Jeff & Mia live in Central Asia with their three children. Last week, was their local Harvest Festival, which also coincided with one of the large national holidays. The Harvest Festival is centered around the phases of the moon, the changing of seasons, and unity of the family. On the morning of the festival, many people hustle through the streets to deliver mooncakes and fruit to family and friends to wish them a long, happy life. It’s actually considered an insult to deliver mooncakes after Harvest Festival ends, so everyone has to visit their appointed friends and family before the day is over.

Since they don’t have any family there, and they are not obligated to gift anything to their foreign friends, Jeff & Mia did not have too many visits to make that day. They still enjoyed being invited to people’s homes to celebrate the holiday – never empty handed, of course. Mia kept careful track of the mooncakes they received, so they could deliver an equivalent gift in a respectable amount of time, and also make sure they didn’t re-gift someone with the same mooncake they brought them.

This year, Mia happened to have an extra mooncake to give away. They had been growing their friendship with a family they met at her son’s school, so that morning she decided to drop off the mooncake and some balloon animals at their house. A couple of hours later, the boy’s mom appeared at Jeff & Mia’s apartment, out of breath with a well-packaged mooncake and a bag of fruit. She had rushed over from her relatives celebration to quickly return a gift to Jeff & Mia. Initially, Mia felt bad about putting her new friend in that position, but she was grateful for the gift. Learning to navigate these types of customs and relationships is something that every cross-cultural worker has to deal with. In this culture, people usually aren’t in a hurry to repay gifts or favors, but the Harvest Festival is unique in that it has a very specific deadline.

Join with us in praying for Jeff, Mia, their children, and other GSI families working in this area- that God would give them wisdom in navigating local customs and relationships. Pray also that through different festivals and traditions, they would find ways to share the truth of God’s Word with the local people.

*Names and places changed for security purposes.