Regular posting at Missionary Confidential had been delayed slightly due to more supporters staying with us to inspect our ministry.  Add to that what might have been the Swine Flu (though I can’t be certain), and it makes for quite the interruption to daily life.  Thankfully things are falling back to whatever passes for normal in this missionary’s life, so more posts are forthcoming including:

“Reverse Furlough”: my thoughts on the pros and cons of supporters visiting your ministry in the field
“Scaremongering”: why rumours and gossip, veiled as “information”, end up harming missions ministry

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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.”

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1. Cultural Whiplash

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”

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1. A Blog Written From the MK Perspective
2. The Double Life of The Missionary

Some missionary blog posts worth reading:

Karl Dahlfred asks if Long-Term Missionaries are obsolete.

Mentanna reflects on the costs of obedience to God’s call to missions affecting those around you, especially children.

Kevin asks if the multi-site church concept is uniquely American.

Grady Bauer gives some good direction for those who would like to be foreign missionaries but cannot physically go.

Ernest Goodman discusses the pros and cons of supporting a national church planters.

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1. Was, Not Am: What’s Wrong With Lifelong Missions?
2. Success Through Failure

One of our supporting churches recently had a missions focus week, and it’s always an encouragement to us in the field to hear such things.  It’s really nice to hear from a group after a while and be reminded that there are so many lifting us up in prayer, which is the most important support for a missionary, in my opinion.  If your church supports a missionary, I would encourage you to get their contact details and send a quick “hello” with a reminder that you’re praying for them.  Seriously.  It means a lot to a missionary.

This particular church sent us some questions, mostly about how they could pray more specifically or if they could send any necessary supplies along to us.  Great stuff; we really appreciate the thoughts and inquiries.  But one of the questions came with an explanation that, during missions week, the theme was something like “Superheroes”, and that they were calling their missionaries this in the Sunday services.

Superheroes.  Hero would be hard enough to live up to, never mind adding “super” to it.  Us as Superheroes?  Hardly.

Because I know this church and some of its people, I am convinced that they had the best of intentions with this, so I don’t take offence directly.  They really do mean well.  I know they are trying to encourage others to the mission field, or at least giving towards missions, and as someone with a background in the Creative Ministry Arts, I applaud the creativity applied towards what is unfortunately viewed by many Christians as a dull subject.  Some of the faith-stretching things we’ve done to follow God’s call have certainly been out of the ordinary, and we’re definitely unusual.  But that’s where the similarities stop.

A Superhero is someone who saves the day, a person who doesn’t really act very human.  They are an entity that is so beyond our physical limitations that we cannot really aspire to be like them, just look to them.  In most of the comic books, a Superhero is a hired gun who handles the bad guys; other mortals are not encouraged to join in the battle.

As a missionary, we are frail, fallible humans who have our own doubts, missteps and failings like any other Christian.  Just because our calling has been to another part of the globe doesn’t mean that a Christian in their home country can’t be following their calling, too.  A recent search term to this blog, “Can missionaries feel depressed?”, tells me that there is a perception that we are a perfect, well-adjusted lot.

Though well-intended, I fear that this comparison of Missionary=Superhero could discourage more Christians than it’s meant to encourage.  “I’m just a regular guy,” could be the thought, “God uses super-Christians, and I’m not that.”  While humility is so important in this area, I’d hate for someone to feel they couldn’t follow a call because of this appearance.

In all actuality, I think it also backfires with those who take the call.  Some missionaries wax poetic about all the adulation they received on fundraising or furlough, it appears that they may be addicted to “Missionary Worship.”  The problem is that you rarely encounter that in your mission field; meanwhile, the communication from your homeland dries up and you’re left with yourself.  No more Christian cheerleading squad to sing your praises about how brave and sacrificial you’re being.

Once you start labeling callings, then you have comparisons.  Is the man who loses his family connections when he converts to Christianity and becomes a pastor in his homeland less of a Superhero?  What about the woman who bravely witnesses to prostitutes in a rough part of her home city?  Must you give up things of earthly importance (possessions, status, career, relationships) to be a Superhero?  If one didn’t have to go through those things, yet is still following God’s calling, it doesn’t negate their ministry or make it any less special.

Missionaries are another part of the Body of Christ, no more or less important than any of the members; we just happen to be at the forefront of public ministry from time to time.  Let’s encourage our missionaries without flattery, and let’s encourage Christians to interest in missions with candid talk, not grandiosity.

