I saw a heart-shaped cloud in the sky and it tells me of who You are.
These were lyrics of a song I heard when I went to a Venezuelan birthday party recently. It amazes me how simply being invited, being let in on the insider’s world, can make such a difference to how an outsider can feel. This is a truth in many things in life, but especially in cross cultural situations. Also, something interesting to me is how Venezuelans who know English will be nice enough to speak to you in Spanish even though it would be easier for both of you to just use English. This was the opposite experience I had in Sweden, where they would insist on speaking to me in English almost as a reminder, softly whispering “you’re not one of us, stop trying.”
I heard the other day that missionaries go through unique issues of spiritual warfare, clever attacks the enemy throws your way simply because he wants you to go home. I could easily see how building frustration or even self-consciousness about being a foreigner with language barriers as a constant reminder could be one of his methods of checking us out before our time is up. And imagine that these attacks can be combated simply by a Christian brother’s obedience in loving the outsider? Perhaps we can all find an outsider in our midst to love this week…
