Unworthy Travels

"But let us leave the contemplation of the river for a while, stream into the first class dining saloon, drink coffee with bread and marmalade, and then go back on deck to meet our traveling companions. If we don't find them quite as interesting as we had hope, at least we will have the delight of speaking to them in a common tongue. Except for the three classy passengers, of course, who have found their own language quite good enough since they will be interested only in speaking to themselves

What we will also know is that they are French and that coming from a superior culture, no, coming from the only culture country in the world, there is no reason to accept anything that does not meet their discriminating standards...

"They will have little to do with this trip or at least this trip is I conceived it; in fact they have already made their most dramatic move and have gotten the toilets locked against us. By noon of that first day, appalled by the food, the lack of a decent table wine at meals, and the crudities of river travel, they have offered to pay double passage and have been moved to VIP quarters on the top deck. They will continue to eat the same unfortunate food but alone with the captain after the rest of us..... Everything will be the same for them except that by paying double they have made a social statement and have been isolated above us with the master of the ship in a cabin, which, under the full blast of the sun, by three o'clock will begin to glow incandescently......

They will be an unseen presence on the ship, though we will be constantly aware of their aura. Their cultured vibrations clash discordantly in that emptiness of river and sky through which we are drifting and we feel that they have not earned the right to so easily penetrate this carboniferous world of three hundred million years ago. They are like drunks in church; they are having an experience that will mean little to them and that they will remember only as that week of the barbarous cooking and the badly ventilated stateroom."

- Moritz Thomsen. The Saddest Pleasure. A Journey On Two Rivers.

Trapped In Your Cultural Moment

"The ego rarely asks real questions and mostly gives quick answers. This invariably leaves ego-driven, fundamentalist minds and groups utterly trapped in their own cultural moment in history. Thus they miss the Gospel’s liberating message along with the deepest challenges and consolations of Scripture."

~ Richard Rohr

We Want Money Missionary

"Totally exhausted, sweating onto my notebook so much that my pen won’t work, and longing for a nice cool shower, we round up the afternoon by all meeting together in the main room again. It’s all I can do to muster up the energy to thank them. They are thankful too and – all things considered – the final recordings are pretty decent, with a good variety of styles and instrumentation. Then it happens: one of them pipes up with, “It was good, but we wish the workshop had been better organized!”

I’m defensive: “Better organized? What do you mean?”
“Well, so that we would receive some money from you.” Money?

They want money from me! This is a never-ending issue for the expatriate working in Africa: all too often, the issue of money rears its ugly head! To be fair, it does vary depending on location; the Bogo over in Sassanou never asked me for a penny and – in fact – gave me several gifts as a token of their appreciation! My theory is that the closer to the coast and/or to a big city you get, the worse it becomes.

“Money! What for?”
“For participating in the workshop!”
I pause for a moment, then continue:

“Let me ask you some questions.
Firstly, Ifè participants, did you pay for your transport here?”
“No, it was free,” they reply.
“And, everybody, how much have you had to pay for your accommodation during this workshop?”
“Nothing.”
“Right. And your meals?”
“They were provided free of charge.”
“And what about the hours of technical work I’ve put in to record your songs? Do I get paid for that? And my travel from Cotonou – it cost me 40,000 CFA. Nobody is paying me for that! Furthermore, I will go home from here and spend several days editing all your songs and making the cassettes so that you can benefit from them. You will then each receive a cassette of your songs, also free of charge. And still you ask me for money?”

The issue of per diems as they are called is still a contentious one. You see, I just spoke as a Westerner, from a Western viewpoint (and a particularly worn-out, fed up Westerner at that!) Now, the African viewpoint is very different: they’ve given up time to come and take part in this workshop, so should be ‘rewarded’ for this. They’ll also have lost several days’ income, which is not going to appear out of thin air, and they need to feed their families somehow. Finally, in Africa, if you have a friend who is richer than you, then it would be completely normal for the rich friend to give some money to the poorer friend. In the West, we try not to mix friendship with money, in case it spoils it; in Africa, friendship and exchange of cash often go hand in hand, almost as a way of cementing a friendship.

“That’s all I have to say on the matter.” I add. And we end the workshop. Just like that. I’m way too exhausted to continue debating this with them.........

Culture is a massive thing, and cultural differences – or misunderstandings – are at the heart of most friction and stress for an expatriate overseas. I’ve seen perfectly lovely people (Germans, Americans, French and – I have to add – Brits) losing their rag with Africans, because things didn’t happen ‘just so’. We are conditioned to seeking perfection, creating a world where everything is clear cut and runs according to certain rules (and woe betide you, should you veer from those!) Africa is not like that. Sure, there are rules, but things are often more fluid, negotiable, adaptable; and this is not a bad thing, it’s just how things are done here."

