Building Cross-Cultural Bridges: Abby Stroven's Journey
Episode 2 | 19 Minutes | Jul 9, 2024
Abby Stroven, the executive director for the La Vida Center for Outdoor Education and Leadership at Gordon College, shares her experience leading short-term team trips with One Collective in Ecuador. She discusses the importance of building long-term relationships and trust with partner organizations in the field. Abby highlights the transformative impact these trips have on students, as they learn about different worldviews, become more present, and deepen their relationship with God. She emphasizes the need for thorough preparation, including team bonding and prayer, and encourages sustainable practices in cross-cultural ministry. Abby looks forward to seeing the long-lasting impact of these trips and the growth of students as they bring their experiences back to their communities.
In this Episode:
Abby’s long-lasting relationship and connection with One Collective.
How to prep effectively for a short-term team trip
How Abby has continued to see students transformed from these trips
Practical ways to make sure a trip is sustainable and meaningful
Insights on building deep relationships with many kinds of workers involved in short-term team trips
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Abby Stroven is the Executive Director for the Levita Center for Outdoor Education and Leadership at Gordon College. With a passion for cross-cultural missions, Abby has led short-term mission trips to Ecuador for many years. Her journey began in the early 1990s, eventually serving as a missionary with One Collective from 2002 to 2009.
Abby’s work at El Refugio retreat center in Ecuador involved preparing groups for impactful mission experiences, fostering long-term partnerships with communities like Shandia. She emphasizes sustainable and meaningful missions, focusing on preparation, cultural sensitivity, and long-term impact. Abby’s leadership continues to inspire and transform the lives of students and community members, building deep, trusting relationships.
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Meet Abby Stroven
Today we are with Abby and she is going to tell us a little bit about her experience and about her trip. So tell us a little bit about yourself, Abby.
Yeah. Hello. Thanks for inviting me on. My name is Abby Stroven and right now I work as the Executive Director for the Levita Center for Outdoor Education and Leadership at Gordon College. And because of my previous experience in Ecuador, I have been the team leader for all of the Ecuador trips that have come from Gordon on short term missions with one collective. And so that's what I'm doing right now and it's been a privilege. Yeah, that's super cool.
Abby's Journey into Cross-Cultural Work
So how did you get involved in the cross-cultural work and experience?
Oh my, that's a long story, but if you have some time, I can share it started back in 1990 I want to say 94, 93, I came to Ecuador on my first short term experience with my youth leader, who was Rick Borman. So Rick grew up in Ecuador. And he took us on a wild adventure to the Kofan village. And it was an amazing experience. And I thought to myself, I really. I love this and I'd love to do missions work, but I'd like to be in the professional world and just do it as a side experience where I want to invest in this because I really believe in the work, but I thought I was going to have a professional career and then do missions work on the side.
And then I ended up coming to Ecuador as a missionary in 2002, working with one collective of international teams at the time, and spent seven years working at the retreat center at El Refugio, and just got to experience the other side of welcoming groups to Ecuador. And what does that look like when you get a group that's very prepared and has done a lot of the pre-work before they come to the field? And what does it look like when they haven't? And how does that make for a better experience on both sides? So I got to see both sides of that for seven years working there until about 2009, when I met a group from the Levita Center at Gordon. And that's when I decided to transition back to the States.
That's awesome. There’s so much tradition with doing this for a while. You built a relationship with has that kind of looked I first went to training with one collective as a missionary, which was really fun to be on the backside and them preparing me to go and work in Ecuador. And then I think what's really been fun is to see how they have developed a really great process for preparing teams. Because that partnership is so important to have that partnership be stable in the country so that it's not when I go with a team, I feel very supported. And I feel like what we're doing is healthy. And then it's having long-lasting impacts that are healthy dynamics because there is a team of people there who are already working in the communities that we're going to serve. And so we're coming and joining the work that they're already doing in this country. It's not us bringing something that is just temporary, it's something that's ongoing in a process. And so that's what I really enjoyed about working with One Collective and why our college continues to partner with One Collective because of their safety, risk management, like taking care of all of the details to make sure that the risk is managed on both sides. So the risk of our team coming, but the risk of what our impact could be in a community and how we're serving. So that's just been really special to have that relationship.
Yeah, that's an amazing takeaway from the relationship.
Experiences in Ecuador
And now transitioning we want to hear about the trip you went on. So tell us a little bit about your most recent trip. What was your role on the trip and where did you go and who did you go with?
