I just returned from three wonderful weeks speaking and teaching in India, and so I was home for Thanksgiving. As I reflect on this past year and the most recent trip, my heart is full of gratitude and thanksgiving for the fulfilling and meaningful life the Lord has given me in this season of life. I’ve been “retired” for a decade now, and as I approached this season, I realized that the biggest challenge for many people is finding meaning and purpose in the sunset years of their life. I am so grateful that the Lord has given me an abundance of both.

My first week in India was spent participating with a team of six Australians from Baptist Mission Australia in a conference on “Transformational Intercultural Communication Training” in Shillong, Northeast India, for 60+ Baptist church leaders. They represented seven different ethnic groups, along with participants from Nepal and Bangladesh. I loved being part of a team again, since I am usually the “sage on the stage” flying solo. So, I loved working with the Australians, none of whom I had met before, but they had read my recent book and invited me to be a part of their training.

I watched with amazement as the Holy Spirit blended our different presentations into a seamless whole. Participant evaluations at the end of the conference indicated that my incarnational approach to crossing cultures with the gospel really hit home.

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Following the training conference, I travelled 17 hours over bumpy roads to Nagaland Bible College in the city of Mokokchung, nestled in the Naga Hills. It was my fourth time to teach there and it was the best. The 18 students, along with the academic dean who joined the course, had a lot of mental furniture moved during the course as they began to understand why Christianity continues to be perceived as a foreign religion in India and especially why Christianity in Nagaland is so nominal, following the great Christward movement that occurred in the 19th century when the former Naga headhunters turned to Christianity in a matter of a generation or two.

The academic dean who participated in the course said to me afterward, “Next year I want all of our faculty to take your course.” So it seems to be “scratching people where they itch” missiologically.

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The big event for me this year was the publishing of my book, Crossing Cultures with the Gospel: Anthropological Wisdom for Effective Christian Witness, which took me five years to write and 50 years to live. It has already sold over 1,000 copies, and is being translated into Chinese, Spanish, and Korean. In June, 2,500 copies were reprinted in India for the Indian market, and each copy sells for $2.50 instead of $25.00 on Amazon-India.

In July I was able to record an audiobook which will be released and available worldwide in January, distributed on Audio and Findaway Voices. I also just learned that my book has been selected as a Finalist in Christianity Today’s 2024 Book Awards in the Missions/Global Church category. I’m so grateful this book is beginning to make a difference in how people understand and practice cross-cultural ministry.

See Christianity Today’s 2024 Book Awards

I have a full schedule lined up in 2025, starting with two weeks teaching at the Caleb Institute near Delhi, India in February, then a week in Sabah, Malaysia at the beginning of April with Chinese workers. In early May I’ll walk the next 125-mile leg of the Camino de Santiago in Northern Spain with four other men. And then at the end of May, I’ll be in Brazil speaking at a Free Methodist Missionary Retreat for those working in Latin America, where they will be using my book recently translated into Spanish.

On the way home from this trip I thought, “I was made for this.” Thank you for your prayers that empower me and for your support that makes it possible.

Cordially,

Darrell Whiteman