You pack all your belongings into boxes, and then into a large truck. Then you spend the following day or few days driving. Next, it’s time to unload the truck’s contents and begin the unpacking and resettling process. Such is the relocation cycle.

A few days ago my fiancé moved from Florida into what will be our first apartment together near Wake Forest, N.C. I’ll join him after our wedding in March.

While I’ve done my share of moving within and without the United States, I wonder what it will be like to relocate from Texas to this East Coast state. I’ve visited Wake Forest only once and found it pleasant, but didn’t get to explore the area much. My fiancé has been there many more times than I, and tells me of the little coffee shop around the corner to which he wants to take me and how wonderful it will be to live in a smaller community.

I’m thrilled, yet still I wonder. What are the people like? Do they hold to the “southern hospitality” way of life or lean more toward the cooler, independent, stereotypical northeastern stance? What English words will they say that will sound funny to me? (I.e. How do they say, “pecan” and “roof?”) What do they consider barbeque and what do they call carbonated cola beverages?

These may not be the most serious of issues to question, but they remind me of Dr. Thom Wolf’s thoughts on cultural contextualization. A few weeks ago we looked at the effects of geography and history on how one might share the Gospel in Prague, Czech Republic. What about a smaller town outside North Carolina’s capital?

I especially am drawn to one of Wolf’s ideas of cultural contextualization as applied to demographics and interpersonal conflicts in an area. Wolf recommends asking a few questions:

Among the people you’re trying to reach (assuming, as a believer, you truly want to live out the call to share the Gospel wherever you are) …

• Who are “Us” and “Them?”

• According to Us, what are we like? What are they like?

• According to Them, what are we and they like?

• Where are Us and Them spatially, spiritually and socially?

While I may not be able to thoroughly answer these questions for myself until actually arriving in Wake Forest, I can use my resources (Internet, my fiancé and friends living in North Carolina) to keep my eyes and ears peeled for answers now.

Wolf says we can pray those in our new environment will accept us as outsiders entering their culture. I’m seeking for my fiancé and I to not only be accepted as outsiders, but then become so much a part of people’s lives that we become insiders who point to Jesus in every aspect of who we are.

Considering Wolf’s suggestions in light of my current situation, I wonder what the “Us” and “Them” concepts look like as applied to my local church and community. According to the students with whom I now work, whom do they see as “Them?” Adults? Another ethnic group at school? Younger siblings? The world?

What is the general view of the adults in our congregation—who is “Us” and “Them” from the church’s perspective? How do we view those outside our body of believers, in other churches and in our realms of work, study and play?

Points to ponder. Join me in wondering, and then prayerfully taking action in understanding our surroundings to best know how to share the Gospel where God has sent us. I can’t wait to get to North Carolina to see what He has in store for my future husband and I, but I know he has great things for me to do here and now.

Written by Natalie Kaspar. Natalie is a freelance writer for The Upstream Collective and lives in Texas. She served as a missionary writer based out of Prague, Czech Republic, from 2007-2009, and plans to return to full-time international mission work in a few years.