Posted by C. Holland on Mar 12, 2010
Somedays I think that I don’t see missions like a lot of other people do. Consider the following:
- In an email update I received from one of our supporters, the writer mentioned that her current reading was all missionary biographies, so she quoted Hudson Taylor with the implication that I must also be familiar with it. It was a nice quote. I had not heard it before, nor have I read missionary biographies.
- When meeting a Christian here in the field, she assumed that we grew up, like herself, hearing stories at bedtime of the noble and heroic Christian missionaries in the heart of Africa. Surely this is what prompted our missionary call? Surely not.
- Through this blog, I was contacted by a man interested in becoming a missionary. One of his questions was: “Where in the world would you like to share the Gospel where you haven’t been able to yet?” It’s a good question, but I honestly drew a blank. I’d never thought of that before.
- On our initial fundraising tour, people meeting us afterwards usually opened their greeting with. “You were missionary kids, right?” or “Your parents were missionaries, of course?” Without divulging personal details, quite the opposite is our reality. Not only were our parents only somewhat involved in their local church during our respective childhoods, they are now infrequent attenders at best, and all hold deep disappointment at our choice to be full-time foreign missionaries.
My whole life I’ve never fit into the pigeonholes people have tried to place me. It shouldn’t surprise me that I don’t fit the missionary stereotype, either, and on the surface seem like less of a missionary. Read More…
Posted by C. Holland on Feb 18, 2010
Over at Wrecked For the Ordinary, a young missionary has written a great piece about people’s perceptions (and, more importantly, misperceptions) about missionaries today. Without knowing it, she’s summed up quite a few of the themes and threads here at my blog. Best quote:
“It feels like what I am alluding to is something like this: ‘I am a professional at telling people about Jesus. And you’re not, cause you work a 9-5. Only, I shouldn’t say professional, because I am on (cringe) support. Wanna give me money?’”
Check it out here: “Lottie Moons or Ex-Pimps: We’re All Missionaries”
Posted by C. Holland on Nov 07, 2009
Kevin over at the “Life.Outpoured” blog talks about the importance of missionaries adapting (yet staying within God’s law) to the culture in which they minister, and it goes beyond clothing and acting. He gives some great points to consider in “(Missionary) Etiquette 101″. My favourite: “Begin to think like a citizen of heaven, not of a particular country.”
Posted by C. Holland on Jul 14, 2009
If you write a blog, run a website or are some form of IT professional, then you already know that you have access to a staggering amount of statistics about your website. While these can vary, nowadays you usually can view how many people viewed your blog or site from certain countries or see which search engines (such as Google) they used to find you. Additionally, you can also see what search term or phrase they used right before they clicked on your site address.
You can probably figure out what most of the search terms/phrases would be for Missionary Confidential, but as I reviewed the list from the entire life of this blog thus far, I started noticing trends. Some are good points, some are confusing, some cause concern, and a few even made me laugh, though I doubt they were meant that way.
I’ve grouped the most interesting ones for your review: Read More…
Posted by C. Holland on Apr 25, 2009
One of our supporters showed up last week. We barely knew her, but she was planning a vacation to our mission field and thought it would be great to stop by and visit. Having gone through this before, we knew the drill what we would be asked and which areas would be key to show our supporter.
Because of the distance from where she was staying, an overnight stay with us made the most sense and we were happy to accommodate. We met up with her and began the tour. First we showed her the church that we work with, which is a Gothic-style, small building in need of repair. Despite the improvements and maintenance needed, it is a beautiful building, complete with stained-glass windows of angels and mortals looking up to heaven. Being American like us, our supporter was astounded by the church, partly because there aren’t too many like this in our home state.
After showing the surrounding areas and explaining the spiritual need of the country, we continued on to our house. As she walked through our place, it was then that she made the statement, with a smile, “I can’t call you a missionary!” Read More…
Posted by C. Holland on Feb 16, 2009
One of the things that caught us off guard in our mission field was the perception of missionary in the field being different than the pastor in a foreign mission field. Although we are missionaries in every sense of the word, one of us is a licensed pastor.
We figured this out when people here were surprised at the pastor fact. They were shocked to hear preaching from a missionary. This was very perplexing to us. Perhaps it is our denominational background in the States, where missionaries were also pastors and were sent to pastor new churches in mission fields. It appears that the concept of missionary in our field is one that comes alongside an existing church to handle lay ministry. Regardless, the pastor aspect has now become an asset.
But it made me think: what is the difference between a pastor and a missionary (if both are licensed or ordained to preach)? Read More…
Posted by C. Holland on Feb 06, 2009
This is the final posting in a series on how I became a full-time missionary to Western Europe. Click for “Part 1: My Backstory”, “Part 2: Ashes in My Mouth”, “Part 3: Learning the Ropes”, and “Part 4: You’re Nuts”.
Originally we understood entry as missionaries into our part of Western Europe as a matter-of-fact situation. Check in, show documents, everything’s okay. But when our immigration officer expressed suspicion about our motives and revealed changes in immigration rules, it seemed as if everything about our ministry was about to collapse. Had we been wrong all along?
At one of our last interactions, my mother had asked if we had a “Plan B” for, you know, when it doesn’t work out—her words. I thought she meant different ways of entering the country under various situations (student, employee, etc.). She meant something more specific: move back to our hometown, get “normal” jobs, and never leave the country again. “Come on, it’s very likely you won’t like it ,and you need to have a plan when it doesn’t.”
“We don’t have a ‘Plan B’” was our response. Missions was the plan, but if it had to evolve and change from our first attempts, so be it. God was directing us, so there was no need for a “Plan B” as she defined it. Realise that I do believe God encourages levels of planning and preparation for future issues, but hers was an encouragement to stop following God’s direction. We just weren’t going to do it.
In the end, we just had to be patient with our officer, who has become much more trusting after seeing us over the years. But that doesn’t mean that Satan didn’t stop throwing what he could at us to discourage our trust in God. Substantial funds fell away, and the dollar lost a huge amount of strength. Our reputation was unfairly damaged by a jealous Christian. Meanwhile, fellow missionaries dropped like flies around us, and cracks began to show in our marriage. Read More…
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