I mentioned yesterday that I spent the weekend with some veteran missionaries.  Our Missions Conference also included input from a young family who just finished their first couple of years in another culture.  Interaction with both families reinforced something I observe--as missionaries get deeper into the culture of others, they find that in spite of all the language, clothing, food, and lifestyle differences, at the bottom people are the same. Where mere outsiders see fascinating cultural oddities, and beauty; those who take time to learn the culture of another people-group discover that the culture of others, like our own, has two sides.  Both our way and their way of seeing the world and living in it, is a product  of God's image in man, thus cultures have elements of beauty, virtue, family love, and truth.  All cultures, however, are also made up of fallen people, thus our cultures include attempts to control our environment for our own selfish desires.  They are rife with greed, oppression, and all kinds of other evils.  Good missionaries know that "my" task is not to impose my culture on others. Rather it is to humbly point out that the word of God, and the God of the word, confronts all cultures--"all have sinned."  As people come to realize this and begin the lifelong process of Spiritual transformation, they begin to transform their culture from within.  The conscientious missionary does not want the culture of others to become like his/her own.  Rather she/he passionately desires that all cultures would be shaped by God's truth. That's a task in which we should all be interested. It's STTA.