II.
Learning the Language and Culture
Points of engagement for women in Church Planting Movements:
1. Cultivate deeper times of
intimacy with the Lord. Learn the process of practicing God’s presence. Practicing
His presence is described simply as Frank Laubach writes, “coming into a deep,
constant awareness of Christ.”[1]
In concert with a growing dependence upon the Word of God in the practice of
God’s presence, Miriam Adeney comments writing, “In Scripture we are plugged
into a supracultural standard that critiques us in order to sharpen and polish
and refine us. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to
dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and
attitudes of the heart. (Hebrews 4:12).”[2]
2. As
a team, develop a mission statement to go along with your team vision statement.
Also, it is essential that you and your team develop a team covenant and
several core distinctives. It is crucial that the women on the team are
involved in these processes. Consistent with Church Planting Movements
(CPM)
training, put in place a system of grace-filled ruthless
evaluation for personal goals as well as team goals.
3. Embrace
the need for you as a woman to go deep in the target culture and language. For
women in the season of child rearing, think through creative ways to obtain the
language and how to engage and excel in language and cultural understanding. You
must exhibit heaps of grace during this season as well as all others. However,
please note that it is imperative that women learn to
effectively communicate cross-culturally. If the female missionary does not
find ways to go deep in the first of couple years in the target culture, she will
likely be hindered in flourishing on the field in the future.
Many missionary families leave the
field partly because the wife never obtained the language. If married, a higher
level of partnering on your husband’s part to help with child care and schooling
needs, but freeing you up to learn the language will pay rich rewards. If both
the husband and wife do not prioritize language and culture learning, then, feelings
of isolation, disconnection from the local believers, and distraction from your
calling and your husband’s calling will likely ensue.
Raising a family overseas can be a
behemoth-sized responsibility that is not for the faint of heart by
any means. And unless you can, as a woman, function in your host culture and
embrace your part in seeing God reach an unreached people group then you may begin
to think, “it
is so much easier to raise kids in my home culture.” Seeing God’s hand work in
and through you will afford you staying power as well as the increased delight
in drawing near to His ways in deeper pathways still. The following is a small
sampling of ideas for moving deep into the culture and fabric of community:
►
Join a local community women’s social
group.
►
Join the local women’s female sports
team.
►
Ask women in local community (find Person
of Peace or female cultural advocate) to teach you to cook, exchanging
locally affordable recipes.
►
Go on outings with local people to picnic sites they enjoy, and plan ahead for
your kids as they join you on outings with target women and their families.
►
Strategic Hanging Out is essential with women in the community.
Strategic
Hanging Out is the concept of the
pursuit of non-believers with the intentionality which the Savior modeled as He
hung out with eternal purposes. Learn what women in your community enjoy
participating in together. Learn what speaks hospitality to your target women.
►
Ask the local women to teach you local customs. Ask them to take you to the
market for your shopping needs as well as receiving from them a way they can
give to you.
4. Be
careful not to fall into viewing and treating people as projects rather than
enjoying spending time with them as friends. Initiate the sharing of common
interests with the indigenous women you meet. This may feel like a
tension at times because you need to be deliberate in trusting God to find the Person
of Peace[3] which He has
prepared for you to meet. David Watson describes the Person of Peace writing,
“The Person of Peace is the
one God has prepared to receive the Gospel for the first time into a community.”
5. Discuss,
as a team, the on-going identity issues you may each be facing while living in
your cross-cultural context. There are usually identity role along with safety
issues related to most areas in the 10/40 Window. A
female colleague, Hope Kim, expresses the need to seek the Lord’s balance in
the areas of guarding identity and having witness, writing, “In light of unique
identity and security considerations in each upg, take care to not
subconsciously change the way you talk and act, which could hinder your
witness. Instead of being guarded and premeditative about whether to pray
before a meal or praise Him or admit weakness in needing Him, you can show you
are spiritual by allowing your natural relationship with Him to overflow.
