For believers in Jesus Christ, Easter is the ultimate celebration. We’ve made it through betrayal, death and now resurrection! Alleluia! Alleluia! The Lord is risen! If we’re not careful, though, we could see it as a culmination of the liturgical calendar and sit back until Advent rolls around to gear up for Christmas.
However, after the Resurrection, Jesus promised His Holy Spirit to empower His disciples to be His body and bring His kingdom to the earth. Specifically, He imparted boldness and power to bring His message of healing and salvation to all the families of every nation, starting at home in Jerusalem and extending to the ends of the earth. This promise, though, was coupled with a mandate, so the “go and make disciples of all nations” is not optional. Said positively, everyone gets to participate!
Anne leading a workshop in Cambodia last year
While all believers are on mission, the how and where look different. Some are called to leave homes, land, and families and go to distant places. This usually requires learning a new language and adapting to a new culture. If you’ve never tried it, this is not an easy task! It can be quite humiliating and overwhelming even for those who enjoy the challenge; and not all do. This definitely requires the Holy Spirit’s power! I would suggest that it is also a perfect opportunity for the Body of Christ to respond to Jesus’s command by offering support to the cross-cultural missionaries’ language and culture learning. How?
If you’re not familiar with it, I’d like to introduce you to the language and culture acquisition ministry, specifically coaching. While missionaries usually receive some type of pre-field training, there is often a lack of ongoing support once they’re on the field to help apply all the things they have learned to their specific situations. Even seasoned missionaries who go to a new setting will have different needs, which require new strategies and resources that they may not have needed or would not have worked in their previous environment. As a language and culture coach, I help learners–especially missionaries–identify language or cultural challenges, set goals, locate resources, overcome obstacles, and provide a source of accountability and encouragement through what is often a difficult and sometimes lonely journey. What’s great is that the language or culture learner actually gets to be part of the solution. We work together!
“While missionaries usually receive some type of pre-field training, there is often a lack of ongoing support once they’re on the field to help apply all the things they have learned to their specific situations.”
To give an idea of the impact that coaching can have, I will share just a few examples from the past few months:
- multiple missionaries identifying and receiving freedom from shame for not being further along in their language learning (which can be a major obstacle)
- a couple of missionaries shifting from avoiding speaking to actively pursuing opportunities to speak the language
- several missionaries changing the way that they communicate cross-culturally to relate to the local people in a more culturally appropriate way
A language and culture coach truly partners together with the missionary to equip and enable them to bring the Gospel to those who have never heard – or in some cases water seeds that have already been planted.
Recently, a new ministry called Connect Global was birthed to encourage and provide a means for the Church to join together to support missionaries in their language and cultural acquisition journey.
If you would like to know more about this ministry, I welcome you to contact me or visit my personal webpages in the bio below. I also ask you to please keep this ministry in prayer. As we celebrate Easter and consider Jesus’ mandate as Pentecost approaches, may we hear the call to join together as the Body of Christ on His mission to bring the Good News to the ends of the earth to make Jesus known. He is risen indeed! Alleluia! Alleluia!
This article has been adapted from its original publication on the New Wineskins blog.
Anne Schaffer is a SAMS missionary, language and culture coach, and founder of Connect Global, a ministry serving to support cross-cultural workers in language learning and cultural adaptation. To learn more or connect with Anne, please visit Connect Global or SAMS, or email Anne Schaffer. She serves as a lay representative for the Anglican Diocese of South Carolina on the Anglican Missional Partnership Committee and as Vestry representative to the Mission Task Force at St. Michael’s Church in Charleston, South Carolina.