How have you dealt with culture shock?

Culture shock is a four-stage process that people go through after moving to another culture and attempting to adapt to their new society and environment. Living in another culture can come with moments of fascination and excitement, depression and sadness, frustration and the inability to communicate effectively with people in the new culture.

Missionaries must persist through the four stages to be effective in ministry in their new cultural environment. Greg Crofford writes about this in his Ask the Missionary column.

If you have experienced culture shock as you've served in missions, consider sharing your stories, as well as the things that helped you cope and get through it. You can submit your stories and suggestions to Engage!

If you're not a registered contributor, you'll need to click on the "Log In" button at the top of the page and register to be a writer. After you've verified your account by clicking a link sent to your e-mail address, log in to Engage and click on the new button at the top of the screen that says "My profile." On this screen, click the link at the top to upgrade your account to "writer status" by providing a little more personal information.