I don't imagine for a second that I can provide a complete or knowledgable summary of the day. Hopefully I can give you an indication of what we did with our time. Today's session generated much food for continued thought and consideration. This week of study and assessment is clearly a starting point as well as a point of clarification.
Today was the long day. We started at 8:30 am and won’t wrap up until about 8:30 pm. I’m really coming to enjoy the assessors. The presenters possess a wealth of insight born out of years of success and failure in a non-American culture.
One of our first activities of the day was to review an assessment tool that indicates how each of us prefers to work in groups. Marge and I both tested as fairly colaborative. This is neither good nor bad, it just is. Knowing our natural style will help us when we are in a team setting, and will help us understand when we need to adopt a different style (as best we can).The largest chunk of the morning focused on the impact of culture.
Our job as missionaries is to take the truth of the Bible into the culture and communicate it in a culturally relevant way. The presenter/assessors referred to it as contextualization. Contextualization as a practice has caused some controversy in Evangelical circles, because taken to an extreme it can become syncretism (my opinion maybe more on that later). That said, Jesus always spoke using methods that were deeply embedded in the Jewish culture (makes sense, as to His humanness he was born a Jew). Other Bible writers wrote within their own cultural context. The truth of the Bible, however is supracultural: Above culture.The presenter made a striking comment, “God is beyond culture, God’s truth is beyond culture, we are not.”
He also read a story from a book called “Anthropological Insights for Missionaries”. In summary the story recounted a man in a tribe that practiced polygamy. The Christian church in the area condemned polygamy as a sin. The tribal man had two wives and third wife he had taken in when his brother died. The man claimed to be a Christian, and had several thought provoking things to say. One, he said, “My pastor prays that I will give up polygamy so I can become a church member [which would mean divorce for two of his wives], my wives pray that I will never become a church member.” The other comment was this, “The Bible condemns divorce, but not polygamy.” In a society in which polygamy is normative, and of practical benefit what do you say to men and women who turn to the Christian faith? Divorce all but one of your wives? Which wife? From scriptural principles how do you counsel this man?
My guess is that you would quote this Bible verse, “Husbands love your wives as Christ loved the church. . .” That indicates that a husband has a sacrificial love for His wife, caring for her and giving himself for her nurturing and growth as a person and (hopefully) Christian believer. How could a man serve his wife if he divorces her, and sends her away?Weird, huh?Missions Reality Check, was about counting the cost, before committing to the field. Realistically taking stock of the demands of life in an unfamiliar culture. Scripture says to “count the cost.”What are some of the difficulties?Food: In some cases refusing certain foods causes deep offense, and cause the missionary heart burn.
ClimatePersonal and Physical DangerDisease and SicknessLack of emergency services (no ambulance, not necessarily the same level of skilled care)Raising children on the field and how the culture reacts to themDistance from extended familySense of isolation because of a unfamiliar cultureIn some cases isolated from other ChristiansFrustrations of learning another cultures psychology, sensibility and modes of communicationPolitical unrestObserving the locals that have embraced Christianity being persecuted for their new found Christian faith.A missionary’s actions or intentions being misunderstoodHe closed with a discussion of II Corinthians 1:8-10 which spoke of being pressed beyond what we can handle, but God providing the grace for us to over come challenges. There is that balance between practical assessment and an act of faith.Just before dinner we did a conflict mode analysis tool that is designed to reveal how each of us deals with conflict.
After dinner, we began a missions strategy simulation. We were given the task of going as a missions team to the Wolof tribe in Senegal. In fact, before I go to bed I need to do some research. It was a blessing to have in our group individuals who had already spent time on the missions field and specifically with remote tribes.The missions strategy simulation will take most of the day tomorrow. We will actually finish it by presenting a PowerPoint of our strategy and plan. During that time as we are all working together as a team, periodically couples are called out for assessment sessions with one of the psychologists, and a BGC mission assessor. This breaks the continuity of the team, but also simulates the fluidity of field work itself.
That’s a quick summary.
I’m sure after this is all done I’ll be writing about this for a while.
Adam
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