- Finding & keeping housing
- Getting & renewing visas
- Difficulties with bosses & coworkers
- Working too many hours
- Cultural frustrations
- Maintaining focus on ministry
- Instant communication with home
- Locals with agenda
- Spiritual oppression
- Team conflicts/fellow tentmakers
- Maintaining Spiritual Disciplines
- Materialism
- Expatriate trap
- Finding & keeping housing
Job contract may include housing
When you finally get the job contract after a sometimes frustrating drawn out process, then comes the challenge of figuring out your housing. If the company provides housing as a part of the job contract, your only issue will be whether the promises are actually in line with the reality. Many people find that the home they had seen pictures of, is not actually the home they will be living in. It was just some pictures the company had taken of a home some time ago, and it is convenient to simply keep using these pictures. Be prepared for surprises, both good and bad. It is this initial arrival into the new culture where you will feel most vulnerable and small issues like lack of a shower or a kitchen sink, becomes a great frustration. Just know that most issues can eventually be solved to some degree of satisfaction. When you first arrive, you also have a bit more clout on getting things fixed and improved on.
If your job contract does not include housing, you will probably spend the first weeks staying with other expatriates or even a hotel, which gets expensive fast. It is possible to try to get a place to stay from the internet, but in reality unless it is some expat offering their home to you, it will be very difficult to make a good judgement on housing and location.
Getting locals to help you with housing probably means you will have to pay them a finder’s fee. The sad part of this is that the rent price will go up since you are seen as a rich foreigner.
In either scenario, know that things will eventually work out and life in the new country will become more or less comfortable.
Housing allowance vs. company housing
Companies can offer either a housing allowance or provide you with company housing. A housing allowance gives you more flexibility in choosing your neighbourhood but less security, as the landlord can rent your home to someone else willing to pay more, often on very short notice. Company housing is most likely less stressful, although there will be repairs and maintenance that need to be done.
Landlord has all the rights
Even though you have signed a rental contract and are expected to adhere to it 100%, there is no such expectation by the landlord. You probably will not have any rights should the landlord decide to increase the rent or rent your home to someone else willing to pay more. IN face saving cultures, it is easier for the landlord to kick you out and bring in a renter who pays more, than to ask you to pay more.
It is good to maintain a relationship with your landlord, who knows, they may also be a man of peace whom God has placed in your life.
Most tm’s lose housing on short notice
It seems most expats lose their housing on short notice and it is always a stressful time. Your boss will not have much sympathy as it is not their problem. Don’t expect to be given time off to look for a new home. Just know, this happens regularly, so even before it happens, be on the lookout for rentals in your community should you require one on short notice.
Buying is usually not possible or advisable
The few tentmakers who have bought property have also suffered tremendously and in the end have lost their investment and spent a lot of money on advisors. This of course depends greatly on which country your job is in, as some countries do offer protection for foreign investors. Generally, we do not advise people to buy property.
- Getting & renewing visas
You need a job contract to get a visa
Getting a job does not guarantee a visa
Visa is tied to your job contract
Visas can be shorter than job contracts
Your boss has little influence on your visa
You may have to leave to renew visa
Work & Residency visas are different
Non working spouses need a residency visa
You need a job contract to get a visa
You’ve got your job contract and can now apply for a residence and/or work visa. Sometimes, these are done by your employer but most of the time; you are on your own. First you need a job contract, only then can you apply for a visa.
On some occasions the visa expires before your job contract, so you need to renew it, which can mean having to go to a neighboring country to re-apply.
As for non working spouses, they will need a residency visa which is different from a work visa. Make sure you check them before leaving, as getting them changed is quite difficult once you have arrived.
The key thing to remember is that your employer has little to no influence in getting you a visa. They may be able to offer you advice, but they are usually not in a position to make calls to make things happen.
- Difficulties with bosses & coworkers
You are on their terms
You have to adhere to job contract
Bosses interpretation of contract is different
Assumption is that you are desperate
Local workers resentful
Co-workers are from other cultures
Work rules are not clear
Non Christian expats/co-workers resent your faith
You are on their terms
Most of us have experienced difficult bosses and co-workers. This is not going way because you move to a new country and culture, as a matter of fact, they will be multiplied.
It is good to not expect fairer treatment because you are a foreigner. Many employers assume you are desperate and will treat you accordingly. Why else would you leave your homeland and come to a strange culture is their assumption.
Your local co-workers might resent you as they are well aware that you are making more money and getting better benefits than they are. If you are an ESL teacher with a certificate, your co-worker may have their MA in English but because they are local with a local accent, they are not valued over someone with a western accent.
Your co-workers will be from many nations and cultures, adding to communication difficulties. Not only are you dealing with the host nation culture, but all the others around you and they may come from drastically different backgrounds. While it can be enjoyable to learn about so many different cultures and if your attitude remains positive, it can indeed be a huge plus. A further difficulty is the varying levels of English skills adding to confusion in communication.
