November 12, 2024
Mark Hedinger
“I praise You because I am fearfully and wonderfully made” (Psalm 139:14) is a biblical phrase that easily sticks in our minds. That verse is also core to CultureBound’s work in at least two ways.
Lets start with “fearfully and wonderfully made.”
Think of the human body and all of its marvels – arms, legs, senses. Beyond that, our minds. When we think of God giving us brains that connect with each other and with the physical world, it is hard not to say “fearfully and wonderfully made.” As a child, learning a language and to follow patterns of thought and behavior from the adults around us is wonderful! As an adult, learning another language and how to change our own patterns of thought and behavior to adjust to the ways of life of another culture – incredible, fearful, and wonderful!
Not only is it incredible that children grow up learning from the adults around them, and that adults can learn how to live with people whose patterns of life and thought are different. What we call culture learning is incredible all by itself. . . .
Stop and realize that you have your favorite and most powerful ways of learning and I have ways of learning that better suit me. Every other person has their unique blend of learning styles.
CultureBound loves to approach culture and language learning from the perspective that we all learn differently. We all have our own preferred ways to learn and teach and grow and develop. One person learns by hands-on experience. The next likes to read and reflect. The next learns about culture by conversation with friends and neighbors. Someone else prefers video classes. And then there is the person who learns language and culture best by classroom memory work.
The value we place on being agile in our teaching styles is an act of worship to a God who has fearfully and wonderfully made us very much like one another, and yet very different as well.
One of CultureBound’s core values is to be agile in our teaching approaches.
We go to some people, because that is how they learn best. We interact by internet or telephone with others. We have reading and writing mixed into our training because some of us are “fearfully and wonderfully” good at learning through print. And we include self-directed field trips because some of us excel with hands-on experience.
Why is CultureBound so eager to be flexible and agile in how we teach? Because God made us diverse in how we learn. And that takes us to the first phrase on our Psalm 139:14. One of the acts of praise by CultureBound’s training teams is to honor Him and glorify Him, to praise Him by recognizing His work in making humanity with all of that diversity in how we learn.
The value we place on being agile in our teaching styles is an act of worship to a God who has fearfully and wonderfully made us very much like one another, and yet very different as well.
Mark Hedinger, DIS, is Executive Director of CultureBound. Mark and his family spent 12 years living and teaching in Mexico. Since then, he has taught in many international locations and leads culture training programs at CultureBound. With his Spanish language background, he serves in a multicultural church in Portland, Oregon.