Remember

 

“When I was in Poona …”

I don’t know if you have this saying in your neck of the woods but for sure I heard it many times growing up where I’m from …

Even if you hadn’t heard this phrase, you might have heard of this concept … 

I didn’t really know where Poona was at the time but I did know the gist of the message … if you’ve ever been to Poona, or indeed anywhere else for that matter, you better not, under any circumstances talk about it. 

It didn’t mean you couldn’t mention it at all, it simply meant you couldn’t talk about it. Share about it. Really talk about it. That was a no. 

Maybe you’ve experienced some of that too?

When you go to the nations. Yes there’s the photos and yes there’s the souvenirs and there’s the sights that you saw. 

But there’s a lot more than that. 

What goes on around you is one part of it. 

But what goes on inside you is often so much greater. 

It came home to me one day out shopping with a very dear friend, the sales lady in the store was from Hong Kong, and she and I burst into spontaneous Cantonese chat right there in the shop in Canada. 

My dear friend that I was with, whom I’d known for a lot of years was astonished that I was spontaneously speaking Cantonese. She had known me this long and hadn’t known that I was that much invested in Hong Kong that I had learned the language and taken Asia into my heart.  

It was astonishing to both of us, it was like a whole other side of a friend she hadn’t got to know. And a whole other side of me that I hadn’t shared.  

It was the start …

I started to talk about “Poona” … 

I started to talk about the love God had given me for the nations and how being in the nations had impacted the very being of who I am .. 

I’m grateful for her and other dear friends who reached in, who asked, who I trusted and answered …really answered and really talked. 

Stories. 

Stories are about identity. 

When we don’t share them, we can forget who we are. 

When we share our stories, with one another, with the right people. 

We remember who we are. 

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If you missed the first of these blogs about the nations, or would like to share it with another global gal, and invite her to subscribe … you can find it here …

🌏  https://karenmariegariba.blogspot.com/2025/02/global-gals-globalgals.html

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Much love

Pastor Karen-Marie

On the journey with you 

Much love 💗

Pastor Karen-Marie 

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