.JPG)
CALMS is all about "Connecting and Advancing Leaders in Mission and Service" so it should be no surprise that we deliberately seek to "link people and cultures." While it is fascinating and interesting to learn about other cultures, we also want to link people and cultures to help God's people gain new skills and grow in Christian maturity and understanding about how to share their faith in an increasingly hostile world.
Since the United States is now a multi-cultural country, it is critical that not just our clergy, but also the whole body of Christ, learn more about different cultures and how to cross barriers such as language and customs in order to share our faith with others. CALMS emphasis on "linking people and cultures" is helping equip a whole new generation of Christians to become more involved in relating to people of different ethnic groups within their home communities.
CALMS has also discovered that many of our Central American partners need to grow in their appreciation of themselves as participants in God's mission instead of seeing themselves as merely recipients of mission efforts done by others. Linking them with eager and committed Christians from North America to serve their own people and their communities is helping to change their self-awareness and build their confidence and mission commitment.
We have found that the most effective way to link people and cultures is to help them work together successfully to serve the needy and share the Gospel with lost people. Most CALMS short-term teams serve side-by-side with fellow Christians from Central America and in the process make new friends and grow in their cross-cultural understanding.
Deliberately "linking people and cultures" through a mission project helps both North Americans and Central Americans to see themselves as God's representatives in His mission to restore people outside the Body of Christ to a new relationship with the Lord Jesus. Recently for example, CALMS sent a team of seminary students to work with Dr. Elry Orozco, a Christian doctor in Guatemala with whom CALMS partners, to help him get to know and serve the people in a new village where he had not worked before. In the process, Dr. Orozco learned many valuable lessons to help advance this new ministry and the students learned how to relate to people in a different culture.
"Linking people and cultures" is all about building relationships across cultures. This happens by showing respect, seeking to understand our differences and learning to work together to advance God's mission. This process inevitably helps both North and Central American Christians see themselves as His instruments and ambassadors in mission.
