EXPLAIN

EXPLAIN involves writing about a specific Southeast Asian People Group.  In essence, it involves writing a people profile.

Basically, a people profile serves Christians by . . .

• INFORMING - A People Profile answers four questions: (1) who are the people?, (2) what are their lives like?, (3) what do they believe?, (4) and what are their needs?
• MOBILIZING - A People Profile mobilizes Christians to pray for a specific people group, expecting God to send messengers to engage the people group.

See our People Profiles page and click on one of the People Photos to view a completed people profile.  There are still many people profiles that still need to be written.  Contact Us if you are interested in helping us write a people profile.

To help in this process, the following workbook is available for your use.

Filled with keen and illuminating issues, Traveling Down Their Road will stimulate cross-cultural workers to encounter the worldview perspective of their host people. It challenges cross-cultural workers to look at their focus people from an emic perspective. Each one of the nine lessons provides a set of research practices that focus on significant issues and asks key questions for an effective understanding of a people and culture. More importantly, the lessons enable cross-cultural workers to package communicated messages through the cultural lenses of their host people. The nine lessons consist of:

1. LEARNING FROM A PEOPLE – Ethnographic Research and Discovering Felt Needs
2. GETTING READY – Writing a People Profile
3. DIGGING DEEPER – Culture and Cultural Values
4. CHANGING CONTEXTS – Globalization and Three Interrelated Aspects of Culture
5. CHANGING IDENTITIES – Four Types of Societies
6. BAITING THE HOOK – Cultural Symbols, Myths, Rituals, and Rites of Passage
7. TELLING THEIR STORIES – Life Histories
8. SEEING THROUGH THEIR EYES – Measuring Perceptions and Attitudes
9. PUTTING IT TOGETHER – Painting a Picture of the People

Each lesson asks the reader to participate in certain exercises to apply the basic concepts from the lesson to their particular cultural context and host people. As learners engage the lesson exercises, they will learn to see, think, speak and write like an ethnographer. Plus, they will produce a brief ethnography on their focus people.

Learners complete the lessons with a reservoir of material and knowledge on their host people. Included in the Appendix are several examples of brief ethnographies – one written from a thick descriptive perspective and another one written from a modified biographical life history perspective.

To receive your copy of Traveling Down Their Road, fill out the following reply form and hit submit. Also, for inquiries concerning training opportunities and other books and resources available, leave a reply . . .

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RESEARCH TOOLS LINKS

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