I have just sent out an email, adding many names -- wow -- we have lots of Friends! -- informing many of our Friends of this new blog. God has blessed us so much with relationships all over the world. In fact, more recently, when we pray for our Friends, we now list them as "Asian Friends, African Friends, American Friends, and other Friends all over the world." What would we do without our friends!
These days we are making many more Friends, loving and being loved by people so very different than we are. Yet, our only differences are our color and our cultures. Living here in Africa where most are varying shades of brown or black, I have been particularly careful to NOT be politically incorrect. However, last year when we were traveling with Friends from Uganda, one of them caught me by surprise when he told me he wanted to put me up on the top of the near-by mountain so that all in the valley would have lots of light since I was so bright white!
Learning a few words of greeting and the handshakes of each country has been quite the challenge. For example, we have learned that in Rwanda you first gently clutch one another's upper arms (I thought we were going to be hugged!) then pull back to shake hands. And sometimes, that handshake is first grabbing the hand as we do in the West, then, while continuing to lock thumbs, grab the back of the hand, then back to the standard handshake -- well, standard to us. These simple gestures has opened our hearts, and theirs, earning us many Friends.
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