Hello from the ATL Airport!! At the time of posting this we are currently on hour 3 of our 7 hour day here at the airport. We’re waiting for our flight and having fun people-watching. But enough about the airport – let’s talk TRAINING CAMP!!
Coming into Training Camp, I had a peace a very strong feeling of peace. I won’t lie, I definitely had a few nerves but overall I felt very calm and at peace about the trip. Throughout TC, there was such a difference of feelings from TC in January to now. It’s almost unexplainable how at peace I felt throughout the past 5 days. I met all the wonderful girls on my team, our fearless leaders (shoutout to my Costa Chicas!!) and ate foods I would never normally eat. We also experienced life without running water meaning porta potties & bucket showers for the win. (Not really – I don’t think I’ll ever want to see those green rooms of death again.)
My favorite thing throughout TC was all the sessions we did. Adventures in Mission’s staff came and spoke to us throughout the weekend on a bunch of different topics like “Hearing the Holy Spirit”, “Biblical Basis for Missions”, “Sharing Our Testimonies”, and my favorite session: “What Is Culture?” This session discussed the different cultural lenses throughout the world. It really opened my eyes to how ineffective missions can be if you don’t go about it in a respectful way. We learned that there are really 3 types of cultural lenses.
Guilt/Innocence Culture is very individualistic. They redeem their wrongs by payment. If somebody wrongs you, they need to pay you back. The question most people in this culture ask themselves is “How will this affect me?” Shame/Honor Culture finds their morals in community and they redeem shame by honor. The question most people in this culture ask themselves is “How will this affect my family?” We didn’t really discuss the last lense, Fear/Power Culture. People in a Fear/Power Culture ask themselves “How will this affect the spirits?
Based on those three can you guess which lens America falls into?
It’s Guilt/Innocence!
But, many countries that missionaries travel to don’t operate under that lens. Most other countries operate largely under Shame/Honor cultures or Fear/Power.
Many examples of how different situations are received in different cultures were given. Here’s the one that really gave me that “AHA!” moment:
Picture this. You’re walking down the street in a really busy city & you see a taxi cab waiting to pick up a customer. You hop in and ask the driver if he can take you to a specific restaurant. He says “Of course I can! I know EXACTLY where that is!” and off you go. Ten minutes into the ride however, he pulls over and stops for a second. He pulls out his phone and begins to look up the address. Then he rolls the window down and calls passerby over asking “Hey do you know how to get to this restaurant?” If you’re anything like me, you’d be super offended thinking (or saying) things like “He’s wasting my time! He lied to me! He can’t be trusted!”
In America, because we operate under the Guilt/Innocence lens, we feel that the taxi driver lied to us! He told us that he could take us somewhere and he couldn’t keep his commitment. We feel wronged by him & we expect him to repay us. Now put your self in that same situation again, this time looking at it from a Shame/Honor culture.
Picture this. You’re walking down the street in a really busy city & you see a taxi cab waiting to pick up a customer. You hop in and ask the driver if he can take you to a specific restaurant. He says “Of course I can! I know EXACTLY where that is!” and off you go. Ten minutes into the ride however, he pulls over and stops for a second. He pulls out his phone and begins to look up the address. Then he rolls the window down and calls passerby over asking “Hey do you know how to get to this restaurant?” You feel honored because he is jumping through hoops trying to get you where you need to be. He’s asking anyone who will listen. He wants to serve you. If he can’t get you to your destination he feels he’ll bring shame to not only himself, but also you. He doesn’t want to embarrass you by not getting you where you need to be.
Learning about these different cultures really puts things in perspective. Different cultures hear things differently. One culture may receive the gospel differently than other. To be proactive & effective missionaries we need to embrace these cultures that differ from our own. Telling people about Jesus in America is a whole different ball game than telling people in Costa Rica. By learning about the culture, their motivations, how their thoughts process, we can learn ways to speak to them effectively about the gospel. How cool is that?
All in all training camp was definitely an experience. I learned a lot and got to meet tons of cool people. I’m so excited for Costa Rica! The next time I blog it’ll be coming to ya LIVE FROM COSTA RICA!!
