Modern Religious Recruiting

Usually if one wants to attend a Church - you go with your friends or family or you find a pamphlet or poster and attend an event and become a regular (or a semi-regular) from then on...
Sometimes there are people that stop you on the streets (i.e. Mormons) or they come and visit you at your home (i.e. Jehovah Witnesses).

But what do you do when one tries to recruit you with dumplings?

SERIOUSLY.

Way back in May, my oldest had a nasty ear infection and after a night trip to the hospital - we swung by downtown to get his prescription and some take-out since cooking supper was out of the question by the time I got home.
I got on the bus, parked the stroller and my son in the center, paid my fee and waited.  Nearby on a seat was an Asian girl about my age (I guess?) and she was staring at me.
I mentally thought what could possibly be on my face or in my teeth but decided I don't care.  I sneak a look at her from the corner of my eye and she is grinning wildly at me - I turned to look at her and realize that no, I don't know her.  So I give a light smile and turn away from her and look out the window.
We have a bit of a wait before we leave the bus stop and I notice that she is STILL staring at me and grinning like a Cheshire cat.
I quietly say "Hello."
Well, she explodes with chit chat asking me a wide range of questions like:

• Why are you in Finland?
• Where are you from?
• Are you Chinese - do you speak any?
• Why were you downtown - getting some shopping done?
• Why does your son need medicine? 
• What do you do for a living?
• What did you do in Canada?

Well, you get the idea - there were A LOT of questions in a span of 10 minutes.  Because I took the first bus that came, I ended up not getting off near my home by behind it - about a 5 minutes walk away.  And guess what?
She was getting off at the same stop.

It started to rain a little so she kindly popped open her umbrella and shared with me.  WOW that's super nice.

Then she walked me home - that was creepy, because it wasn't raining that hard and I was sort of in a rush to give my son his medicine, our food was getting cold and I don't even know this chick's name!  And I don't live that near to her really...she went totally out of her way and I know - I'm sounding like an un-grateful person.

But there was just something odd about someone so attached to a stranger...and now I know why.

So I started to fire questions back at her on our walk to my place and it turns out that yep, she's from China and she's here to study and do some work with environmental studies (I can't remember but that sounds right).  And something about an internship at Metso.  Okay - good for her!

Then I asked what she does in her spare time and she only works, studies and goes to Church.
Ah okay - fair enough.

Then she asks, "Do you like Chinese dumplings?"
Chinese dumplings are bits of meat - sometimes veggies and wrapped into a soft pasta shape, boiled then fried.  DELICIOUS.
"Well, of course I do - why?" I ask enthusiastically (stupid me).

"Why don't you come to a party?  Me and my friends are making many dumplings for a going-away party for a couple friends that are moving back to China!" -her
"Oh well I don't know them so maybe I shouldn't.  And I don't speak Chinese, so that feels weird to me - that I'm hanging out with a bunch of native speakers and I just look the part.  Nah - it's okay." -me
"No worries - we all speak English.  It's at the Church - many Americans!!  It's a Church for everyone....it's international!" - her
(I'M NOT AMERICAN!) - No offense to those that read my blog...

In my mind, I'm instantly thinking "Oh F.  She's referring to Jehovah Witnesses and is recruiting me with DUMPLINGS.  WHO does that these days?!"
"Well, I'm not religious to be honest..."

She cuts me off with "No problem - everyone is very nice and it's downtown and you can make so many friends this way.  And you can bring your children - they can go to Sunday school!  It's the Evangelical Christian Church downtown!  And your boys can make lots of friends!"

"No they won't because my oldest doesn't speak.  He's Autistic actually." - me
"Well, what does that mean?"
(Insert mini description of daily life with my oldest and she's still somewhat clueless).

So I thank her politely for the offer and say no but let's maybe meet for coffee some time.

She wishes me a wonderful Mother's Day and we plan to meet at her place for tea the following week.

I go over there and her place could pass a few white glove inspections - neater than a pin.

Her room mate is out of town so I enter her bedroom and take a seat and notice a huge map - neat!  I then notice a bunch of letters and I can't see too well because the writing was so small - but she explains that sometimes she writes her thoughts down to God and also writes them down in Chinese and then she tacks them to her wall so it's the first wonderful thing she sees in the morning.

OKAY - NOW I AM TERRIFIED.

She ends up showing me all her Bibles and her Bible Study books and gives me a business card of the Church she attends and yet again, reminds me of the dumpling party coming up.

I told her I still don't think it's a good idea because I don't know anyone but her (and really, I don't even know HER) and she said we could walk down together and if I wanted - I could go and MAKE the dumplings too.
And we discussed why my sons have Finnish names and I told her well, the original plan for my oldest (if he was born in Canada) was Isiah Michael.
WELL!  Those names are both in the Bible and part of the Prophecy - so clearly - we are meant to be BFFs.

A few days later - she asked me AGAIN to go to the party - this is driving me nuts because I really have no interest and advise her that I'm glad she has found her purpose with the Church but it's really not for me right now and I'm quite busy with everything else going on.

She then wishes me a nice summer and doesn't talk to me anymore after that.

So the lesson here? Never say "Hello" to random strangers grinning at you like Cheshire cats.
(I have been thinking on and off about blogging about this - but now that I've deleted her from my Facebook - I feel it's acceptable to write about this interesting experience.)