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)

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Author Ann Dunagan asks, “Is Your Family Mission Minded?” (HT: Life.Outpoured)

How to avoid five pitfalls of Short-Term Mission trips

An MK learns about sacrifice and the value of protecting your health

NonModern explains why Evangelical Christians may be the worst witnesses in their own culture

An example of the church being a missionary to Russia

Related posts:

1. From the Missionary Blogosphere

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.

As I thought about how I enter a conversation now, I realised that my conversations of the past often centred on what accomplishments I planned for the near future, always networking and looking for that “next thing” that I could hitch my wagon to a star.  Essentially, The Present Situation was something to constantly aspire to get out of, and on to the next moment.  From my experience and recollection, it is a tiring way to live because it means there is no defined end in sight.

We had been well informed about our mission field’s cultural attitude, so we didn’t experience a huge shock when we arrived.  Things take longer, people move slower, and it’s just the way that it is here.  Our friend’s statement, “You’ll have loads of things to do, but if you get only one thing accomplished in a day, that’s considered amazing”, rang true and still does to this day.  But moving this information from knowledge to personal practice took much, much longer than we had anticipated.

Part of the reason it’s been so difficult is the fact that we still interact with our original culture, from funding supporters and churches to family members.  Firm plans and grand expectation of results are required from the American culture, sometimes even 5-10 years from now.  I’ll never forget a woman coming up to me after our fundraising presentation, where we had mentioned a minimum five-year commitment to this field.  “What will you do at the end of five years?”  she queried.  Taken aback, I mumbled something about we’d see what God laid on our hearts at that time.  “Would you return to America?” she pressed.  “Five years is so far away,” I said, “but if God wanted us to return at that time, we would.”

Her eyes lit up.  “Where will you live then?”  At this point I wasn’t sure where she was going with this or what I was supposed to say.  I mean, I’m putting all my energy into going on mission in a foreign country for a very extended (and open-ended) period of time; does anyone really know with certainty exactly what they will be doing in five years’ time?  “Um, I’m sure God will let us know where at that time,” I hastily replied, looking for anyone else to talk to.  She kept on with, “What will you do for work?  These are important things you have to plan for now!”  Yeah, I’ll just secure a job somewhere that they’re willing to wait five years (or longer) for me to return, though I’m not sure where that would be.  And, while I’m busy doing that, I’ll lock in a lease on some house that I won’t live in for at least five years, too.

I never got to say what I was thinking, which was, “Lady, would you just let me deal with the experience I’m in now before having to make firm decisions about the future?  I’m sure I’ll be a different person by then, and God doesn’t always share His plans for us that far into the future.”  Meanwhile, I’m not even five years into the mission, and I’m already dramatically different in my views and practise.

I fear that this monumental difference from the States’ forward-thinking/progress-focussed/instant gratification mindset is part of what makes it so difficult for American missionaries to stay long-term, but as I’ve changed I notice some unexpected benefits:

The only problems I see are two: 1) this way of life, if left unchecked, can lead to serious laziness; and 2) our Stateside supporters may struggle with a perception that we’re not doing enough or getting satisfactory results, though we’ve done our best to communicate the cultural (and spiritual) differences in ministry here.  Meanwhile, even in our “slowed-down” state, the nationals think we are a whirl of activity, going too fast and accomplishing things by leaps and bounds.

I fall back into my old habits every once in a while, and the discomfort I feel through it snaps me out of that future-thinking angst pretty quickly.  Entering the new decade gives me hope that I can better appreciate the present and enjoy the now.

Related posts:

1. You Said What?! The Importance of Context in Culture
2. The “Just Be Yourself” Paradox
3. I’m Not There: Why the Missionary Can’t Have It Both Ways

MissioMishMash gives the answer to the question, “Is it safe to be a missionary?”

Life.Outpoured revisits Speaking Missionese. The video on Christianese is hilarious, yet true.

Missionaries already know they’re outsiders when entering a foreign field, but what if the church saw itself in the same way?

The Scriptorium Daily reports on the Urbana 09 student missions conference and includes some great missions quotes; they’re all good but my favourites are the first two.

Want to learn more about missions in Europe? The Upstream Collective is holding a conference in a week.

Related posts:

1. From the Missionary Blogosphere

While 2009 has been a year (and part of a decade) of ups and downs, both personally and collectively, the past 12 months have been possibly the most fruitful time in my writing since leaving school many, many years ago.  I believe the 72 posts on this blog for 2009 are representative of my creative faucet finally allowing my thoughts to flow.  It’s been quite a journey, and I’m humbled how many have joined me along the year.

