Tag - Culture

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Bitter Enemies Reunited in Christ
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May TEAM Eats: Recipe for Apple Torte
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April Team Eats: Recipe for Sadza
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4 Lessons from My First 5 Years on the Field
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How Do You Truly Immerse Yourself in a Culture?
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TEAM Eats: Recipe for Chicken Karahi
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TEAM Eats: Recipe for Bûche de Noël
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TEAM Eats: Recipe for Menudo
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TEAM Eats: Recipe for Oyakodon
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TEAM Eats: Recipe for Aji de Gallina

Bitter Enemies Reunited in Christ

Julio and Libia sit together and study the Bible.
You would never guess that Julio and LIbia were once bitter enemies. Keep reading to see the amazing way God worked in their lives!

On Sunday mornings, Libia and Julio don’t look like anything special. Just two close friends worshiping God, maybe imagining their future together. You would never guess that this time last year, they wouldn’t speak to each other — much less be in the same room together. Or that they were bitter enemies for five long years. The fact that they happily sit together at church now? TEAM missionary Dawn Moore says it’s nothing short of a miracle.   Peruvian Couple Seeks Better Life in States Libia and Julio’s relationship was complicated from the beginning.  They both grew up in Peru as…

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May TEAM Eats: Recipe for Apple Torte

People in Austria enjoy many different desserts and one of them is the pictured apple torte, which resembles an American cheese cake.
A common dessert in Austria is this delicious apple torte. Check out the recipe below and try it out for yourself!

Today’s TEAM Eats comes from Melissa Lundquist, a TEAM worker in Austria. I recently met a colleague at an Austrian café. We usually meet in the afternoons, during the traditional kaffee und kuchen (afternoon coffee and cake) time. There are so many coffeehouses in Vienna to choose from! We’ve been to traditional ones and we’ve been to modern ones, both of which have pros and cons — but the idea of afternoon coffee and cake is the same regardless. When you walk into a coffeehouse in Austria, you’re greeted by a glass display case of cakes and desserts. After you…

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April Team Eats: Recipe for Sadza

Learn how to cook maize like a Zimbabwean with this recipe for Sadza and Peanut Butter Greens!

Maize is the staple food for most tribes in Zimbabwe. People often make a maize dish called sadza, where they cook cornmeal like a thick cream of wheat and serve it with cooked greens. The sadza is mounded high and people generally pinch off some, make a small ball, indent it with their thumb and use it to scoop up veggies. My husband, Jon, and I especially enjoy peanut butter cooked greens. Check out how to make sadza and peanut butter greens for yourself!   Ingredients for Sadza: 1¼ cups white cornmeal/corn flour Water Ingredients for Peanut Butter Greens 1…

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4 Lessons from My First 5 Years on the Field

People pray together in a church in a different culture
Every missionary has to learn new cultures. But what if those cultural differences go deeper than you imagined? Learn about this and three other missionary lessons!

Recently, I celebrated the five-year anniversary of becoming a TEAM missionary in Taiwan. Each year has been quite different, with its own share of surprises, disappointments and small victories. Today, I’m sharing four missionary lessons I’ve learned along the way. 1. Metacultural differences in thinking can go deeper than we expect. Through years of cross-cultural learning and teamwork in Taiwan, I’ve realized I didn’t simply cross from one culture to another but moved into a whole different neighborhood of national and local cultures. It’s a different metacultural context. We generally understand cultural differences by taking the way we would think…

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How Do You Truly Immerse Yourself in a Culture?

Two local woman with a missionary
It's one thing to live in a culture, but how do you truly immerse yourself in one? It's a question as old as the Church.

Cultural immersion is a term that’s thrown around a lot in the world of missions. Missionaries are told they need to “integrate” — engage in the local daily life and try to understand the local people. Of course, this is easier said than done. How do you immerse yourself in a culture while also taking time to learn the language, find schooling for your kids and help your family adjust to life overseas? Fortunately, you’re not the first to face this dilemma. Here are some words of wisdom from those who have done it before: Learn the Language The importance…

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TEAM Eats: Recipe for Chicken Karahi

Recipe for Chicken Karahi
You don't have to go to the Middle East for a taste of delicious Pakistani cuisine! Try one missionary family's favorite recipe for chicken karahi.

Chicken karahi became a favorite Pakistani dish with our family because we often ate it while visiting our sons at their boarding school. There was this wonderful hole-in-the-wall restaurant there which made the very best chicken karahi. You got to choose your chicken, and then they got started preparing it! It is generally eaten with roti — a type of flatbread — and plain yogurt, in case the spices were too hot. Here’s how to make Chicken Karahi! See full ingredients list below. Ingredients: 12 pieces of chicken 2½  tbsp cooking oil 1 tsp salt 1 bulb garlic, minced or…

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TEAM Eats: Recipe for Bûche de Noël

Celebrate Christmas like the French with this traditional Yule log cake! With creamy almond filling and chocolate ganache, it's sure to delight any Christmas gathering.

We’ve been TEAM missionaries in France for 13 years, and my husband also spent the first 18 years of his life here. So, Christmas in our home has become a unique blend of American and French traditions. We put out stockings like our American family and friends, not slippers like our French friends. We open our gifts the morning of the 25th, whereas most French children open theirs late into the evening of the 24th. We make American Christmas cookies — but we also always have a good supply of French candies, including chocolate papillotes and pâte de fruit. And…

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TEAM Eats: Recipe for Menudo

Recipe for Menudo
Everyone in the Philippines has their own menudo recipe. Find out TEAM missionary Laura O'Day's favorite way to make it!

This is my husband’s favorite Filipino dish and a crowd-pleaser with our whole family. Filipinos often eat rice and ulam (which simply means “vegetables and maybe meat, in sauce, that goes on rice”) most for dinner. This is one of our regular ulam meals! Everybody here has their own menudo recipe, with their own blend of meat, vegetables, tomato sauce, bay leaves and spices. This particular recipe came from my friend, Leng. She’s a sweet person and an amazing chef! As a TEAM missionary in the Philippines, I wanted to learn some local recipes, so she graciously let me hover…

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TEAM Eats: Recipe for Oyakodon

Japanese meal
Not only is oyakodon a family favorite, but it's also the first Japanese meal TEAM missionary Beth Anne Trim learned to make! Keep reading to get the recipe.

In Japanese, oyakodon literally translates to “parent and child on rice.” It is a popular dish in many restaurants here in Japan, and I first had it when I came as a short-term missionary to Japan in 2006. It was also the very first Japanese meal I learned how to make. (My daughter now asks for it all the time.) However, I like to add a unique twist by adding shiitake mushrooms because I think it adds a lot of flavor. Traditionally, this dish is made in a special oyako-nabe pan designed for donburi (“on rice”) dishes, making only one…

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TEAM Eats: Recipe for Aji de Gallina

Peruvian food recipe
If you're a fan of food that's both sweet and spicy, you'll want to try this missionary's Peruvian recipe for Aji de Gallina!

I first tried aji de gallina (hen’s chili) when we visited Peru for our vision trip in 2013. We then had this U.S. version with a Peruvian family from Oregon while we were raising support. This is an adaptation of the Peruvian meal due to the difficulty of finding aji amarillo, a medium-hot chili, in the States. (Pro tip: If you want the authentic taste, you can order jars of aji amarillo paste from Amazon or occasionally find it in a paste at a Latin foods store.) My favorite thing about aji de gallina has to be the spicy yet sweet taste,…

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