Just Love

Pray

And now these three

remain: Faith, Hope and
Love. But the greatest of
these is Love.
1 Corinthians 13:13

Take time before you go to sit

before the Lord and Pray that
he would make your mind and
heart more Aware, and that he
would give you an empathetic
spirit. Also ask that he would
open the minds and hearts of
the people you will be meeting
so that they also will be
receptive and prepared to face a
cross-cultural experience.

We must remember as we go
abroad that before all else we
should Love. It is appropriate
to take the time to reflect before
travelling in how we can best
immerse ourselves in a new
culture so that we can most
effectively love the people we
come across. Livermore says
lets go deep so we can express
Christ close up (145)
Preparing for a cross-cultural
experience is not easy but it will
be worth it, but Remember it is
all about Love.

Mara Droppers
References:
David Livermore: Cultural intelligence
improving your CQ to Engage a
Multicultural world.

BEFORE
YOU
GO!

A guide to Cultural
Awareness for Short
Term Missions

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2

4 Steps to Success
1. Become Mindful and aware.
In order to do this we must
first understand what awareness
means. David Livermore defines
awareness as the ability to step back
and reflect on what we are doing. Its
disciplining ourselves to see what we
otherwise miss (148)
2. Empathize with others.

How do I prepare?
In order to be most effective in our short-term
missions journey there are a few things to take
note of. The first of these is that you will be
entering into an entirely new environment. This
may seem exciting and fun, but there are a few
things we must take the time to learn in order to be
best prepared to show the love of Jesus to the
people you encounter while abroad.
The first thing to take note of is your level of
awareness. Awareness is extremely important for
interacting cross culturally. We want to be aware
not only of what others are doing in a crosscultural context but also aware of what we bring in
our own cultural baggage.
In order to check how aware you are of other
cultures as well as your own take some time to
reflect on theses five questions.

1. Am I conscious of what I need to know

about the culture I will be travelling to?
2. Am I conscious of how my cultural
background shapes how I read the Bible?
3. Do I determine what I need to know about a
culture before I interact with people from that
culture?
4. Do I compare my previous ideas about a
culture with what I actually experience during
cross-cultural interactions?
5. Do I check for appropriate ways to talk
about my faith in cross-cultural situations?

Awareness is the first step,

but closely following is empathy, we
must not only observe what others
do but also take the time to try and
understand why they do what they
do and how does that make them
feel. Take time to try and feel what
others feel, and you will be
Empathizing with them.
3. Simultaneously monitor my
internal and External world.
This is mostly just a once in
a while gut check. Always be aware
of how you are feeling and what you
are thinking, and how that relates to
the experience you are having.
4. Seek out information to confirm or
negate my interpretations.
This boils down to not
assuming anything. Always ask!