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1. Want to Be a Missionary? Ask Yourself This
2. Are Short-Term Missions Sabotaging the Conversion to Long-Term Missionaries?
3. The “Just Be Yourself” Paradox

As we went around the circle in the Bible study, introducing ourselves to the visiting mission team, one of our members made sure to interject that she had been a missionary forty years ago for two years.  To be honest, it didn’t make a lot of sense to the situation; perhaps she thought that, since the team was on mission, they would be interested in this fact about her.  But it made me reflect on other church situations, especially in the States, when people talked about a visiting pastor or a new member of the congregation: “Oh, and he was a missionary.”

Granted, it’s certainly interesting conversation fodder, and usually follow up questions would be about where, how long, etc.  But in my experience, someone still active as a missionary was viewed as odd, especially if they had been in their field for a large number of years.  As we complete year after year of our foreign mission, the comments are becoming more pointed: “You will come back, right?”,  “I thought you’d get this out of your system”, or “You won’t do this the rest of your life, will you?”  Is it such a problem that I am planning on staying?

Even in the field, the fact that we are missionaries understandably makes some people uneasy; “what’s your agenda?” their distressed looks imply.  But when they meet former missionaries, it’s as if all tension is gone and the anticipation of a spiritual confrontation doesn’t register.  What does that say about the non-missionary Christian?

Recently we’ve begun to get unsolicited contacts from churches and pastors in the States that say, “While we’re glad you’re serving in missions, if you ever come back we’d like to hire you.”  I suppose it’s because we’ve been in the field “long enough” to carry some sort of clout or interest.  I’ve seen this happen with two other missionaries here; both of their former churches in the States contacted them at the two-year mark to hire them back as pastor.  At a larger salary.  Both accepted incredibly quickly and fled the country, abandoning their church plants, without much explanation.  Why would a Stateside church look for their next pastor in a mission field with virtually no national pastors or church planters?

Meanwhile, there are no additional certificates or degrees between us, and most of these churches wouldn’t have given us the time of day three years ago.  Because we have lived abroad for a few years, are they saying that living abroad now makes us more ministry-capable than the years of church planting in the States?

While I recognise that the missionary life is not for everyone, and that those immersed in a foreign field for years tend to be “odd” when compared to their original culture, I’m not understanding why it’s so terrible to be committed to long-term missions that take your entire life.  Certainly some may be called for five or ten years.  God knows how long He wants each of us to serve an area.  But why are we questioned when we feel He’s calling for a lifetime?

There may come a day when God will change our direction, and I may have to say I was a missionary, not am.  But when so many fellow Christians suggest the was by encouraging a permanent return to a missionary’s home country, I’m not surprised so few can still say, “I am a missionary.”

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1. Are Short-Term Missions Sabotaging the Conversion to Long-Term Missionaries?
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We’re in the middle of hosting a short-term mission team to our field, so I’ve been too tied up to post much.  Regular posting should resume soon, but I have to say it’s gone amazingly well.  With all the horror stories and issues discussed both on this and other blogs, this team’s trip is the opposite.  I’ve been reflecting on some of the reasons why this is:

Prior Relationship: Not only is this group from one of our many supporting churches, we know the pastor (who is on this trip) from our last church planting gig in the States. It gave us a good idea about his attitudes towards foreign missions; however, we didn’t know the rest of the team before this.
Lengthy Communication Up to the Trip: Many emails and phone calls were bandied to focus on details, issues, itinerary, what was to happen, etc.
Openness to Our Ministry Needs: We were asked “what does your ministry need done?”, not told “here’s what our group does”.
Financial Issues Handled by the Team: From the earliest stages of the planning to during this trip, we’ve been told that the team does not want to overburden us financially.  They have no problem paying their way for the day-to-day needs here.
Experience in International Travel/Other Short-Term Missions: We’ve all got to start somewhere, but this field and our ministry is not yet in the position to deal with an STM freaking about being out of the States (I’ve actually witnessed this at another church here, not pretty) or getting in a huff because they just wanted to “see” ministry, not “do” ministry.
Cultural Sensitivity to Ministry Here: Everyone in the group have been respectful and understanding about spiritual interaction with the nationals here.  I’m not worried that one of them will all of a sudden throw tracts at people, start preaching on a street corner or opening a conversation with one of our neighbours by telling them that they’re going to hell.

