We are now into the SPLICE portion of our training. It stands for spiritual, personal, lifestyles, interpersonal, cultural and endurance. While the language training required more brain involvement, SPLICE has evoked a lot of emotions. We've heard some sad stories and testimonies of painful experiences. One day we participated in a hostage simulation that took my mind to frightening places.
Our teacher gave us the Top 10 list for stressors for missionaries on the field. 500 missionaries were interviewed and their top stress (according to this study) was "Confronting others when necessary." Our teacher also stated that the #1 reason missionaries leave the field prematurely or ask for a different assignment is conflict with team members. Being armed with those sobering facts we spent 2 whole days examining our own conflict styles and Gods commandment to pursue peace. Our instructor told us if we were not ready to evaluate ourselves and grow in our conflict management, we needed to leave the training, call our churches and sending agencies and tell him we are not going. It was a big deal and after those two days I was ready to be done with conflict. As it turns out, Josh is a turtle and I am a shark, at least most of the time. Now both of us working towards meeting somewhere in the middle and valuing the conflict styles of others. ~bzp
2 comments:
Do sharks eat turtles? Aren't turtles alittle slow in the head?
Dave
Feel free to pass along some of the conflict resolution wisdom you gain. Always room to grow there...
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