As the weary travelers straggled to the counter lugging heavy suitcases and carrying wrinkled travel documents, they were surprised when those who greeted them spoke a different language. The registration process quickly became confusing, frustrating, and funny as they tried to check in and get name tags.
One might think this scene involved crossing a national border. It’s just a typical first day at the Campamento de Orientaciòn Misionera (COM), which is the Mexico and Central America (MAC) Region’s equivalent of the U.S. and Canada Region’s Cross-Cultural Orientation.
An average of 40 to 60 Nazarenes from across the MAC Region seek missionary training at one of the three COM weekend events held each year. The next group will be training in Arriaga, Mexico, Oct. 1-4.
The MAC Region adopted the U.S.’s Cross-Cultural Orientation (CCO) model in 2004. Leaders realized that God was calling Nazarenes in the MAC Region to mission work, but they had few ways to train and equip for the job, said Scott Armstrong, coordinator of World Mission MAC.
Participants at a recent COM in Tuxtla learned about mission
opportunities at the MAC Region's Campamento de Orientacion
Misionera. Photo courtesy World Mission MAC Region.
“If someone from Nicaragua had a call 10 or 15 years ago, their pastors didn’t really know what to tell them and would say, ‘Good luck,’” Armstrong said. “Even from the perspective of Global Mission (formerly World Mission) at (the International) Headquarters, it was difficult to guide interested candidates in their call due to distance and differences in language and culture.”
In contrast, Nazarenes in North America have had the opportunity to attend such events since 1985, when the denomination’s Global Mission department began hosting Cross-Cultural Orientations.
Although the North American CCO model has changed over the past 24 years, the events are still offered 8 to 9 times annually at Nazarene university campuses across the U.S. (Read more.) They typically draw 20-30 participants.
During a typical Campamento de Orientacion Misionera, participants role-play in games and activities to simulate the emotions of culture shock. They also watch informational videos, interact in workshops, and listen to speakers. There is time reserved for prayer and reflection, group worship, and personal journaling.
Would-be missionaries got active with role-playing games to
simulate the experience of culture shock. Photo courtesy
World Mission MAC Region.
The weekend culminates with one-on-one interviews between the participants and the orientation leaders. District superintendents also sit in to provide guidance and insight on how people can find immediate ways to minister in their home churches and districts.
The COM activities are designed to meet eight objectives for Latin American would-be missionaries, including exposing participants to culture shock, educating about mission opportunities within the denomination, and helping them to expand their vision for the big picture of missions while identifying their place in it.
“The young people discover if indeed they have the call to serve in the mission field, and not only that, but also to serve in the leadership of Nazarene Missions International (NMI) or another ministry in the Church of the Nazarene,” said Ana Maria Crocker de Diaz, NMI coordinator for the region. Crocker offers a workshop at the event. “This has been effective for the development of the local church because they become qualified new leaders.”
Through worship, prayer and quiet time for reflection, the COM
participants seek God's direction for ministry. Photo courtesy
World Mission MAC Region.
Crocker said that the participants also learn the importance of giving to missions through NMI, which helps to increase regional support of the World Evangelism Fund, through which the denomination supports and expands its global mission efforts.
For Maria (Maru) Rodriguez going through the COM prepared her for adapting to a new culture when the region sent her in the first wave of volunteer missionaries to Western Europe with Project Caleb from 2007 to 2009.
“I think one of the most important things I learned in that COM was that … when we arrived in a different culture we needed to change our lifestyle. We needed to forget our own culture and we needed to learn to speak as they speak, to live as they live. This is hard at the beginning,” Rodriguez said.
Rodriguez returned from Spain in early August 2009 and will draw on her cross-cultural mission experiences to train others going through the orientation weekend.
“Everything in the camp is so important. My vision about missions changed with the camp,” said Maddai Gonzalez, of Xalapa, Veracruz, Mexico. Gonzalez attended the COM before she began helping to lead the region’s Proyecto Pablo (Project Paul) church planting initiative. “I had felt that missions was for some people but not for me. I thought that missions was just in Europe or another part of the world but not here. After that COM I realized I could be involved in missions!”
COM trainings in the MAC Region attract two to three times more attendees than similar
training events in the United States because COMs bring Nazarenes from countries
across the region. This group gathered recently at Tuxtla, Mexico. Photo courtesy
World Mission MAC Region.
Gonzalez has also gone from student to teacher, as she will begin helping to lead some future COM events based on what she has learned through Proyecto Pablo.
People who typically attend the region’s training weekend are people who feel a call to full-time missions. Other attendees include various church leaders, lay people and NMI presidents and council members who simply want to deepen their understanding of missions in the denomination.
“Even if they don’t feel a call to missions this helps to broaden their mindset and perspective,” Armstrong said. “It makes them say, ‘This is what being a missionary is all about.’”