by Andy Johnson

Director of Worker Care

So I’ve been doing some thinking recently (don’t look so shocked!), and I wanted to share it with you. 

First, though, a definition: 

Biculturalism is when one person belongs to two different cultures. 

When a cross-cultural worker launches to the field (hopefully with great fanfare from you, Dear Care Provider), she is, in all likelihood, monocultural. This is through no fault of her own; she has simply grown up mostly swimming in one set of waters.  

On arrival to the field, she sets about learning (encouraged and freed to do so by you, Dear Care Provider). She begins learning language. She dabbles then dives deeply into culture, food, daily life rhythms. She adapts to the things of outward appearance, maybe changing the way she dresses or walks or talks or with whom she talks.  

Over time (and we’re talking years here) her interior world is slowly reshaped. She begins to take on some of the values of the people with whom she lives. They come to mean more to her. They are no longer target but family. Maybe it’s after a furlough or after a good meal or after an important conversation, but one day she looks up to realize that she belongs to this culture. She is, in some way, theirs. 

Welcome to being bicultural, Dear Cross-Cultural Worker.  

This was the goal! Workers and care providers alike should celebrate this! This is the result of intention and work and learning and perseverance over years. Enjoy it! 

Until your worker notices a fly in the ointment.  

It might be the result of hosting summer interns who aren’t as like her as they used to be. It might be a work group from her home church that talks about music and shows and cultural trends and technology she missed. It might be going “home” on furlough to family and realizing she doesn’t quite fit the same way. Over time (and we’re talking years here), she doesn’t fit like she once did in her birth culture. Like the door of a simple house soaked in spring rains, she doesn’t quite fit as before. She doesn’t belong like she once did to her birth culture. 

Welcome to being monocultural once more, Dear Cross-Cultural Worker. Sorry. 

As a care provider, you might see that she doesn’t enjoy furloughs the way she once did. You might feel funny that she doesn’t crave more and more time with you and your church but seems to want to get back overseas as soon as she sets foot in the States. Instead of letting your feelings get hurt (or sitting in your hurt feelings, perhaps), help her. Find good cultural guides. Sit with her and listen when church, culture, family, and her passport country all feel a bit off. Give her space not to belt country music hits at full volume on the 4th of July (maybe that’s just me, as I write this on the 5th of July). Allow her both to mourn and to celebrate (sometimes in the same conversation) her differences. 

One day, the cross-cultural worker you care for wraps up her work overseas and moves back to where she came from. You and the others in her care network receive her back, hopefully with great fanfare. You make sure that she settles well. You work your way through your list of recommendations from the good people at MRN about helping your worker reenter well. When she heads back after about a year for a visit, she finds that she still belongs over there, even if life has continued without her. And, she’s able to tell her friends there that she’s finding her place in her new old culture.  

Welcome back to biculturalism, Dear Cross-Cultural Worker. We missed you. 

As a care provider, celebrate with the one you’ve journeyed so far. Be her friend. Be excited for her when she finds her new people, her new job, her new rhythm. Don’t get your feelings hurt (or don’t sit in the hurt) if she finds a new faith community other than the church that sent her those years. 

Over time (and we’re talking a few years here), she’s going to go back to her place of service and discover that the language doesn’t roll as easily off her tongue. The foods won’t be the same. Her friends will have new friends. The churches she worked with will (hopefully!) be full of people she doesn’t know and, more startlingly, who don’t know her. She might even need help getting around instead of helping others. 

Sigh. Welcome back to monoculturalism, Dear Cross-Cultural Worker. Come on in. The water’s…fine. 

This is a new season for mourning that I believe many care providers and workers don’t see coming. It’s that moment years after reentry starts when it dawns on the worker that they couldn’t move back if they really wanted to and just jump back in. You see, biculturalism is a slippery thing. Belonging to two places at once is tough to maintain – I might even argue that it’s impossible. Then, to add insult to injury, despite their best efforts to hang on tightly, the version of your worker that existed in both places in both times no longer exists. For the cross-cultural worker, those brief periods of being bicultural are beautiful, ephemeral times to be enjoyed and then remembered with delight and longing. Care providers who are sensitive to this are gold and far between; I hope you’ll be one, Dear Care Provider.  

One more thing before I go, just a quick reminder really. The Son of Man had no place to lay His head. He was of heaven and of earth and longed for the two to become one, for it to be on earth as it already is in heaven. He gets it. He understands belonging and longing to belong to two places. The good news is that one day, he’ll bring them together in newness and completeness.