Welcoming the Awkward Moments

The FUI interns have had a full day including prayer, Bible study, a driving tour and dinner out for Pho (Vietnamese soup).  Tonight they gathered for a time of cross cultural equipping through a simulation called Four Cultures.  We broke up the group into four smaller groups who each were assigned specific characteristics and habits.  The four cultures took turns visiting each other, noting what it felt like to experience the misunderstanding and confusion as they tried to relate.

During the debrief time, Ali (one of our staff) observed that it seemed during many of the visits the students experienced stretches of awkward silence.  We spent some time talking about how that happens in real life as well.  We all have different ways of coping when we encounter someone who's different from us.  Our group talked about how we use humor, distance ourselves and even talk about "those" people as ways of dealing with those moments of real life awkwardness.

Tonight's challenge was to welcome the awkward instead of avoiding it.  It's as we engage relationships with those not like us that we have the potential to develop relationships of depth cross-culturally that bring richness to our lives and ultimately reveal Jesus to our world.  May God equip these students to "go there" in their relationships with each other and those they encounter at their ministry sites such that the world indeed "knows we are Christians by our love."