First, thank you.
If you took the survey that informed the Let’s Talk About It: Sexual Harassment, Abuse, and Assault on the Field paper, thank you. Truly. Your willingness to share your experiences, insights, and observations made this work possible. This paper exists because you chose to bring what is often hidden into the light.
And bringing things into the light is sacred work.
Again and again in Scripture, we see that what is hidden is not meant to stay hidden. Light reveals, not to shame—but to heal, to restore, and to make a different way possible. Your voices are part of that work.
We do not take that lightly.
Off the top of your head, how frequent do you think sexual harassment, abuse, and assault are on the field?
One survey question asked participants to describe how often sexual harassment, abuse, or assault occurred in their context on the field. Participants selected from four categories: Rare (once a year or every couple of years), Seldom (a couple of times a year), Common (monthly), and Frequent (almost daily).
To help visualize the responses, imagine one hundred cross-cultural workers standing in front of you, each representing one survey participant.
We unpack these findings and what organizations, team leaders, and people on the field can do with this reality. But from these results, you can see this is topic we need to talk about.
What’s Inside the Paper
With the wide range of experiences and the depth of the reality, we (the authors) wanted to honor the complex reality you may live in.
We started with:
—An overview of the Survey
—Definitions of Terms
—Two Buckets: Within an Organization and Within a Host Culture
—Frequency of Sexual Harassment, Abuse, and Assault on the Field
—How to Prepare and Support People When Sexual Harassment, Abuse, and Assault Is Rare or Seldom
—How to Prepare and Support People When Sexual Harassment, Abuse, Assault Is Common or Frequent
But we also realized that there are “Ten Contributing Factors” to Sexual Harassment, Abuse, and Assault on the field and spent time unpacking each of these with quotes from survey participants.
1. Why People Are Quiet
2. Why This Topic Isn’t Widely Discussed
3. Role of Personal History
4. Power Dynamics
5. Role of the Host Culture
6. Race and Minority/Majority Culture Dynamics
7. Gendered Cultural Experiences
8. Mental Health of Harassers
9. The Ministry Pedestal and Calling
10. Roles of Those Involved
We ended the paper with suggestions for cross-cultural workers, organizations, sending churches, and friends and family members. There’s something for everyone!
What Readers Are Saying
We’ve begun hearing from readers, those who have taken the time to sit with the data, the stories, and the implications. Here’s some of what they are saying:
I’m so glad you touched this topic through the survey and this report. By that you have given those who sometimes couldn’t share a voice! I pray that this brings change in the way we talk about it and handle these things, starting with myself 😉
What impacted you most?
How common sexual assault by someone in the host culture occurs yet I have never heard people talk about it. That’s crazy
Did any statement, sentence, or section stand out to you? If so, what was it?
The example of a team leader going out of us way to advocate for his younger female teammates, insisting to national partners that they be treated with respect. I had landlords and neighbors in India do that for me (they were not even believers!), but teammates seemed unaware of the necessity of providing that for us.
If someone hasn’t read Let’s Talk About It: Sexual Harassment, Abuse, and Assault on the Field, why should they read it?
It is a great tool for opening a discussion on a topic that has largely been discussed only after there was a complaint filed. It also helps us understand the definitions of harassment, abuse and assault, and helps answer the question people seem to be asking themselves such as “does this count, and as what?”
A New Resource Hub
We’ve also created a few supplemental resources to help you continue engaging and sharing:
✅ Podcast episode: Hear directly from the authors as we unpack key themes and what surprised us most [Listen here]
✅ Graphics: Easy-to-use visuals from the paper for social media, newsletters, or presentations.
✅ Infographics: Clear, shareable summaries of key findings (two specifically for organizations! One geared for you to use in newsletters)
✅ Discussion guide: A tool to help teams and groups process the paper together
Find all these and more when you scroll down this page in the Download Hub.
Our hope is that these resources help you not only understand the content—but engage it in ways that lead to wisdom, care, and change.
Why This Matters
Sexual harassment, abuse, and assault are not isolated issues. They are shaped by culture, power, systems, and silence. And in cross-cultural contexts, these dynamics are often intensified—by distance, dependency, lack of oversight, and deeply embedded cultural norms.
Policies matter. Training matters. But neither are enough on their own.
What many of you helped surface—and what we are continuing to learn—is that this work is also spiritual work. It is about truth-telling. It is about dignity. It is about how we reflect the heart of God in the communities we’re a part of and the systems we uphold.
Where We Go From Here
This paper was never meant to be the final word. It is a starting place.
A way to name what is happening.
A way to listen more carefully.
A way to begin asking better questions.
And now, together, we take the next steps.
If you took the survey, thank you for your courage and your honesty. If you haven’t read the paper yet, you can get it here. If you’ve read the paper, consider who you might invite into this conversation with you. These are not conversations meant to be held alone.
Because the kind of communities we long for—safer, more just, more whole—are not built by accident. They are shaped, over time, by people willing to walk in the light, to tell the truth, and to love one another well.
And that kind of work, too, is sacred.
