Archive for August, 2010

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Monday, August 16th, 2010

Get Out of Your Comfort Zone!

For nearly a year, “Laurie” held onto the application to go on a short-term international mission trip. She had heard from friends the incredible stories of what happens on these outreaches. She attended all the presentations that the sponsoring organization made. She wanted to go, but just couldn’t bring herself to do it. So the deadline to apply passed. The trip itself passed. Laurie still had the application—filled out but never turned in.

You see, even though Laurie wanted to go, flying was way outside of her comfort zone. In fact, you could say Laurie was scared to fly. But she knew if she was ever going to go on one of these trips, she would have to fly to get there. Her friends came back and once again told her all of the great encounters they had while serving abroad. Laurie made up her mind that the next time she was going to go—but she also knew she had to do something about her fear. Laurie began seeing a professional for help. She stayed with the counseling, sent in her application, and the next time around made the trip. She had an incredible week serving in Romania and came home with her own stories to tell.

While Laurie may be an extreme example, we all have our comfort zones.  We all have those places that we don’t want to leave. Sometimes we don’t want to leave because we are fearful of what may be outside the walls of what is comfortable to us. For Laurie it was the fear of getting on an airplane. For some it may be the fear of new food or strange cultures. Others never make an attempt because they are afraid they can’t get the money to go.

Yet every year thousands of people travel abroad on their very first ministry trip. They step out of their comfort zones and do something truly selfless, but very rewarding. They give of themselves to serve others in distant places.

Stepping out of your comfort zone, even if just for a week or two, has some very positive effects. First, it stretches you as a person. When we are stretched, we grow. We become stronger, better people. Second, it causes you to see things differently. You get a new perspective on life and the world. Finally, it enables you to accomplish things that could never be done inside your “zone.” You may even discover some gifts and abilities that you didn’t think you had!

There is a whole world waiting to be discovered. There are people waiting to be touched and helped. There are new experiences that will grow you, fulfill you and reward you. They are all there, just waiting for you to move out of your comfort zone.

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Friday, August 13th, 2010

Dealing with Airline Gate Agents

Your plane pulls into the gate an hour late, causing you to miss your connecting flight. So you head to the nearest airline gate agent to resolve your problem.

Now gate agents basically come in two types. There are those who want to solve your problems and get you to your destination as quickly and smoothly as possible, and then there are those who just want to get you away from their desk. Fortunately, most fall into the first category but there are those want to kick the can down the road for someone else to deal with. Regardless of which type of agent you get, here are some tips to help your interaction and bring resolution to your problem.

Be polite but firm

Always be calm and polite when dealing with gate agents. Yelling at the agent because your plane was late won’t solve anything. Remember, they are people too and are dealing with the stress of trying to re-accommodate a lot of passengers. If you have an issue, state it clearly and ask for the agent’s help. If the agent tries to shuffle you along without resolving your problem, then politely but firmly insist that she help you.

Review all of your options

Often the agent will only give you one solution to your problem and expect you to take it. Don’t hesitate to ask if there are other options, including putting you on a different airline so that you land closer to your original arrival time.

Get a confirmed reservation

If you are dealing with a missed flight, never leave the counter without a confirmed reservation to get you to your final destination. Often the agent will say, “You can fly standby for this other flight,” and send you away. Your response should be, “Okay, I’ll try to fly standby, but I still need a confirmed reservation in case that flight is full.”

Ask for accommodations

If you are delayed significantly, be sure to ask for meal vouchers. Also, if you have to spend the night, ask for the airline to provide a hotel and meals. Many times if you don’t ask for it the agent won’t offer it.

Locate your bags

Be sure to discuss your bags with the agent before leaving the counter. If the agent rebooks you, ask that your bags be pulled and retagged to be on the same flight with you. Once you get to your new gate, check with the agent there to be sure this was done. By doing this you reduce the chance of a baggage delay.

Ask for a supervisor

If you feel that you are not getting anywhere with the agent, ask to speak to a supervisor. Again, remain calm and polite but firmly state your situation and ask for resolution.

Most flights run smoothly, but if you do run into problems remember these six tips. Hopefully they will help you resolve your problem quicker and with less stress.

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Wednesday, August 11th, 2010

Cape Town 2010—The 3rd Lausanne Congress on World Evangelization

American pastors Rick Warren and Jack Hayford, along with disabilities advocate Joni Eareckson Tada, are expected to be among the 4,000 people from 200 countries who will converge on Cape Town, South Africa this October 16-25 for the Third Lausanne Congress on World Evangelization.

Billy Graham, founder of the Lausanne Movement which started from a global meeting in Switzerland in 1974, was quoted as saying, “The 1974 Lausanne Congress was critical to the evangelism efforts of that day. But the issues facing today’s generation are radically different. That’s why I strongly support the need for a new congress in 2010.”

