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On Wednesday of this week as part of Welcome Week activities, several students gathered for an international student and MK orientation dinner, hosted by Missionary-in-residence, Tim Hange.  Mr. Hange and his family have just completed 8 years of service in Moscow, Russia where they worked at Hinkson Christian Academy.

 

 

While in Russia, and even before his service there, Tim became passionate about understanding cultural differences. He was able to witness the cultural adjustments that he and his family, including two adopted children from Russia had to make. Returning to the States, he is now passionate about helping International Students and MKs (missionary kids) adjust and make the transition to learning and thriving in the American academic world.

Wednesday nights activity was a fun time of Greek food (provided by Mr. Hange, who has Greek heritage), learning, discussion and fun activities. As part of his service to Calvary, Tim seeks to create a new International Student Program that will help these students with learning English, and adjusting to the academic environment of Calvary. We are excited about what God is doing through Mr. Hange and his efforts to make our brothers and sisters from other nations feel welcome!

 

Mr. Paxton needs to do a better job of balancing his expectations and reality!

One of the lessons that Mr. Hange shared had to do with balancing our expectations and the reality of cultural adjustment.  Often, our expectations can be very high, we expect to be able to learn the language quickly, make friends quickly, and figure out how things work in the new culture with ease. However, as our expectations and reality get further apart, we begin to experience pain and hardship. One of the ways to fix this problem is to bring our expectations more in line with the reality of what we are experiencing.

 

The yay duck and the yuck duck of cultural acquisition.

Mr. Hange treated everyone to some gyros, they were delicious.