Cross-Cultural Immersion: 10 Ways to Start Right Where You’re At

Imagine we’re sitting down at that great little nook of a coffee shop downtown: matcha latte for me, triple espresso for you (feel free to improvise. You just looked kind of tired).

I’m like, Hey. Great news. Finally decided what I want to do with my life.

You: Sweet. What’s the verdict?

Me: Concert pianist, baby. Booked the concert hall for Friday.

You: Um. So. How have the lessons been going?

Me: No need, my friend. This is God’s calling for my life. All I need to do is sell some tickets!

Now, for many, many reasons, this is a fictitious conversation. But maybe you’re getting my idea.

If we wouldn’t seat ourselves onstage at a concert hall without training, is there a reason we wouldn’t need to be trained for other work God has for us? (Hint: like global work?)

The good news: Let’s just say there are lots of lessons around town (yep, yours) for nearly all of you. The trick is to both train your eyes to see them–and your heart to choose to engage.

Self-induced Cross-Cultural Immersion

Let me be frank. I was a cross-cultural services minor in college. I have traveled to probably 20+ countries, and have spent about six years of in cross-cultural immersion, 5.5 of them in Africa.

But when someone recently told me they were traveling to Uganda (my host country) on a short-term trip to teach a Bible study, I actually had conflicting feelings. (I know, right? Put a Bad Christian Alert on my head.)

Why? Because after my years of cross-cultural immersion in Uganda, I was still learning culture and how to effectively communicate.

Yes, we can communicate some basic principles, even when we don’t understand each other completely. It’s all on a spectrum.

But when we traipse in without much cultural knowledge, it’s harder not just to communicate effectively, but to love well. 

So I’m proposing some self-induced cross-cultural immersion lessons right where you’re at.

They’ll stretch you, and prime you for the basics of cross-cultural interactions. They’ll help ensure you’re willing to work out your passion and call wherever God plants you, even when the zip code is considerably less sexy.

And for me, they were quite humbling. One of my senior assignments in cross-cultural services was to attend the Hispanic church service in town. You can imagine how quickly your IQ seems to drop when you’re reduced to your second language. But the service also reinforced my love for cross-cultural worship with people who worship my God, who is also their God who speaks Spanish.

So let’s get started, shall we?

Your Cross-Cultural Immersion CurriculuM

1. What part of your community is the most marginalized and/or under-resourced?

How would God long to help them?

Think outside the box–and your comfort zone.

For example, if you live in a small town, do homosexuals feel ostracized? How do they anticipate Christians receiving them? Cross-cultural immersion and development skills can be acquired in helping other economic classes, like the homeless.

2. What pockets of non-Americans or non-Caucasians live in your community? What are their felt needs, and how can you meet them?

3. It’s not all work, here. Start enjoying a circuit of restaurants with foreign foods. Do not order a hamburger.

I was recently in St. Louis and tried Bosnian, Turkish, and Thai, and picked up some great staples at an international-food store.

Food is one of a country’s artforms–and an easy way to understand the tastes they love and have been raised on. Find a food you love from every culture available to you! Get to know those who work there.

Make foreign food at home, too. Yesterday, my kids and I made some of our favorites: sushi from Japan, arepas from Venezuela, and mango sticky rice from Thailand. 

4. students from closed countries reside right in our own cities. And they speak english.

But many of these students will never have the opportunity to enter an American Christian’s home. Find more ideas here to reach out to an international student in your area.

5.  “Adopt” a refugee family in your area.

Another great cross-cultural immersion experience: Welcome new immigrants to your home for holidays, provide medical or immigration appointments, celebrate their birthdays, and help them navigate the other realities they’re facing.

6. Use Operation World to begin praying one by one for the nations.

Cross-cultural immersion? No. Heart-immersion? Yes–if you allow it.

7. Fast, or eat only beans and rice, for a day or two as you pray for those in poverty.

8. Begin learning a foreign language.

Tons of apps and computer programs can help get you started. My kids love DuoLingo.

9. Strike up conversations with immigrants and those of other races you meet around town.

Get to know their names, their stories, and what it’s like to live in the U.S. right now, away from their home culture. As your connections deepen, make efforts to take them out for coffee, have your kids play with their kids, and even have them for dinner.

It may not be immersive, but it’s a great training-wheels experience in that direction.

10. Take opportunities with your local church to host missionaries or foreigners in your home. Ask good questions.

Tip: Parents, check out 20 Ideas and 20 More Ideas for Raising Globally-minded Kids to start translating these ideas to your whole family.

All right: Your turn.

What are ways you love to welcome and engage with other cultures right where you’re at?

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