WHEN YOU CROSS CULTURES - World Evangelical Alliance

84 WHEN YOU CROSS CULTURES
in the New Zealander’s life. The quiet and unassuming New Zealander did not
appear to be a candidate for cross-cultural work, but he had the quality of
perseverance. He decided to go to the same country in Asia to both learn the
difficult language of the country and to teach at a university. He married an
English teacher who he met on the field. Together they began to have a ministry
in a university. They led students to Christ, and established them. The couple
later joined an agency involved in the deployment of professionals to places
closed to traditional missions.
III TRAINING IN MISSIONS
Training in missions can be received through informal, non-formal or
formal ways. Informal training can be obtained by visiting the field for exposure
and experience.
Non-formal training can be obtained through seminars or attending
special courses on missions. Formal training in missiology is possible through
attending Missionary Training Institutes or a School of Missions. Some of these
ways will be discussed in the chapter on Orientation of Candidates.
1 Exposure Trips
Churches and mission agencies often plan short-term mission trips for
interested Christians to receive exposure to missions. These trips may take up
to a month. The programme usually includes visiting missionaries or churches,
helping in work projects, and sometimes having opportunities for sharing stories
of life-change. Participants will receive helpful exposure to the country and its
culture, including some of the difficulties of cross-cultural work.
Exposure to areas where holistic mission is practised is invaluable.
Ministry to the poor, the marginalised and in areas where injustice is prevalent,
will “open the eyes” of prospective mission candidates to the realities of the
mission field. However, such visits, though helpful, are insufficient to prepare
groups for missionary experience. Adequate briefing and de-briefing is also
needed for those going on such trips. Proper orientation is necessary for the
trips to be beneficial.
Sometimes, well-meaning groups try to contribute to the work on the
field, but because they are untrained and do not speak the language, they may
prove to be a hindrance rather than a help to the people on the field or to the
young church.