Yes, so this experience was to the town of Shandia was our main area where we're going to serve the Gordon students. We had, I think, 11 students with us and I took another staff member here from Gordon and we went to serve at in that community, which has been a long-term partnership for Gordon College with Shandia.And so many of the students had been on experiences before or heard about previous experiences. Experiences from other students. And so they were very excited to go and see what this looked like? What does a relationship with the people of Shandia look like? And I can tell you, it's always profound. They go and their view of the world is transformed. They come back with challenging things that they have to discuss and work through many of issues, like when they come back, they say, why did we feel so alive in Ecuador, but we feel so dead here? And so we talk about what did, what was that spiritual connection? What is it that you were learning and growing in your relationship with God and in your worldview and in this, these relationships with the kids and the people in Shandia?How is that? How can we translate that to something that you could actually do here? And so many of our debriefs revolved around how that experience was so transformative for them, especially getting to make the connection with the kids and the people in Shandia because They were so open to us. They were receiving of us and the students were very shocked by that. They were like, wow, like we come from New England and New England is a little bit like, I don't know, cold culture, right? So we got a little bit of a barrier up and it's just going to a warm culture and having that experience with the kids of Shandia was very much an eye-opening experience for the students to be like, Oh, they're welcoming us with open arms.
The kids are just like running towards us and they don't even know us yet. And some of them they did know, but it was just, it was such a new experience for them. So that newness, but also just the meaning that they took from the trip, which was being present and how present you are when you're in a short term experience like that. Because you're leaving your world and all of the technology, we're very present with each other and with the people of Shandia and then inviting God into that experience was also something that was really meaningful for them.
Yeah, that's amazing.
Impact on Students and Community
We had talked to a student who went and he said that he had learned all of this stuff or experienced all this stuff. So it's cool that you as a leader experience them going through this process and experience them wrestling and learning and growing and facing all of that excitement and all of that tension. So it's really cool that you got to witness that you also talked about how the students experienced a lot of new things, clearly going to a cross-cultural experience. is a lot of new. It's a lot of new things that they're introduced to. But you have gone to Ecuador consistently and
and so what was something new that you experienced about the culture on this specific trip or just something that you really appreciated about the culture that you have had a chance to visit so consistently? Yes. I think the new experience that I had was just a deeper relationship and trust level with the people.
Pastor Juan Carlos we have met and known each other for many years, even when I was living in Ecuador, and I think that the longevity of the relationship and building that solid trust really allows me as a leader to know that the partner organization and the people on the ground who are living the experience are being honest with me about what it is that they need from us or the expectations. And so I think that was something that has, is always been special to me, those relationships, but also this time was even more profound to think Oh I've known one pastor Ron Carlos for so many years. I think other new things for me were just having an Ecuadorian host.
So in the past, we have had Ecuadorian hosts but this time specifically, we had two of them. One of them also being somebody who came up through one collective in the skate ministry, La Roca, and just having that was totally new for me to see somebody who'd been converted through one of the ministries of one collective and is now leading. And it was really cool to see how those cross, those cultures could mutually. Learn from each other. And yeah, to see that growth and change in the Ecuadorian who really is now passionate about facilitating these short-term experiences. Because I think sometimes you always wonder, like what is the impact of what I'm doing and is it helping or harming and for an Ecuadorian to say, no, it's helping and I'm helping you, I want to help you do this too, was just really great.
Yeah, I'm sure that's incredibly helpful. Students come to this trip once or maybe twice. And so sometimes they might not always see those results, but for someone who comes back and builds those relationships, they're able to hear the stories and testimonies of the work you guys are doing and also the work you get to be a part of and how they incorporate with each other. I think that's super beneficial. So that's really cool that you've had that experience. And as you now have Finished yet another trip, and I'm sure there will be more in the future. I just, I'm curious, why have you chosen to continue time and time again to lead these trips with students overseas?
I think for me, it's the joy of seeing their eyes opened to a different worldview. And that happened to me at that age, and so for me to then offer that experience to others and see how. Especially the way that One Collective does the partnership so well that it is a positive transformative experience for our students. Because I see them changing, not just because of the experience one time. They come back and they say, okay, what's the fruit of this experience? And they're actually living that out. In fact, we have a chapel that we're going to be sharing about five minutes of what that experience is. We learned on ourselves, in our experience, five minutes, not very long, but the students were focused on not just what we learned, but how it apply to our Gordon community.
So that's what I really love about it is that we're taking something that they learned in Ecuador and we're bringing it back to a Gordon community and saying, okay, the meaningful thing was being present with each other and bringing and asking God to be in those moments when we are present with each other. And I think that's something that they're trying to also, this group is particularly asking Gordon students, their own community to say, Hey, can we be more present with each other? Because that's actually something that will help increase our mental, health, our physical health, our relational, emotional, spiritual health is all connected to this idea of being present and what they learn from their experience in Ecuador.
So that's what I love about it, is that it's not just a one way I've had an experience and I'm done. It's know-how, what is the fruit and how is that affecting and impacting our, students and the body and community here in the States.
Yeah, it's amazing to see those students take that initiative to see what they want to incorporate from trips and bring it back. Another student they talked about how they got really close with the people that they worked with and they want to continue to build those relationships when they come back to the States. And it's just a long-lasting impact from these trips. And I think that's super cool.
