My purse's strap has slowly been tearing away from the purse and I haven't taken time to sew it back on. I wasn't even sure how to do it and make it look nice. My teammate, Kathryn, suggested I take it into a seamstress or shoe repair place (they're all over here). She and I were shopping together this afternoon, so we walked into a seamstress shop where three women and one man were sitting at sewing machines. In Mongolian businesses, a customer is rarely acknowledged. No "Hello, May I help you." No eye contact. No nod of the head. There were several customers standing around and jobs were being done by all the people at the sewing machines. But, in true Mongolian fashion, I walked up to the man and presented my torn purse, pointed at the strap and asked if he could fix it. He stopped the project he was on, and immediately started dis-attaching the strap. I thought, "Hey, wait a minute! I didn't say you could do it yet!" I quickly asked "Yamar onte vey?" (How much cost?). He said it would be 1,500T....a little over a dollar! I said "Teem" (yes), and back to work he went. I was feeling very embarrassed that he stopped the other man's zipper replacement for my job, but after I observed him open up the lining of the purse to get to the strap from the inside and then sew it neatly down and re-sew the lining, all in about 3 minutes, I didn't feel so guilty for seemingly "pushing" into line. In fact, it is the Mongolian way and it was totally acceptable. The man doing the repair knew it wouldn't take him long, and he knew he could take a quick break from the zipper repair to do my project. Wow! So nice! It looks perfect.
I was thinking about how this man started tackling the job before I gave him the "okay" and how he also worked from the inside out. He dug into the lining, opened it up, and got to the strap from the inside, to do a really good job.
Doesn't that sound like a really good heart surgeon? And I'm talking about spiritual heart surgery. Sometimes, we go to Him, ask Him to fix something, and He starts right in. We hesitate. Hey! Wait a minute! How much will this cost me? Will it hurt? He opens us up from the inside out, right? He digs in and helps us to see where the frayed edges are. Where are things tearing away? Then, he gently tugs our purse strings and settles everything into place. He tightens it into place and makes the sewing machine whir. Next he closes up the lining that has been opened up. He gives us peace that passes understanding. When I saw my fixed purse, I had renewed peace (ah! I won't have to go buy another purse, after all!), I chastise myself for not fully trusting in the seamster (male seamstress), and I am delighted with the results. As I walked away from the shop today, I was very satisfied with my newly fixed purse.
He satisfies us in this same way...sometimes in surprising ways.
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