Cross-Cultural Friendships

Yesterday we were privileged to have Richard Weston of Friends International come to Missio Dei and speak to us about cross-cultural friendships.

Personally, I was born and raised in Michigan and always lived in the same county until I was 24 years old! On top of that, aside from driving through Canada a couple of times to get to New York, I have only left the country once which was for a week-long mission trip to Honduras. Needless to say, my experience with different cultures is quite limited. Although this past year or so I've learned a lot about this subject from people like Bruce and books like "Serving with Eyes Wide Open" by Dr. David Livermore of GRTS, I still had a ton to learn from Richard's message.

While there are probably a lot of people in Missio Dei that were in similar situation to myself, I was also realizing yesterday that there are many people in Missio Dei who have quite a bit of experience interacting with other cultures. There are many within the group who have spent time studying abroad, serving in foreign missions, or studying cultural diversity, not to mention the fact that several people from Missio Dei were born and raised in other parts of the world. In other words, not only do we stand to learn about from people like Richard Weston, but we can also learn from the experiences of our friends.

All that being said, what did you take out of Richard Weston's message yesterday? Also, what experiences with other cultures, or lack thereof, do you have to share with the group to help us further understand how to bridge the cultural gap to make a path for sharing the message of Jesus?