I am Greg Johnson, the faculty leader of this J-term trip to Europe. I have been teaching at PLU since 1999. This January promises to be an exciting adventure for all of us.

An important element in engaging cultures that differ from ours is to engage them with dialogue and humility. The first thing we notice when traveling to other contexts is that we cannot know fully what is thought, believed, and assumed regarding questions of value. And this is a good thing. Most likely there are fundamental differences that are worthy of consideration, and these differences reveal the very things that ultimately make us all who we are. Even so, at best we can only glimpse some of these differences given that we are in these places for such a short time. Our task, then, is to approach such contexts with humility and respect. This does not mean that we have to agree with everything we encounter. Neither does it mean we should be quick to look for elements that mirror ourselves. The great opportunity to travel abroad and study the cultural, social and historical dimensions of a different culture is that we, not our hosts, will be opened to something not yet seen in ourselves, something that brings a chance for deeper self-understanding. This demands discipline on our part not to be too quick in asking “are they like us?” Perhaps we will find that these countries share our concerns, though we can never fully know this even if it exists. What we can do together is see these experiences as opportunities to engage in dialogue and discussion with new environments in the hopes of expanding our own understandings of those forever unfamiliar others who are not and should not be reduced to our familiar selves.