It Takes a Village

The other day we had occasion to visit with a fine young man. We listened as he shared.  Then we thanked him for being a man of integrity, for guarding his ways and for being a man of truth. He sort of chuckled, gave a big smile and said, “It wasn’t too hard. It was pretty easy.”

Hmmm, really? Pretty easy?  Maybe that choice felt easy, but that is because it sits on the foundation of a thousand-and-more right choices. That foundation was built over generations, one decision at a time, one person at a time, one choice on top of another, all leading to, “It wasn’t too hard. It was pretty easy.”

So here is to God, who gave us His word to be a light to our path and a guide to our feet. Who gave His own Son that we might have the mind of Christ. For listening and hearing, caring and answering. For gifting and enabling and bearing. For all of these decisions and more, “Thank you!”

Here is to Christ, who “emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant” and went to the cross to die for us that we might live. For coming, abiding, teaching and modeling. For personifying humility, selflessness and grace. For all these decisions and more, “Thank you!”

Here is to the generations of grandparents, aunts and uncles, cousins and siblings; family by blood and family by experience, whose decisions led to what is right. Making decisions to go to church even when it wasn’t easy. Choosing to stand firm even when others were not. Deciding to go the extra mile to be sure moral lessons were rightly learned, guarding as well as guiding hearts. Speaking up, speaking out, speaking into as needed, choosing to convey God’s way as the best way. For all these decisions and more, “Thank you!”

Here is to the neighbors whose unconditional love modeled rightness in life. For teaching there is a knowing deeper than language can express and that smiles and handshakes say more than we can know. For teaching that people groups and culture are very important yet create little difference. For helping to learn to be at home in a thatched-roof hut as much as in one’s own bedroom. For being willing to be chosen as friends and neighbors and heroes. For sharing and answering and asking what matters. For all these decisions and more, “Thank you!”

Here is to the prayer warriors who answered the call to battle, raising their voices and hearts to the Victor who leads us all. Who willingly awakened to God’s Spirit prompting them to pray for safety and provision. For persisting and enduring, repeatedly reminding and petitioning. For remembering and continuing without ceasing. For all these decisions and more, “Thank you!”

Here is to the teachers who believed and challenged and modeled the way into making wise choices. Holding the standard high, taking time to further explain and re-demonstrate, offering yet another suggestion. Applauding successes and forgiving failures, bringing learning at the highest level, ever champions for right-doing in all things. For all these decisions and more, “Thank you!”

Here is to dorm parents who set down rules and made it possible to keep them. For pointing out that one can have fun and enjoy life without making it hard on others. Deciding to stay up late and listen, to check dorm rooms and beds, to study and pray and model the way. Giving and going and sharing the journeys. Being there, rightly, in all situations. For all these decisions and more, “Thank you!”

Here is to the coaches who gave out game plans and workouts. For challenging and inspiring and motivating when no one else could. Who molded and shaped not only muscles and skills but hearts and minds as well. For expecting the best and training others how to give it.  For reinforcing there is fun in the playing of the game and that the best never forget it. For maintaining good sportsmanship as the wisest of all game choices. For building character that can be trusted and counted on. For all these decisions and more, “Thank you!”

Here is to all the friends who became as family, mattering not what passport country their parents called home. For playing and imagining, creating and sharing. For jokes and for tricks, for sharing in fun and in discipline. For being there in joy and equally present in sorrow. For making hellos so sweet and goodbyes so hard. For understanding without words, knowing without being told. For all these decisions and more, “Thank you!”

Here is to all the classmates, roommates, workmates and teammates who shared life on all levels. For being willing to be observed and analyzed, partaking in discussion that ultimately leads to making good choices. For fun and laughter; shared tears, clothes and frustrations; for games and hugs and prayer. For being there, sticking with it, explaining, helping to find a better way, showing alternative routes to good ends. For risking and including and staying. For all these decisions and more, “Thank you!”

It takes a village to raise a child. This is our thanks to all in the international village who helped us raise our children. Standing on the foundation you all helped to construct, now as adults our kids can say, “It wasn’t too hard. It was pretty easy.”

Who in your village influenced you in making right decisions? Who in your village is learning from your decision-making? It takes a village....

