I've heard that cultural barriers can be tough. But I never thought that they would throw you to the ground, punch you in the face and break you into pieces.
Just a bit of an FYI for all you soon to be missionaries… cultural barriers are hard. They may make you feel insignificant and helpless if you come across the right person.
This month was just that for me. I never felt good enough and I felt like a constant failure because I couldn't live up to the cultural expectaions of our contact. I thought it would get better. I tried to "man up" and pretend like I was fine… but it just got worse and worse and worse…
…Until it blew up on our team's face. We were told that we were disrespectful to his culture that we were not doing things right and that he didn't need our help. All because of simple miscommunications.
Miscommunication is going to happen. It is inevitable.
It hurts to have expections on you that you do not know are on you all because of miscommunication.
Ugh.
I desperately want to serve others as if it were Christ I was serving.
I want to be a servant.
Yet, I feel like I've royally messed that up this month.
Just when I want to throw the towel in and say "I quit", Jesus whispers this to me :
You can not grow weary of doing good — for I, your Master, will take you by the hand and lead you along the path of My love and My endurance.
(Comes from 2 Thessalonians 3:5;13)
I've got to stand firm on the promises of who I am in Jesus knowing this world isn't my home and that I truly get to live for eternity. That MY Master will take me by the hand and He will personally lead me along the path of His love and His endurance. I will personally be escorted through this world by the power of my Master. I cannot grow weary in doing good. There's too much ahead of me and too much that God wants to offer through me.
I'm not living to please my World Race contact – I'm living to please the living God. God calls me to love even through cultural barriers and the feelings of being majorly disrespected. He asks that we bear a light in this dark world and that we trust that He's got us.
Whew. I've learned a lot this month. It has not been my favorite month and it has been one of the hardest on the Race. But, the lessons I've learned are vital and will go with me for the rest of my life.
I'm thankful I'm not doing this on my own (I woulda quit a long time ago if that were the case!) and that I have a Master, a KING, that escorts me with love and endurance through a world that needs Him more than I will ever know.
He's got me.
And He's got you.
And He won't relent until He has it all.
Let His name be magnified through my life in greater depths of everyday! Afterall, if God is for us WHO can be against us?!
