Next time I go on a missions trip or some kind of market where people who are less fortunate than I are selling their wares and the prices are negotiable I won't talk them down.
It seems so wrong and hypocritical. Especially if one is there as a missionary.
We are suppossed to go there with open hearts and be willing to give spiritually and what not, but as soon as we hit the market place/tourist areas we begin to act as such and are penny pinchers bound and determined to haggle to our hearts content.
I used to be somewhat proud of my haggling skills. Or at least impressed with myself that I could expose a seedy looking man for the kind of crooked business man he was for charging me three fold what it was worth.
But in reality what I was doing was hardening my own heart, but also theirs. They have to jack up the prices because they know that haggling will occur and lower said price, so they have to keep it up high originally to make at least some profit. And it's hardening my heart as well...you start to look down on them...thinking them to be greedy nasty people who only want our money...and it makes me so angry with myself for thinking that...I didn't necissarily think those exact thoughts...but sometimes, rather, a lot of the times we formulate impressions and opinions of people around us without really giving a second thought to it.
But anyways.
The next time I go to Peru. Or Cambodia (I'm looking into that trip...) i'm not going to haggle.
Yeah, buying people souvenirs from foreign lands is all fine and dandy, but I as a missionary am not there to shop and be a tourist. I'm there to show people the love of God and be giving in all aspects of myself.
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