One of the greatest challenges for a missionary is cross cultural interaction. What is that food? How do I show respect? Why do people act that way?

The immigrant church is a training ground for missions because it forces you to wrestle with these issues. I know there are a lot of people who struggle with attending a church where the senior pastor preaches in a different language but I believe that it can be a huge blessing. Missionaries have to learn what it means to raise up indigenous churches that might look very different than the western churches they grew up attending.

Jesus came into a world that had values very different than his own. He also attended a church where the people were not always speaking his language. Jesus transformed the church and worked patiently with people who did not always understand him. I hope we would do the same. It makes us better servants.