Culture Shock

This week at the Center for Pioneer Church Planting(CPCP) we've had two guest speakers from the missions department at Southern Seminary, Dr. David Sills and Dr. Herschel York. Today in class Dr. Sills focused on culture in missions and specifically what it's like for a missionary to try to survive culture shock. The only culture shock I've had to deal with so far was on our honeymoon to Spain. We stayed right on the Mediterranean in the tourist town of Roses. What we didn't know is that it was a tourist destination for people from Europe. No one spoke English there. I can remember our waiter getting so frustrated with our lack of Spanish that he had someone else come out and finish our order! When I came back from Spain I understood what it was like to want to kiss the ground.

I am so thankful that the God who has called us to get the gospel to the nations is the same One who transcends culture. He created people groups at the tower of Babel. He can give us the grace and love to adapt to another culture so that we can share the gospel. Will you pray for us specifically in regard to the challenge of adapting to a new culture? Does anybody else have a culture shock story?