There’s still more time on this STM trip, but I’m really pleased over all.

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1. Are Short-Term Missions Sabotaging the Conversion to Long-Term Missionaries?
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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.”

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1. Reverse Culture Shock, Kid-Style

The latest issue of “Support Raising Solutions” from TheBodyBuilders.net focuses on the Top Five Myths in Support Raising. We certainly suffered from Number 2 early on (”I can do this alone”), partly because of our tentmaking ability with our business in the States. God quickly convicted us that, even if we could completely fund our ministry, prayer support and communication is really the most important part.

Number 3 (”Everybody’s already tapped out”) reminds me of my work in advertising. The sales manager always emphasised that the sales people had to approach everyone regardless of whether it appeared that their business could afford promotion; stop making the decision for potential advertisers, he’d say, and let them make it. You’d be absolutely shocked to know who our biggest and most consistent financial supporter is—and where they live.

Finally, Number 5 (”I will have to scrape by the rest of my life”) reminds me that, while prosperity gospel is not our goal, neither should be poverty theology; the whole attitude seems defeatist. However, I believe that non-missionary Christians are just as guilty at perpetuating this myth with this odd expectation of missionary life—but not for them, their Christian friends or their pastor. If the funding ultimately comes from God, then differentiating lifestyle by parts of The Body doesn’t really make sense.

Check it out here: Top Five Myths in Support Raising

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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?

A good friend once told me as I left a secular job for a new one that leaving a situation was similar to pulling your hand out of a bucket of water. No matter how gently you do it, there will be ripples or waves, and the water level will be lower once your hand is removed. Bottom line: even handled in the best possible manner, leaving a situation still affects people.

I can only speak for my location (and I’d like to hear of others’ observations), but the relatively short time that people spend here has mostly served to innoculate the nationals against further contact with missionaries, especially of the American flavour. You can understand the obvious upset by the nationals at the church planting missionary permanently leaving with one day’s notice (though he knew and planned for three months prior), or to the missionary who absconded to another European country with money, or even to the evangelical protestant missionary who converted to Eastern Orthodoxy and now tells all the evangelicals in the field that they’re going to hell. Rough stuff, indeed.

But I can also say that some of the missionaries who left prematurely had understandable reasons (funds running out, severe homesickness, just didn’t fit) and even communicated appropriately their absence. A few even communicate to nationals today, and it would be fair to say that they left on “good terms”. However, their brief interaction here still registers with the nationals that missionaries are just not in this for the long haul.

When people from a transient, future-focused culture (America) interact with a less-changeable, in-the-now culture (our mission field), there are bound to be difficulties in communication. But what so many seem to miss is that our field holds a relational people, a type that take years to open up to anyone and have lived on the same plot of land for generations, even hundreds of years. Things don’t move so fast here, and that’s okay for them. Growth in church world here is by ones, if you’re lucky, so you can’t measure it by the American church planter formulas.

While things are bound to be different after someone leaves, and some change is going to happen, the fallout in our field is pretty bad. A thriving church plant failed, promises from the States of funds and/or equipment never materialised, relationships suddenly ran dry. Two existing churches run by nationals no longer accept foreign missionaries as they freely did over the last decade. A church run by an American is viewed with suspicion; “it won’t last” they’ll openly say. Though some have gotten to know us over the last few years, we are still painted with the same brush by so many others. “When will you go back?” they ask. I tire of the question, “Why can’t your American missionaries stick with anything?” Trust is something we personally still hope to earn with many, proving our talk of remaining here indefinitely is so much more than talk.

The Eastern Orthodox convert once told me (before he converted) that the nationals in our mission field didn’t want to work with Americans. He was both right and wrong. Right, because the majority of missionaries from the States that they had encountered had been more trouble than help. Wrong, because a) a handful of missionaries from other countries have been equally as problematic, and b) there are a handful of American missionaries that are culturally sensitive, committed, and have done very well here.

So, for all the planning and preparation in coming to a mission field, it seems that the exit point (even in a year-only commitment) does not get much focus. I recognise that not everyone is built for the long haul, but if our witness is that we rush into situations and rush out equally as quick, we’re cutting ourself off at the knees.

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2. I’m Not There: Why the Missionary Can’t Have It Both Ways