The Nomadic Way, Truth, and Life: The Road to Grandma's

S - 1 Peter 4:9

Be hospitable to one another without grumbling.

NKJV

O-Being "hospitable" goes beyond inviting people to your home and entertaining them as guests which I am fond of doing. When I read this Scripture this morning, the Holy Spirit was leading me to see a truth about myself that I didn't like too much. What I saw was that although it is easy for me to entertain people as guests at my house, I have a difficult time allowing people, especially new people, into my life in a way where deep and meaningful relationships can grow. It may be easy to be temporarily hospitable until everyone went home, like at a party. But how about sharing my life and my time with people by making myself accessible, available, and approachable until something deeper develops? That's what I'm not very good at.

A - Kim knows how stingy I can be with my time. She's had to endure my many insensitivities especially when it involved her family members. She has a really nice family and they're always reaching out to connect with me and make me a part of their lives. But rather than embrace her numerous brothers, sisters, uncles, aunties, and cousins I would often complain and grumble about how her family members were trying to rob us of the precious little time we got to spend with each other each year. Bad Christian! Yes, I know that my attitude is wrong. That's why, starting now with my trip in Vietnam, I am going to make a strong effort to make people feel welcomed and appreciated in my life at all times.

P - Lord Jesus, I will always remember that day when You were just exhausted and looking for a place to rest and pray. Then the crowds of people found you and instead of telling them to leave You alone (like I would have) , You had compassion on them and spent time with them. Time I'm sure you would have much rather spent sleeping. Lord, give me that heart. Amen.

So, in response to the Scripture this morning, we decided to take the time to visit Kim's grandma way out in the boonies.

When we told her

parents our plans they advised me to change into a pair of shorts.

It's been raining the past few days

so the road in was going to be muddy. I

remembered that miserable road from my previous trips to Vietnam. "Shouldn't the county have paved that thing by now?" I asked. Kim shook

her head left to right and said one word, "Tham nhung" which means "Corruption."

This is Kim's youngest brother, Hoa, picking up some fresh fruit for grandma as we begin our long journey to Grandma's House.

On the road to grandma's house, we stopped by at Kim's very first school

where she attended kindergarten. (Ooh. How cute!!)

Her tiny little grade school shared the same grounds as this huge Khmer temple complex. (Ooh. Not so cute!)

As I walked through this place I was trying to remember what Indy said that village guy in Temple of Doom meant when he kept going on about the 'Babbalingas, babbalingas!"

Well, there was some serious Babblinga voodoo magic going on at this place.

Kim told me that this pyramid shaped building is where the local Khmer took their dead to be dedicated and incinerated.

The Khmer monks by means of star charts and divination knew the exact day and hour it would be most auspicious to burn a corpse. On those days when these auspicious windows of time occurred within regular school hours Kim's entire school would be dismissed since the stench of burning flesh was simply not conduscive to learning.