Missionary Confidential

Childhood is hard enough when you have your original culture to contend with, but MKs (missionary kids) have an additional culture to adapt to, yet try to maintain friendships and relationships back “home”.  I can’t imagine the struggle at such a young age, but the blog “The Other Side of Missions” gives a good perspective on this struggle: “My Peculiar MKs”

Mentanna over at “Musings From a French-Fried Texan” continues her assimilation back into her home country with a fascinating post entitled “Whiplash”. I can relate on a small scale as we’ve just recently hosted several sets of American friends in our home. It took me by surprise that their American behaviour shocked me so much as it definitely would not have several years ago. Favourite quote:

“this kind of encounter would never have taken place in france. as a matter of fact, it often takes about 6 months and 16 conversations before you even learn someone’s name. getting to know a frenchie can be exceedingly frustrating due to the excruciatingly slow pace at which personal information is exchanged. one must never forget that intimacy in france is measured in years not minutes.”

Number 20 left a week ago. She was supposed to be here long-term indefinitely, but she made it almost two years which is longer than the 18-month average here.

Since we’ve been in the field, twenty missionaries have left permanently, all before their stated term and some in terribly egregious ways. These are all people we knew relatively well and interacted with; these are not second- or third-hand statistics. If I pulled from those sources, I’m sure there’s more.

Why I bring this up is not to be complaintive about the loss (our mission field is notorious for chewing people up and spitting them out, so unfortunately none of this is a surprise) but to highlight an issue that I’m sure people don’t consider when they depart: what happens to a mission field when the missionary leaves? » Read the rest of this entry «

After the planning meeting for our new evening outreach service, the elder ended with, “Just don’t be disappointed if people don’t show for the service. This country just doesn’t respond to these things.”

“Don’t be disappointed”? I knew he meant well, and perhaps he was trying to prevent a bad situation from sending me back to the States like so many others before me. My only response was a smile, but immediately I started thinking about his concern. Had he forgotten that I had church planted multiple times in the States, and not all of them continue today? Perhaps because I’m considerably younger than him, it’s easy to miss that I’ve been heavily active in ministry for over half my life. And I’m fully aware of the difficulties of my mission field, from the incredibly hard soil to the nuances of the cultural differences. I realised that it all depends on your definition of “success”.

A commenter on another blog had recently said (paraphrased): “We thought God had great plans for us in the mission field, with hundreds of converts every night, but it didn’t happen. I guess God doesn’t want us to be successful.” » Read the rest of this entry «

Because we haven’t left our mission field to visit the States since we arrived several years ago, I’ve always wondered how Reverse Culture Shock must feel (Wikipedia definition here). Mentanna over at  “Musings From a French Fried Texan” eloquently addresses this issue, specifically focusing on how her young children are experiencing the change from life in France to a year’s stay in Texas. Check it out here:

Kid Culture Shock