The Biggest Mistake

It's the easiest thing in the world to make mistakes when you enter a new culture and language.

Asking for pommes de terre (potatoes) at a fruit stand, instead of the pommes (apples) like you meant to.
Talking about the traffic at the "cockroach" when you really mean "intersection".
Using your (unclean) left hand to eat or hand someone something.
Forgetting to greet an individual when you walk into a room.
Not telling the taxi driver you don't have small change when you first get in.
Being too friendly or not friendly enough, too stingy or too quick to spend money, too loud or too quiet...

The list goes on.

Mistakes can add up quickly, building a barrier to the message you've come to share - and sometimes just one mistake can be significant enough to destroy your opportunity altogether.

As I've observed many missionaries - each with a different combination of strengths, weaknesses, personality, learning style, and philosophy of ministry - and lived my own far-from-perfect life overseas, I've come to a conclusion.

The biggest mistake is not, in fact, the cultural blunders we make.  The biggest mistake is to be unteachable.

Many things can be forgiven if you have a teachable heart.  If you are open to correction, if you are seeking input - asking for advice and then truly listening - then all is not lost.  Position yourself from the start to learn rather than to teach.  Recognize how much you don't know.  Choose humility above all.

Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on...humility... Colossians 3:12

Remind them...to obey, to be ready for every good work, to speak evil of no one, to be peaceable, gentle, showing all humility to all men. Titus 3:1, 2

...Yes, all of you be submissive to one another, and be clothed with humility, for “God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” 1 Peter 5:5

This humility will allow you to learn from others, to learn from the Lord, and to be effective for Him.