Cross-Cultural Living

For the past three days I was privileged to attend a seminar presented by Sarah Lanier author of Foreign to Familiar. I still highly recommend this book to all types of people--people who are living cross-culturally, married cross-culturally (including North and South United States citizens), or people who just want to better understand each other in daily life. I realize that many may consider the information in this book to be very broad and general--maybe even material that has been lived or learned already, but it's still a good reminder and help to understanding. The author stated that she kept it broad for a very good reason--you can take the information and apply it to your particular situation. And hey...if we think we've got it all together we probably need a good dose of reality anyway. :)
So on to the seminar...the information was very beneficial! Here are some key applications I walked away with...

• There are different levels of calling. Here's what I mean. Some people are going to spend their lives in their own neighborhoods sharing the Gospel with their neighbors--no travel or cultural adaptation. Some will do some traveling but no cultural adaptation, some will be short-term cross-cultural, some will be career, and some will be lifetime. We need to respect God's calling in our lives and the lives of others.
• Some people have a lot of power points. So we need to be constantly aware of our position and not "abuse" our power. Sometimes it's very easy for Westerners to dominate and then wonder why no one else contributes--we take all of the power away.
• It takes a long time to prepare for departure. Most transitions of leadership on the field are done very abruptly as most leaders wait until too late to train new leaders.
• Understanding leads to adapting.

It's amazing to me how much you can find that you have in common with people that seem to be so different from you. In our room of almost 30 people only 1 person had never shot a gun. Pretty interesting also considering the variety of countries we represented. :)

Hope's planning to go to her seminar on the hot and cold climates. I've already asked her to remember to take a picture and to get Sarah to sign our book. I waited to ask her for 30 minutes, but I had to leave as I was also making my taxi driver wait.

I would recommend a seminar like this. I'm a big proponent of refreshers like this. The Holy Spirit worked on me so I know it was really good for me to take the time to go. Another big plus is that it was in English. I've been back here for a little over a year now, and it was time for some refreshing in English. I think it's important to be reminded that I don't have it all figured out, and there will always be areas to improve. Perhaps if I remembered that more often, it would be easier to serve rather than be served.