It’s great to hear a success story isn’t it!

LeAnn and I heard one just a few nights ago – but it also caused us to reexamine what we sometimes take for granted.  Sometimes peoples’ stories help us see our surroundings with a different or new perspective.

Libere Dusabe and his family are our friends.  They had us over for dinner the other night and we got to share together.  Libere, his wife and girls live in a nice home that he helped to build through Habitat for Humanity.  Their kids go to public school.  By their standards, they’ve got a great life – but it hasn’t always been so good.

Libere is from Burundi, Africa.  He was a victim of the war.  He had to flee from village to town and eventually moving to 4 different countries avoiding the violence before coming to America.

I asked how many schools he had attended with all of the moving and violence?  He answered, “A lot.  We would attend a high school until a bomb destroyed it, or until the enemy began throwing grenades into our classrooms.  Then we would have to move to another building!”

He was able to get away, although family and friends didn’t.

As we visited that night, I asked what he thought about America.  “Oh it’s great!  So safe, and so many opportunities!”

“But one thing just isn’t clear to me”, he continued.  “Why don’t Americans take advantage of all the great things that are offered?”

He went on… “I don’t understand.  Here in the USA, there is free schooling for my kids, but we know lots of kids in our neighborhood who skip and don’t want to attend – I don’t understand?”  “And college is open to everyone – wow!”

Then he said “The kids can even ride a bus for free to school – that’s incredible!  But some that live around us gripe about having to ride a bus - I don’t get it?”

Lastly he added, “And with all of the job opportunities, it’s wonderful – I work three jobs!  They aren’t the best jobs, but it’s so much better than in Africa.  But others would rather sit at home all day.  I don’t understand?”

Sometimes, I also don’t understand. 

I'm an English-speaking, suburb-living, middle-class white guy from Byron Center who enjoys golf.When the invitation to teach at John Maxwell's EQUIP conference in Fortaleza, Brazil came, rivers of excitement were soon flooded with a torrent of anxiety rooted in the cultural differences between me and "them."

However, with the guidance of the Holy Spirit, Scriptures and @FollowPhil... I've walked away from this trip with a 4-step survival guide that I believe anyone can use to help shatter the mental barriers that deter cross-cultural relationships.

4-Step Brazilian Survival Guide:

1.     Have an energy management strategy

Extending beyond cultural familiarity takes energy. Acknowledging we were headed onto foreign soil, @FollowPhil gave me several verbal crash courses in cultural differences between here and "there."  His experience filled stories scared me into developing a Brazilian energy-management strategy. My nervousness melted away as we prioritized healthy eating, exercise and adequate sleeping during our trip.  By properly caring for our temples first, honored the God’s design for our bodies. We also carried with us a sense of balance that helped us bridge cultural barriers. With our basic needs met were ready to be “on” throughout both days of the conference.

“1 Corinthians 6: 19 Don’t you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself,20 for God bought you with a high price. So you must honor God with your body.”

2.    Establish “friendlies”

In order to effectively influence this group of over 700 hungry Brazilian leaders, I knew I first had to gain their emotional permission to teach. Translation? I needed to become a trusted friend.

“People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.” -John C. Maxwell

Prior to the conference start, both @FollowPhil and I spent time greeting attendees by shaking hands, smiling and radiating the love of Christ with them. 

We made friends.

These friends quickly became our communication allies, as their attention to our talks set the example for their peers to follow suit.  Having a few “friendlies” sprinkled throughout the crowd helped us gain cultural permission to influence them.

“And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men.”-Luke 2:52 NIV

3.    Communicate visually

While @FollowPhil toggled into fluent Portuguese mode as if he’d downloaded it directly from The Brazilian Matrix, I often found myself trapped on a lonely English island. Praise God for John Maxwell’s insight in providing us an English-speaking interpreter to help us bridge the language barrier between our two cultures!

However, rather than verbally supporting each teaching point with the intellectual arguments of a professional West Michigan debater, I decided to become a cross-cultural communication artist through visually illustrating my session.  Flattened bicycle tires represented improperly balanced life choices, dramatic expressions illustrated parables from scripture and inflated balloons demonstrated leadership usefulness through applying what was learned into their life.

A picture speaks a thousand words, in any language.

“ Jesus always used stories and illustrations like these when speaking to the crowds. In fact, he never spoke to them without using such parables.”-Matthew 13:34 NLT

4.    Learn to say “thank you”

There is one essential phrase to master, in any native tongue.