Jeff and Christine

Flight Hazards, Navigation Challenges and Obedience

The other day we were traveling on an urban freeway. The driver was busy with traffic, off-ramps and road hazards. I was busy observing all I could see in this city-not-my-own. A few low-flying birds caught my attention.

In amazement I watched the birds carefully navigate many dangers to flight. Power lines, fast-moving trucks, various roof-lines and fences were hazards that could have knocked them out but the birds persisted in their flight pattern, dodging every hazard and successfully landed in a small patch of grass between roadways.

Once they were firmly on the ground, the birds stood still and looked around. Then they fixed their gaze on the birds-of-their-feather already there. The new arrivals looked like they weren’t sure what to do after successfully navigating the obstacles and finally arriving at their destination. Just before they went out of my sight I saw two of the already-there-birds walk over to the new arrivals. “Ahh,” I thought, “at least “somebird” (somebody) sees their need and will help them on the ground.”

My thoughts went on to liken this bird scenario to missionaries arriving at their ministry location for the first time, or even the 10^th time. Throughout a missionary’s time of preparation we each face many hazards that could knock us out of flight. We must learn to navigate gathering a prayer team, partnering with financial investors, legal requirements for living in the new location, paperwork for accountability, family obligations and desires, schedules and more. It is not for the feint-of-heart!

The enemy of our souls interjects thoughts and skews understanding in so many ways, hoping to keep missionaries from successfully landing where God invites us to join Him. And the enemy doesn’t stop when we do land in the place of God’s invitation. Doubts can quickly arise. Thoughts of inadequacy and reminders of our inexperience can swirl like a dense fog bringing limited visibility.

I am so glad God’s invitation to us to join Him in what He is doing includes being the “somebodies” that see the needs of missionaries just arriving and help them on the ground. We find joy in preparing for the arrival of our teammates, laying the groundwork for the entry into Uganda and preparing for mentorship.  It is a privilege to celebrate God’s faithfulness with each arrival, recounting together God’s navigation guidance that enabled them to reach their destination. Sharing Scripture, praying together, helping folks learn where to shop and how to greet people in the local language begins to lift the fog. Providing meals, assisting with childcare, interpreting cultural norms and introducing them to new friends increases visibility. We are grateful for the privilege of helping missionaries thrive!

Now in the U.S. for a few months of homeland ministry assignment, we are once again navigating the flight pattern that leads back to Uganda. We are gathering prayer warriors and financial partners. We are filling out paperwork, spending all possible time with family and juggling schedule requests.

Our hearts are grateful for those who minister to us along the journey. We are being loved on, fed, hosted lavishly, supported lovingly and cared for in every way. We are prayed over, donated to, hugged and challenged. Through this we are renewed, restored, strengthened and our vision clarity is increasing. We look forward to returning to Uganda mid-summer of this year. We are eager to re-join our team already there. Though there is still much to navigate on the way we are confident our God and His people will get us there to continue doing all that God invites us to do with Him.

What about you? Is there someone in your neighborhood, workplace, school or church that has just “landed” and is hoping somebody will see their need and help them? Is God inviting you to join what He is doing in someone’s life, helping them navigate a difficult flight pattern? Might God be prompting you to extend partnership to a missionary? Our prayer is that we each one listen to God’s voice and be courageous in our obedience. Someone is depending on it!

Christine

So Much to Learn!

This past week we welcomed a family joining WGM Uganda for their first term. This is their “first landing” as missionaries in Uganda. Our team worked together in preparing the house for them, putting together orientation materials, praying through the house and property prior to their habitation of it and making sure we had everything in good order for them. After Jeff came home from meeting them at the airport and getting them and all their luggage off loaded into the new-to-them house he came home and said, “Do you remember the first time we came to Africa? Well, they are all just like we were, exhausted, excited and eager.” We chuckled then soon fell asleep. But the memories keep coming into our conversations even now, a week later. We are still learning a lot about cultural adaptation.