Instead of wondering whether something will be a good witness, allow the
evidence of Him living through you come out naturally.”[4]
6. Be deliberate in limiting how connected you will stay with your home culture. Inability to engage in a cross-cultural lifestyle is an increasing challenge for both female and male missionaries. Carol Shadrach in her role as a mobilizer for U.S. Center for World Missions comments upon this unique challenge, writing,
“I think a huge hindrance to cross
cultural ministry that we have observed – especially in recent years with the
advent of the internet, cell phones, web cam – a missionary never fully leaves
their home country and identifies with the people and culture where they are as
they are constantly checking email – talking on the phone, visiting via skype,
web cam – up to several times a day – never disengages from the American culture
and friends.”[5]
7. Consider your personal
spiritual gifting mix as well as trust God outside your comfort zones.
Encourage and model servant leadership from the very beginning of new steps in
the target culture.
8. Consider what specific areas you can contribute to the missionary team as you engage in the outward expression of your end vision. Each team member, whether male or female, is suggested to have an out role, that is, a role that contributes to the outward ministry of the missionary team. Each team member will have a much needed out role in order to flourish corporately. There are several categories which include out roles for team life.
► Surveying the people group.
►Interviewing other missionaries, both foreign and
indigenous. Learn from their experiences and wisdom in your target people
group.
►Beginning an ethnography. Ethnography type
questions need to continue to be asked, no matter how long you serve on the
field. This process of understanding another culture is much like peeling back
the layers of an onion.
9. Plan
fun activities as a family with indigenous families. It is best to have friendships with both
believing and non-believing families. Hiking, having picnics on the beach and
hosting them in your home are good bridge- building times. Take the time to
plan games and activities that could help your kids engage with the indigenous
kids. Provide avenues for your kids to learn the language and the culture. This
is important for your child’s spiritual development and healthiness in seeing
their significance in the Father’s plan as well.
Consider how you could integrate more
of a holistic
understanding of childrearing (for those with kids). By holistic in this case, is that you
consider how the Lord has called your kids to be a part of His plans. Consider ways
to help address your children’s mental, physical, spiritual, and emotional
needs.
10. Be honest in the processes of
adjustment with others on your team. Quite frequently, singles along with the
mothers of small children or even older children can feel overwhelmed in how to
live out this calling.
At certain times, women—whether
single or married-- may feel defeated, jealous of other women on the team,
angry, or just flat out discouraged.
11. Seek believing indigenous women
to coach you in understanding better how to reach the target people group. Ask
them to teach you their Christian terms as well as help your understanding of
the broader national traditional church culture. Be careful, in a spirit of
grace, to avoid adopting any baggage of the national church culture. For
example, members of the national traditional church may insist upon talking about the
joys of eating pork. To a Muslim, this could turn them off to even being open
to hearing the gospel. Adopting non-contextualized traditions could kill a
potential CPM in your focus unreached people group.
Seek out national near culture
believers, who seem sensitive to understanding and operating in their target
cultures, to take you out sharing your faith. As context allows, watch how and
what terms seem to be effective and assess what might be done differently. In a
few cases, the local near culture believer understands ways to be more
sensitive in approaching your target groups. In regards to this readily
available resource for wrestling through more effective ways to share Christ
with your target group, CPM practitioner and trainer Curtis
Sergeant comments, “Every fish knows its own pond it swims in better than
outsiders.”[6]
Ask God for indigenous women who can
demonstrate effectiveness in expressing Christ to your focus group and learn
from them. Remember to focus upon seeking out Women of Peace in your
process.
[1] Brother
Lawrence & Frank Laubach.. Practicing
His Presence. The Library of Spiritual Classics Volume I.
[2] Adeney,
Miriam. Kingdom Without Borders.
Intervarsity Press Books. Downers Grove, Illinois., pg. 70.
[4] Personal
conversation with Hope Kim via email. Used by permission.
[5] Personal
conversation with Carol Shadrach via email. Used by permission.
[6] Personal email
conversation with CPM Practitioner and Trainer Curtis Sergeant. Used by
permission.
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