The other day I sold my books at a small business expo event. The cool thing about that event was that many of the vendors and attendees were from India, or at least kept to their Indian heritage. I’m sure that many of them were second and third generation immigrants or more and American citizens. Many had great English fluency with no indication of an accent while others had heavy accents. I am sure a few, at least might have been first-generation immigrants as well. It was a fun experience just talking to some of the other vendors, but something surprised me there, that I wasn’t expecting when I arrived.
When I arrived, my first thought was “Great, I’m not going to sell ANY books here.” I have to admit, that was ignorant on my part. To tell you the truth I am ignorant of many things in many cultures. So, as the day progressed I talked to several vendors about my books, and they all seemed very supportive of my writing. A couple even bought my books. Now, this is what surprised me. I had assumed when I saw the nationality of the majority of vendors there that they wouldn’t be interested in the slightest when they found out that my books were Christian in nature because of faith differences. It seems, however, that they were not standoffish at all simply because of faith differences…which…I must admit…many of us “Christians” are.
During this event I was able to find out a lot of my ignorant beliefs, the most humorous of them was about clothing. Many vendors were selling native clothing, which I thought was pretty cool. I was talking to one of the vendors about the clothing items, and I found out that their colorful clothing isn’t really the only things they wear when they wear them. I had always assumed in many cultures like India, China, Japan, and all of the Middle Eastern cultures, that all of these robes and the such that they wear were sort of their everyday clothes, along with the more modern clothing. Like we would wear jeans and a t-shirt or dress clothes. I found out that the fancy clothing that I have always found fascinating is really just an over garment. It isn’t something they wear all the time or every day. It is more of a fashion thing. I also saw a fashion walk with the Indian garments. It was pretty cool.
Anyway, back to me. So, one of the vendors had a daughter who loved reading, and she bought one of my books for her. I felt the whole time that I had to really specify that the books were Christian and some had the bible in it because I didn’t want to feel like I was deceiving anyone. Even knowing it is a Christian book, she gave it to her daughter, which I thought was pretty cool. Again, here is my ignorance. Just because these individuals embraced their culture and looked “Indian” I naturally assumed they were not Christians. This may be the case, but it may also be an entirely wrong assumption. Anyway, I thought this Sunday how cool it would be if that girl became a believer from reading that story. She very well might be a believer, who knows. I just thought it was cool that despite the possible faith differences, I sold a few books there. But really, just because someone is a believer doesn’t mean we have to give up our cultural heritage.
I really did enjoy interacting with people of different cultures there, and I hope to be able to go again next year.
That is really all I have today. Just a bit about my weekend.