Survivor

I don’t normally watch “Survivor”. I’ve always thought it was a silly show (I still do) but it is entertaining. So we have been watching this season. A boy named Matt is a believer and he is very vocal about it. If you don’t know anything about the show, I’ll give you some info. Matt is getting the bad end of the deal on everything. Everyone on his team have chosen him to outcast. No one is treating him very well, and he is having a hard time with it. I really do feel sorry for him, because he’s not being treated like a human. Everyone is against him and he has the best attitude of anyone. He constantly talks about how God is part of his life and he’s told God he would stay there as long as God wanted him to be there. Well, he’s gone through a lot and is still in the game. He’s gotten some flack for talking about God so much. But, I just love it. I’m routing for him! He is the ultimate underdog.

So, I have a student who usually stays after class for a long time to talk to me. Her name is Toma. “Toma… like Tomato. I like this fruit.” She’s a lot of fun to be around and we’ve shared some simple conversation about culture and different things in China. The other day she asked me what I like to do in my spare time and we started talking about hobbies and interests, and that led to TV shows. She told me she likes to watch “Survivor” very much. We shared some ideas about different people on the show. Who is crazy, smart, good player, bad player, good person, mean person, and Matt. She was interested in him because of how much he talks about God and the rest of the players don’t. I told her that I heard some people who are atheist disagree with the show and said they would stop watching it if CBS kept putting Matt on there, talking about God. This sparked Toma’s interest even more. She said, “Not everyone in America is believing in God?” I explained that not everyone in America is Christian, and not everyone who is Christian lives in America. We talked about how much Matt believes God has helped him on the show and Toma seemed to be pulling for Matt too. We’re planning on watching the show with her next week, and maybe continue some discussion. It's possible nothing may come of this, but it is always exciting to talk about our heavenly Father with someone who doesn’t know Him. Please add Toma to your prayer list, and pray for our interaction with her.

We've talked about emailing Matt and letting him know that how he is living his life on TV is helping us to start good conversations with students. We'll have to look into it and see... Thanks for reading! I love you all!