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“When I came to this training, struggling with my cross-cultural ministry in North India, I was about to quit and go home. I was so discouraged. However, the session on ‘Overcoming Culture Shock’ helped me understand what I was going through and, now, by God’s grace, I see a way forward.” 

These are the words of a young Indian missionary from South India, serving in the North. He attended The Mission Society’s H.T. and Alice Maclin Mission Training Institute, July 1-19, 2014 in Bangalore, India.

Another Indian missionary who has served for 21 years in North India among a tribal group had been praying for an opportunity to receive training on more effective means of cross-cultural communication. He observed, “I was so happy to be invited to attend this training because I had been praying for this opportunity for the last several years. The training is even more helpful than I had hoped.”  

“These and many similar comments from The Mission Society’s cross-cultural witnesses, and Indian church workers and missionaries from all across India, are a testimony of how radical, timely, and encouraging is this training for so many,” stated Dr. Darrell Whiteman, vice president for mission mobilization and training and resident missiologist.

This year, the attendees included seven Mission Society missionaries and 74 guests who participated in the training, who serve as missionaries in India.

The sessions were taught by Mission Society staff members and missionaries, as well as Indian missiologists and church leaders. Lessons included cross-cultural challenges, discipleship, spiritual conflict, core ministry strategies, preparedness, the Insider movement, cell group ministry, mission shock, the theology of mission, spiritual warfare, and prayer.

The attendees also watched several movies that dealt with cross-cultural communication, and visited communities around Bangalore to practice the cultural observation skills they were learning.

“If doctors and lawyers were to practice their trade without adequate training, they would be accused of malpractice. We feel it’s just as critical that missionaries be prepared thoroughly in their discipline – in the art of communicating and living out the gospel across cultural and language barriers,” said Whiteman.