(Rob Baker. Adventures in Music and Culture : Travels of an Ethnomusicologist in West Africa)

Do The Love Me .... Or My Stuff? :-)

Need a sense of humor while living in the 3rd world.....

“Oh God," Loren Finnell said, “the worst thing about Ecuador is the day you have to leave your town, with everybody hugging you and crying and their faces all screwed up and streaming with tears. I could never go through that again.” “Yes,” another more realistic Volunteer said, “in my town they were crying and wailing, and five minutes later I caught one of my best friends stealing a pair of scissors.” He shook his head, half laughing and half crying as he said it, not quite sure after two years in which world he‘ was living—that familiar Yankee world, where your best friend does not steal your scissors, or the more pragmatic Latin one, where a friend can be equally as heartbroken that you are leaving as that your scissors are leaving."
(Living Poor: A Peace Corps Chronicle. Moritz Thomsen)

Middle Eastern Culture Is Challange for Westerners To Understand

"It is not uncommon for Middle Easterners to talk as though they know something when they don’t have any idea. They do not do this to deceive, but out of a desire for a good relationship. More than once I have asked a Middle Eastern policeman for directions, only to discover that he does not have a clue! I have learned to observe closely the non-verbal communication (the confused pause before the confident statement) through which the Middle Easterner communicates that he or she does not know.

Middle Easterners will rarely admit verbally that they are wrong. Preserving honor—both one’s own and that of significant others—is very important in the Middle East, and Middle Easterners will often communicate acknowledgment of wrongdoing through a kind act rather than an apology..... pg 18

Middle Eastern society is overwhelmingly tribal and there is a great concern to look after one’s own and trust only one’s own. Consequently, in general one could expect that Middle Easterners who join Western agencies will see no obligation to seek tenders or shop around for the best deal. They will probably go to someone they know—preferably a member of their extended family—even if the family member asks two to three times the price and/or is incompetent.... pg19

(Westerner and Middle Easterners Serving Together: Potential Sources of Misunderstanding. Perry W. H. Shaw. EMQ January 2010 Vol 46, No 1, pp 18-19)

How Missionaries Dress is a Critical Choice!

I have been there as a former minister. You get to the mission field and are so delighted to be free from wear a suit and tie. However, there are often the equivalents in new cultures. More than that, there categories of deficiency we need to learn in the host culture. Like it or not we must adapt. Here is a great illustration

"I know a hard-working missionary who had some success in winning young college men to Christ in a small Muslim city. He is well aware of the need to apply biblical insight and sound theology to his goal of developing local leadership for the church he is planting. However, he seems completely unaware of the strange spectacle he makes of himself as he bicycles around this same town in a helmet and bright-colored spandex bike-wear. Furthermore, the sight of his mountain bike and culturally inappropriate clothing is just one facet of his lifestyle that screams of contemporary Western culture. Despite several years on the field, he seems completely unaware that his behavior is providing his Muslim neighbors with irrefutable evidence that the gospel and “offensive Western culture’ are one and the same. The real problem is not his choice of attire, but that he is unintentionally confirming the warning repeated in mosques across Central Asia that Christianity represents a horrible clash of cultures and must be avoided at all costs."
("Decoupling Missionary Advance From Western Culture",Gene Daniels, EMQ OCT 2009, pg422)

Can we Pray or Sing "God Bless ........" All Nations?

"We in the west still struggle with cultural superiority. We are indoctrinated to believe that living in America is the best possible option. We are told that this nations is (or was) a God-fearing nation and that is why we sing, `God Bless America' but do we think or pray or sing, `God Bless China" or India or Saudi Arabia? This can make adjustment to another place difficult"

(In Pursuit of Effective Models of Mission". Greg H Parsons, Missions Frontiers, Sept-Oct 2009 pg49)

Enough Mission to Do At Home! Why Bother with other nations?

"That there are thousands in our own land as far from God as possible, I readily grant, and that this ought to excite us to ten-fold diligence to our work, and in attempts to spread divine knowledge amongst them is certain fact; but that it ought supersede all attempts to spread the Gospel in foreign parts seems to want proof."

(William Carey, 1792. An Enquiry Into the Obligations of Christians to Use Means for the Conversion of the Heathens. Perspectives,Ralph Winter, 4th edition 2009, William Cary Library pg314)

Missionaries - Put your watch away & your Calender down if you Love these people!

It's hard to adjust to new Cultural views of time & events. But buck them and cause relational damage.

