{"id":25914,"date":"2019-09-30T17:52:55","date_gmt":"2019-09-30T22:52:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.globalministries.org\/when_cultures_meet\/"},"modified":"2019-09-30T17:52:55","modified_gmt":"2019-09-30T22:52:55","slug":"when_cultures_meet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.globalministries.org\/when_cultures_meet\/","title":{"rendered":"When Cultures Meet"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sometimes mission co-c workers get a bad rap. Even back in the 1970s, many Christian groups decided to find a name other than \u201cmissionary,\u201d to use for those who feel the call to do the work of the Good News in another culture.<\/p>\n

\n

\"\"\u201cFraternal worker,\u201d was a ter<\/span>m I heard as a Missionary Kid. <\/span>That had to change <\/span>again<\/span>, due to the need to use more inclusive language.<\/span> People acknowledged that missionaries had gone around the world with the best of intentions, but did not necessarily realize the cultur<\/span>al<\/span> damage they might have done at one and the same time.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>Serving in Thailand is givi<\/span>ng me a different perspective. <\/span>Cultures can\u2019t necessarily predict what th<\/span>ey might take from each other. <\/span>Just a couple of <\/span>months<\/span> back, some Thai folks in the English-Language Ministry of the congregation I now work with suggested we celebrate Tha<\/span>nksgiving Day, American-style. <\/span>After all of my contextualiz<\/span>ed education, I had my doubts. <\/span>But the idea was accepted enthusiastically by the different cultural groups who worship together in the English Language at Wat<\/span>tana Church in Bangkok: <\/span>Thai, Naga from India, Chinese, Japanese, <\/span>Singaporean, <\/span>Australian, South African, <\/span>USian (American), <\/span>Pakistani\u2026. <\/span>Bangkok is more cosmopolitan than ever before.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

So, on the same Thursday night when the rest of Thailand was observing the ancient festival of Loy <\/span>Kratong<\/span>, when people floated little boats made of banana leaves, lotus, cand<\/span>les, and incense down the river <\/span>to honor the Mother of the Waters, we English-speaking folks at Wattana Church had a festive dinner together out on the patio beneath the monkeypod trees<\/span> and strings of white lights<\/span>. <\/span>There were some very expensive roasted turkeys (donated), stuffing, gravy, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, home-made pumpkin pies, AND\u2026. Filipino-style egg rolls, traditional Naga-st<\/span>yle spicy meat<\/span> to be eaten with Indian roti, Thai meatballs<\/span> and dumplings<\/span>, Pakistani biryani, and of course, white rice, along with many, many more shared dishes.<\/span> One of the church Elders brought a scale model of the Mayflower he had built from scratch <\/span>many years ago. (The Mayflower? <\/span>But it was beautiful.)<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>But we also ha<\/span>d very Southeast Asian touches:<\/span> live musi<\/span>c throughout the evening, an emcee <\/span>who spoke and told jokes while the music was playing, impromptu choir singing<\/span> from some guests, and then some Youth for Christ-style icebreaker games and small-group prayers.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>And what<\/span> was the point of the evening? <\/span>Evangelism and conviviality (\u201cfellow<\/span>ship,\u201d as we used to call it).<\/span> Thai folks are st<\/span>ill interested in U.S. culture, even though the Japanese and Korean pop cultures have<\/span> long overshadowed the former. <\/span>A cross-cultural feast is a perfect time to invite one\u2019s non-Christian friend<\/span>s and then share the faith formally and infor<\/span>mally in a relaxed atmosphere. <\/span>It works on Christmas Eve and New Year\u2019s Eve, too.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

As a Mission Service Worker with Global Ministries, supported greatly by the Christian Church in the Upper Midwest\u2014and many others\u2014I generally think of myself as somethi<\/span>ng of a cross-cultural expert. <\/span>But I\u2019m constantly learning that \u201cexperts\u201d<\/span> must stay up-to-date. <\/span>Thailand is still one of the bottom 20 countries in the world <\/span>in <\/span>regards <\/span>to <\/span>the percentage of Christians.<\/span> This makes Christians all that much more serious about sharing the Good News and supporting one another.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Anne Gregory serves with the Church of Christ in Thailand. Her appointment is made possible by your gifts to Disciples Mission Fund, Our Church\u2019s Wider Mission, and your special gifts<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sometimes mission co-c workers get a bad rap. Even back in the 1970s, many Christian groups decided to find a name other than \u201cmissionary,\u201d to use for those who feel the call to do the work of the Good News … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20060,"featured_media":25915,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false},"categories":[],"topic":[20322,20246],"region":[20017,20096],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nWhen Cultures Meet - Global Ministries<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.globalministries.org\/when_cultures_meet\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"When Cultures Meet - Global Ministries\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Sometimes mission co-c workers get a bad rap. 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