Thursday, December 22, 2011

Why Missionaries Fail Part 18

Kitchen Komedy 2

One Sunday, the four of us were happily preparing the church kitchen when a fifth person showed up. She immediately started scolding people for what they wee doing and began re-arranging things and giving orders that made no difference. After aggravating us for three weeks, she explained that a group of women had formed a committee and put her in charge of the kitchen.

Since the church had not authorized this committee (and we hadn't been allowed to vote) we ignored her. Soon we had a group of four women showing up every Sunday to pretend they were in charge, while the four of us did all the work. Both groups ignored the other, and no real harm was done.

But if we had to put up with people like that seven days a week, there would have been problems.

Monday, December 19, 2011

Why Missionaries Fail Part 17

Kitchen Komedy 1

My wife and I stated showing up early at the Baptist church to get things ready. This included getting the kitchen set up for the refreshments after church. A Godly older man also started showing up. And then, the Cookie Nazi appeared.

She had earned her name by slapping people's hands if they took to many cookies after church. She angrily demanded that no one but her set out the cookies. I realized that she wanted to serve God, but due to her ill health and constant pain, arranging cookies was about all that she could do. So we let her arrange the cookies, and she did a very god job.

She thought the three of us were wonderful, and she told people how nice we were. But Folks, if we had to put up with her all week, this story might not have had a happy ending.