"In another part of Africa, a church service went on and on without regard to the lateness of the hour14 The missionary looked again and again at his watch as his level of irritation soared. The service continued on into the night as more people than usual wanted to testify of the work of God in their lives. When the African pastor stood to preach, it was nearly midnight. The missionary was so upset that he stormed out of the church and went to his home nearby. When the service showed no signs of ending, he switched off the main electricity supply, causing the church to plunge into immediate darkness. Usually the lights at the mission station were switched off at ten o’clock, so the missionary felt he had been more than reasonable. When the African pastor realized what had happened, he broke down and cried. The missionary was highly time-oriented in a Western sense, whereas the national church was event- oriented. They were enjoying themselves immensely and had planned to stay on, without regard to time, until the event ceased to be meaningful."

(Muslim Evangelism: Contemporary Approaches to Contextualization. Phil Parshall. Gabriel Publishing. 2003 p. 44)

How to "Preach" in Other cultures? Interesting to Think About!

"While on furlough, I once tried to explain to an American pastor about the flow and form of a typical house-church meeting in Central Asia. I described how some of the pastors I know, simple Muslim-background men, wait for normal conversations over tea and a meal to determine what they later teach in that meeting. I went on to say that by using this as the primary means of imparting Christian doctrine, they are being relevant to the spiritual needs of people who do not usually think in the abstract. After struggling to get his mind around this paradigm-shattering idea, my friend became annoyed and asked, “But how can you call that preaching?”

Some time later, I related this conversation back to one of those house- church pastors I had referred to. He was just as piqued when he replied, “If I stood up and gave a speech like you do in your Western churches, people would think I was crazy! No one would ever talk that way in real life.”

Hopefully, this illustrates the degree to which cultural conditioning affects our presuppositions about what is the appropriate form for ‘Christian” communication."

(Event-speech as a Form of Missionary Communication, by Gene Daniels. EMQ Jan 2008. p. 80)

Respect and Seek out Elders as a Short-Term Missionary! Don't just "hang out"!

"A local senior pastor, commenting on the manner of dress of the short- term team, said, “They come with their culture, not minding about the people they are ministering to have their own culture.” The team wore hats while evangelizing and when approaching local elders; this was understood lo cally as a sign of disrespect. The senior pastor also complained that the team “hooked up with younger people,” which made the locals suspect the team of having their own agenda. In that culture the missionaries were expected to approach older people for guidance in the culture."

(The Trendy Giant Wounds: Some Lessons from the Church in Africa, David Ngaruiya. EMQ, January 2008, p.63)

When Short -Termers Conduct is an Embarrassment! Listen!

"Some members of a short-term team visited a local disco hall seeking entertainment. They took alcohol in public—a scandal for the local community. In another case, two members of the short-term team were smoking—an embarrassment to local believers and the host pastor. The two were also seen with local girls who made their living from prostitution. The host of this team said that with few exceptions, “they do not build relationships; they come for projects.” A pastor’s wife was puzzled that the short-term mission often turns out to be a vacation, which raises questions about the sincerity of some short-term missionaries. She asked, ‘Do they come here to do the holiday thing or do they come here to minister?” Lack of listening to the local leaders led one pastor’s wife to say, “They have an agenda. They want to get that agenda so that they will have enough information to bring back with them. They are not patient enough to stay and listen.” In her context, respect able nationals will not open up to a short-term missionary who is just “coming and going......

One pastor recalled how the short-term missionaries felt dishonored when their hosts did not schedule every moment of their time. The team felt they were left idle when an event was not occurring. The host team planned around the events. A sharp disagreement arose after debriefing and, although they were invited in return, the team never came back. The implied self ascription of the short-termers as “the achievers” and the host as offering “idleness’ created a conflict between the two groups who were actually committed to the good of each other.”

(The Trendy Giant Wounds: Some Lessons from the Church in Africa, David Ngaruiya. EMQ, January 2008, p.61-62. 63)

Some Mission Field people have been Christians Longer, know the bible better and pray more faithfuly that you - Remember that Short-termers

"A pastor’s wife and community leader shares this about her time with some short-term missionaries: They come as superior to me. They come as those who have been told what I am and who I am. . I became a Christian before many of them were born. The team members were not willing to learn, They would quote an expert in their country who gave them the orientation and it got to a point where I gave them what they wanted to hear."

(The Trendy Giant Wounds: Some Lessons from the Church in Africa, David Ngaruiya. EMQ, January 2008, p.60-61)

Relationship's & Group Activity are Very Important in Other Cultures! Avoid Judgments!

"Because they do not understand how nationals socialize, some short- term missionaries have labeled them as “lazy.” A pastor’s wife was shocked when one missionary commented, “People here don’t like to study the Bible; they prefer to dance” and ‘Your lifestyle is not good. Your songs are not good. This is the way to sing.” This experience gives credibility to the wife’s claim that “they don’t seem to appreciate the way we do things and that it has meaning for us.” The issues she raised illustrate the priority of relationships while going about one’s tasks or chores. In her context, relationships are so critical that a person is considered antisocial for neglecting to take time to interact with others."

