A school for the deaf India,
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a student who set out
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to prove his
Adventist friend wrong,
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and an urban centre of
influence in North America.
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All that and much
more coming up next
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on Global Mission Snapshots.
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Just before He
went up to heaven,
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Jesus gave us a command.
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He gave us a mission.
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Jesus said "Go, go
unto all the world,
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tell them of His love."
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This is our mission.
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This is our Global Mission.
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Hello, I'm Gary Krause
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and welcome to
Global Mission Snapshots.
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Too often as Christians
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we brush aside
peoples physical needs.
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We ignore their
wants and their hurts
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and we get straight to the
Bible and to spiritual issues.
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When Jesus was here on earth,
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He fed people, He healed people
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and He touched them physically
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often before He began to meet
their so called spiritual needs.
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One of the best ways to follow
Christ's method of ministry
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is through urban
centers of influence.
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These are small
centers of holistic outreach.
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Today we'll talk to Wes
Via director of Simplicity
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an urban outreach initiative
in Allentown, Pennsylvania.
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We'll also talk
with Cheryl Doss,
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director of the
Institute of World Mission
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about how
following Christ's example
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works despite cultural
and language differences.
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But first let's visit a
school for the deaf in India.
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To most people, a
crowded city street in India
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sounds like this.
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But since Sundramma was born,
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city streets sounded like this.
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You see, Sundramma is deaf.
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She cannot hear
or speak with words.
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She talks with her hands.
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Sundramma was not
always able to communicate
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using sign language.
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When she was young
she couldn't go to school
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because the school could
not accommodate deaf children.
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Her family was sad
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that she would not
receive an education
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like the other children her age.
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One day a woman
knocked on their door
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and told them about
a school for the deaf
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run by the
Seventh-day Adventists
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and invited Sundramma to attend.
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The family was so happy
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they could hardly
contain their excitement.
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At first, Sundramma had
a difficult time learning.
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She was not used to
school and missed her family.
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But the more time she
spent here the easier it became
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and the more she wanted to stay.
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Sundramma eventually
learned sign language
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and could talk to her friends.
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At this school she
also learned about Jesus.
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The teacher would
take the class outside
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and teach them all the
lessons from the Bible.
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Sundramma was fascinated
by the stories she learned.
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She loved the Adventist
education she received.
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Now Sundramma is older.
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She shares her faith
with her family and neighbors.
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When people don't
understand sign language,
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she writes notes to
tell them of Jesus' love.
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She can read
and write in English
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and her local language.
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If it were not for
Adventist education,
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Sundramma would not
be able to communicate
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and share the way she does now.
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Please pray for this school
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and other Adventist
schools throughout India.
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Pray that they
can teach our children
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the wonderful lessons of Jesus.
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And thank you for
supporting the mission
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of the
Seventh-day Adventist church.
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I'm pleased to
introduce our guest
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Doctor Cheryl Doss
who is the director
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of the Institute
of World Mission.
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Cheryl, thanks so
much for joining us.
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We're talking about something
that is dear to your heart
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which is the, the way
that missionary families adapt,
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cope with the
challenges of being missionaries
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in another culture.
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Why do you have
an interest in this?
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Well, probably because I
come from a missionary family
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and experienced it firsthand.
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My parents and
myself and now our children
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have moved their
families internationally.
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And I can tell you
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I know how difficult it is
and also how rewarding it is.
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So I'm very interested
in helping other families
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who are doing the same thing.
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So one of the major
tasks of the institute
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is to help
prepare Adventist families
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who are going as
missionaries to other cultures
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what sort of things
do you teach them and,
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and interact with them about?
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You know, one of the things we,
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we realized early on was the,
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the fact that they
have picked their families
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and just come to
mission institute
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often across numerous
time zones with children
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who may be sick
or way to any other-
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in the midst of a transition
that we need to start right off
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we're talking about transition
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and what that
means for families.
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And they're so many good tools
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out there to help
missionary families
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understand what
they're going through
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and the fact that there
is a normal process to be.
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It's normal to have a
lot of grief attached to it.
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Anytime you've lost the life-
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lost so many things you've
had to say good-bye to people,
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and places and all
those things are dear to you.
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That's a loss, it
has to be grieved.
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And the transition itself
is often feels very chaotic
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because you're stuffing
is somewhere in the world,
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your family
somewhere in the world,
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you don't know how to
live or act in this new place.
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And so there is an inner chaos
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that goes on as
well as an outer one.
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And the entering process
can also be very challenging
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as one tries to find a
way into this new place
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and figure out how to live here
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and how to relate to people.
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They say that
culture shock is a being
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out of rhythm with the culture.
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You know every
culture has a rhythm,
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and you're out of rhythm
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and that's an
uncomfortable place to be.
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You're marginal to the culture.
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So helping them
understand this process
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and the fact that all
these feelings, emotions,
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the stresses in the family
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this is a normal process of
doing a very difficult task.
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Yeah, so you work
through this with them
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when they
actually get into the field
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and they confront challenges.
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Is there anyone they can turn to
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or what do you
advice in that situation?
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Well, we give a
number of resources
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during the mission institutes,
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books that have
articles and articles
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and so on that address
the different issues involved-
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schooling issues for the kids.
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And you know
those sorts of many,
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many of those types of things.
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And then they can
also return to us.
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We're quite happy to have them
write to us if there is a need.
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But one of the, the
need things with social media
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right now is that
every group of missionary
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doing mission institute
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has their own Facebook page.
