As kids, we are told not to talk to strangers. As a 19 year old, I will always take the opportunity to talk to a strangers, (as long as I feel safe of course). How are you supposed to get to know people? I love getting past “small talk” with people I have never met and may never meet again. When I say I love talking to complete strangers I’m talking about people like the homeless I feed at a homeless shelter, the street artists who’s art attracts me, people sitting at a coffee shop, someone waiting in line with me at the grocery store, the possibilities are endless. The thing is, you have to go into meeting someone with a blank canvas, you can’t look at them and before even talking to them have something painted on that canvas because of your immediate judgement, give them a chance to paint the canvas themselves. Everyone is their own artist, give them a chance to show you their works. By that I mean, give everyone a chance to speak on their own without letting your own judgements get in the way of listening to them whole heartedly.
While traveling from Malawi to Guatemala, we had a brief 9 hour layover in Johannesburg, South Africa. During this time we all obviously had to fire out some way to take up our time without spending all our money. While getting food with one of my squad mates, Tiffany, we were looking for a power outlet to charger her phone only to find out she didn’t have a converter that matched the South African plugs. A kind man over heard our conversation about the outlet converter debockle and offered to let Tiffany use his. Graciously, she accepted his offer as she plugged in her phone and sat at the same table as him to be near her phone. This kind, outlet converter-sharing man started to have conversation with us and one thing lead to another so we ended up talking with him for over 2 hours. We spoke about politics, family, friendships, our future plans/dreams, and so much more. He felt comfortable to open up to us about some personal things in his life and we listened with open ears. He was vulnerable with us, complete strangers, and that is my favorite thing in the world. I love being able to meet another human being and just feel open to be vulnerable with each other. I think that you can learn so much from speaking with a stranger. I mean, God didn’t create all his children to just be hostile towards each other because we don’t know them. We are meant to spread God’s love and grace with each other, how are we supposed to do that if we don’t talk to each other?
A couple weeks later, when I was staying in Guatemala during the Parent Vision Trip (PVT) with the other girls who’s parents didn’t come, we had another great experience after meeting some strangers. While hanging out in a cafe, two men walked in to order drinks and one of them, after seeing the nice DSLR camera on the table, asked one of the girls, Annie, if she did videography. She told him that she does both videography and photography. He went on to explain that him, Luke, and his friend, John, were working at an non-profit and they were welcoming in a group that day and having a little event and their videographer dropped out, so he asked for Annie’s help. Of course, we all felt safe with them so we decided to follow them to the non-profit they were working at. Luke had been working in Guatemala for several years and a few years ago, he opened this non-profit. The organization plays a part in rescuing kids who had been neglected and get them into homes, with the help of a social worker, into schools, and after school they would come to this place to get help with homework and to attend life-skill classes. His heart for these kids is so admirable, and he was so passionate about what he was doing. John is a world traveler, he has written a travel book (“The Life of a Modern Nomad”, check it out), and has devoted his life to traveling and helping others. Soon after we arrived with Luke and John, another gap year group, who they were expecting, arrived. Luke and John both went ahead of us all to tell a bit of their stories and to share their opinions about the importance of traveling, giving, helping and other things that they are doing. After both the guys talked, we spent time hanging out with and getting to know the people in the other gap year group and playing with the cute kiddos. It was a spontaneous, unexpected day, that ended up being so fulfilling and wonderful.
I understand the rule that we are told as children “don’t talk to strangers”. I understand why we are told that as children, because as children we generally don’t have the ability to judge whether a person is safe or not to talk to. But as we grow older, we do have that ability. We are able to decide whether or not we feel safe talking to another person, so we should feel free to be able to use that skill to our advantage and speak to God’s children. I think that the Lord gave us this ability to have conversation and to connect with other human beings so that e could spread His love and grace. If I didn’t believe that talking to strangers was glorifying to God, I wouldn’t have had these wonderful experiences, and so many more.
I believe that the Lord gave us all a gift of being able to live on the same planet as His children and the ability to communicate to them. We get to speak about Him with others, and learn so much more about Him and His creations by speaking with “strangers”. While we may not have met everyone on this earth, we have the ability to try to meet as many as we can and learn from them. We get to sit down and talk with a random person for 2 hours, we get to help some guy with his day at a non-profit that helps kids grow up in a healthy environment . We get to share personal parts of our story and learn personal parts of others’ stories in an attempt to learn and teach what we know. We get to let someone else impact our lives, even if it’s little, because God gave us the ability to do so. So, talk to strangers, feel safe with another human being who you haven’t met before, learn from them, teach them, let the Lord give you a little gift in the form of another one of His children.
