Cultural Frustration: Dealing with Potholes of Missionary Life

Reading Time: 6 minutes

cultural frustration

A global-worker friend from Nepal sent me a Marco Polo recently. She described a day of local handymen installing appliances in her family’s new apartment–with methods much to her chagrin.

My mind immediately tumbled back to the painter who striped our house different shades of pink and orange on the outside, so it resembled a box of rainbow sherbet. read more

When the Rich from the West Don’t Know They’re Acting Like It

Reading Time: 7 minutes

rich from west don't know they're acting like it

Today Go. Serve. Love is stoked to welcome Rachel Pieh Jones–a marathon runner, a camel rider, a cookbook author of Djiboutilicious, and a general all-out lover of Djibouti. This post originally appeared on her blog, Djibouti Jones.

From Rachel’s blog, Djibouti Jones: I have been wrestling with how to write about this for months. Starts and stops, lots of unfinished first sentences and barely coherent lists. Then I read this essay after the Rick Warren and race conversation flared up. When White People Don’t Know They Are Being White by Jody Louise on Between Worlds. She is humble yet forthright in the piece, a balance which is incredibly challenging to achieve around such a sensitive and potentially volatile topic. She spurred me on, inspired me, and clearly, informed the title of this post. read more

My Story: The Language of Shoe-Scuffing

Reading Time: 2 minutes

Go. Serve. Love is stoked to welcome David Armstrong today. A handful of unexpected facts about Dave:

  • He has taken off in an airplane one more time than he has landed in an airplane.
  • His current favorite character in the Bible: Balaam’s donkey.
  • He could eat black beans and rice with hot corn tortillas every meal of his life.
  • He’s set foot in 15 countries.
  • He already has his ticket for 4 days straight of playing table games at “Geekway to the West” coming to St. Charles, MO on May 17th.
  • He can shoot a rubber band 50% further than anyone else.

It was after church in Bogota one Sunday, all of us standing around and talking in the way so many Latino cultures love. Outside, one of the young college aged guys–with a big ol’ grin, no less–scuffed my new pair of kicks. On purpose. Like he was doing me an awesome favor. read more