In Brazil, the Portuguese phrase is “obrigado.” (pronounced Oh-bree-ga-doo)

This single phrase positioned me in a heart of thankfulness and appreciation for the experiences around me.  That simple phrase was predictably returned with warm smiles and mutual expressions of gratitude.  Appreciation honored the indigenous leaders we were with, and positioned them into a spirit of generosity... Which ultimately models Jesus’ example.

“6 And now, just as you accepted Christ Jesus as your Lord, you must continue to follow him.7 Let your roots grow down into him, and let your lives be built on him. Then your faith will grow strong in the truth you were taught, and you will overflow with thankfulness.”Colossians 2:6-7

While these 4 steps helped this suburb-living, middle-class white guy from Byron Center MORE than survive my Brazilian experience. They helped me optimize it!

I wonder how they may also apply to daily life as we seek to cross cultural barriers and steward the influence God has given us?

Four questions for you to consider:

1.    Is your ability to cross cultural lines limited by being burnt out, or overly consumed with efforts beyond your energy level? What might need to change about your energy management strategy, to prepare you for the next cross-cultural opportunity God places before you?

2.    Are there relationships that you need to establish, in the pursuit of your God-given mission? What’s holding you back from initiating those connections?

3.    Do you often find yourself on a lonely English island, when trying to communicate to other cultures? How could you incorporate visual drawings, illustrations or dramatic expression to help convey your message?

4.    Are you overflowing with thankfulness?  Why or why not?

I used to be a “judger.”  I was good, in a bad way.I used to judge people all the time.

I used to judge people all the time.

• I looked down on those that drank, or went to “R” rated movies.
• I doubted people’s faith if they went to a club or bar. 
• I felt that gays needed to be changed and that divorced men shouldn’t have a place of leadership in the church.  
• Women could lead, as long as it wasn’t from the stage or over a man.
• If someone was sexually active before marriage, they weren’t going to be my friend!  

Probably all of these people would burn in hell anyways – isn’t that what the Bible taught?

I was wrong.

I was very religious, but not a great Christ follower.

Do we sometimes “major on the minors” to the point of detriment in our Christianity?  A Prof. at Notre Dame suggests, “that as Christians, we need to major on the few basic doctrines, such as Love the Lord the Lord with all your heart, mind and strength, and love your neighbor likewise.”

He says:  “The more baggage that passengers of a train load into their carriage, the less room there is for other people to accompany them.”

“The more, Christians insist on making long lists of theological “essentials” that real or true Christians ought to believe in order to be recognized as within the bounds of the true faith and deserving the fellowship of communion, the more the body of Christ becomes conflicted, divided and dis-unified, and the more the credibility of its witness is compromised.”  Wow!

How many wars have been fought over Christians loving their neighbors too much?

How much hatred and discrimination that has been fostered because people love God too much?

I want more people on the train!  I want to make room for as many as possible so that they too can know the liberating freedom that comes with an understanding that God is for us, not against us.

I want the life Jesus lived, not the life the religious leaders lived, to be the one I emulate.  I want people not becoming anxious or frustrated, trying to understand obscure verses and passages in the Bible that we don’t understand or are culturally based, but  instead, focus on what Jesus said when He  sumed it all up – love.

Isn’t our goal to follow Jesus?  Let’s do what he said.  Let’s major on the majors instead of the minors.

We want to be relevant, but holy.  We want to be in the world, but not of the world.  It’s a great tension, but the reality is sometimes tough.  What do you think about this article from Tony Campolo.

I found a church in England, not far outside of London, in a very densely urban community, a congregation that took up every seat in the sanctuary. What’s more, they had to have multiple services in order to hold the crowds.

When I preached there, my driver couldn’t find a parking place. I asked the pastor, “With so many people, what room do you have for parking?” The pastor told me that almost everyone in the church came from walking distance. That amazed me because I wondered how a church could get so many people from such a small area.

The pastor explained to me that every other Saturday night they make arrangements to rope off a city block. The police cooperate. They bring in a barrel of beer and a barrel of wine. They add to this a good band. He then went on to say that a hundred of his young people come to this block party and start dancing. It doesn’t take long before people come out of their houses and join them. After a night of dancing and having a good-time party, these young church members say to the people they have been partying with, “How about coming to church with me tomorrow? If you are willing, I will stop by and pick you up.” In reality, it happens and the pastor said, “Every week we pick up about 30 or 40 people who come to our church for the first time. Church growth goes on easily from that point.”

Some may see this as a dangerous outreach method for a church to utilize. Questions like surrounding the image of the church in the public eye or “Won’t people drink to much and get drunk” are sure to arise. But the beauty of this is that people are being met where they are at and told about the life changing relationship they can have with Jesus Christ. I say Praise God!