What's the first year on the field like? Missionary Preparation Tip #013

The first year on the mission field presents a lot of challenges for a missionary. In this interview a couple talks about how they navigated some of these challenges during their first year overseas.

TRANSCRIPT:
What's the first year on the mission field like?

When you arrive on the field, the biggest hurdle is language and culture. You'll find after you've been there for six or eight months that you're not having culture shock as much as culture stress. One of the things that helped me the most was when a friend who was from that country but had lived in the United States for a while, just commented to me after we\'d bee there two or three weeks and he said, 'You know, people in the United States don't understand that it takes just about a half a day to do life here.' When you first move there you think, I'm not getting anything done, because in the United States you could get a lot more done. And you just can't do it there because everything takes longer. The lines take longer, it takes longer to do the grocery shopping. All of those kinds of things just impact your lifestyle in ways that surprise you.

Most agencies will tell you to take the first year and just work on culture and language, and that is very, very good advice. We should have observed more than we did, but in our impatience to get started in serving, we waited about six months and then we jumped in to serving, so I just wanted to get involved in some things. But I found when I did that, I was stepping on people's toes. I didn't mean to, I didn't know I was doing it, but I was misunderstood. And that caused a lot of hurt. And so, I would have been better just to observe and watch.

Learning about the culture and the language can also be ministry. The first year, I had a language helper who was from a Muslim background, she knew no English whatsoever. And she was so gracious, because in this country where we are, hospitality is a really big thing. So often, she would invite me over for coffee, or tea in the afternoon. This was all part of building relationships and being able to share our faith with them.

With Austin and I going at the age we are, we know ourselves pretty well. After a two hour language study, I would just have to take a nap, read a book, or go for a walk or something, because I was so tired, physically and mentally drained. And sometimes going to the market would do that. You're carrying everything back, sometimes the power's out, you walk up seven flights of stairs to your apartment carrying all the groceries, you put them away, and then you just have to sit down and rest. And sometimes that's all you do for the day. And that's OK. We had to learn to accept our weaknesses and our frailties and not have to be doing something every minute. And to realize that watching and serving and doing little things was a part of getting ready for the long haul.


Credits:
Produced by Mission Data International
Video Editor: Paul Nielsen
Cameraman: Paul Nielsen

Creative Commons Copyright
2009 Mission Data International
Some rights reserved

PreparingToGo.com

2009 Mission Data International

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[simpleorange]

Great advice.