Why Belgium?

Part of mandatory training for our mission board (MTW) is to attend a month long training of cross-cultural acclimation, language acquisition skills, and navigating a place you've never been to before.  We did our training in New York.  However, MTW has moved all of their training over to Belgium. 

Part of my group

But why am I here?  Good question. I'm here to act as a mentor for new missionaries.  I have 5 people I am mentoring and we meet as a group and individually.  They also have personal journals they submit to me to talk about how they are processing things, and what they are experiencing.  In addition, they submit three different cultural analysis papers.  These papers give them structured ways of looking at a culture and making observations about it.

During the week there are practical lessons about team dynamics, language acquisition, etc. And then on the weekend there are some churches that have activities that they are involved in.  This is a great way to get to know a community, a church body, and figure out ways to figure things out!

It's my first time to Belgium and I'm really enjoying the mentoring aspects and training aspects of being here.  In addition, we have the opportunity to see some of Belgium on the weekends in our "free time."