As a young couple with our one year-old daughter we arrived in the middle of the night into the Nairobi, Kenya airport after a skillion hours of travel to get there. It felt like we had missed sleep for weeks. But even in our fog we had some distinct first impressions:

• policemen with automatic weapons looked us over as we exited the plane onto the gangway
• the folks in immigration were very kind, quickly moving us to the front of the line saying to all the others waiting in the queue, “You don’t mind, this crying baby must be very tired!”
• it is dark but not cold at this hour, hmmmm…..
• we are so glad a WGM missionary was there to greet us as we got off the plane and help us through the process necessary until we got out to the vehicle he had to transport us and all our luggage to his house
• we spelled “relief” as “t-e-a-m”---what a relief to be part of a team already in place

That state of “fog” stayed with us about a week. Our baby had trouble getting into a good sleep pattern in the new time zone. Every single interaction was full of “new” and “unknown” and took a tremendous amount of mental energy. Conversation began to feel nearly impossible. Christine stayed in the missionary home with little Elizabeth and left Jeff to venture into the unknown world with another missionary. Christine felt a bit cowardly but she could not muster the energy to face going out. In addition to sleeplessness she had difficulty adjusting to the altitude. Nairobi is a little over a mile high, which is significantly higher than the 150 foot elevation we lived at in Oregon.

We stayed in Nairobi two or three days to do business necessary to get our drivers’ licenses in process, meet our teammates and see their ministries in Nairobi and other necessary business. We then rode with other missionaries going home to Tenwek. The missionary driving wanted to stop in Nakuru for shopping. We had absolutely no idea what we needed to purchase, when we would get into a supermarket again, how to figure the Kenyan currency or product names. It wasn’t until much later we learned that raisins are sultanas, cornstarch is corn flour, bleach is jik, and so on.

At Tenwek our apartment was not quite ready for us. Another couple had recently moved out and the painting and minor repairs were completed a couple of days after our arrival. Three or four other missionary families had arrived within a couple of months ahead of us so “extra” furnishings were scarce. Our apartment had two twin beds, a dining table with chairs and a sparsely furnished kitchen. After a day or so of having only the dining chairs to sit on another missionary offered a metal framed couch that we could use. Jeff and I carried it from her house up by the hospital down the road to our apartment. We felt like we had really done something!

After a couple of weeks we found out how to open a bank account in nearby Bomet Town. We had no vehicle so we set out early one morning to walk the 4 miles or so through the hills to and from the bank. We got a bit disoriented along the way but a kind Kenyan man kindly offered to show us the shortest-distance path to Bomet when we asked him which way we should go. He led us through home compounds, cow pastures and sheep folds. It was an excellent cultural learning experience and we were so glad for that kind man guiding us and explaining his culture along the way.

After opening a bank account we bought a snack and some water then headed back to Tenwek. As we left the town it started to rain. And then it rained seriously. And then it poured. All the while we were walking back on the paths, slipping and sliding in the mud, laughing as we said, “Our friends in the U.S. would NEVER believe this adventure we are on just to make a trip to the bank!” We arrived home several hours later, muddy and tired but feeling quite satisfied with ourselves and all we had learned.

The adjustments into another culture should never be underestimated. Everything must be learned. We come with nothing, really, except our assumptions. It isn’t often that our assumptions are correct. Choosing to start with learning how to address people is a good beginning. Listening to what we were told, practicing what we were told to do the way we were told to do it and maintaining a humble posturing in every way helps decrease the steep learning curve.

A friend of ours recently made the cross-cultural transition into heaven. To us he had become an expert in cross-cultural communication. He had close friends in more countries than we could count on two hands and we were privileged to be among them. We feel pretty confident our friend had very little or no culture shock when he entered heaven.

We want to be as prepared as our friend. So, we are “listening” to what we are told all throughout Scripture. God reveals much in His word about His kingdom and how we are to live therein. We continue to practice doing what Jesus tells us to do the way we He tells us to do it. We seek to reflect Jesus accurately as we serve in the body of Christ. Humility is not what comes “naturally” to us but as we intentionally die to self so that Christ might live in us we somehow decrease the steep learning curve. God’s own Spirit guides us and gives us feedback. We practice entering into transformational worship of God so that we are bear more and more of His own image. God’s word tells us living this way will help eliminate culture shock upon our entrance into heaven.

What experiences have you had with cross-cultural adaptation? How are you demonstrating cultural adjustment living in the Kingdom of God? We would love to hear your experiences!

Jeff and Christine