Advice for Future Trips
So as we look forward, what advice would you have for someone who is planning a future trip?
Oh, my so many things. I think one advice is to do the preparation first with your group to make sure that you know each other really so that you're not bringing in your own conflicts with your own group into an experience. That's always something that I share with groups who want to travel and have these kinds of experiences overseas is to say Hey one way that we can help and not harm is to actually be a representation of Christ within our own group. How are we loving and caring for each other? So doing that pre-work and getting to know each other and bonding as a group, putting yourself in maybe some uncomfortable positions together first before going, overseas and having that experience really is is helpful preparation. And I would say also a lot of prayer.
And that might come down, for some people it comes down to praying for their fundraising. I know my group was at the last minute. They're like, oh my goodness, how are we going to raise all this money in a week? God will do it. If he wants us to go, he will do it. And all, they are practicing their faith in their fundraising. So that's another thing that groups can do, is to practice praying and sharing what God is doing. And just allowing other people to join you in that by, by supporting. I think is really helpful. So that pre work and that I would say also recommendation is that when you come back, take that time to process and it may take, multiple weeks, not just the first three days that you're back.
It may take multiple weeks or months afterwards to continue connecting with each other and trying to be concise sharing concisely the meaningful things about your experience. So practice doing that so that when somebody asks you, how was your experience or how was your trip, you can say something that's meaningful and concise and could translate, all of this that you're feeling and the transformation that's happened in your life.
Yeah, that's super helpful a preparation has consistently come up. It is a key aspect. It's not just going into the field, but it's what you do before that has consistently come up. And one of the things I asked a student was, how do we prepare? And clearly there's that spiritual aspect of praying and seeing how that works out.
What else would you say to a student who's asking how do I prepare for a trip? How do I prepare for a cross cultural experience? How do I prepare to spend long time with people that I might not have met before? What would you, what advice would you give to how to actually prepare? I would say, yeah, one of the preparations that you could do is just trying different things in your own world.
Go out, try some new food be adventurous, try some new experiences, and just see how you react to them take notice of how these new experiences are affecting you. And that could even be a cross cultural experience of going to a different church that worships differently than you do because that could be a part of your experience. So taking that time and searching out what's a church that I could go to and have a different worship experience. What are some of the language or just, yeah, things that I could prepare for in that way that are practical learning about the culture. I know that we did a lot of looking up what is the government like? What is the food like? What are the people like? Those are practical things you can do, even on your own, you can do some Google searches and find some information, hopefully confirm with your leaders that's actually true, but yeah, those are some preparations and definitely a lot of prayer being in the word, and I think having those times of just worship and fellowship together with the group before you go, good preparation, and then another thing I would say is also prepare yourself, To think about what is sustainable for the places that you're going to serve. So a lot of times we want to think about bringing things from the states or helping them with certain resources, but we have to remember that, that they're there for, could be the rest of their life in that situation. And we want to make sure that whatever we're doing, we're thinking more sustainably.So that's one. Prep that you can do is to think about what it is that we're actually bringing and is it sustainable. What we're doing as we're interacting with the people of that country.
Yeah, those are all super helpful. I'm sure many people will benefit from that tangible tips and tangible advice for sure.
Looking Forward: Sustainable Impact
The last question I have for you is, what are you, as you think about the future, what are you looking forward to in future cross-cultural ministry? I'm actually really looking forward to, I think maybe that last part of what I said, of how can we be sustainably impacting the places where we're going.
So one example of this is I know that we did a dental treatment for the kids in Shandia. And it was something where we're like, Oh, could we actually do this every six months, do like a fluoride treatment. But then one of the issues was also just in the health of their teeth, like actually brushing their teeth. And having toothbrushes and toothpaste and the group was like, Oh maybe we could bring down toothbrushes for them. And I was like, Great, that's a great idea. But why don't we also ask them what are ways that we can help them to be sustainable in their the health of their dental health? Because it's possible that they have a solution to this that's much more accessible than what we're trying to solve. So I think for me it, it excites me that my students are actually thinking about that afterward too, to say like how can we be sustainable and not just what's the next group that can bring down something that they can use, but what are things that the community would want and how can we help and facilitate that.So that's what excites me about these, is to come back and maybe see that some idea or some question that we asked about sustainability and dental health or something like that could be implemented.
Yeah, for sure. We've seen that these trips have a long-lasting impact and there's longevity in relationships in the work.And it's cool to see how God really draws that out and makes this. this trip much longer than the time that you're actually in the field. It's a whole, it's a whole process and it's always building the kingdom.
Conclusion and Farewell
Those are all amazing answers. I'm really grateful. And I loved, hearing your story. Thank you so much for joining us and sharing your story. It was all a great testament to the work that you've done, the work you've been involved in, and also how God has worked through these trips and through you. And so thank you again for joining us, and I hope you have a great rest of your day. Bye! Bye!