Serving with Eyes Wide Open - Part V
I’m still on my short-term missions soapbox, discussing the book Serving with Eyes Wide Open: Doing Short-Term Missions with Cultural Intelligence by David A. Livermore. I’m still in the section of the book titled, “Conflicting Images: Americans’ vs. Nationals’ Perspectives on Short-Term Missions.”
Today I’m pulling highlights from the chapter, “Common Ground: They Don’t Fly Planes in India When It Rains.” I’ll let you read the book to understand the title of this chapter. To summarize, the chapter discusses our “strong tendency to overgeneralize our unique incidents [in short-term missions] and encounters cross-culturally in an attempt to find common ground.” Here are my highlights:
- - “…taking isolated incidents or people and applying what you see in them to everyone in a culture. This is one of the most common pitfalls we make when we encounter a new cultural context.”
- “…looking for common ground with our fellow citizens of the globe is a normal and healthy way of coping with the inevitable dissonance that occurs when we encounter a new culture. traveling to a new place brings on an irresistible impulse to smooth over the strangeness…Before we know it, however, we’re so focused on the similarities, we fail to marvel at the differences.”
- “Those who have studied intercultural communication caution us against too quickly interpreting nonverbal behavior cross-culturally. Smiles and laughter may in fact be a sign of joy, but just as likely may be a response to an awkward situation where words cannot be used due to a language barrier. Likewise a nonverbal response of silence or a lack of nodding one’s head in agreement doesn’t necessarily mean understanding isn’t taking place.”
- “When we can’t find similarities between ourselves and the people we encounter in a new place, the other way we seek common ground is to make generalizations about all events and people in a new place…We tend to reduce everything about people in a culture to the few, simple stereotypes we have of them.”
- “At best the key lies in holding to stereotypes loosely, and not applying them too quickly to everyone. We must beware of having an experience with one or two individuals from a particular place and suddenly thinking we’ve now experienced a trait that can be generalized to all or even most people from that place.”
- “Looking for common ground isn’t a bad thing. I actually find it quite inspiring to think about the connection we have with people everywhere. We can find common ground not only with Christians everywhere but with all our fellow image bearers in the world. We share similar fears, loves, and needs. There’s something really right about seeing our similarities. But we’re wise to discover and embrace the differences between us as well!”
I have a funny story to share relating to this topic. My great friend and co-worker, Fabricio, is Nicaraguan. One day our office was asked to make a list of items that a short-term mission team from the U.S. could bring down for the missionaries. Fabricio immediately remarked to me, “You should write down 100 jars of peanut butter for all of the ‘cheles!’” (”cheles” is the Nicaraguan word for “white people”). Now I like peanut butter as much as the next person, but just to understand where he was coming from, I asked Fabricio why he thought we needed 100 jars of it. He replied, “Well, don’t you eat it at just about every meal?”
Fabricio was applying his experience with another missionary at our base, Mary, who’s worked with him much longer than I have, to the rest of the Americans. Mary does eat peanut butter at almost ever meal. She’s a peanut butter-aholic. Fabricio assumed all Americans shared Mary’s love of peanut butter.
This is a reverse example, albeit a silly one, of what David A. Livermore is talking about in this chapter of the book. I could give you dozens of other examples of how I’ve seen Americans (including myself) stereotype or try to find common ground (when it’s not necessarily there) with Nicaraguans.
Have you seen this practice of “finding common ground” and stereotyping play out on the mission field? How does it affect the success of the trip (success defined in God’s eyes, not in our own)?
Thanks for following along all this week! I appreciate your feedback on Serving with Eyes Wide Open and I hope you’ll pick up a copy this weekend so you can read it for yourself. I’ll be back on Monday with some more highlights from this terrific resource for short-term missions leaders and participants.
