Nurture Your Ministry.
You came to “save the world,” to win souls, to invade the culture with the good news of freedom in Christ. You’ve been doing ministry stateside for years and are used to a high level of ministry involvement. To put it plainly, “It’s different here.”
You quickly learn two things. God is going to do a work in the people, and He is going to give you a front row seat! The victories and successes in ministry will actually have little to do with you. It will clearly be ALL HIM! Coming to face this reality will help you greatly through culture shock. You thought that you would do a great work for God and now you realize it may not be so. Part of the pain of culture shock is the heavy realization that you may never be fluent in the language, may never totally know what people are saying and feeling. This may be excruciating to you.
Then, why did God send you here? He sent you to be light. And light is reflected quite brightly despite language barriers because of your priority to the first three relationships! Your commitments to God, your spouse, and to your family are all effective at communicating God’s light of truth.
As you live God fearing, honest, faithful, family centered lives, you will find that God has used you to proclaim Him with integrity. Your witness has become bright and effective! With joy you realize that not only have you passed through “culture shock,” and YOU have become a “Diamond in the Dump.”
