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Cross-cultural ministry


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Culture shock

It is apparent that through the Internet today, we now have the opportunity to "meet" and fellowship with other believers around the world, who often live in a totally different culture, and so there is a need for all of us to understand a little more about cross-cultural ministry. Now, in the West, we have a wealth of books and information available to learn about another culture, yet no matter HOW well-prepared we are, we will inevitably be involved in some situations where we experience amazement, misunderstanding and outright CULTURE SHOCK! Some responses, some reactions, some explanations will seem totally FOREIGN to us (and often totally illogical!). If we believe that, as Christians, we are all part of ONE body, then we MUST find ways to work together and try to understand one another! It's not possible for us all to attend mission training or a college course, so we thought it might be helpful to share a few thoughts and personal experiences (and some funny stories!) that might challenge your thinking and help you be better prepared as you get to know other brothers and sisters around the world. After personally living in several different countries and experiencing many challenging situations in our lives, we feel the MOST important points to consider in dealing with other cultures are:

1) You MUST be ready to laugh at yourself and at mistakes (and not mind when others laugh at YOU!)

2) You MUST be extra patient and extra forgiving (developing relationships in other cultures takes a lot of time, and cannot happen when there are bad feelings). We found it very helpful to spend time studying 1 Corinthians 13!

3) You MUST understand that their ways seem the only logical way to them, and OUR ways seem foreign! If we're living in THEIR land, then we must adapt as much as possible to their culture, and be prepared for change to come very slowly (especially regarding ungodly practices). It's important to focus on the very basics of Jesus' teachings and do our best to exhibit the fruit of the Spirit in our daily life.

4) It's best if you're CERTAIN you've heard from God before getting involved, as then you can be sure He will help you through all the trials, and you won't be so tempted to give up!

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Story illustration

To illustrate the point, here is an apparently true story we were told while at King's Way Missionary Institute: "A white missionary was living in Africa and sharing the Gospel in a tribe that practiced polygamy. The chief, along with most of the tribe came to the little church for services every Sunday. The missionary had preached from the Bible for several months, covering several topics, and finally one Sunday he felt it was time to address the issue and explain that God's will is for each man to have only one wife. As he preached, he noticed the chief was paying particular attention (while sitting with his six wives and all their children). He wondered how the chief would take the message, but at the end of the service, the chief just shook his hand and left. The next Sunday, the missionary noticed the chief was sitting there as usual, but with a big smile on his face. The preacher asked him how things were going, and the chief replied: "Well, I was very worried when I heard your sermon last week as you know I have 6 wives and that is not pleasing to God. But I've fixed the problem! I had five of them killed and so now I am pleasing God!"

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Some of our experiences

This may seem rather extreme but it does make us think a bit more about how we should share the Gospel and God's love in a totally different culture! We want to share some personal testimonies of our own experiences that might be of interest and of help to you. Many of our experiences on the mission field were not much fun to go through at the time, but later on we could appreciate the lessons we had learned and even sometimes some humor about it all! The awesome thing is how the Lord protects us in our ignorance (and sometimes also our foolishness!). We do believe that such times of testing do bring out our true character, and if we are truly serving God, hopefully the Fruit of the Spirit will be evident to others, and be a testimony to our Christian faith. We hope these stories will encourage and help you as you pass through your own cross-cultural experiences! Personal stories

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Some thoughts

As we have sought to understand many different experiences and come to know and love other Christians who live in very different cultures, we have developed a whole new appreciation for many scripture passages especially with reference to the Body of Christ. We realize that people and problems are the same the world over, although it is fascinating how each nation and culture has distinctive strengths and weaknesses. We are truly all different parts of the same body, and we all need each other as we work together under our head, our Lord Jesus Christ. More thoughts


 

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