Category Archives: Cross cultures with love

Nations in your neighborhood?

Cross cultures with love
Father and daughter put a US flag on their house
Father and daughter put a US flag on their house

We know that society is becoming increasingly multi-cultural. But this isn’t just theoretical. Is it happening there where you live?

Here is a two-part challenge for you. Make an inventory of the eight neighbors nearest your residence (whether a house or apartment). List what nationalities are included in those households (some may have more than one, where the husband and wife are from different nationalities).

Secondly, how many first names do you know from those eight households?

Make a list or diagram of those households, and pray for them. Start getting to know them better. Think of ways to show Christ’s love to them.

Tweet ThisMake an inventory of the eight neighbors nearest your residence.

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Timely friendship with pregnant Iraqi mom

Cross cultures with love, Treks, , , ,

20150810_171240Cross-cultural friendships can go really deep, really fast.  Just two days ago, one of my colleagues here in the U.S. met a pregnant mom from Iraq. Her new Iraqi friend is due in two weeks. When asked how she was feeling, soon-to-deliver momma said she was afraid.  My colleague offered to teach her some breathing/relaxing methods to help her through labor; offer accepted. This led to a two hour practice session with expectant mom and dad, with more to come. Here is how you can help:

Please pray with me, that I will be able to be with her through her labor and delivery.  This is her desire and my own.  The only problem is that I will be out of town around the due date.  Would you pray with me that God will work, so that I could be with her?   They return to Iraq in two months, so I don’t know why I have just met them, but I believe there is a reason.  Thank you for standing with us in prayer,

UPDATE 6 WEEKS LATER:

Remember the BIRTH you prayed for?   Well, the mother had a beautiful baby boy. Although she delivered after I returned from my trip, she did not call me. I did, however, visited her in the hospital. Thank you for praying. Several days later, they delivered lamb meat to our door which had been sacrificed in honor of their boy’s birth.

Tweet This Timely friendship with pregnant Iraqi mom

#NearFrontiersTREK

 

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Neighborhood encounter

Cross cultures with love, Treks

Over the last couple of years I have been increasingly burdened to show Christian love in my neighborhood. When my wife was still alive, she and I would walk the street and sometimes stop to talk with neighbors who were in front of their house. We occasionally prayed with some of them.

This year I felt burdened to organize a National Night Out for our street. I made up flyers and went to each of the 23 homes to invite people. When the date rolled around approximately 40 folks came out. Many remarked how easy it is to go to work, come home and rest inside, and never get out to meet neighbors. So they were very appreciative of this chance, and several said we should do it again. One neighbor is planning a street yard sale in a couple of weeks, so that will be another connecting point.

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We had a police officer and a fire truck come by to give a safety demonstration. It was a big hit with the kids especially. Some got to try on real handcuffs! 2015-08-04 20.25.22

An interesting God-thing happened toward the end of the evening. On an adjacent street there is a large Somali family (eight kids). I have talked to a couple of the men before, and brought some grocery bags of fruit, cookies etc to their home as they ended Ramadan last month. Anyway, one of the men of the family walked by our neighborhood gathering and was watching with interest what was going on. I went over to talk with him, and then brought him over to our group and introduced him as my friend. (We need to be bridge-builders to immigrants, because many view them with suspicion).  Several people spoke nicely with him. As I walked away with him, I invited him to bring his entire family for dinner to my house this Thursday; he said they would. I have many hamburgers left over, so that’s what we’ll have again. Many immigrants are never invited into an American home. Tweet This  I will also need to call the food “beef burgers” since any kind of pork is prohibited for them.

P.S.  Recently, on Twitter, I began a hashtag called #NearFrontiersTREK. I want to use it to track times that a member of our staff travel to one of the “near frontiers” in America. To be frank, I envisioned this happening out on exotic road trips.Tweet This I guess it is God’s sense of humor that my first “trek” happened right in my own neighborhood!)

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