I HAVE to be disciplined about carrying tracts in my pocket. If I don’t have them with me I can’t hand them out. Having them in the car is a good start, but not good enough.
I take one of my younger siblings out for lunch each week. Today they picked a restaurant that is often chosen. The lady who was taking the orders was very, very, slow. I could tell that she was new (likely her first day on the job). The kitchen staff was unhappy with her (she was inputting orders incorrectly) and the people in line were upset with the long wait to place their order.
She apologized to us for the delay and I said it was no problem. If I would have had tracts with me it would have been a perfect opportunity to share the gospel with her.
A good reminder to me.
Wednesday, September 03, 2008
Missionary to India?
Computer technical support can be a big hassle. While the technician generally seems sincere in wanting to help, they often aren’t very helpful. Then you toss in an overseas call center…
Living in India and working in a US-outsourced computer technical support call center would be a VERY difficult job. They have to work overnight (US Central Time zone) and talk with customers that are generally very disappointed to be talking with someone located in India (who is probably hard to understand). How would we feel if we were trying to help people all day that were very upset to have to talk with us?
Over the past few weeks I have had several opportunities to call a computer manufacturer’s technical support. Turns out, for one of the computers, I could have called their “Gold” support number for support from a US-based call center, but I chose to instead keep talking with the general “overseas” support.
Even though the person wasn’t very knowledgeable, and even though it took longer for them to send me the part than I would have preferred (about 30 minutes start-to-finish before they agreed to send me the warranty-covered part that I needed) I work very hard at being polite, understanding, and gracious.
I know that these technicians face upset and impatient callers all day long. When I call them I want to be different, and I am cognizant of the fact that my attitude and interaction with them during the business portion of the call will impact whether they listen to me share the gospel with them at the end of the call.
The last few times, the person has been open.
While I have found it to be slower, more of a hassle, and less helpful, to get technical support from India than from a US-call center, I have found that the Indian technicians seem to be more open to the gospel.
Traveling to India to share the gospel would be exciting (and expensive); my experience has been that sharing with an Asian-India over the phone simply takes time, patience, and a gentle spirit.
Am I willing to be inconvenienced (speaking to foreign tech support) in order to be able to share the gospel?
Living in India and working in a US-outsourced computer technical support call center would be a VERY difficult job. They have to work overnight (US Central Time zone) and talk with customers that are generally very disappointed to be talking with someone located in India (who is probably hard to understand). How would we feel if we were trying to help people all day that were very upset to have to talk with us?
Over the past few weeks I have had several opportunities to call a computer manufacturer’s technical support. Turns out, for one of the computers, I could have called their “Gold” support number for support from a US-based call center, but I chose to instead keep talking with the general “overseas” support.
Even though the person wasn’t very knowledgeable, and even though it took longer for them to send me the part than I would have preferred (about 30 minutes start-to-finish before they agreed to send me the warranty-covered part that I needed) I work very hard at being polite, understanding, and gracious.
I know that these technicians face upset and impatient callers all day long. When I call them I want to be different, and I am cognizant of the fact that my attitude and interaction with them during the business portion of the call will impact whether they listen to me share the gospel with them at the end of the call.
The last few times, the person has been open.
While I have found it to be slower, more of a hassle, and less helpful, to get technical support from India than from a US-call center, I have found that the Indian technicians seem to be more open to the gospel.
Traveling to India to share the gospel would be exciting (and expensive); my experience has been that sharing with an Asian-India over the phone simply takes time, patience, and a gentle spirit.
Am I willing to be inconvenienced (speaking to foreign tech support) in order to be able to share the gospel?
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