The work rules are seldom clear and even if they are spelled out, their interpretation can vary greatly. Try to get as much in writing as you can early on, although as an employee you may not be seen important enough to warrant such documentation.
As a tentmaker, your reason for being there is to share your faith. Your co-workers from western nations probably are not believers and will resent your faith and if they find out you are there for a purpose of bringing the Gospel; they may resent you even more. There have been cases where non Christian co-workers have gone to the boss to tell them why this person or couple is actually here. There was one incident where they actually went to the local police which brought a much closer scrutiny of the tentmaker.
If you are befriending local people, that can be seen as you’re excluding yourself from the expat community. No one likes to be shunned so you can expect them to behave similarly.
- Working too many hours
Expectations vs. job agreement
Maximize your contribution
Assumption by boss that you have no life
Avoidance of local culture
Your job contract may clearly indicate that your work hours are 8.5 hours 5 days a week. The expectation by your employer may vary greatly. One of our tentmakers was complaining to his boss about all the extra hours that were expected of him and that he also needed time off to do other things beside work. The boss was dumbfounded! What else could you possibly be doing besides work? You have no family here, you can’t pursue your sports/hobbies, there are few places of entertainment, and so what do you need time off work for?
So in this scenario, the boss thought he was doing the worker a favor by keeping him busy and of course maximizing your contribution.
You may find yourself so busy at work that it becomes a way to escape and avoid the local culture. It is easy to reason that I will just work harder and longer since there is little pleasure in interacting with locals at work or in your neighborhood.
It is good to deal with this issue early on in the job and lay out boundaries that are acceptable to both parties. If you wait too long, it will be increasingly difficult to make changes. Probably this should be dealt with in the first month.
- Cultural frustrations
“67% of expat workers did not complete job contract”
Understanding based on cultural perspective
Face saving dictates action
Foreigners expected to keep their word
Relationships come first
Concept of time
“You have clocks, we have time”
“67% of expat workers did not complete job contract” there are many studies done on the retention rate of expat workers, and all of them show very high percentages of returning home before end of contract. The cost to the company is horrendous, so one of the main things a job interviewer is trying to evaluate is whether you will complete the job contract. Show mercy to the HR. person, they have a difficult job in assessing who are the long termers from emails, Skype and phone calls. Make their job easier by assuring them you will stay the length of the contract. If you break your contract, it may mean paying for your return out of pocket.
We all make decisions and evaluations based on our cultural perspective. It is imperative that we learn quickly how co-workers think and process conversations. Face saving is more important than truth as is telling you what you want to hear. When we were traveling in India and asked people sitting in an intersection if this way was to Delhi, they always answered yes, even though we pointed to different directions with different people. We should have asked: Which way to Delhi? More on this in the culture session later in the course.
As foreigners, we are expected to keep our word, however depending on culture; their interpretation may not be as simplistic.
Relationships come first, endless questions about the well being of your family precedes serious work related talk. Asking someone how their family is doing is not only polite but will draw them closer into relationship. A tentmaker in the 10/40 window had scheduled an appointment with a local businessman for 2 in the afternoon. The man never showed up and later when they met again by accident, the tentmaker asked: Why did you not come? The local said, I will come, but on my way to meet you I ran into a friend and decided to spend the afternoon with them.
The concept of time can vary greatly from culture to culture. An often used phrase is you have clocks, we have time, referring to not being ruled by the time on your clock. The irony is of course that expats are expected to keep to schedules and be on time.
- Maintaining focus on ministry
Without a plan odds are not good
Accountability
Rapid descent into despair when no results are forthcoming
Everything takes longer than planned
Forgetting the basics – prayer & hospitality
Without a plan for ministry odds are not good that you will find the perfect time and space for it. We tend to procrastinate from the challenging and even though the main reason for moving to another country was to share your faith, it can be incredibly challenging after your witness has not worked out as planned a few times.
In this course you will be making a “Ministry Plan” as an exercise, which will help you to plan and execute better.
Most tentmakers find themselves without an accountability partner an it requires a lot of work and commitment. However, being accountable makes you more likely to be able to focus on ministry. We urge everyone to find an accountability partner, either back home or where they are serving. You should commit to pray over finding this person as they might be one of the keys to your ministry.
Rapid descent into despair when no results are forthcoming
In the rapid pace of everyday life, and the above list of challenges, it is easy to lose focus and ability to see or acknowledge results. If you are not having faith conversations or seeing any growth in interest toward things of God, the automatic result is to fall into deeper and deeper despair.
It requires a lot of effort, seeking help from your accountability partner, pastor, prayer team back home, to be able to climb out of this pit of despair.
