Multi-Cultural Communication

Last week, a Cameroonian colleague came to me about a course that was being offered by the Training Department. This was to be a course in cross-cultural communication. I told her I wasn’t really interested, as I had so much on my plate already for the week. She asked me again, saying that it was only 2 hours a day for the rest of the week…and I remembered that the had invited me the last time this course came around. I began to realize that maybe she was making a point that I needed this course…so I succumbed to the peer pressure, and I’m glad I did.
The next day at 10:30, I was seated around a table with a balance of Cameroonians and expats, French-speaking and English speaking. This was a video lecture by Sherwood Lingenfelter, matched with case studies and discussion questions. We introduced ourselves to one another, I met colleagues from other missions that I’d only known their names.
We talked about group vs. individualistic cultures…the Americans and Dutch in the room represented strongly the individualistic and work-oriented culture:
A case study described a Chinese and European mission team. The European was focused strongly on the work that he’s traveled to do. Obviously, he thought that friendships between the missionaries would be formed through achieving their common goals together. The Chinese missionary found it hard to work closely with someone she barely even knew, seeing that productive work would come through friendship. Now, there was much more to this story about conflict resolution, but I want to stop here and focus on this.
The Cameroonians in the room represented a culture where the relationship was most important. I realized that often we get upset with our Cameroonian colleagues, as they have to take days or weeks off to visit “distant” family in the village, or spend days and all their money at other’s funerals and weddings. and the work has to wait. We have left our homes and extended families and friends far away for the task God has given us. Sacrificing and leaving that all behind to spread God’s word in Cameroon. It’s no wonder that we’ve gotten so focused on the task…that’s what we are, what we do. Now we’re trying to relate to a culture that can’t get away from their family for five minutes. This course brought us back…reminding us that the task, Bible translation, is for the people of Cameroon…and that God never wants his will to be done by stepping on people. Love is more effective than expertise any day in winning hearts for Christ.