cross-cultural | Upstream Collective 3/4

Upstream Blog

The Upstream Blog has a range of short articles on various topics around sending. Look through the tags to discover articles that meet your need.

A little over a year ago, my family and I transitioned churches. This was not the first time either my wife or I had sought a new church...

Make the Most of Your Foreign Assignment Click here for part one of this article series. Engage in Marketplace Ministry If God has led...

A large movie poster of Shah Rukh Khan was not what my wife and I expected to see as we walked into the movie theater in southern...

One of the incredible opportunities we have right now in America is to reach an increasing number of internationals. Immigrants,...

Being a bi-cultural Christ-follower means being able to comfortably move in and out of cultures, sometimes even a variety of cultures....

As missions leaders, we work hard to get our people overseas on short-term trips and as long-term missionaries. This is an awesome...

The story of Moses and the burning bush is the iconic example of God calling someone to accomplish His purposes in this world....

Fostering Both Excitement and Sobriety in Potential Sent Ones Choosing the right road trip companions can mean the difference between...

If you stepped into my office, you could make two observations about me—I love to travel, and I love to read. I have collected many...

I just finished reading Jeremiah and Lamentations. Boy, am I glad that’s over! Ever feel that way? If it weren’t for reading plans, there...

Parents are God’s kind provision to infants and children who have no concept of personal safety and cannot provide for their own basic...

The missionary task requires understandable communication of the gospel. Depending on the context and the complexity of the language...

During my first missionary term in South Asia, I relished the opportunity to dive deep into the culture and begin learning the local...

In part 1, we went through some mistakes missionaries often make with language learning. Now let’s look at the missionaries who succeed...

Many missionaries start out motivated to learn and engage in the new language and culture around them. Unfortunately, those aspirations...

In today’s connected world, churches, missions organizations, and missionaries work with partners from nations around the globe. Some of...

Imagine you’re sitting in a coffee shop reading your Bible. Each time you take a sip of your coffee, you notice a stranger staring at...

In a previous blog post, I defined cross-cultural missional partnership as a kingdom-oriented relationship of culturally diverse groups...

You don’t have to be an expert to share the hope of the gospel with someone who is much different than you.

Raising families overseas is not easy, but you're not alone. Here are some helpful resources for raising families overseas.