Everything takes longer than planned
You soon realize that everything takes longer than you are accustomed to. No more one stop shopping once a week, even finding grocery items can be hard. What used to take one hour back home, takes many hours in the new place leaving one exhausted and frustrated.
Forgetting the basics – prayer & hospitality
We often hear from frustrated tentmakers on how they are not seeing any results from their witness. As mentors, our first question is: How big is your prayer team back home and when was the last time you either visited or hosted local people in your home? With some consistency, these two are missing. There is a crucial third thing as well, but that will come up later in the course.
- Instant communication with home
Who could think that instant communication channels could be challenges? As wonderful as they are, they can easily take over your free time and keep you focused on your home culture instead of spending time in the host culture. It is vital that to measure the time you spend communicating with family and friends back home so you are not withdrawing from the people you have come to serve.
- Locals with agendas
Want to practice English
Try to convert me
Help with migration
Sell you something
Debate politics or ideology
Some tentmakers report that people come up to them daily or more, who simply want to practice their English language skills. Over time this becomes frustrating and they start dreading these interactions. They feel that they are being taken advantage of and as a result there is a shift in their attitude toward locals. When this goes on long enough, avoidance becomes commonplace.
Then there are the locals who are trying to convert the expats to their own religion or philosophy. Some locals can be quite aggressive but if you hear them out and ask good questions, they will usually tone it down and even give you a chance to talk about what you believe.
A recent report from the Middle East clearly showed the right attitude to this challenge: “ “I am sitting in a cafe with five local men and their sons. Encouraging that they love me enough to want to convert me”
The big question locals have is why have you come to their country when everyone in their country wants to move to a better place. For them you represent the best chance at getting help in migrating to your country, if not for themselves, then a family member. Of course you are well aware that you can’t actually help them with this at all, so it is a futile discussion to be having in the first place, the result being yet another avoidance.
Everyone wants to improve their lot in life, so you can be seen as a potential business partner as locals try to sell you something that you can then export to your native country. Sometimes, it may even work out well, but the vast majority of the time, there is no hope for this to actually happen.
Lastly, there are self described intellectuals who want to debate with you about the superiority of their political system with facts and figures provided and also to point to flaws in your ideology. Most people find these kinds of talks a waste of time and try to avoid them.
You have read about five irritations or annoyances of tentmakers which lead to avoidance and maybe even dislike of locals. Fair enough. The big picture here is that locals (who have enough command of the English language to communicate with you) are coming to you to spend time with you and perhaps to learn from you. What a fantastic opportunity! When does this happen in your home country?
It is the fervent suggestion of this writer that you learn to look at these interactions as divine appointments instead of divine annoyances.
- Spiritual oppression
Denial that it’s possible
Unprepared for the reality
Sense of fear
Lethargy
Inefficient prayer life
Those who are from western countries tend to minimize the reality of spiritual warfare or oppression. Denying it will not make it go away.
Thus most are unprepared for the reality and may be frozen in fear and make life decisions that are ruled by those fears.
Sense of fear
With spiritual oppression comes lethargy, which may be hard to realize or define. One seems tired a lot, not having the energy for new things and experiences. Things that one used to enjoy are neglected.
The end result is an inefficient prayer life. We often hear of the “black box” from tentmakers. It seems like a black box is put over then, where prayers can not escape nor can they hear God inside. Prayer becomes a ritual lacking in excitement and purpose. Some have reported that they have overcome by going into the realm of knowledge instead of feelings. We know God hears our prayers and we know God is speaking to us, even if for a time our feelings tell us differently.
This topic will be covered separately in a future session on this course.
- Team conflicts/fellow tentmakers
Different denominational backgrounds
Different views of security issues
If one spends time with locals, team can feel threatened – “they’ve gone local”
$pending habits
“Some teams report 95% of time spent together is around team/personal issues” One team armed with this knowledge, they promised one another that they would not be guilty of such time waste. A few years later they dejectedly realized that they were spending even more time around team and personal issues.
Sometimes your team members are from different denominational backgrounds, which can be enriching and frustrating at the same time.
Different views of security issues is a hot button issue, as those who seem careless can bring risk to the whole team and those who are too fearful never make inroads into ministry and reaching out to people.
If one spends time with locals, the team can feel threatened – “they’ve gone local” Your team members can also feel resentful of how your ministry is advancing since you are where the need for the Gospel is. A balance needs to be worked out.
Resentment within a team can come from $pending habits. One couple may go out to eat all the time, while another has bought a car and yet another is giving more to the poor. There is an example of a single men’s team eating frugally to save money for a time that they would all be in a major city, so they could enjoy eating at restaurants. When the greater team found out about this, they made a decision to take the money the single men’s team had saved and divided it among the greater team.
- Maintaining Spiritual Disciplines
These are some of the signs that your spiritual disciplines are losing their impact.
