Six tips for short-term trips
By Anna McShane —
When we visit a new country, especially if we are a short-term worker or on a vision trip to help our church at home understand where God is calling us to work, we fit into at least two categories. We are foreigners, true, but ideally, we also are learners. How can we look, learn, and yet not offend? After years of travel and cross-cultural living, I’ve developed a number of strategies that have helped me observe without offending.
1. Don’t arrive and take over
Take time to sit back and watch what is happening around you. Keep that camera tucked away for at least 24 hours. Watch how people interact, move, and live and think about how you can be least invasive. You are there to learn.
2. Work hard to be unobtrusive
This involves your whole person. Manners, voice, dress, body language. Research where you are going and find out what clothing is appropriate and especially what is inappropriate. Dress as conservatively as possible. Even if you are hot and uncomfortable, remember that you are the foreigner, not the local. How do people walk, move, and sit? Watch carefully for cues that will make you not stand out. I’m a very fast walker, but I have learned to stroll slowly, linked arm in arm with an Asian woman, because that is how SHE is comfortable. I’ve even learned to hold hands walking with another woman in some parts of Asia where they consider that a sign of close friendship.
Tone down your voice, especially when speaking to other foreigners. Your different language will stand out like a flag amidst a babble of another language, but your loud tone could be even more offensive.
Once three of us from SEND were traveling by train across Poland. We needed to change trains in a large train station with a local worker. He was concerned about theft because we were hauling very expensive video equipment (albeit in plain black bags). He gave us dark hats, and told us to follow him and move quickly. “Don’t speak any
English,” he said. We walked swiftly through the long corridors, our friend chatting to us in Polish about who knows what. Every so often we nodded. When we boarded the new train we all fell into our closed carriage and laughed, but we had made it through unscathed, and unnoticed.
3. Shadow experienced people
Find out who is already working in that country and try to set up time to simply follow and observe them. They may be from other parts of the world, from other organizations, or very different from you theologically, but they live there and they are great resources.
4. Give yourself the grace to not like everything
Try to strike a balance between “loving everything” and “hating it all.” What you love you may find isn’t as wonderful as you thought on first blush and what you hate may grow on you over time. Or you might just learn to live with it and ignore what you don’t like. It is OK to have a split personality between two cultures/two worlds.
5. Question your questions
Learn to ask good questions that probe gently and don’t embarrass. This may mean finding out ahead of time what questions are considered embarrassing in the culture you are visiting, but mostly it means being discreet. Get people to tell stories and deduce from the stories how things work. Don’t ask “Why,” but ask “How?” or “Can you show me?” or “Could you help me understand?” Instead of telling the local workers or local people all your observations, say, “I’m observing XYZ. Is that correct?” or “How do you understand this or that situation?”
6. Be wary of blanket generalizations
Don’t base conclusions about a different culture on limited data. I’ve seen people arrive for a vision trip who “know everything” because they once had a friend from that country. Or who spend less than a week somewhere and now act as though they are experts; I’ve been lectured by people who spent five days in East Asia on how to do ministry there. Humility tells me that no matter how many times I’m in East Asia – and I’m pushing 30 years of travel in and out with months and months living there – there are many things I will never understand. This summer a conversation with two administrators showed me in a much deeper way how constrained their lives are by government regulations, and these are men I’ve worked with for a decade. While discussing something trivial, I got a huge flash of insight that left me thinking, “Wow. How little I know. How much I still have to learn.”
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Choosing a Missions Organization: Why SEND International Stands Out “Why should I be a missionary through SEND International?” Jenna, a new missionary in Eastern Europe, shared with us what she appreciates about working with SEND. The highlights for her are: - Devotion to prayer - Diligence in communication - Commitment to development - Intentionality in accountability Prayer “Back in September of 2022, the Lord reconnected me with SEND after I had met them a year prior at the Moody Bible Institute. However, before he would sign me up for anything, my Missions Coach encouraged me to pray. He said something to the effect of, "I know that you've been praying on your own for a long time. But as the Church, we are not called to walk alone. So, you and I won't talk for about a month unless you have questions. I want you to go pray with 5 or 6 others from your church about where God is calling you." That October, more than 10 friends prayed with me and we saw God answer as He directed me to Romania. From February 2024 to November 2025, I had the pleasure of being a part of team meetings in Romania with my SEND colleagues. Our meetings were four hours long, two for prayer and two for business. This has been the minimum for our team. There are also prayer meetings with the local churches we partner with, among smaller groups within our team, of course prayer with many of you across the pond, including those at our US office. The organization was built, has been sustained, and continues to run on prayer. This is my favorite thing about SEND. Communication As I mentioned above, we have a two hour block for business / ministry details in each of our meetings. This provides consistency across our team which works alongside three different churches and in a variety of ministries. It also helps us to communicate about the need for change or growth, alongside what is working well. In addition, my team director also meets with each of us, allowing us to communicate needs, considerations, and prayer requests. I've also enjoyed getting to work with SEND workers outside of my immediate region . We receive emails with the minutes from the Europe leadership team, Friday communications from our international director, and information regarding projects that affect our work among the unreached. In December of 2024, our international director at the time wrote a note to my parents for the first Christmas that I was gone. If nothing else had convinced my mom yet, this did. He took the time to care for me, but also to care well for the parents that were sending me (What it meant to my dad and mom for him to do this well has been one of the greatest ways I've been supported.). I also have some pretty wonderful regional directors. These people have prayed alongside us (while also serving in their own countries of service), they have taken time to come visit and encourage our team, and they have also taken the time to encourage the people in our churches. Development SEND has provided much in the area of development and care (spiritually, physically, mentally, and emotionally). At our regional conference (every three years), there have been medical check ups available, counseling options, and time for connecting with others on the field with similar experience. At our conference last October, I connected with a missionary who served overseas for many years, and is now serving on the administrative side of SEND. She has met with me since then for mentorship and has also invested much of her time recently in preparing a retreat for the singles across Europe. Accountability Over the years I have read and heard amazing stories of how God has worked through missionaries. God has done great things and great things He is still doing! However, people who have committed their lives to the Lord in this way are not “super Christians”. We are still humans with the same struggle against flesh that others have . A major challenge is in being isolated -- living in areas with little to no presence of other believers to sharpen them can cause many difficulties. SEND has been a great resource in this area too. Through my team, I have an accountability partner that I meet with monthly. When my regional director came to visit, he and his wife spent a day with me and asked intentional questions about how I lead, handle conflict, and how I am growing in general as a Christian. In addition, my teammates share their wisdom with me on a regular basis. These things and more have assured me that SEND International is a highly valuable organization and I'm excited to partner with them in service to, for, and with our great God! Interested in being sent by SEND?
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