Cape Town 2010, according the Lausanne Movement’s website, will “in essence…be a ‘global church council’ on the pressing issues facing the advance of the gospel around the world. Church councils like this allow the body of Christ to come together on issues which impact the integrity of the gospel and the future of the life and witness of the church.”

While the recent Tokyo 2010 global missions consultation was primarily made up of mission agencies or organizations, Cape Town is expected to be made up primarily of church and denominational leaders from around the world. While most participants will be in vocational ministry, organizers are hoping that at least 10% will come from the laity—those not working in fulltime ministry. They also want 35% of participants to be under the age of 40 and 60% under the age of 50.

Speakers for the meeting will include John Piper from the U.S. along with others from Sri Lanka, Kenya, England and Egypt. “The Congress will be truly global while at the same time being distinctly African in nuance and feel,” said the Rev. Doug Birdsall, Chairman of the Lausanne Movement. There will be eight official languages for Cape Town 2010. The meetings will also be broadcasted to more than 200 seminaries, universities and churches in 50 countries.

The event will take place at the Cape Town International Convention Center, with its 108,000 square feet of exhibition space. The Westin Grand Hotel with its 483 rooms adjoins the convention center complex, and an additional 3,000 hotel rooms are within walking distance. Ministry Travel, through its partnerships with South African Airways and other carriers, is pleased to provide discounted airfare to Cape Town. For a no-obligation quote, call 1-877-541-5726 or go online at www.ministrytravel.com.

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Monday, August 9th, 2010

Global Missions Update from Tokyo 2010

In May, nearly 1,000 leaders of mission organizations from around the world gathered in Tokyo to strategize how to make the gospel available to all people in this generation. The July-August issue of Mission Frontiers magazine has several reports on “Tokyo 2010” and its outcome. Here are some of the highlights that we felt might be of interest to our blog readers.

  • The shift in mission-sending activities from the West to Asia and Africa continues. Korea has especially become a leading missionary-sending nation. As an example of this, the largest mission agency in the Western world, the International Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention, announced it is cutting back its personnel by 500. The largest non-Western mission agency, the Global Mission Society of the Korean Presbyterian Church, announced it would double its mission force in the next decade. Korea as a whole has a goal to send out 100,000 missionaries over the next 20 years. The Chinese church and Filipino church have similar goals.
  • More and more missionaries in Japan are actually from Africa. The high cost of living in Japan has made it difficult for many older missions to continue their presence, but missionaries from some of the poorest nations on earth are taking their place.
  • Tokyo 2010 presented mission leaders with a list of 632 “unengaged” people groups, each with a population over 50,000. Mission leaders selected 171 of the groups for outreach over the next three years.
  • A goal was made to recruit, train and place 100,000 missionaries among the least-reached people groups in the next 10 years.
  • The great spiritual need of today’s Europe, where the Church could virtually disappear within the next 50 years, was highlighted. It was the European Church that a century ago made such great inroads into missions and had a profound impact on the world. Now it is Europe that is in desperate need of revival and missionary focus.
  • The conference emphasized the need for real discipleship among Christians, and that any missions endeavor must be balanced with disciple making. Yes, the least reached need to be evangelized but they also need to be taught how to grow in the faith.
  • There are 2,252 language groups without any portion of the Bible whatsoever, and no one is currently working on translations for these groups. To combat this, missionaries and agencies are re-focusing on the oral communication of Scripture, such as existed before the invention of the printing press. Two-thirds of people worldwide are oral learners anyway, and this approach better fits their learning style.

For more details on these stories, visit http://www.missionfrontiers.org/. The next major gathering of global mission and evangelism leaders will be the Third Lausanne Congress on World Evangelization (www.lausanne.org/cape-town-2010) scheduled for Cape Town, South Africa, October 16-25. Ministry Travel offers special discounted fares to South Africa and other African nations. If your international travel plans include Africa, please contact us for a no-obligation quote on your airfare.

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Friday, August 6th, 2010

Additional Cultural Considerations

The flight from Munich, Germany to Washington D.C. was starting to board. As passengers lined up to enter the plane, they could overhear a conversation taking place between an American passenger and the German gate agent. There was some sort of miscommunication, and the American walked away visibly upset.

 “Why don’t people learn English,” the American said in a loud voice.

 The gate agent actually spoke very good English, although with an accent. The problem wasn’t her ability to communicate but rather the American’s ability to listen—and to remember he was a guest in another country. The airline worker crossed a cultural barrier by learning and speaking a language that was foreign to her. One wonders what, if any, cultural barriers the passenger tried to cross during his trip abroad.

In our last three blogs we have looked at the issue of culture. We’ve seen that even though the world in many ways is shrinking, there are still vast cultural differences. That’s a good thing! It is what makes international travel so interesting and exciting.

