. I thought I'd expand on this silly facebook post here on my blog with some funny questions and some more serious and thoughtful ones. Many of the more serious questions are from my personal journal entries from the past several months. Missionary life challenges you to look at things with a different set of eyes, hopefully the eyes of the Holy Spirit. I hope these questions make you laugh and that some will challenge you and make you think!


-"Will this floor I just mopped be dry by the morning?"

-"If I leave my jeans outside to dry, will they be dry enough to wear by tomorrow?"

-"If I leave the cap on my water bottle for too long, what types of fungus will start growing inside of it?"

-"Why does this smell SO bad?" (ok - maybe I had to ask this in AZ, but not nearly as frequently!!)

-"Why is this wet?"

-"Where are all the ants coming from?"

-"Would my neighbor notice if his chicken/pig/dog who wakes me up every morning suddenly 'disappeared'"?


-"Is it worth a 2-hour bus trip to the capital just to get chocolate chips and Dr. Pepper?"


-"Will the electricity be on when I want to skype with _____?"


-"Will the electricity be on when I want to take a shower?" (The bomba (water pump) that we have to pump the water from our cisterna (cistern) into our pipes only works when the electricity is on.)


-"Will there even be water in the cisterna to pump into the pipes when I want to wash dishes/do laundry/take a shower?"


-"What time should I leave if the event starts at 5:00 and I want to arrive when the Dominicans will arrive?" (This differs drastically from the question I usually asked in the States: "What time should I leave if I want to arrive 5 minutes early?")


-"Will that store be open when the school day is over?" (Like in most Latin American countries, most Dominicans take a siesta (nap) in the afternoon and most businesses close for a few hours each day.)


-"Will this lotion/soap/hair product/laundry detergent make me get more bug bits or less bug bites?"


-"Am I actually angry or am I just tired/hot/hungry/dirty/itchy/sweaty?"


-"How can I teach combining like algebraic terms with fractions and decimals to students who cannot tell me the difference between 20 and 18?"


-"How do you say _______?" (Even though my Spanish is decent, I still find myself lacking a particular word or verb tense frequently throughout the day.)


-"Is this cultural difference that I'm frustrated about a Biblical principle or just a personal preference?"


-"When Jesus encountered a situation like this, what did He do?"

-"When will La Piña (the bar across the street from my house) get a new soundtrack to replace the 5 songs they've had on repeat since I arrived here 4 months ago?"

-"Am I making an unfair judgement statement about something I'm unfamiliar with?"


-"Was my bad hour/afternoon/day the result of me relying more on my own strength than on the strength of the Lord?"

-"How can I help without hurting in the long run?" (For more information on this question, I highly recommend the book When Helping Hurts.)

-"What is God trying to teach me through this trial?"

-"What is God trying to teach me through this beauty?"

-"Is this action rooted in selfishness or in selflessness?"

-"Do I truly need this or do I just want it?"

-"Am I willing to sacrifice this for the sake of the The Kingdom?"

-"If someone who has lived in Monte Plata for their whole life was in this situation, would they be complaining about it?"

-"Is my heart deceiving me right now?"

-"Am I giving the power and authority in my life to sin or to the Lord?"

-"Is this relationship more valuable to me than the issue that is damaging the relationship?"

-"Although I don't understand what God is doing right now, do I trust Him enough to know that He is, in fact, doing something that is worthy of my submission?"

-"If my time, my money, my resources, and ultimately my very life do not actually belong to me, how does that change how I live?"

-"Do I value my relationship with the Lord enough to be disciplined to spend time with Him every day?"

-"Do I long for time with the Lord each day? If not, what sin-issue in my life is keeping me from that longing?"

-"How easy is it for God's word to take root and grow in my heart? What pavement have I laid, what rocks have I not moved, what thorns have I let grow that are preventing the Lord from sowing His seeds in my life?" (See Matthew 13:1-9)

-"Do I trust that God's will for my life will come with far greater joy than the best life I can imagine for myself?"

-"Do I trust that the all-powerful God of the universe can somehow mesh my joy and His glory?"

-"Have I prayed about this enough?"