(The Trendy Giant Wounds: Some Lessons from the Church in Africa, David Ngaruiya. EMQ, January 2008, p.60)

How to Handle Attention From Locals on the Mission Field

This was an interesting insight about how we should handle all that uncomfortable attention we receive at arrival in a mission town or new village. How should we respond?

"Rather than despise the attention brought to us by our nationality, we should embrace it. God is positioning us where we can have the most impact....

1. Learn why the culture views you as superior. This will allow you to neutralize misconceptions that might cause divisions in your relationships. For example, if you are revered for your American education, those you reach out to might feel inferior because they are unable to read and write.

2. Aim for strategic humility. If you are honored, receive it warmly. Then look for opportunities to exercise radical humility that will challenge worldly views of status. If you are considered wealthy and often invited to dine with social elites, eat your lunches on the street corner with orphans, or commit to menial tasks.

3. I you are given a platform, point to Jesus. If for whatever reason your voice is valued above others, steer conversations toward the one who is truly worthy of attention. Make the most of every relationship. Seize divine opportunities to offer the testimony of Christ’s life, death and resurrection."

("Revered for All the Wrong Reasons." Tyler Emler. EMQ January 2008 Vol 44, No. p11)

Group Conversions in Tribal Societies? What Are Western Individualists to do About a “Personal” Decision for Christ? A Perspective!

How Tribal Societies Make Decisions effects conversion

“Lineage and tribal decisions are also made by the elders. Family heads have their say, but they must comply with the decisions of the leaders if they want to remain a part of the tribe.

This type of social organization raises serious questions for Christian evangelism. Take, for example, Lin Barney’s experience. Lin was in Borneo when he was invited to present the Gospel to a village tribe high in the mountains. After a difficult trek he arrived at the village and was asked to speak to the men assembled in the long house. Lin shared the message of the Jesus’ Way well into the night, and, finally, the elders announced that they would make a decision about this new way. Lineage members gathered in small groups to discuss the matter, and then the lineage leaders gathered to make a final decision. In the end they decided to become Christians, all of them. The decision was by general consensus.

What should the missionary do now? Does he send them all back and make them arrive at the decision individually? We must remember that in these societies no one would think of making so important a decision as marriage apart from the elders, Is it realistic, then, to expect them to make an even more important decision regarding their religion on their own?

Should the missionary accept all of them as born again? But some may not have wanted to become Christian and will continue to worship the gods of their past?

Groups decisions do not mean that all of the members of the group have converted, but it does mean that the group is open to further Biblical instruction. The task of the missionary is not finished, it has only begun, for he must now teach them the whole of the Scriptures.

Such people movements are not uncommon. In fact, much of the growth of the church in the past has occurred through them, including many of the first Christian ancestors of most of the readers of this book.”

(Crucial Dimensions on World Evangelisation, Arthur F. Glasser, Paul G. Hiebert C Peter Wagner, Ralph D. Winter. William Carey Library 1980 pg 71-72)

Unforeseen Side Effects of Conversion Must be considered!

“Since cultural traits are linked together into larger wholes, changes in one or more of them leads often to unforeseen changes in other areas of the culture. For example, in one part of Africa, when the people became Christians, their villages also became dirty. The reason for this was that they were now not afraid of evil spirits which they believed hid in the refuse. So they no longer had to clean it up.

Many cultural traits serve important functions in the lives of the people. If we remove these without providing a substitute, the consequences can be tragic. In some places husbands with more than one wile had to give up all but one when they became Christians. But no arrangements were made for the wives who were put away. Many of them ended up in prostitution or slavery.”

(Crucial Dimensions on World Evangelisation, Arthur F. Glasser, Paul G. Hiebert C Peter Wagner, Ralph D. Winter. William Carey Library 1980 pg 59)

Avoiding Ethnocentrism And Religious Imperialism

“We must distinguish between the Gospel and culture. If we do not, we will be in danger of making our culture the message. The Gospel then becomes democracy, capitalism, pews and pulpits, Robert’s Rules of Order, clothes, and suits and ties on Sunday. One of the primary hindrances to communication is the foreignness of the message, and to a great extent the foreignness of Christianity has been the cultural load we have placed upon it. As Mr. Murthi, an Indian evangelist, put it, “Do not bring us the gospel as a potted plant. Bring us the seed of the Gospel and plant it in our soil”

(Crucial Dimensions on World Evangelisation, Arthur F. Glasser, Paul G. Hiebert C Peter Wagner, Ralph D. Winter. William Carey Library 1980 pg 57)