WHEN YOU CROSS CULTURES - World Evangelical Alliance

ESSENTIAL QUALITIES AND QUALIFICATIONS FOR CANDIDATES
5 Perseverance
It takes patience and perseverance to adjust to a new culture and to
develop relationships with people. It takes perseverance to see their efforts
bear fruit and fruit that remains. It takes perseverance to learn a new language.
It takes perseverance when you fall sick repeatedly. Ill-health can be experienced
even by those who normally have a healthy body.
It certainly requires perseverance to rise up above the stresses of a foreign
field. Those who have experienced these pressures have learned that it is only
by the grace of God that they have been able to continue. Only God’s grace can
enable a person to persevere when human resources are depleted.
I have witnessed missionaries going through tremendous pressures on
the field: ill-health of various kinds, death on the field of a child or loved one,
interpersonal relationship struggles, loneliness and other stresses.
A person does not really know his capacities until these trials come.
Sometimes the quality of perseverance can be gauged by evaluating a person’s
reactions when he faces pressures in his own local situation. Short-term
assignments in a difficult area may also help to assess a person's capacity to
cope with trials outside his own culture.
6 Ministry Proficiency
A prospective candidate should have demonstrated his ability to
evangelise in his home culture and to disciple young believers before he
considers reaching others in a different culture. Basic ministry as described in
the previous chapter should already have been undertaken.
The candidate would also be more effective if he has learned to reach
people in a variety of situations. For example, a person who has only been
engaged in a programme of student evangelism may be inflexible or insensitive
to reach groups or families in a different culture. But if this same person has
learned to witness in a natural and relational way to family and extended family
members, to neighbours and his circle of friends in his workplace, then he
would develop a greater degree of sensitivity to different types of people from
different ages and professions. After all, ministry has to do with PEOPLE and
not programmes.
Learning to be proficient in the use of the Scriptures and in
communicating Bible stories naturally will be an asset. Some workers are
proficient only if they had certain tools and materials. It takes time to develop
contextualised materials. Therefore a good grasp of the Scriptures and learning
to use the Bible is essential in one’s own culture. Later, the worker can be taught
to use the Scriptures in another language and culture.
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