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This is a closed
group, a hidden group
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so they can be
quite open and honest,
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they make good friends
during their time together
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and we have people
posting things on there.
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I hit the culture
wall today please pray me.
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Now that sort of thing
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and then they feel
supported by this group
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that they have, they
have spent three weeks
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working through the issues with.
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Now one of your
challenges of course is-
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it's not like
you're dealing with people
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who're just coming from
America to get other countries.
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They are coming from
all around the world.
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Yes, yes.
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So you're dealing with culture
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on the end of where
they're coming from different,
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I mean how do
you juggle with all?
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Yeah, well that, the
one of the important things
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we try to do
right at the beginning
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of our mission institute is
to create a safe environment
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where we can
explore our differences
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and our similarities. Yes.
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Because we need
to affirm the fact
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that God has created us
in so many different ways.
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He is created-
given people the ability
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to creatively make
cultures that are so diverse.
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And that, that's it's a
God given gift to His church.
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So and yet we do know that
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when people get out to the field
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and there's nobody that
speaks their heart language
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this can be a very
lonely place to be.
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So how do you create community
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across those kinds of
cultural linguistic barriers
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and so we try to do
that during mission institute
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to give kind of a pattern for it
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or we make people
sit at tables with those
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who are very
different from themselves.
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Nobody can sit
with somebody else
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of their own
nationality for example
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or hopefully
their own profession.
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They try to, we
try to mix things up
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so people actually practice
it during mission institute.
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And then of course,
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being forewarned
is often forearmed.
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If you know that
you're going out to a place
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were their won't be
anybody who is just like you
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then you're little
more willing to accept
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that of the discomfort
that comes and the difficulty
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of creating new relationships
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across not only to
the national culture
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but to your fellow
workers who are also different?
00:09:05.60\00:09:09.17
And we try to help
people figure out ways
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to keep connection
with their home culture
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ways in which
they can create support
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for themselves from the home.
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Which raises the issue
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when they actually
comeback to their home how do,
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how do we deal with
that challenge then?
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Yeah, well we have a
reentry program here in the US.
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And it is more of a debriefing
than an educational thing
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where people need to
sort through their experiences
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because the intercultural
experience is very intense.
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It's emotionally intense,
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it's physically
often intense as well
00:09:43.47\00:09:46.07
social certainly
socially intense.
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And that intensities it seers
the memories into to ones heart
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but without a way of
processing through them
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it's hard to interpret into
the new life one is going to.
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So that process of reentry is,
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it also becomes very important
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to their ongoing
service for the church.
00:10:01.45\00:10:03.44
Okay, that's great and so,
00:10:03.47\00:10:04.93
so we've been
focusing on the challenges.
00:10:04.96\00:10:06.72
But what about the joys.
00:10:06.75\00:10:07.78
I mean, how does this
affect young people in a family
00:10:07.81\00:10:10.81
who got for this
sort of experience?
00:10:10.84\00:10:12.65
Well, as we have we
know we've four generations
00:10:12.68\00:10:15.49
of missionary
kids in our Church.
00:10:15.52\00:10:17.40
And I mean, in our family,
00:10:17.43\00:10:19.17
in our personal,
my personal family.
00:10:19.20\00:10:21.23
And so I can tell you its
quite possible to rise kids
00:10:21.26\00:10:24.04
who are excited
about the mission.
00:10:24.07\00:10:27.00
God calls and once we
want to continue that mission
00:10:27.03\00:10:30.62
but it helps to have the tools.
00:10:30.65\00:10:33.53
And that's one of the
things we try to give.
00:10:33.56\00:10:35.30
There's excellent
literature out there.
00:10:35.33\00:10:37.86
There is good
support on the internet
00:10:37.89\00:10:39.49
now you can get
from missionary families
00:10:39.52\00:10:42.17
understanding
that this will change
00:10:42.20\00:10:44.08
your family's life forever
00:10:44.11\00:10:46.63
in ways that you
that can become a strength
00:10:46.66\00:10:51.00
to your family and
bring a lot of joy.
00:10:51.03\00:10:53.64
I think missionary
families in general are people
00:10:53.67\00:10:57.01
who though they
have face challenges,
00:10:57.04\00:10:59.69
they'll overcome them.
00:10:59.72\00:11:00.75
Yes.
00:11:00.78\00:11:01.81
And that has made them
better broader stronger people.
00:11:01.84\00:11:04.53
Enriching.
00:11:04.56\00:11:05.59
It can and it should
do that, that's our goal.
00:11:05.62\00:11:07.38
Interesting, Cheryl, thank you,
so much for joining us today.
00:11:07.41\00:11:12.10
Viewers at home, I
grew up always at home
00:11:12.13\00:11:14.71
and for family worship
00:11:14.74\00:11:15.77
we would pray
for the missionaries.
00:11:15.80\00:11:17.50
I think that may be
bit of a lost out Cheryl,
00:11:17.53\00:11:19.41
but we need to
pray, it's so important.
00:11:19.44\00:11:22.20
To help remind you
00:11:22.23\00:11:23.88
we would like to
send you this calendar
00:11:23.91\00:11:25.99
if you live in North America
the details are the screen.
00:11:26.02\00:11:28.93
The faces of
mission a beautiful face
00:11:28.96\00:11:32.38
from around the world
for every month of the year.
00:11:32.41\00:11:35.51
And it will help you
to remind, help remind you
00:11:35.54\00:11:37.97
to pray for
these special people.
00:11:38.00\00:11:39.90
We'll be right
back after this break.
00:11:39.93\00:11:41.70