Prayer becomes ineffective
Bible reading is tiresome
Life gets in the way
No systematic Bible study method
Personal/family/relationship issues
Hard to get back on track
One way to figure out the reasons is simply to use the cause and effect evaluation tool.
Is it a Cause or Symptom?
S – Prayer becomes ineffective
S – Bible reading is tiresome
C – Life gets in the way
C – No systematic Bible study method
S/C – Personal/family/relationship issues
C – Hard to get back on track
Once you have figured out the reasons and the obvious signs leading to ineffective daily disciplines, you are on your way to fixing the situation.
- Materialism
All tentmakers are surprised and confused when they realize the monster of materialism has taken some level of root in their lives. No one leaves to serve the Lord in a different culture with the intent of even remotely becoming interested in material things, quite opposing, they go to make a difference for Gods Kingdom and want to invest their lives to serve the one who called them. But high wages, good benefits, shopping trips to low tax countries and perhaps some need to compensate for other things lacking, the buying of gifts becomes more important than one could have imagined. There is nothing inherently wrong with enjoying the fruit of your labour, but a balance needs to be found. We strongly suggest that you increase your Kingdom giving as your income and financial margin increases.
Good paying jobs
Many companies are offering investment opportunities as a means to retain good employees. Perhaps an investment account is setup for you by an expert and even some seed money invested for you. Initially this might seem like a quaint perk and you might not even bother to log in to find out what is happening. Eventually you do, and to your surprise, your initial investment has paid off better than you would have imagined. At that time you might invest some of your own money as well and now you are on a daily path to check your investment. When you find yourself checking your account every 15 minutes perhaps it is a time to evaluate where your thinking and ministry time is being invested.
Shopping
Some companies offer subsidized vacation trips to resorts as yet another means to retain workers. Remember, that the vast majority of expat workers quit before the end of contract. While enjoying these resorts is wonderful, it does make what was once a hoped for dream into a regularly happening part of your life. How have you changed along with this opportunity? Before you stayed in cheap motels and travelled on discount airlines, now it has become commonplace to travel and stay in style. Again a self evaluation is required so that your focus continues to be on the real reason you have become a tentmaker.
Company benefits can be generous and enable your lifestyle to change for the better. There is nothing wrong with any of these benefits of being an expat worker, it may be hard to face reduced joys in life but it is almost automatic to flow into a better quality of life. As I was teaching on tentmaking at the headquarters of a major oil company in Singapore complete with a personal private assistant for each one in the room, who served you with excellence and anticipated your next need, the man next to me said: “It is scary how quickly one can get used to this”. I had to agree.
It is very difficult to admit to self that one has changed and that the material world has taken a hold of you in a way that you could not have imagined. Some self searching and time spent with your accountability partner would seem prudent at this time.
- Expatriate trap
expat
A person taking up residency in another country. Now most commonly used as term for those working in companies outside of their home country
Expat trap – the realization that your life revolves in and around the expatriate community. As much joy as being with other expats brings, with its sense of normalcy, community, security and familiarity as compared to the host nation culture, it can also remove you from those opportunities to learn and interact with local people, which as you know, is the reason you have come.
Birthdays, anniversaries, holiday celebrations & special occasions with other expats start eating away at your non work time. The more expats you get to know, the more invitations you will receive. One day you realize (I hope) that almost all your free time is now spent away from local people. This expat group has become your haven from the realities and challenges of being with people of your host nation or those other expats who do not have access to the Gospel in their homelands.
The ultimate expat trap is being too involved in the expat church. This is the same church that in almost all closed countries forbid their own people from attending. Your exclusion from local people is complete whenever you are in church.
Let me hasten to add that going to an expat church is vital for your own spiritual welfare and not attending (especially if the authorities know you are a Christian) would bring some level of suspicion. Becoming so involved in the expat church that you have little or no time left for developing relationships with locals is a tragedy and huge loss for the Kingdom.
Here is one story I have heard more than once
A young man spent 5 years preparing to be a tentmaker in a very closed country. He prayed passionately and regularly at home and even started a prayer group for the people of this country, they adopted this people group as well. He could not talk about this people group without tears welling up. Then he left and the first Sunday in his new country, he attended the expat church. The email from him on Monday said: You know, I have always had a dream of being a worship leader and I can’t believe that the expat church offered me a full time position as worship leader! This must be the reason God brought me here! I am so excited.” Do you see what happened here?
Maybe we can discuss this on the discussion forum here at the course.
Since we have given you an overview of the challenges tentmakers face today (this list is continually updated and reviewed by those returning) it was important to also list the many joys of tentmakers today. No explanations are needed.
The joys of today’s tentmakers
- Learning the new culture
- Making friends with nationals
- Tasting new foods, fruits & drinks
- Taking trips inside the country
- Being invited to weddings & parties
- Having people ask you about your faith
- Seeing prayers answered
- Knowing you are where God wants you