J and N minister among a people group in Southeast Asia Mainland. “Communication is dance. Sometimes it's expecting a response from someone else when you express yourself. Sometimes it's responding to someone's expectation when they express themselves. And both of these — the expression and the response — happen according to rhythms. Those rhythms are the unspoken, deeply felt expectations about the way to communicate. They are like the pulse of music. These unspoken, deeply felt expectations are called culture.

“When you're in your home culture, you don't even need to think about the pulse of the cultural music. For the most part, you just feel it. You just step out onto the communication dance floor, express yourself and respond. You feel it in your chest. You express yourself and respond to the expression of others without thinking about those unspoken, deeply felt expectations.

“When you switch cultures, the rhythm changes. If you have eyes to see, there's beauty on display like you've never seen before. And if you can move to the rhythms of the new dance, it's even more beautiful. But first you have to find the pulse of the music. And while you're doing that, you're bound to step on some toes. And, ouch, get stepped on.

“We felt all the feelings this week: euphoria when we found ourselves dancing in time, discouragement when we stepped on toes, pain — and some anger — when we got stepped on. Sometimes it's hard not to take it personally. It's easy to accuse others even when you're the one that can't find the rhythm. Can you pray our hearts remain soft to people — the very image of God — as we find the rhythm? Pray we have the endurance to keep going until we learn the rhythms of this culture. We long to understand and be understood.”