Adventure Awaits. Isn’t that the mantra that permeates our world? However, if God moves in your life and He opens up the opportunity for you to begin a new adventure living abroad, … celebrate! It’s true … adventure does await!
Yet, before you:
- finish packing all those essentials
- say all those emotional goodbyes
- and enthusiastically board that plane …
I’d invite you to take a few minutes to peruse some hidden elements that are needed to successfully make it on foreign soil. These items are so important but perhaps you might not find them in your newly-printed guidebook! And better yet, there are only three items to consider in this “Christian Survivor’s Guide to Successful Expat Living!”
Now, I can literally hear a sigh of relief, since I know that most of your lists you are currently contending with are probably pages long. But no worries … It’s true. Listed below are only three items to consider. However, don’t let the small number make you relax too much, as these packing necessities might actually take years to complete.
But press on … it is worth it!
3 Essentials for Successful Expat Living
Carry All Documents in Quadruplets
Before boarding that plane bound for adventure, make sure months in advance that you have obtained every document pertaining to your very existence in quadruplets!
Solider this is not a drill… and unfortunately you will thank me later.
Marriage License; yours and your kids medical records; birth certificates; financial records going back several years; and even the possible verification of your current residency in country might be required.
Most of these documents need to be notarized originals and will require a miniature current photo of you, measured to the exact requirements. So, in order to check this item off your list, double check everything in your document file and smile often for those needed passport-sized photos.
Take an Adventurous Spirit
Whereas, #1 needs to be completed prior to boarding the plane in order to avert any unwarranted stress, #2 is the trait of an Adventurous Spirit and you will need to take this with you as you leave the airport in your new country.
Many people might think that they truly have a wanderlust for adventure as they watch an exciting travel program on TV in their favorite armchair at home. But, it could be a different story as reality starts to sink in and they see that living abroad is actually going to take some work on their part.
So, in order to check this item off your list you will need to mentally prepare yourself that living in another country goes far beyond the Instagram stories and photos. It will require work on your part to learn the language and the culture of this country.
To live successfully in another country, you need to have an adventurous spirit, willing to try new things and experiment life with possibly a whole new food palette selection. It actually might require you to develop the fortitude to dig down deep when all you might want on a certain day is spend time with family or friends or take a walk through a pumpkin patch and eat cider doughnuts! However, it’s on those days that you try something new and go on another adventure in your new country! There is so much to see…
Daily Dress Yourself in Humility
Warning: #3 will take years to complete and might never be fully achieved.
A huge dose of Humility is needed to complete this “Christian’s Survivor’s Guide to Successful Expat Living.”
One might state that this is a very unusual requirement to live successfully in another country, when so many other items could be placed on this list. But in fact, IF this trait is NOT exhibited or sought after (beginning with your descent down the airplane steps) then I might boldly predict that your time within your adopted country will not be pleasant for yourself or for those around you and that it will not be truly successful.
Be a Learner
In order to live successfully in another country, you will need to realize that it will require you to be a learner. Life will NOT be working now the same way that you had experienced in their home country. In order to successfully survive, you will begin to DAILY realize that sometime within that very day, you will have either:
- #1- communicated something incorrectly;
- #2- stood in the wrong line;
- #3- offended your neighbor unknowingly;
- #4- reacted differently that your new countrymen would.
Result? The need to quickly backpedal out of an embarrassing situation and to laugh at yourself.
Be a Listener & Observer
Living life abroad requires humility to survive and to survive well. It requires the person to stop, to look, and to listen to the cultures around them. It requires them to put the way others do things (or to NOT do things) first.
- For example, if you come from an individualistic society and are now living in a group-oriented society, it might drive you crazy that everyone goes to the same toll booth when there are three lanes completely open!
- OR that your adopted country’s spacial closeness is WAY too close for your own personal comfort!
So, in order to check this item off your list you will need to realize that in order to live successfully in another country you will need humility to adjust and to live well.
Maybe #3’s quality of Humility is just a quality that is needed everywhere, whether you move abroad or not?
For societies to stop, to look, and to listen to one another and to exhibit humility and gentleness is something that the Apostle Paul wrote about to the new Christians in Colossae. He encouraged his brothers and sisters in the faith to clothe themselves with several qualities as they interacted with one another in order that harmony would be achieved and that God would be glorified through it all.
So if you are boarding a plane to some far-flung destination or walking across your street in your own neighborhood and you claim the name of Christ, may your humbleness and gentleness of spirit be seen by all so that Christ would be glorified. …
"Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience." Colossians 3:12
And maybe one more piece of advice? Even if you remain in your own home country, it just wouldn’t hurt to have all those documents in quadruplets. Who knows when you might need them?
