Understanding Current Situation of the New Environment
（Take Sri Lanka as Example）
II. Some other typical features influencing the propagation and church life:
A. In the contact with people, we needs to pay attention to different national characteristics and customs, and to use different communication approaches.
1. No matter in which country, we must learn to respect, praise each other. Pay attention to the tone of your voice.
2. Americans have a strong sense of copyright; the Chinese people are weak in the sense of copyright.
3. For example, in Nepal, they guest with tea which is very sweet, if you don’t drink, they will be unhappy. If you have meal with them in their home, after eating, they would be very enthusiastic to help you add rice, if you refuse, they will also feel unhappy.
4. In Bangladesh, before you prepare the loving feast, you need to know the the religious background of the invited ones. Hindus do not eat beef; Muslims do not eat pork; rigorous Buddhists do not eat beef.
5. In Bangladesh, there are big different between men and women, such as there are the special seats for ladies. Don’t ask the ages, especially women.
6. In Bangladesh, when you preach the gospel to the Hindus, you need to emphasize that there is One God; to Muslims, Jesus is Messiah; to the denominations, the ground of church.
7. In Turkey, they are friendly greeting with others in the way of embrace or cheek. They will spend much time to chat with each other while drinking the red tea.
8. In Pakistan, their hospitality is to invite guest to drink ice water, if you do not drink, they will feel unhappy.
9. In Laos, they usually put their palms together devoutly and nod their head to greet each other.
10. At present in PNG, the security situation is very terrible. They will often meet the robbery or theft when they go out. So there is a desolate need to pay more attention to take care of personal security.
11. The etiquette of meeting which people used in Mexico is mainly to hug and kiss.
12. More etiquettes to refer to the following links:
B. Concerning baptism, the way of refusal differs and the effect also differs; some people can be compelled, but it may not fit for others.
1. Cambodian do not reject people, it’s fit for the “lightning war” in propagation, for example, they can be promoted to be baptized, but after that it is not easy to contact, and also not easy to become the ever-lasting fruit. It’s suitable for trainees to propagate, which it’s easy to enhance the confidence of trainees in bringing people to be saved.
2. For example, In Nepal, it’s easier to gain the local people to call on the name of the Lord, and to be baptized, but further shepherding is more difficult.
3. In baptism most of the Chinese can be expedited; if Americans did not want to be baptized, it’s not suitable to push them, or just the opposite.
4. Sri Lanka, especially southern Sinhalese, mostly like to drink tea, chatting after 20 minutes to cut to the chase, so “blitz” is not ideal.
5. In Burma, it is not fit to force them to do anything.
C. In shepherding people, we need to approach them more, especially according to their characteristics, and to pay attention to how to maintain a good relationship.
1. Take Cambodia as an example, people usually work slowly, without goal, do not like to be forced. They are easy to change the idea, which requires a little bit of “grinding”, “buffer” type of communication, during conversation should not have a strong purpose.
2. When you release messages or share, it’s not fit for you take the example concerning the ox.
3. Turks do not like reading, so it is not suitable for them to read too much messages.
4. The concept of time of Pakistan people is very bad, they often can not fulfill their commitment. Also the Indians.
D. In perfecting people, we can properly go against their inherent concept and habits.
E. Research on the channels of spreading truth (in what way do people like to receive information )
1. For example, in Cambodia, people don’t like to read, which requires finding the reasons from the language, may be due to the Cambodian language easy to listen and speak, not to read and write. People prefer to listen to the radio, like to watch the video.
2. Some Christians gathered in Nepal, although traffic is backward, but the use of the network and mobile phones are more popular.
3. In Bangladesh, due to environmental constraints, women are not convenient to go out, not even to buy food. It’s very important to contact and feed people through internet at home.
F. Concerning the personal privacy, which also affects the church life.
1. Westerners will notify others in advance to give them enough time to make arrangements, when they invite people to have a meal and to participate in social activities.
2. It’s also need to notice friends and relatives in advance when you are about to visit them, otherwise, it is a violation of the privacy of others in the sight of westerners.
3. Western boundary consciousness is very strong. Without permission, it’s absolutely not allow to enter into other’s territory, such as in western countries, even parents have no right to unauthorized enter a child’s room, otherwise the behavior will be considered impolite or not to respect the privacy of others. It’s also should not use other’s personal things in the room without the owner’s permission. In the west, if intruding without permission, the issue will be very serious.
4. Chinese greeting words are: “have you eaten?, “where did you go?”, Westerners will be very disgusted with such greetings, because they will think that maybe someone in the surveillance of them, the violation of their privacy. So Westerners like to use greeting words that has nothing to do with the trouble of personal. They like to talk about the weather and other topics not involving personal affairs.
5. The Chinese will directly ask the price of the goods they buy. In the eyes of Westerners, it is not polite, that is the other side of the economic conditions of inquiry.
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G. Concerning the attitude towards money and the way to deal with it.
1. For example, in Sri Lanka, the service industry has the habit of receiving tips.
2. In some places of Cambodia, when you find someone to do something for you, the balance of payments, they secretly leave and think that this is reasonable.
