Going into the second week of training, all of us forty or so participants began to click with one another. We hung out more, got to know each other, and shared our stories with one another.  The three other guys in my dorm started trading off cooking duties to save ourselves time (because otherwise it would have taken until about 8 or 9 in the evening for all of us to make our meal and eat), and also space (the kitchen was quite small, and two was a crowd).  This also meant that we ate and talked with each other, and got to know each other well.

When Monday and Tuesday rolled around, the staff warned us that this was going to be one of the heavier weeks in terms of the topics. And then they went straight into spiritual warfare, starting with the book of Ephesians.  We looked for times in Ephesians when the armor of God is eluded to before it is actually mentioned in chapter six.  We then talked about ways that we as believers can be influenced by Satan, with specific examples in scripture, and what element of the armor of God combats each one. This bright me, and quite a few others to the conclusion that there is a reason that Paul says to put on the FULL armor of God in Ephesians 6:11. If you’re missing a piece of the armor, you may deflect the blow, but that doesn’t mean it won’t knick somewhere else. Takeaway: Don’t be afraid, but be alert!

Wednesday’s topics were cross-cultural communication and social context.  In communication, there are twelve ways we communicate, number 1 being the most conscious but least believable, and number twelve being the least conscious but most believable:

Verbal - speech
Written
Numeric
Pictorial
Artifactual - 3-dimentional representations and objects, the things used in living
Audio - non verbal sounds and silence
Kinestic - body language, facial expression, posture
Optical - light and color
Tactile
Spacial - the utilization of space
Temporal - the utilization of time
Olfactory - taste and smell

Five Takeaways on Cross-cultural communication:
Pure communication is impossible because we all bring prior associations and experience
We communicate in many ways, and much of our communication is unconscious
We see what we expect to see
We don’t see what we don’t expect to see
Everyone perceives things differently.