Ethnic Diversity

Yesterday I was delayed at church because of a congregational meeting. I had to wait for about a half hour before leaving to catch my train so I decided to catch some lunch. Now since our church sits on 8th Avenue in Brooklyn's Chinatown, there are quite a few Asian restaurants but since I wanted quick food I decided on dumplings at the Dumpling House, a little hole in the wall place where you can get 5 dumplings for a buck with hot sauce or vinegar. Delicious. 3 others from church joined me. We went to the place and purchased our food and brought it back to the church to eat. Later it occurred to me that we must have been an odd sight for the 3 Asian ladies working at that place. I, a mid-50s distinguished Brooklynite with salt and pepper hair accompanied by a young Asian woman, Janet, her boy friend, Dion, a tall slim black man with Caribbean roots, and Adam, our youth pastor, a Midwestern American white guy with an earring. What must have those ladies thought of this odd collection. But yet in our eyes, in our church, we represent the diversity of ethnicities and ages that attend our church. We did not think it odd. We get along well, we are family and love and respect each other. This is the way the Church ought to be anyway.

By the way, as we returned from the dumpling house, Adam bought an Osama Ben Ladin doll for 2 bucks at an Asian Schlock store. Only in Brooklyn can you use a Yiddish expression to describe a store owned by Chinese people!