Missionary Confidential

Doing Ministry at Arm’s Distance

Early in our fact-finding trips to our mission field, we kept getting the sense that the nationals held a bit of a reservation about working with us.  They were certainly friendly and accommodating, but their comments and facial expressions held a barely discernible air of skepticism.  We knew that their interactions with a large majority of American missionaries had gone very poorly for a number of reasons, so we figured they were understandably hesitant to interact with us.

Fast-forward to about six months into living in the mission field, and the real reason for their hesitancy began to crystalise in my mind.  We had been here long enough to watch several short-term mission teams funnel in and out of the church, plus there were several other long-term missionaries attached to help.  Watching the interactions from the sidelines, I began to see what the nationals saw: most missionaries would only do ministry at arm’s distance.

This is going beyond the unfortunate handful of those with bad attitudes; actually, the majority were polite, respectful, and generally good people who were willing to help and work in many ways.  Yet even in the group of good-natured, well-intentioned people, there still existed a trace element of distance from the nationals. Read More…

Hard Truths in 1 Minute 17 Seconds

Sometimes hard truths about mission realities just have to be stated, and this video does just that under a minute and a half.  Though the speaker is from a Native American tribe, his words could easily be from the mouths of our nationals who have shared similar stories; they have experience both the issues of pictures and charity.  Best quote: “Very few people come for the sake of getting to know us and building relationship. And of those who do come for that, even less ever come back.”

By the way, as informed as I thought I was about missions, I have to admit I hadn’t considered the spiritual needs of the Native Americans until missionaries to their tribes commented on this blog in the past. (HT: Almost An M)

In the Culture of Now

The turn of the new year always gives us pause for reflection on the past and contemplation of the future, so the start of 2010 appears to be no different.  As I remember lessons learned over the past few years as a missionary, one theme keeps recurring: we are shaped by the environment in which we find ourselves, no matter how much we may resist.  And I have been very much influenced by my mission field’s culture which is an “in the moment” people group, something I like to call “The Culture of Now”.

Of course, the title is not indicative of a culture of wanting things or change to happen immediately (i.e., “I want it now”) but of a state of being in the moment, relishing the experience and not focussed solely on the future.  In an earlier cross-cultural course I had learned of the differences in such cultures, and I am grateful to have understood the technical differences before entering the mission field.

It was actually the change of decade that prompted me to take note of my personal attitude shift.  Reflecting on where I was (physically, spiritually, and emotionally) as 1999 slipped into 2000, I started to realise that I had been a much more agitated individual.  Always focussing on the next task, job, location, or goal, I wasn’t actually interacting in the moment.  Time with people, though often a pleasant thing, was seen as an obstacle to progress; because it was a necessity to interact with others, I felt at the time that it must be kept to a minimum.  While I would be present at an activity or function, mentally I was worlds away, going over tasks in my head or thinking constantly about what sequence of events needed to happen once I got out of the situation. Read More…

Staying Home For Christmas

This is my last original post of 2009, so I just wanted to say thank you to all readers of this blog and wish you a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year wherever God has placed you.

Someone finally asked the right question this year: “Are you staying home for Christmas?”

Over the past few Christmases, many of our nationals have inquired if we were returning home for the holidays.  We always responded that we were staying home for the holidays, not to be cute or trite but to honestly convey how we feel about where God has placed us.

Many national Christians in our field automatically expect us to return to the States for the holidays—because that’s what missionaries from the States have done. Sometimes being called a “missionary” carries a lot of assumptions, one of which in our field is the missionary treating this as an assignment or resume padding, someplace to exit out of or get away from time to time because you’re not from this mission field and have no interest in continuing ministry here.  Even Christian friends in the States assumed we were going to return next year because (this is an actual statement) “don’t all missionaries run out of money by this point and need to come back for fundraising?” Read More…

Preparing For Your Mission

I get a lot of emails from people considering missions work.  If you have already determined your field and are in the process of going, Kevin over at the Life.Outpoured blog has a great series about how to prepare and learn about your mission field’s culture in “Scoping Your Mission”.  Each of the posts are a wealth of information, especially if you are not being sent or prepped by a mission agency (like myself).  Navigating the differences between cultures (even within same-minded Christian cultures in different countries) is probably the most important thing I’ve learned as a missionary.  As someone who “scoped” our field in a similar way, I can strongly recommend these suggestions. Take a look at each:

“Getting To Know Them”

“The Importance of Food”

“Read Their News” (I still do this in the field, even several years into our mission)

Additionally, I think these suggestions are equally important for anyone in ministry (especially church planters) who may be beginning work in another part of their home country.  It may not technically be a “foreign country”, but states (and areas within states) can be considerably different in certain cultural habits, focus or issues.  As a native Californian, I learned this when befriending a co-worker of similar age who was originally from Louisiana; our life experiences and expectations could not have been more different, and most of this was inherent to the local cultures in which we grew up.  Even Californians can be on different extremes depending on their city or county.

Warts and All: Knowing What and When to Reveal

Over at Missional Space, a recent post about William Carey and family difficulties in the mission field drew a good amount of debate.  While most people discussed the appropriateness of his decision to remain in the field, I picked up on another aspect of this: the post stated that most biographies omit these disappointing details.

I’ll be the first to admit that I’m not very familiar with Carey’s story, so I’m not making a specific judgment call on him.  But it is disconcerting to see that such an important detail of a person’s life would be ignored.  Without being able to query a specific biographer, it’s difficult not to see the omission as a whitewash to paint missions and ministry life in the best possible light.

One of the commenters mentioned that the Bible includes the “warts and all” parts of quite a few stories, and I certainly agree.  Life is messy, difficult, and uncomfortable at times.  Some of our heroes of the Bible were adulterers, struggled with faith and/or obedience to God, had dysfunctional families—essentially, they were imperfect humans (just like us) whom God still chose to love and use anyway.

Missionary work has its “warts” as well, and for me, writing this blog is constantly looking at the fine line between honesty and whining.  I don’t want it to be brutal in the former, nor focusing on the latter.  What motivates me to write is the reality that such a glossy PR spin has been placed on missions work.  Watching missionaries in the field slowly realise that this life is nothing like the brochure, so to speak, is very painful.  Yet I write because I want prospective missionaries to have a fuller understanding of all the facets of missionary life so they can be better equipped for the mission ahead of them. Read More…

How They See Us

I know this video is a huge generalisation, but it answers the question people have asked about how Christians are regarded in Western Europe.  Unfortunately, it is a massive barrier to break down when attempting to establish relationships, and only time and consistency can erase this judgment by stereotype.