Missio Colonia | Kevin and Kathi in Cologne, Germany

We have now been in Germany for one month! It's been amazing to look back at that month and see all of the ways that God provided for us. But, we've recently been starting to feel the effects of home sickness and isolation. This is completely normal and our pre-field training prepared us for when the "culture shock" would hit. One of the ways that they encouraged us to deal with the difficulties of culture shock is humor.

We're lucky that unlike other more "exotic" missions locations Germany has an abundance of American conveniences. There's a decent Mexican restaurant about fifteen minutes from our place. You can get Oreos in the grocery store downtown. Pretty much everyone and their mom speaks at least some elementary English. CNN is one of the channel selections on German cable.

Popular fast food chain restaurants are one of the more ubiquitous American cultural expressions you find in Germany. For some reason, Germans love the preprocessed soy-ness of a Big Mac. For us, these restaurants provide an American oasis during especially difficult periods of cultural adjustment. In fact, the type of restaurant corresponds pretty well to how depressed and miserable we are. So, without further ado, here's our scale of cultural transition depression as measured by American fast food restaurants:

Level 1: Starbucks
At this level, you're just beginning to feel some of the effects of cultural shock. You generally still enjoy being in your new home. There's still some of that freshness and excitement of being in a new place. You may have had one or two days of loneliness where you watched a couple hours of Larry King Live on CNN because you really wanted to hear someone speaking English. But, in general you're doing pretty good. Starbucks is a great oasis for this level. It's a cafe, so it's still kinda cool, but the prepackaged familiarity makes you feel at ease. Tall, Grande, Venti translates into any language!

Level 2: Pizza Hut
Imagine it. You've been living overseas for about four or five months now. You've started to pick up the language to the point where you can get around. Then, you have one horrible day. You get chewed out by a police officer for not stamping your tram ticket. You spend three hours in a department store looking for a stupid butter dish! And, you accidentally tell the lady sitting next to you on the bus to have a good pickle. You are still proud of the fact that you're living fairly successfully overseas, so you don't want to go too American, but you need something familiar. Pizza Hut provides the perfect respite. It's still thoroughly American, but vaguely ethnic enough to allow you to soothe your battered ego.

Level 3: McDonald's
Alright, now we're into serious cultural shock territory now. This level is particular potent because it represents a real compromise of morals. Places like Starbucks and Pizza Hut you would frequent occasionally if you still lived in the States. But, you have refused to eat at McD's since you out grew the Happy Meal. There's something about those soy burgers that should give any moderately health-conscious adult pause. But, now you're really feeling the culture shock. In fact, most of your sentences begin with, "The reason I hate [insert host country]..." You find yourself collapsing in a heap of tears about 2 or 3 times a week now. You need some serious American-ness. The freaky red clown and his fat purple friend come to the rescue!

Level 4: Kentucky Fried Chicken
It's over now...you've reached the bottom of the barrel. At one point you lock yourself in your bedroom, shut the window blinds, and watch all 7 seasons of Gilmore Girls straight. You start looking into plane flights back to the U.S., and every airplane you see overhead you wonder if it's going to New York. One day, you're walking through your town and you see the Colonel staring at you from across the square. You then think something that you have never thought before in your entire life: "I've always wanted to go to Kentucky..." That's when you know that you've reached bottom. You run across the square and gorge yourself in low grade chicken meat and hush puppies. When you've reached this stage, you can take heart. You know that you've come through the worst of culture shock. After you get over the embarrassment of the scene you made at KFC and the indigestion from 2 lbs of fried chicken, you have no place else to go but up. It signals the end of the worst of your cultural adjustment.

In case you're wondering, the other day we went to Starbucks, so we're still at Level 1 right now. We'll keep all of you updated on our descent!

The main speaker at GEM's annual conference this year was Dr. Tom Wolfe, who teaches at Tyndale in Toronto. He's a former missionary and all around quirky guy. He was truly one of the most unique conference speakers I've every heard complete with sound effects and impressions. He also had an amazing message for us serving in Europe.

One of the lines that stuck with us through the entire conference involved unbelief. He said, "Do not allow yourself to succumb to the unbelief of the culture around you. Rather, give yourself over to belief in God!" That simple truth hit us right in the gut. Even after two weeks of living in Germany, we saw how our hearts were darkened with a lot of unbelief. Coming to a country like Germany where many people are so hardened and callous toward the Gospel, it's easy to think that you're just wasting your time. You look around and say to yourself, "Does me being here make any difference?"

We realized that this thinking has no room in God's economy. It is a thinking that comes not from truth about God's power but from the culture. We were reminded that God is sovereign and powerful. His plans are not frustrated by Germans or Europeans or any culture. We realized that this was something that we should probably post on our wall as a constant reminder because it is so easy to fall into that unbelief.

We don't know what God wants to do in and through us here. That's okay. He has purposes, and we believe He has already been working in Germany. He is not silent. Our job right now is have that faith and listen to where God wants to include us in His work here.

Earlier this week we returned from one week in the Czech Republic where we were attending Greater Europe Mission's annual conference. This is the yearly gathering of all of the GEM missionaries in Europe for teaching, fellowship, and encouragement. For us, it was an opportunity to get to know our new family a bit better and to make some great connections with other workers in Europe. We had such a wonderful time at this year's conference, and we are definitely thankful for that time.

Even after two weeks in Germany, we noticed how dry we were becoming in our hearts and spirits. So, this time really was a gift. We got to worship with 300 other missionaries. We got to receive some great teaching. And even better than the teaching were the random conversations and unscripted times of fellowship we got to have. We met some great people, and we're thankful that we were able to develop more roots in this mission family.

I definitely want to share a little bit about some of things we learned while at conference. I'll save that for another post in a few days.