Global Trellis: The Podcast

It’s no surprise that Amy and Bernie love books! In this fun episode each brings three books they’ve recently read—a novel, a cross-cultural pick, and a surprise—to spark your imagination, help tend your soul, and strengthen long-haul life in ministry. What are you reading right now? Leave your answers in the comments! We’d love to know!

Theo of Golden – Alan Levi
A tender, character-driven novel about an 86-year-old who quietly blesses strangers, inviting readers to really see and honor the image of God in others. Kindness in action.

Have You Seen Luis Velez? – Catherine Ryan Hyde
A moving story of friendship between a vulnerable blind woman and a teenage boy, exploring dignity, cross-generational connection, and learning to really notice people. You’ll love it!

Culture Care: Reconnecting with Beauty for Our Common Life (2nd ed.) – Makoto Fujimura
Argues that culture is a garden to be cultivated, not a war to be won, offering a hopeful vision for artists, leaders, and cross-cultural workers as “border-stalkers.” You’ll be inspired.

The Major and the Missionary: The Letters of Warren Hamilton Lewis and Blanche Biggs – ed. Diana Pavlac Glyer
A decades-long letter exchange between C.S. Lewis’s brother and a missionary doctor, giving rare, honest insight into cross-cultural life, friendship, and long obedience. Delightful read.

Liturgies of the Wild: The Myths That Make Us – Martin Shaw
A beautifully written, imaginative meditation on themes like death, envy, and prayer that helps restore a “myth-rich” inner world and tend the soul of those who never quite feel at home. Food for your soul!

Incorruptible: Why Good Companies Go Bad and How Great Companies Stay Great – Eric Ries
Explores how systems drift toward corruption and short-termism, and how to design structures with a “gravitational pull” toward long-term health—highly relevant for ministries and organizations. Must read (or listen to)!

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Many men in cross-cultural work feel confused about their role when the women around them—wives, single teammates, daughters—face harassment. The instinct to protect and fix kicks in, but when that's not possible, many default to doing nothing. Tom Jones (husband of Rachel Pieh Jones) joins Amy and Bernie to move men past this paralysis, bringing a wealth of practical advice and hope to listeners who want to show up differently.

🎧 Global Trellis Podcast: Sexual Harassment While on the Field with Rachel Pieh Jones: https://globaltrellis.com/episode/17/

🎧 Global Trellis Podcast: Let’s Talk About It: Sexual Harassment, Abuse, and Assault on the Field with Stacey Covell: https://globaltrellis.com/episode/78/

🎧 Global Trellis Podcast: Defining the Terms: What’s the Difference Between Sexual Harassment, Abuse, and Assault? https://globaltrellis.com/episode/81/

🍇 Sexual Harassment, Abuse, and Assault in Cross-Cultural Work research paper and resources: https://globaltrellis.com/lets-talk-about-sexual-harassment/

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Do you avoid conflict, or actually resolve it? Dr. Janeen Davis used to run from hard conversations on the field, until she found "Peace Pursuit," a biblically-grounded model for working through long-standing conflict with teammates. In this episode, she, Amy, and Bernie dig into what it means to address conflict one relationship at a time, starting with God, and how to walk into a peacemaking conversation actually prepared. This is a great episode to listen to before you need it and one that offers hope if you’re in the middle of a team conflict.

Articles and Resources
🕊️ Healthy Disagreements on Cross-Cultural Teams — uses Erin Meyer's Culture Map framework to map out emotional expression and directness styles in conflict
🧩 Conflict Management on the Field — walks through six conflict management options
🧹 Enlarging Capacity by Evicting the Squatters In Your Head — on releasing relational grudges that drain emotional capacity
👂 A Mediator's Guide to Listening (workshop) — five key ways to listen when you're pulled in to mediate a conflict
🤝 Peace Pursuit website: https://peacepersuit.org/

Podcast
🎧 When to get Outside Help in Cross-Cultural Work with Brian and Andrew — on Christian mediation for teams stuck in conflict

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Amy and Bernie walk through the stages of singleness on the field—from flexible 20s to calling questions in the 30s, the “in-between” 40s, and the realities of aging parents and retirement later in life. You’ll get a clear, practical look at what singles carry in each decade and how teams can genuinely honor, include, and support them.

💰 Ending Well Costs Money (Read here)
💧 How to Picture All You are Carrying on the Field (Read here)
🎋 Realism and Optimism: Does it have to be either/or? Can it be both? (Read here)
👚 Annual Debrief (get it here)

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Why do some third culture kids come through a cross-cultural childhood resilient and rooted, while others quietly struggle to feel like they belong anywhere? Author and coach Anna Danforth has spent years studying exactly that question, and in this episode she joins Amy and Bernie to talk about the answer she landed on: support — specifically, seven kinds of it. Drawing from her new book, Nourished: Third Culture Kids and the Village They Need, Anna breaks down the seven essential supports that separate surviving from flourishing, and gives parents, leaders, and caring adults concrete ways to show up for the TCKs in their lives.

📚 Nourished: Third Culture Kids and the Village They Need on Amazon

🌐 Anna Danforth website

⚒️ Nourished Simulator Tool

🎯 TCK Training Safe Space Responses

🎧 Other episodes with Anna on the podcast:

When Grief is Unrecognized: Disenfranchised Grief with Anna Danforth (here)
Eight Experiences to Build Resilience in Third Culture Kids (TCKs) with Anna Danforth (here)
How to Communicate Change in Cross-Cultural Work to Supporters with Anna Danforth (here)

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