A quick look at stats shows that individual visitors to Missionary Confidential more than tripled since the year began, and followers on the RSS feed and Twitter have shown rapid growth from the early single-digit days.  This is mentioned not to make me look good but to show that so many of you have joined in the conversation; there are over 200 comments made on this blog in 2009 (these are legitimate ones from real people; I pluck out all the spam and junk).  You come from countries such as the States, Taiwan, Canada, the United Kingdom (I know it’s not a country), Thailand and Australia, and I thank you for your participation and readership.

For the last Missionary Confidential post before we dive into a new decade, I offer links to some of my favourite 2009 posts from this blog.  These are not reflected in the “Our Best Posts” or “Popular Posts” lists you see to the right columns of the blog:

“Disappointment Avoidance”
“Obedience is not a formula, nor is it a means to an end, usually assumed to be success. Perhaps it’s a more Western ideal, even an American lesson, to put numbers and goals to ministry and heap attention only on those who accomplish this—all others need not apply.”

“The Best of Intentions: Missionary Superhero”
“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?. . .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.”

“I’m Not There: Why the Missionary Can’t Have It Both Ways”
“Presence in a moment is something technology has yet to duplicate, and there’s just something more compelling about personal human interaction. For now, there is no substitute to physically being in the same moment, such as sharing a laugh in a coffee house or sitting in a park, experiencing the situation’s assault on your senses. Mission life is a dual reality, and the two can never completely merge.”

“Pulling Your Hand Out of a Bucket”
“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.”

“Was, Not Am: What’s Wrong With Lifelong Missions?”
“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?”

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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?”

A caveat before I go further: please understand I am not berating any missionary for visiting family at the holidays, needing to return to fundraise, leaving the field or originally having a short-term assignment.  I do believe God can direct you back to your homeland for a time due to those reasons and am in no way passing judgment about that direction.  I just don’t like being pigeonholed because of assumptions of any kind and would prefer people a) ask about these things without a backhanded comment and b) accept that, though I am a missionary, I may not reflect the usual personality with which they are familiar.

The reality in our situation is that we feel very at home in our field.  I know the word “missional” gets bandied about a lot these days, but much of our attitude stems from the fact that Christianity is something that we live and breathe, not just perform or promote, then act differently.  Because we take Philippians 3:20 very seriously, I may have been born in the States, but we really are citizens of heaven first.  I recently heard a sermon that included the statement, “Home is not a place but a person,” meaning Jesus Christ.  With His will being paramount, He’s given us a desire to stay in the field at this holiday season.

It seems that people can’t accept when you’re different.  A very old concept, I know, yet more pointed for some reason in missionary and Christian circles.  When asked (usually by Christians, oddly enough) what I would be doing if I weren’t a missionary, many don’t understand when I explain that I would be sharing Christ and volunteering in ministry even if God had me working a secular job, no matter on what part of this world He placed me.  It’s difficult to see myself as a missionary because it’s not an on/off switch for me; perhaps the only way I reflect the current concept of missionary is that I continually raise and depend on charitable support to be here, and I regularly communicate about my ministry to supporters.  Take those two facts away, and I’m just a missional Christian, living in a foreign country, right?

I take it as a blessing that God has given us such a comfort in our field that we feel most at home here, despite not having an obvious reason why.  We have no previous exposure to the lifestyle, no heritage to trace, no technical reason to feel connected, yet the simple fact is that we do connect.  An unknown author once stated, “Home is that place when you can recognise yourself in the people passing in the street.”  I wouldn’t have understood this before going on mission, but it explains how I feel now.

Related posts:

1. 5,000 Miles Away, Thanksgiving Just Isn’t The Same
2. Question Week: Sent By a Mission Agency or By Your Home Church?

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.

Related posts:

1. In the Culture of Now
2. How Effective Are Short-Term Mission Trips?
3. The “Just Be Yourself” Paradox

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.

I’m assuming that biographers endeavour to write about missionaries like Carey because people are interested in his entire story.  By leaving out known difficulties that he encountered, it serves to further the notion of missionary as a romanticised superhero.  It also keeps a missionary from identifying with or learning from a similar problem that missionaries like Carey may have already encountered.

Honesty can hurt sometimes, even when it’s meant in the best possible way, and we always need to be discerning about the appropriate situation to reveal issues.  I recently visited a church website where the lead pastor’s bio was about 10 paragraphs long, giving great detail about his physically abusive childhood, including vulgar quotes and other things that were just a bit too personal for a “meet our pastor”-type webpage.  The shocking story in its entirety, which is a testimony to others about God’s protection, would have been more appropriate either in a group therapy session or on a website devoted to those recovering from abuse.  I believe the current cultural attitude of public confession, such as on talk shows or through social media, may be contributing to this lack of discernment.

