Learning and Growing at CIT

Hi Friends!

We just wanted to send a quick update on our time here at CIT (Center for Intercultural Training). The first few weeks have been a great time of learning, meeting new friends and deepening our relationship with God.

Leading music at CIT

Our first week here was a spiritual retreat, where we were able to spend a lot of time in guided personal reflection and Bible study. These past two weeks we have spent time learning and discussing several things that will be important for us to keep in mind as we are getting closer to leaving for Mexico.

One of the things we’ve looked at is our different mind styles and personality types and how we can best work together with the other missionaries and local ministry partners. Conflict with other missionaries is one of the most common reasons that missionaries leave the field, and so it is very important to us that work carefully to avoid this problem. Along with that topic we have looked at different views of culture and our own tendency to view our cultural background as superior, even including how we interpret scripture through the lens of our cultural history.

Grilling chicken for a CIT community activity

One other important topic that we have discussed is spiritual warfare and the ways we see this in the U.S. versus the ways that it is seen in other cultures and how to be prepared for it.

We’ve also talked about cross cultural communication and how body language means different things in different cultures. For example, eye contact is important in the U.S., however in many cultures, you should not make eye contact while talking with someone as it communicates something different than the respect that it communicates here.

This is just a small glimpse of the things that we have been learning these past few weeks! It has also been a great blessing for us to be able to spend time with other missionaries and get to learn from each other!

Thank you for your continued prayers and financial partnership! We are very thankful for each one of you!

We have officially reached 70% of our needed monthly support and we thank God for his provision!

If you would like to help us with this last 30% of our monthly need and help get us on our way to Mexico, you can sign up at https://www.caminoglobal.org/give/give-now/

Please be sure to specify our name or account number (082560- Chris and Sarah Collins) for your designation.

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Collins Family in Mesick, MI

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