Online Newsletter
Our dear friend and brother Rollie Radichel went to heaven this week. We will miss him. Thank you for your prayers of comfort for Dorie and the Radichel family. We will remember him and celebrate his life on Saturday, June 6, 2009 at 1pm at Concordia.
Concordia Art Festival at Windingwalk on Saturday, June 6, 2009 from 10 to noon. If you are donating any baby wipes or other supplies for the art projects, please drop them off at the welcome center on Sunday. This is the last Sunday to deliver supplied!
Construction Project This Week:
News from the Mission Field in China: Our missionary Stephen Oliver gives us an update.
Maggie was leaking a little amniotic fluid, so the doctor put her on complete bed rest in the hospital. The doctor is concerned about two things: 1) infection and 2) premature birth. Maggie has completed the 34th week of pregnancy and the doctor hopes Isaac’s little brother can wait until the 36th or 37th week to appear.
Pray for Maggie’s heart to be calm and for her to get good rest and care so that Isaac’s little brother can develop well in her. Pray for all of us at this time.
Photos: VISITING MAGGIE
Stephen and Isaac visit Maggie and eat dinner with her in the hospital and Stephen washes Maggie’s hair using the method he learned from Kevin Ko (fellow student who’s wife was on complete bed rest for the last two months of pregnancy).
One of our goals is to create new connections with people and expand our circle of influence in the world. I came across this blog post on how to make conversation with strangers and found some encouragement and some nuggets. My favorite tip is the one I have marked in orange. It reminds me of my other favorite: “How is life treating you these days?” Which one do you like?
Seven Tips for Making Good Conversation with a Stranger.
Every Wednesday is Tip Day.
This Wednesday: 7 tips for making good conversation with a stranger.
I posted before about tips for knowing if you’re boring someone and tips to avoid being a bore. But while it might be fairly easy to avoid topics that are likely to bore someone, it’s much harder to figure out what to say if you want to be interesting. Making polite conversation can be tough.
“So where do you live?”
“Chelsea.”
“Really. I live on the upper east side.”
“Great…”
Painful silence.
Here are some strategies to try when your mind is a blank:
1. Comment on a topic common to both of you at the moment: the food, the room, the occasion, the weather. “How do you know our host?” “What brings you to this event?” But keep it on the positive side! Unless you can be hilariously funny, the first time you come in contact with a person isn’t a good time to complain.
2. Comment on a topic of general interest. A friend scans Google News right before he goes anywhere where he needs to make small talk, so he can say, “Did you hear that Justice Souter is stepping down from the bench?” or whatever might be happening.
3. Ask open questions that can’t be answered with a single word. “What’s keeping you busy these days?” This is a good question if you’re talking to a person who doesn’t have an office job. It’s also helpful because it allows people to choose their focus (work, volunteer, family, hobby) — preferable to the inevitable question (well, inevitable at least in New York City): “What do you do?”
A variant: “What are you working on these days?” This is a useful dodge if you ought to know what the person does for a living, but can’t remember.
4. If you do ask a question that can be answered in a single word, instead of just supplying your own information in response, ask a follow-up question. For example, if you ask, “Where are you from?” an interesting follow-up question might be, “What would your life be like if you still lived there?” If you ask, “Do you have children?” you might ask, “How are you a different kind of parent from your own parents?” or “Have you decided to do anything very differently from the way you were raised?”
5. Ask getting-to-know-you questions. “What newspapers and magazines do you subscribe to? What internet sites do you visit regularly?” These questions often reveal a hidden passion, which can make for great conversation.
6. React to what a person says in the spirit in which that that comment was offered. If he makes a joke, even if it’s not very funny, try to laugh. If she offers some surprising information (“Did you know that one out of every seven books sold last year was written by Stephanie Meyer?”), react with surprise.