Today, we give 10 more questions to consider when you travel to another country.

  1. Are there different ethnic groups and even different cultures within the area where I am going?
  2. What are the religious traditions of the area?
  3. What is the attitude toward outsiders, particularly foreign nationals? If you are an American, how are Americans viewed? Do you need to keep a low profile?
  4. What is the political situation there? Is it stable? Is there a strong central government or is power vested in local tribes or communities?
  5. What is the host government sensitive about? Foreigners should always be careful about making remarks about the host government.
  6. How are decisions made? Are they made by a group? By the community or family elders?
  7. How should disagreements be handled? Is it important to save face?
  8. What is considered taboo?
  9. Is it appropriate to express emotions in public?
  10. 10.  Should you take off your shoes when entering a home?

Hopefully our blog series on cultures has encouraged you to do your homework and ask good questions before your next trip abroad. While you certainly want to be as informed and sensitive to the culture as possible, you don’t have to be paranoid about making cultural mistakes. Most people understand when foreigners miss cultural cues. They just appreciate you making an effort to get to know them and enter into their “world.”

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Wednesday, August 4th, 2010

Moving Beyond Culture Shock

The 20 year old college student stepped off the small plane shortly after landing in the interior of Papua New Guinea, an island nation north of Australia. He watched workers off-load bananas, chickens and miscellaneous boxes before they got to his luggage. As he made his way to collect his bags, he saw a familiar face walking into the remote “airport.” It was the missionary he had come to work with for the next week or so.

Starving, the college student and missionary host made their way to a nearby café. The food was pre-cooked and behind glass. “Order anything you want,” said the missionary.

The student looked and looked—at food he had never seen before. “Order whatever I want,” he thought to himself, “I think some of this stuff is still moving. What have I gotten myself into?”

At that moment, the college junior experienced culture shock. He was in a very strange place, far from his Southern California home, about to eat unusual food and surrounded by people talking in a language he couldn’t understand. For what seemed like an eternity, but only lasting a few seconds, he was paralyzed. He didn’t know how to function. He didn’t know what to do or even how to move. This was his first trip outside the U.S. and it was clear that he “wasn’t in Kansas” anymore.

The feeling of helplessness, however, soon subsided as the missionary explained the food options and helped him get settled.

It is often said that the world is shrinking. While travel, technology and satellite TV have brought the world closer, we must never forget that the world is still vast collection of cultures. The college student learned that first-hand!

Culture varies region to region, country to country, and even within a nation. Those who seek to deliver aid, conduct training, or spread the gospel abroad need to familiarize themselves with the culture where they will serve, even if they are only there a few days. While information won’t necessarily help you avoid culture shock, it will help you show respect and enable you to better connect with the local people.

Please see our last two blogs for thoughts on dealing with different cultures. We’ll have some additional tips in our next blog. By the way, the story with the college student happened more than 20 years ago. He has since visited more than two dozen countries. Guess he got over the culture shock!

Posted in Humanitarian, Missions, Travel Tips | Comments Off

Monday, August 2nd, 2010

Napkin or Serviette? Nappy or Diaper? Cultural Considerations Among English-Speaking Countries

The power outage continued, but Susan forgot to grab a torch as she hurried out the flat and headed for the lift. It was dark. As she exited the lift door, she banged her elbow causing it to bleed. “I’ll have to go to the chemist and get a plaster for it,” she thought as she dashed outside, hurried past the lorry, and continued eating her biscuit.

Does that paragraph sound strange to you? It does unless you know British English. It is also a reminder that there are cultural differences among English-speaking countries. In our last blog, we looked at 10 cultural questions to ask before your next international trip. Today, we explore language differences among English-speaking countries.

It is easy to forget that you are in a different culture when visiting a country that speaks English—that is until you have to drive somewhere! It is also easy to forget that although most of our words are the same, there are variations in English from country to country. Not being aware of these differences can cause cultural embarrassment. One website that gives a list of common words that are different in British and American English is http://www2.gsu.edu/~wwwesl/egw/jones/words.htm.

It is important, however, to not assume that British-English is exactly the same in Australia, South Africa or other former British colonies. You will want to do your homework when traveling to these countries, especially if you are doing any kind of public speaking. Ask someone familiar with the culture to advise you on common American words that you should avoid. It is also a reminder that it is best to avoid slang or jargon when speaking English cross-culturally as this too can cause confusion.

By the way, in case you didn’t figure it out, here is the American translation to the first paragraph:

The power outage continued, but Susan forgot to grab a flashlight as she hurried out the apartment and headed for the elevator. It was dark. As she exited the elevator door, she banged her elbow, causing it to bleed. “I’ll have to go to the pharmacist and get a band-aid for it,” she thought as she dashed outside, hurried past the truck, and continued eating her cookie.

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