Hey! It’s really happeneing I’m currently on a bus to Chicago and from there we will begin our long journey to South Africa. Before I start writing about my experience in Africa I wanted to give a little rundown on what training was like.
There were two other teams who were participating in training with my team, the 3 month South Africa team, which were the 6 month Caribbean team and the 6 month Africa team. I first arrived to training on the January 4th and was one of the first people to arrive. I settled into my room and then headed down to the lobby where I met a few people from the 6M Caribbean and 6M Africa teams. I really enjoyed making introductions and getting to know people on a smaller level before the rest of the group began filing in around 3:30 there’s a bit over 30 of us all together not including EM’s staff. I finally met my leader and then a bunch of people from my team who I had only seen over zoom and Facebook so far. A bunch of the girls from my team and I walked to Starbucks for a little pick me up before the first session began.
We had six sessions over the few days spent in Indiana that covered topics, which included our fundamentals to who we are, hope, our relationship with God, misconceptions of missions trips, poverty, dignity, the culture map, and safety.
Some highlights from the discussions in the sessions were:
**Something I had never considered on a deeper analytical level is when interacting with other countries and cultures there is a huge difference in perception and and understanding. We listened to Erin Meyer speak on this subject and her findings from her book The Culture Map. For an example one of the differences is high or low context. The United States is the highest context culture in the world. We need things to explained three times and clearly explained or written. Japan is the lowest context culture so they are very in tune with picking up on ques and reading the room. They need little explanation but will take a moment of scilene before they speak to process. She used the example of a time she was speaking to a group in Japan and asked for questions at the end. No one raised their hand so she took a seat. The Japanese leader said there actually were questions and showed her that there were people making strong eye contact and that “their eyes were bright”. She was confused but when she stood up to ask for questions again she could she what he meant and was able to call on people. This is something important for us to remember as we will be living in a new culture. They may process information, deal with conflict, and understand things much differently than we are used to. Instead of having them form to our habits we want to slow down and learn to be an active member of their community and a guest in their lives.
**The founder of EM asked us “When in conflict: the truth is more important than love or love should win over the truth.”
This sparked some great conversations and with all of us being from different faith and personal backgrounds it was so interesting to hear each side and how to a certain point everyone could understand each other’s side. I think my final consensus was that as humans we won’t always know the truth. There’s always going to be two perspectives to each conversation, possibly each being able to back up their side with scripture. I think we tend to get so caught up in details and wanting to please God and even to just be right that we confuse seaking the truth with judgement and it builds a wall between us and that person. This is why I believe that love should win over the truth. In Matthew 22 Jesus explicitly states that the greatest commandment is “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself. All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
After our last session each day we had free time to grab dinner somewhere downtown, spend time getting to know our team, and have some downtime. Each night our team played some riddle games in the lobby like Green Glass Doors, How Many Bugs?, and I’m Going On a Picnic. It was very entertaining to see people’s reactions and attempts to the game. We were all laughing so hard at certain points. It was one of the few times that I have already found myself sitting there really appreciating how beautiful life truly is if you let it. Even as simple as laughing in a hotel lobby with a bunch of strangers I didn’t know 2 days ago.
As we are getting closer to the airport, the anticipation is kicking in more and more. I am so excited to see what God has in store for my team and I throughout the next few months. There will be good days and bad days but I know I’m here for a reason.
