Tentmakers International Congress 2007 - Part 3

I decided to take a short break from sharing my reflections on the Congress. I thought it might be interesting to highlight what I discovered on the sidelines of the Congress.

I learned that SIM (formerly called Sudan Interior Mission) is now called Serving In Mission. But having spoken to one delegate from SIM, I realised SIM also stands for, among other things...

• Sitting In Meeting
  
• Sharing In Meeting
  
• when things get a bit bored in meetings - Sleeping In Meeting
  
• and I add...when sleeping is prolonged, it is...Snoring In Meeting (much to the amusement of the delegate...)

On the 2nd day of the conference, all delegates were treated to supper, ala Malaysian way. Since durian is in season, it is on the menu for supper. Durian for supper!! Wow!!

I wonder how this is possible, since the hotel has a big sign in the lobby that greets all visitors: "Durian is prohibited." Did someone smuggle durian into the hotel? If so, how was this done? Hmmm...Perhaps the durians made it to the "restricted access" hotel by being "tentmakers"?

I wonder how many foreign delegates would return to Malaysia after tasting durian, if they ever tried it....

I also wonder how many would have bad breath the next day....

I also wonder whether by serving durian, it is the organiser's way of orientation to all the tentmakers wannabes about inculturation and contextualisation, since food is so central to all cultures...

In addition, I also wonder would serving durian also functioned as a natural filtering process for all potential tentmakers intending to come to Malaysia?

Hmmm...Just food for thought.