Whether it's your first mission trip outside the United States, or your fifth, you have choices about how you witness, and how you understand the realities of what you encounter. Witness with compassion and wisdom, and you will receive (spiritual) gifts from even the poorest people in the most destitute places. Witness with awareness of the "flip" side-the long-term goals and the short-term concerns of Just Globalization-and you will bring back a personal experience that may just change the world! This is a very brief introduction to globalization-the economic, cultural and spiritual bonds and connections that bring new opportunities, but may mean bondage in many places of great inequality, like the places where your mission work will take you. It is written to encourage a Christian response to globalization, but that also requires seeing and naming things we do not believe in: oppression, grinding in- equality, the destruction of nature and human relationships, and more. You will find ideas on what to look for, what to ask about, and what to pray for, as you understand more about power and powerlessness. We sometimes see things more clearly when we step out of our own culture.
Agency: Presbyterian Mission Agency