That which is most universal is most personal, indeed there is nothing human which is strange to us.
-Nouwen

The harvest is here...

The harvest is here...
The kingdom is near...

Thursday, October 9, 2008

How to overdose on Tibetan sweet milk tea...

Just in case any of you back home were wondering how to overdose on Tibetan sweet milk tea:

It's simple really. Just survive an earthquake, find yourself with ample free time because classes were canceled due to the earthquake, wander through some un-named streets in a neighborhood in Lhasa, end up in front of the Jokhang temple sitting on a wall and watching Chinese tourists with outrageously expensive cameras and monks and beggars and small children and all manner of other humanity.

But where does the tea come in?

Well wait a moment, as you are sitting there please notice the guy walking back and forth suspiciously like he is trying to get up the nerve to talk to you.

If you want to overdose on sweet tea, you'll accept his offer to allow him and his five other classmates (who have randomly appeared out of nowhere) to practice English with you, you'll also accept their offer to accompany them to a nearby tea house after the police officer insists that you are too big a group and you must disperse, once at the tea house you will have no choice but to accept the endless cup after cup of delicious sweet tea until it is no longer delicious and you feel like you might drown. Death by sweet tea... I'm not sure how they say that in Tibetan.


He has promised to bring the good work that He started in you to completion...
And He's more committed to that than you are.

Are they looking out or in?