Field Partner

In this interview, Jen Bishop interviews Christine Paterson (co-founder of FieldPartner with husband Ross). Christine was born in Burundi of missionary parents, and lived in that region of Africa until she was 13 so her cross-cultural journey began really from birth. She had been through multiple experiences of culture shock before she even knew what it was! 

Exposure to Chinese culture after marrying Ross and joining him in Taiwan in 1975 was a further example of that. Gradually Ross and Christine became aware of how many things had been much harder for them because neither of them had had any cross-cultural training or orientation.  This fuelled a passion to provide such training for those they were to sending to work in China and beyond. That physical school, a one-year stand-alone programme, became the forerunner for what FieldPartner is now – an online resource to help people thrive not just survive in a cross-cultural calling.

You can watch all our interviews as videos on our YouTube Channel.

An insightful interview with one of our co-founders - Ross Paterson. 

It’s more than 50 years since Ross (founder of FieldPartner with his wife Christine) left for the mission field, with the backing of just one church behind him. At the time he was single and determined and sure of God’s leading, but he was also completely untrained in cultural terms. His first ten years spent in Taiwan were fruitful but they were also hard, as was the case for Christine when they married six years in. 

By the grace of God Ross survived and has continued with longevity in service to China and the Chinese, but doing it the way we did is not what we recommend. That is what Ross stresses here, from his own experience. Indeed the very purpose of FieldPartner is to help those wanting to serve God in another culture to be well prepared for the challenges and then to thrive in their service. 

In this interview Ross describes his own journey and how God called him clearly to serve the church and the people of China. Over the years he has lived a total of 23 years in Taiwan and a further 13 in Singapore - making a substantial part of his life spent in Asia. The Patersons still live in Taiwan, but plans are afoot for one more major transition back to the UK before too long!

You can watch all our interviews as videos on our YouTube Channel.