But acting like everything is perfect to the point of omitting facts in a factual publication is still destructive.  If we can’t be measuredly honest in appropriate times and ways about difficulties we face as Christians, in the foreign mission field or not, we’re whitewashing the fact that the Christian life calls for sacrifice.  There will sometimes be fallout, risk, or loss when choosing to take up that cross.  We’re missing the opportunity to demonstrate that, in our imperfect state, we can choose to cling to God and find comfort and strength through a difficult time.

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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.

Related posts:

1. When The World Comes To Your Field

We could see the fear growing for a few months before it happened.

It started when one of our missionary friends asked for a semi-regular meeting for accountability and “venting” about the ups and downs of ministry in our notoriously difficult neck of Western Europe.  The request made sense and was a great idea.  But it quickly became apparent that the real agenda was how to deal with an overwhelming fear.

“What if they kick us out, me and my family?” he said nervously.  “I’m hearing of other people’s visa not being renewed.  It wasn’t supposed to be this way!”  When we had each arrived in the country, visa renewal for missionaries was pretty much a foregone conclusion unless you’d done something incredibly illegal.  Stamp, stamp, another renewal was what had been assured each of us as we prepared to come over here.

But shortly after our arrival, word started spreading amongst missionaries and Christian circles that immigration issues weren’t going to be so easy in the future.  This much was true and backed up by legitimate news sources.  It was at this point that the scaremongering began.

At every Christian event we attended, a “concerned” soul would approach us with, “Did you hear the latest?  Someone who knows a friend heard from someone that another missionary was sent away.  I hope you’re not next!” or “Where will it end?  They’re out to get us Christians in this country!”

This went on for a while, and even hearing the incessant whispers was enough to wear you down, make you think it was utterly hopeless.  Your mind starts going to some strange places without legitimate reason: “What if I don’t get renewed? Where will we go? There’s no way I’ll get to continue on here!”

We’d finally had enough of the chatter and realised that everyone’s source on the subject sounded like that part in the movie “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” where the classmate gives the convoluted way she heard that Ferris was sick: “My best friend’s sister’s boyfriend’s brother’s girlfriend heard from this guy who knows…” You get the idea.

To keep our sanity, we decided to take seriously only information that was firsthand.  Even information from well meaning friends who had “heard something about someone” were not to be taken seriously without back up, i.e. direct inquiry to the person in question.  As time progressed we began to run into firsthand stories, most of which were getting initial denials or delays but as we followed up with them, it became clear that they were able to get their immigration sorted favourably.  What we then noticed was that the favourable stories were not getting passed around, and, making things worse, the original “horror stories” and “conspiracy theories” were gaining momentum, even turning bizarre as they were recounted.

Three things became clear to us through this exercise:

1) The possibility of extra difficulty ate up way too much time and worry in our lives and robbed us of the joy in our ministry; this was our fault.  Being aware of new requirements or issues is one thing, but the level of distress we allowed this to cause us was not right.  Had we only heard about the additional immigration requirements and disregarded the scaremongering, we would have only devoted time to meeting those requirements, not playing the “What If” worry game for months.

2) Negative half-truths were much more popular amongst groups, and few were interested to investigate the real story or clarify later if they learned more.  One of the more popular stories that we later found to be satisfactorily resolved still makes the rounds—without the happy ending.  When we politely explain the good outcome, the looks we get are almost as if we’ve rained on a parade.  Then people turn the conversation to “others” they’ve heard about in bad situations.  It appears that they don’t want the negative chatter to end.

3) We were trying to find false security (or a guarantee) in our situation, when in reality any one, missionary or not, could find themselves in a vastly different scenario tomorrow.  Death, loss of job, accident, illness—the list is endless, but none of us have assurance that our current lifestyle will be intact tomorrow.  We had to realise that, even if the government gave us carte blanche to live here permanently, if God does not want us here, He will move us.  Conversely, if God wants us to stay here, He will make it so even if the government felt otherwise and it appeared utterly hopeless.

Meanwhile, God has allowed us to stay in this country to continue ministry.  While it took some extra paperwork and meetings, we are thankfully still here.

And our missionary friend?  A few months after his admission, he and his family left the country and missions ministry for good; his reasoning was that he “just knew” the government wouldn’t allow him to stay another year.

His approval for another year from the government arrived two months after his departure.  He has not returned and remains in the States.

No related posts.