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Exposure for the senses. Smoke wafting up from the freshly roasting coffee beans as the woman in traditional Ethiopian garb prepares our evening cup of coffee. The brightly colored outfits and dangling gold jewelry glimmering in the sun on the traditional Punjabi dancers. The Sudanese Muslim man with a long beard and robe down to his toes preparing for his afternoon prayers greeting us with a warm smile and welcoming us into his place of worship. The smell of incense lingering on your hand long after a warm handshake. The sound of unknown languages echoing around you as you bite into your lunch and your mouth fills with a cacophony of spices.
"I feel like we went to another country" commented one of my teammates. "Fresno seems so much more exciting now."
Not only did we observe and engage these things and places, but we met people. We heard their stories of immigration, asked about their beliefs and traditions, dipped our hands into a common dish and ate together. And as we observed and experienced these new things it moved us to pray, in new ways, with new insight, for names and faces.
"I don't feel as afraid of engaging with someone that looks quite different from me" commented another team member. The bubbles have been burst. The ones we put ourselves in, and the ones we perceive around others that kept us from engaging with them. We've all been challenged to live a little more intentionally in how we go about our days here in Fresno. To stop and take notice of what and who is around us. To say hello. To ask questions. To pray. To tell our own stories.