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Peter's Wife

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Reverse Culture Shock

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When the Familiar is Frightening

“I can’t decide!” That was my cry every time I tried to buy cold cereal after returning to the States. In our African posting, there were seldom any cereals available at our small grocery. Early years in Asia were not much better, but at least we could get a couple different kinds. With few choices for several years, this dazzling array was overwhelming: sweetened, unsweetened, oats, rice, corn, or wheat, in a box or bag, plain, with or without fruit or nuts. “It’s too much!” I lamented. The cereal section was a whole aisle long, top to bottom.

One friend we visited on furlough asked me to help her make spaghetti. “Takes about 30 minutes,” she said. “Not where I came from,” I thought. It couldn’t be done. I envisioned thawing the meat as I cooked it, while cutting garlic, onions, and tomatoes to be sauteed. It would take almost half an hour to get the noodles cooked and we’d still have salad and garlic bread to make. She asked me to prepare the salad while she popped the meat in the microwave to thaw and cook, opened a can of sauce to warm in a pot, and buttered the bread with garlic butter from the refrigerator! We only had to set the table while the noodles cooked. No meal could be made that quickly with ingredients available overseas. I encountered these differences again and again. This was my home country, for crying out loud. Why did I feel so uneasy with the ease?

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Filed Under: Culture Shock Tagged With: Culture Shock, fear, reverse culture shock, transitions

Mine to Give Away

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He was a special baby, this darling little boy sleeping so peacefully in his mother’s arms. He was a baby born to die . . . born to die the death of a criminal, though he would never commit a crime, never tell a lie, never even think an evil thought. Yet he was destined for such a death before he was born.

What does his mother think as she holds him, so close to her heart? How much does she know? The angel said this child he would be great, that he would be called the Son of the Most, High, God!

She was a young virgin eagerly awaiting her marriage to a nice man named Joseph. Then the angel spoke to her: “God has chosen you, Mary! You will become pregnant by the Spirit of God and you will give birth to a son, a son who you will call Yeshua, Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins.”

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Filed Under: Spiritual Life Tagged With: Christmas, holiday

Holidays

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Is it really too early to think about the coming holiday season? Not when we live away from our home country. But in case you may have forgotten, busy PW that you are, Christmas is less than two months away. So this month PW has some holiday helps for you.

Carol, a veteran PW, sent us conversion charts she has worked out during her many years in Europe. She has included lots of equivalents to help you make sure your holiday recipes turn out just right, even if you don’t how many grams make a Tablespoon. You can find the links to that information at the end of this email, so keep on reading.

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Filed Under: Life--Cross culturally Tagged With: holiday, traditions

Long Threads

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You know how sometimes you just have too many good, important tasks, and can’t complete them all on time? As wives and moms, I am sure you know just what I mean. Well, that has been my life the past couple months. My most challenging task was to rebuild our intermin.org website. Thankfully, it is done! There’s a great story behind this rebuild, one that reaches all the way back to my childhood. I want to share it with you to show you that God never forgets the desires he plants in our hearts, even if they come to fulfillment in a different way than we could have ever imagined.

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Filed Under: Work--Cross Culturally Tagged With: calling

Help the New Kids

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Years ago a sending organization researched why first-termers failed to return and become veteran PWs. They found some causes in the first-termers themselves but, sadly, they traced other causes to the veterans already on the field. Each field is very different. Personalities, chemistry, roles, pressures- they all combine to make the New Kid’s (Newks) experience a huge challenge. We have lived through it and heard others tell their stories. The bottom line: it is never easy, but it can be less difficult if we all help each other.

We were the new-kids-on-the-block twice, in very different situations. The first time, we joined a well-established team in a multifaceted indigenous work. Being completely new to living outside our own culture, we needed and appreciated the help we received from the veterans. It was not all positive, but overall, we made a good adjustment to cross cultural work.

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Filed Under: Life--Cross culturally, Work--Cross Culturally Tagged With: arrival, Culture Shock, meeting people, settling in

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