"It's Finally Friday" & Culture Shock

My kids loved that song on Q*DR when we lived in N.C. We would sing it altogether while waiting in carpool line and crank it up! Buncha' rednecks!

It is Friday, but it has been a productive week here at the camp with getting a lot of spring cleaning done. Yesterday, Ken and I spent six hours cleaning out the two main bodegas (storage rooms) in the Celebration Center. One of them is the tool room for construction, and the other houses our medications and medical supplies in a secured storage locker. The other half of that room is divided off by a wall and doorway and has another large storage area with shelving and stores household items for the cabins and the mission homes, and sports equipment. Yesterday, Ken & I literally pulled everything out of the large storage area and into the Celebration Center, cleaned the shelving and reorganized. The "plan" is to move all of the Children's Ministry supplies out of the cabinets in the office of the white house and into the storage area with the shelving.

Last week, I had been reading a blog on missionary blogs.com (a web site comprised of blogs written by missionaries serving all over the world which our blog is a member of) written by a missionary family located near San Francisco, Costa Rica. Their post literally made me tear up in that I felt helpless to help them as they deal with the issue of culture shock. Culture shock is something that all missionaries know they will at some time have to deal with, but it is not something that you can predict the timing of, nor in what manner it will effect you, therefore, you cannot fully explain it to another missionary and tell them exactly how they will experience it. Culture shock by definition is the trauma you experience when you move into a culture different from your home culture. Simple enough, right? Not really...It is a helpless feeling when you go through it, a feeling of literally hitting a wall. You feel as though you have lost what little "control" you might have in living in a foreign country, where you do not always understand the language, where the culture is new and you are walking on eggshells trying not to intentionally offend anyone, and on a daily basis struggling just to achieve simple tasks. I think that about sums it up! There are five stages to culture shock: the first is the stage of excitement and fascination with the new culture in which you live. The second is the crisis period where you begin to feel disappointed where you are, overwhelmed and easily irritated. The third is the adjustment phase when you begin to accept the culture and you begin to have a more positive attitude toward it. I can laugh now, but it took me a full year to get to this phase! The fourth stage is acceptance and adaptation; you have accepted where you live, and you begin to make connections with the people, and are involving yourself in outside activities. The fifth stage is the re-entry shock. When you go back to your homeland and at first you are in a euphoric state, happy to see everyone and be connected again. There is also a crisis state associated with this phase in which you realize that you are not really "home", things have changed, people are not the same, you in some ways feel disconnected because you have been gone and you feel disenchanted. This happens to us every time we go home. We "thought" we were going home, yet, it feels less and less like "home" is there. It initially feels wonderful to have so much available to us when we go back, yet we often shortly upon our return feel angry or frustrated with how much the States has available to them. (Trust me, you really don't want to know all the details of my melt-down in Food Lion in August just trying to satisfy a craving for some American store-bought cookies. End result: Tears of frustration, no cookies, and the inability to literally make a choice because there was SO MUCH to choose from after standing and staring in the cookie aisle for twenty minutes)! When we leave, it's a confusing feeling.

To make a long story short, as I was reading the blog post by the other missionary, the Lord compelled me to leave a comment inviting them to come and stay at the camp.

Please pray for Matt & Kristy and their four children as they come to the camp tonight and spend the weekend. They are here in Costa Rica staying about a year for language study. They are going to be ministering in another country once they have completed their language studies, and will have to make new adjustments to that culture. The Lord has required them to give up much; they have no vehicle while here in Costa Rica. I could not do that with four kids in the States, let alone another country! Matt & Kristy have "hit the wall"! They are frustrated and tired with language study. We can relate to that! They are desperately trying to adjust to the culture. I'm not sure at times I even totally understand this culture and I've already lived here two and a half years. Pray, that the Lord would flood their souls with peace and understanding as they go through this period of culture shock, and that they would hear His voice this weekend as they seek rest in the campground. Pray that the language would "click" in their minds and that they would progress in it! I know that they will deeply appreciate you praying for them! May the Lord work this weekend for His honor and His glory as we offer them respite care!

Rise and shine tomorrow morning for us is 4 a.m. as we travel to Pavas, a suburb of San Jose to join our ministry partners, Promundo Fundacion - "God Festival", who will be infiltrating this suburb for one day with the Good News of Jesus Christ where 90-plus volunteers will work in children's ministry, hair stylists, cooks, lawyers, medical doctors and nurses, pharmacists, and the evangelism team. We partner with them to reach the poor and oppressed in Costa Rica and be His hands and His feet.