The third Missionary Mistake I have made and would like to present is that of “Culture Shock”.
Some may ask, is culture shock real or is it just in your head. I am not sure I could tell you how valid it is, but allow me to tell you some of our experiences. When we left the United States, we began with language school in Peru. Since it was only my wife and I in the class, it should not have been too hard, … but when my language school teacher only spoke Spanish and could not understand when I asked him a question, I got pretty frustrated. Ok, I will be honest, I said a few words here and there in his face knowing that he didn’t understand in Spanish (I have since confessed those things ). When arriving to Argentina, I on accident said words that were cuss words in Argentina that were not cuss words in Peru. I walked into stores and wanted to buy something simple and had to tell them what I wanted at one counter, pay at another counter, give the receipt at another counter, and pick it up at the last counter. I was now having culture shock!!