June 14th, 2006
This is the final installment of the booklet I called ‘Curried Missionary, how to spice up your missionaries’ life’. In this final part of the booklet I look at Culture Shock and how to help your missionary adjust in this area.
Pic: My favourite photo of my Mum, this seems appropriate for the subject of this installment.
Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7 Part 8 Part 9 Part 10 Part 11 Part 12 Part 13 Part 14 Part 15
“Although this is another subject altogether and is normally directed to your missionary, there are things you can do to lessen the trauma they will encounter upon re-entry.
- Well before they come home, ask what some of their home needs might be.Tell them the things you may be able to organize and help them on their “Re-entryâ€. Check to be sure they are comfortable with these things.
- You may be need to suggest a church to worship at.
- While they are still overseas keep them abreast of changes in fashions, city expansions, changes in laws and any new lingo used.
- PLAN to ease their assimilation back into the “home sceneâ€.
Ø Prepare meals for when the first arrive.
Ø Go shopping with them to ease their shock of the enormous number of items available (as they perceive it). This applies more to the long termers but be aware that even short termers can be overwhelmed at the difference in cultural norms.
Ø They would really appreciate you taking them to a restaurant and it is there you can spend time listening to them and try to pick up on their heart needs.
Ø You may try and arrange accommodation for them. In this case ask around your church/churches for what may available.
- Spend time with them to make them feel wanted. They may be happy for you to just drop in from time to time to see how they are going. (Old friends change etc.)
- There may also be a need for someone who can debrief/council them on issues they may struggle with. For this try to contact their mission society for help or your pastor.
These are some of the more important things that need to be considered but they are by no means are all that could be done.
NB Understand that culture shock IS very real and has the capacity to set your missionary back a long way. If no help and encouragement is given it often leads to more permanent problems.“
June 11th, 2006
*I’ve added a couple more photos including one of the back below.
I’ve come up with another way to use felt to create objects. As soon as Michael saw them had called them art-stitch so the name has stuck. If I was going to artistically categorise these they’d be textile art (which is often debated as not art but I see felt as the medium instead of paint for example).
These are basically fancy tags for gifts, there will be a plastic pocket on the back where you can slip your piece of paper with a note (see above on the teapot). When I have more photos I’ll post them and I’ve done 4 more (all unique) since these were taken.
I want to sell them but have no idea how much for. They’re about 15cm long but are all different. All are hand stitched using felt, ribbon, lace and recycled buttons.
So, I have some questions for feedback.
1. Would you buy them?
2. How much for?
3. What do you think?
All profits from the sale of these will go to this SIM project (HOPE for AIDS)
June 9th, 2006
I can relate easily to this theme after having spent time in PNG and Africa. These boys were two beggars that we met in Benin, west Africa. Those bowls are for begging with. Here’s my PF pic for this week;
I’m entering two this week, this one’s from Papua New Guinea and hits home for me having had a bub myself recently and considering the amount of sterilising we do!
June 8th, 2006
In the post below I mentioned that the photo will be on the cover of our brochure. This brochure will be what’s known as our ‘prayer card’ and is on the verge of being printed. It’s going through the final drafts at the moment. I’m looking forward to it being finished as it’s taken a little while to get done. It will have information about our role with
SIM in Western Australia and the usual financial support section. If you would like one sent to you, drop me a line and we can arrange it to come through the post.
Photo: one of the pics we’ve used in our brochure.
June 6th, 2006
It seems that the biggest learning curve I’ve been on has been over these last 8 months. Yep, my little one has taught me a lot of lessons and this weekend I had to adjust her routine yet again. You see, I’m a bit of a control freak. I hate it when things don’t go to routine. I’ve had to change my thinking a fair bit since I had Kezi. The routine she was in was starting not to work and both she and I were starting to have grotty days. Since I’ve adjusted it to be a bit more flexible over this weekend I’ve realised that both she and I have been a lot happier!
There’s an ad for a certain chicken company on tv at the moment in Australia. The mum comes into her kitchen and there are suds everywhere. The dishwasher is making a heaving noise and her son is standing there saying ’sorry mum!’. She smiles sweetly, walks through the suds and pulls his rugby jersy out of the dishwasher. The voice over says ‘as a mum, it only takes one thing to throw my whole day out’. The ad ends with the mum coming to the conculsion that she simply can’t cook tea now because of the routine being out so she buys her family the chicken take away for tea instead. All this is done with a smile and tilt of the head. Can anyone else see something wrong with this picture?
I said a while ago that I don’t like showing my little one’s face. I still hold to that but this shot if is the one that will be printed on our brochure’s shortly so I figured it doesn’t matter.
June 2nd, 2006
The IF theme this week is ‘portrait’. I’ve posted a few of my self portraits on here but here’s a different one. This is a small pastel (A5 size) on black pastel paper of a man from Niger, West Africa.
June 1st, 2006
I’ve been trying to highlight a project that
SIM runs around the world every now and then and this is (as we say in Australia) a real beauty! The Tan family have been in Bolivia with SIM for a number of years now and they have the most fascinating way of doing their medical ministry for Bolivians.
(from the SIM Australia website)
“Project Walkabout
Take five Aussies, throw them in a van, add faith, prayer and, oh
yes, medical supplies. Drop them into the middle of Bolivia’s stunning Andean valleys and what do you get? PROJECT WALKABOUT. The hoped for results: better health care and church growth. Mission today is innovative, faith-packed, and sacrificial………………….God gave Lawrence and Liling a dream to take a mobile clinic to these outlying areas to teach and train medical personnel to provide better health care for the largely Quechua population.
In March this year they took delivery of a mobile clinic which will be their home for three weeks of each month. With its mini laboratory, ultrasound machine and medical supplies they will work in two needy municipalities in rural Bolivia.”
There is of course a lot more to this story so if you would like to read the rest and see a few more photos then you can go to this page on the SIM Australia website.
Stumble it!
