MOP February 2015

Facilitator: Darlene Jovellanos

Although incorporating people from many diverse cultures into SEND is one of our mission priorities, the majority of SEND missionaries still come from North America. As much as we want to be culturally sensitive to those from other countries, the American culture is often the dominant one in our team settings as well as in the mission culture as an organization. This particular session seeks to help those from other cultures understand some of the unique challenges of working with those from North America, and give them some tools for addressing those challenges.

1. Discuss some of the cultural values of those from North America and how they might differ from the values of other cultures
2. Discuss how these values impact multi-cultural teaming and the culture of the organization as a whole
3. Learn some methods for coping with this predominant culture and successfully and appropriately helping North Americans understand minority cultural values.

• Understanding North American Culture Handout

• Lingenfelter & Mayer's 6 Pairs of Cultural Orientation
• Filipinos and Americans Working Together
• What We Learn From Working with North Americans > (Another perspective from Joy Lao)
• A documentary of what the world thinks of America > “The Listening Project”