Culture Shock

Thursday, January 28, 2010

It’s hard to believe that we have already been here two weeks. For how much we have prepared for this time and our prayers for Africa, we really are here and serving with our abilities and efforts! Through our preparations, and understanding of becoming a missionary, we have read that there are typically 3 stages that missionaries go through as they strive to become cross-cultural. During the first stage, the glamour stage (or for a better idea the “honeymoon stage”) we are awed by everything that we see. While everything is new, and adventuresome, while we don’t know the language, we don’t understand the culture, everything is great. It’s all fascinating to us. In fact I made an African peanut sauce the other night to prove that we are not afraid to adapt to the culture. I’d even be willing to wash my clothes using a wash board even through we have a washing machine. Everything is new and exciting.

It’s hard to know how long we will stay in this stage or how quickly we will move through it. Although, we use English in most of the stores, we have to rely on others to communicate for us to get to the stores, if we take public transportation; we are not in a position to go by ourselves. We will not be able to communicate the location we are hoping for, nor how to get there. So, while the culture is fascinating, and we are willing to adapt, we have to stay grounded and be realistic that not to far from now, we will likely begin the rejection stage of the cultural adaptation. This will be a trying time for us, realizing that it is just the two of us that really know ourselves and our abilities. How we handle emotional stress and conflicting ideas. During the glamour stage we are trying to prepare ourselves to know that we will soon reject the culture we are serving in and have begun placing ourselves in positions to smoothly transition into the second stage of our cross-cultural experience.

I have found a women’s Bible study this week that meets every other week and is formed with many different women who are all serving in Rwanda for many different reasons. Some teachers, missionaries, business leaders, however, are all sisters in Christ and know the Lord. It is people like this that will help me transition through the stages of culture shock. As for Blake, he has already traveled 2 times in 2 weeks, and is meeting so many brothers in Christ whose ultimate purpose is to serve the Lord. They are encouraging to Blake and are so grateful to him for his services and help already that they will be more than happy to discuss his thoughts or concerns about the culture as he moves through the same stages, maybe even quicker than me.

As for our ministry, we had an interesting experience this week that confirmed to us that the pastor’s here are in need of theological training. The time for us to come, was all in God’s hand, and we are sure now, more than ever that we are called to be here. The sooner Blake is able to develop the computer labs for the on-line training, the sooner the pastor’s can begin to teach to their congregations the message of Holiness that the Church of the Nazarene stands for. While each pastor begins to get a better insight into the Lord and who he is, the affect passed to their congregations will be so great, as it spreads across Africa. What an exciting adventure it will be for us to be a part of.

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