Posted by C. Holland on May 25, 2009
Moving to a mission field that speaks our same language, it’s easy for people to feel that it’s one less hurdle to doing ministry in another culture. I now view it as an obstacle that creeps up later, causing distress for many missionaries.
Initially, we did not have to spend months or years learning a totally new language, unlike many of our missionary friends in other fields. This obviously made our preparation timeline go much faster, which isn’t a bad thing. Our contacts in our field gave us a short list of phrases to learn, and we thought we were on our way.
Until one of us asked a young woman a question that, in our mission field’s culture, was very, very vulgar. Read More…
Posted by C. Holland on May 22, 2009
Perhaps because we live in a mission field that also is a popular tourist destination, we tend to receive an email every so often that looks like the one I received last week. It read, in part:
“We’re friends of [someone I actually know], and we’re coming very soon to [your mission field] for a week vacation. Would you email me the Top 10 things to see in your country? Should we drive, take a tour, get a taxi or use the train when we go to all these places you suggest? And we need to find a very good Bed and Breakfast; here’s our dates that we’ll need one. Offer any advice that you have.”
I wanted to honestly answer her very last sentence, but it wouldn’t have been a very polite response.
There’s a few things wrong with this kind of contact that I wish to address. First, I don’t know this person, although it is true we have a friend in common. We’ve never interacted before. Even if I were living here for a secular job, I’m just not very motivated to do heavy research and the essential work of a tour guide or travel agent, especially for someone I don’t know who is arriving very, very soon.
Secondly, I’m a missionary, not a travel agent. While I have had the opportunity to travel a bit and see some of the sites, I pretty much stay in my neck of the woods and travel about six miles away from my house. I don’t live in a part of the country that has many tourist attractions. Any of the places to suggest would be listed on any decent travel website’s “Top Ten” for my country, though to see all ten would take more than a week’s visit due to distance. And because our fact-finding trips were so long ago, it’s been ages since we would have stayed in a hotel, and we don’t keep up on current rates or quality levels, especially in other parts of the country where these sites would be. Read More…
Posted by C. Holland on May 20, 2009
We got an email from one of our supporters recently, notifying us that she must reduce her support commitment.
This actually made me happy.
Why? It’s not because we’re losing a portion of our monthly support from our largest, and most regular, contributor. And it’s definitely not because our supporter has received an unfortunate reduction in pay due to the economic downturn. I truly wish this weren’t the case on both aspects.
The reason I’m happy is because our supporter took the time to briefly explain this situation, making sure to include how much less this would be, when we would begin seeing this change in our budget, and why this was happening. We would have understood if she couldn’t afford any further support, considering the situation. We’re thankful that she was thoughtful of both our budgeting needs and our feelings. Now, if we could get the rest of our supporters to be as forthcoming with info.
Communication between the missionary and their supporters in today’s age should be a breeze. We personally maintain: a phone number in the States that rings to our field, Skype accounts, email addresses, a stateside postal address, and a constantly-updated mission blog that contains all the above contact info. Additionally, we send all of our supporters a monthly email newsletter and quarterly print newsletter, all with updates on our ministry, prayer requests and praises, and the various ways to contact us. Financial supporters also receive periodical handwritten letters, postcards and thank you notes. Despite multiple methods of communication, and our efforts to keep communication going, we rarely hear from any of our supporters in the States. Read More…
Posted by D. Simon on May 18, 2009
Editor’s Note: Please welcome our new contributor, D. Simon, to the blog. If you have a written piece about general missions issues and would like to be considered for a Guest Blog Post to the site, please contact us on our About page.
Being sent to the mission field by my home church, I don’t have the mission agency experience that most missionaries probably have. So I have a question, do mission agencies train their missionaries on how to deliver a fundraising presentation?
Perhaps I should back up for a moment to explain why I ask. I am called a missionary by many because I am serving in a foreign field, sent by my home church, and supported by churches and individuals in my home country. However my role is essentially the same as it would be if I was still in my home country; I am a pastor. The church I serve was started over a hundred years ago by a national and from what I can discern, I am the first person to pastor it from the States.
Last Sunday morning I had an interesting experience. We had a national who is on furlough from his mission field speaking at our church. Here I am the foreign pastor, listening to the “pitch” being given by a local in my mission field who is heading back to his mission field. That in itself was an odd experience.
I was looking forward to his presentation and was very interested in learning more. While I wish I could say it was informative and captivating, I’m afraid it was neither, but it was a very long fifty minutes. There were stats, stats, and more stats, but no personal stories from this family that had already spent four years in their field. After fifty minutes I knew very little about what he does, and absolutely nothing about his needs, financial or otherwise.
This experience made me wonder, did his mission agency prepare him for this? Read More…
Posted by C. Holland on May 12, 2009
Just found a blog site, “The Other Side” of Missions, written by and for missionary kids (MKs). Since entering the mission field as a thirty-something, it was refreshing for me to read such candid writing from teens and children, wise beyond their years, experiencing missions ministry. Entries such as “Me on Display” explain the ups and downs of being a public figure (in Christian circles), and “Who Am I?” eloquently parallels my entry, “The Double Life of The Missionary”. Take a moment and check out their excellent blog.
Posted by C. Holland on May 09, 2009
Trevin Wax, former long-term missionary to Romania, recently posted this prayer on his blog:
God of truth and love; Father Son and Holy Spirit, Hear our prayer for those who do not know You. We ask that they may come to a saving knowledge of the truth and that Your Name may be praised among all peoples of the world. Sustain, inspire and enlighten Your servants who bring them the Gospel. Bring fresh vigor to wavering faith; sustain our faith when it is still fragile. Continually renew missionary zeal in ourselves and in the Church; raise up new missionaries who will follow You to the ends of the world. Make us witnesses to Your goodness; full of love, strength and faith – for Your glory and the salvation of the entire world.—Kendall Harmon
Posted by C. Holland on May 07, 2009
Continuing with Question Week:
Do we obsess too much about details in ministry?
Here’s what I’ve noticed: over the years, both in the States and now in the mission field, there seems to be an attitude of having to do things a certain way to attract people to church/Christ, or it won’t happen at all. For instance, an emphasis on only a certain style of worship, or the way that all churches are now encouraged to join Facebook and constantly Twitter. Or the importance placed upon incredibly high production values on Sunday, such as laser lights, full rock band and video production for the sermon. There is an underlying attitude that if your church gathering doesn’t tick all the right boxes, there’s no way that people will come to your church—or even come to Christ.
But the reality is that people do on both accounts, even when things don’t seem perfect to us. I remember some of the services in our ministry history that didn’t go right because something electronic broke down were often times the most poignant as there was a simplicity to them. I’m not arguing against excellence, planning or doing a half-baked job (for a great post on how we may be taking excellence too far, see this blog post from Collide Magazine). I just notice the attitude among ministries both in the States and in my mission field that if you can’t do a “big thing” in church service, then don’t do it at all. Yet in unglamourous industrial estates or in peeling, dilapidated stone churches there are people finding Christ for the first time.
Those who are originally from countries other than the States, is this a specific cultural thing coming from America or is it more pervasive in Christianity throughout all cultures?
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