• General information
• It Takes More Than Packing Your Toothbrush, by Ray Howell
• My Experience on a Work Team, by Caroline Doyle

So you want to go on a short-term assignment. How do you get ready? Are there some things you can begin to do now that will help you to be more effective in learning and ministering in another culture and help you to get the most out of the experience? Yes! But you won’t find them all in books and special training courses.

Since your cross-cultural experience doesn’t take place primarily in a library or a classroom, your preparation shouldn’t take place in a school setting either.

There are four key areas of your life to prepare: your heart, hands, head and feet. Almost every breakdown on the field (and there have been plenty of them) can be traced back to neglecting one of these four areas. Here are a few suggestions for how to prepare:

• PREPARATION OF THE HEART - The Scriptures are filled with allusions to battle, warfare and conflict. Although such spiritual conflict is subtly disguised within North America, it’s much more tangible and overt in most other areas of the world. Thus if you aren’t equipped to handle it, you’re in for real trouble.

  There’s no substitute for regular time alone with God to equip you for spiritual warfare through comfort, encouragement and instruction. If you need help, ask for it. Seek help first from Him and then from someone you know whose walk with God is obvious in his or her lifestyle. Ask that person to teach you and to hold you accountable in the areas of Bible study, meditation on the Scriptures, prayer and Scripture memorization. Many resources are available to help you, so make use of them. Consider setting aside a whole day or more as a preparatory spiritual retreat. Review Scriptures that encourage you and build up your faith. List and pray through all your concerns. Use a journal and ask the Holy Spirit to guide you in writing down measurable, realistic spiritual goals for your trip.
   

• PREPARATION OF THE HANDS - A great golf shot is composed of many individual components, including a balanced stance, a good backswing, a solid downstroke, a smooth follow-through and a steady eye on the ball. It takes practice to put it all together.

  Any short-term assignment is composed of many specific activities, and most of the necessary individual components can be developed before heading out. Be creative in finding ways to sharpen specific skills before you go.

  If you know where you might be going, try to find someone from that country who can help you to understand the customs of his or her homeland. This may also give a chance for you to share your faith across the same cultural barriers that you will face on your short term.

  If there’s a group of students from that country on a nearby campus, try to build friendships. Learn how they interact and relate. Are they quiet or noisy, physically affectionate or reserved? When they talk, do they stand close together or far apart? Do they make eye contact? How appropriate is it for women to talk to men, and vice versa?

  Any community of more than 100,000 people has a variety of cultures. Seeking them out and getting to know others different form yourself is an easy, but critically important, way to prepare. You might go to a nearby college and offer to tutor internationals in English. Or go to an ethnic neighborhood and talk to shopkeepers. Or find a predominantly ethnic church you can visit.

  Going overseas without preparation is like learning to swim by jumping out of a speeding boat

  If you’re going to be on a construction team, learn the names of tools in the language in which you’re going to be working. Look for a friendly contractor who’ll let you help out on his construction site for a few days. If you’re going to be working with children, volunteer to help in your church’s children’s ministry. If you’re going to be doing door-to-door evangelism, look for opportunities to do that, preferably in another cultural setting.

  If you play an instrument or sing and foresee the possibility of using those talents, prepare a few songs and bring the music with you. You may have the opportunity to give your testimony or speak. Prepare for this by writing our your testimony. (Stay within five minutes by keeping to the “I was blind but now I see” outline). And jot down some thought and Scriptures that you could use to give a short devotional message.

  All these ideas will help you to feel a bit more ready, but many short-termers miss the obvious: Get involved in ministry now. You already know that getting on a plane won’t make you a valiant missionary. “As now, so then” has been a good rule of thumb for aspiring missionaries. Get involved now in the ministry or outreach of your local church. When you get to an overseas assignment, then you’ll find yourself responding to ministry needs out of a backlog of experience.

• PREPARATION OF THE HEAD - Moving into another culture is in many ways like becoming a four-year-old again. You don’t know all that people are saying. You don’t understand what it all means. Just as all human beings are different, and God’s creativity is expressed as uniquely in cultures as it is in individuals. There are a number of books that can help you in the change, but there are also some things you can do to get ready.

  In addition to speaking with other North Americans freshly back from cross-cultural experiences, you can ask you international friends to share some of their first impressions of North America. That way you can begin to see you culture through the eyes of someone from another culture. If they’re free to share deeply and honestly, and if you can hear them without getting defensive, their new insights will be tremendously valuable as you try to approach their culture with similar openness.

  There are a number of simulation games and training tools that can be real help in a group setting. One of these is the Luna Game, which is available through World Christian magazine. A major hurdle that must be overcome when learning a new culture is the fear of feeling foolish and childish. You must remember that culturally you’re in the level of a three or four-year old, and thus these feelings are both appropriate and acceptable. Try new things here at home, such as eating a whole meal in a Chinese restaurant with chopsticks (if this is new for you) or having a meal in a Middle Eastern or North African restaurant where you’re required to eat with your fingers. Perhaps a friend or a missionary from your host country would be willing to prepare a meal that’s typical in the homes of national. The idea is not to be shocked, but rather to be better prepared.

  There may be some experiences for which there is no adequate preparation, like being expected to eat the chicken head floating in the soup, or sitting through the three hour evening service (every night) in an unintelligible language at the end of hot days of construction when you’re dog -tired (and a little sick) because you’re being housed in the church, and a bench in the sanctuary is your bed.

  But before all these fun experiences can happen, you have to get there, and this can be perhaps the most rewarding and faith-stretching aspect of the whole experience.
   

• Moving into another culture is like becoming a four-year old again

  PREPARATION OF THE FEET - In 2 Corinthians 8 and 9, the apostle Paul saw the sharing of financial resources as a tremendously positive thing. Not only did it meet needs, but it also taught generosity and responsibility, gave people an opportunity to see God at work, and allowed God to bless people for their faithfulness. Pray, look for, recruit and train others to join you in this exciting, risky adventure. Give them “a piece of the action” and rejoice in God’s work in their lives. Allow them to give you counsel and encouragement in raising the prayer and financial support necessary to make this short-term a life-changing experience for everyone involved. As you allow others to take part in your adventure, it will change not only your life, but also the lives of those you share it with. Make them a part of your preparation, your going, your returning and your follow-through plans.

  You say that asking people for money is a terribly humbling experience. You’re right. But our example in all of this is Jesus who, as Paul reminds us again in this passage, gave up so much for us. Where in the Scriptures do you ever see personal pride portrayed as a positive thing? Carefully study 2 Corinthians 8 and 9, writing out in your own words the principles they contain. Then apply them in your own support raising.

Going overseas without preparation is like learning to swim by jumping out of a speeding boat. It’s not a good idea. Your careful preparation will multiply the value of your cross-cultural service.