I was thinking the other day...I think I think too much, as one of my co-workers told me.
Who is a missionary? What has been defined as a missionary, someone who goes overseas to bring the gospel to those who do not know is not the case anymore. When we were in Papua, it seemed most of the 'missionaries' were there to help other missionaries who were there to help the local church. Not much gospeling going on. There are missionaries who live here on my street in Lynden. Obviously not overseas, maybe bringing the gospel but then would they not be witnesses? A friend of mine is a houseparent, is she a missionary?
Who is a missionary? If you ask someone to support you financially are you then a missionary? What if you can work in the place you have gone, should you still ask for money to be there? Is a missionary a role like Pastor, elder etc. A person sent out by the church to do whatever the church asks them too? But what if the Church isn't really sending you? What if you are telling the church where you are going and what you are doing and they just need to give you money to be there? Why are their mission boards rather then sending churches? Who keeps the missionary accountable in that field of choice? Who is Pastoring them? It seemed that in Papua, there was an expat community to help the expat community. Sort of like a oil company with all the perks but the business was being a missionary, whatever that means. I am wondering about how we do things today, in our postmodern virtual world. What we did then should we do now? Maybe times have changed enough to change the way things are done.
I am wondering...
6 comments:
Oh! Such good questions -- I echo them!
Ahhh....now you sound like your brother :)
P
Ahhh... wonderful, wonderful pondering questions!! Questions we should all ask AND voice! I love your questions, I love your wondering heart.
By the way, have you read "Velvet Elvis"? Don't be put off by the title - but it is great and I think you especially would love this book. It is by Rob Bell and has a sub-title of "Repainting the Christian Faith". Now I don't buy into everything he says, but having grown-up and lived in a very 'evangelical' expression of what is Christan faith - this brought new, fresh perspective to it all in our current times - much like your questions, and blog in general have done for me.
Just wondering.... so keep blogging - I listen and I then ponder too!
Our Dearest Aunt Heidi,
We, two of your past students from Papua, read this and were deeply saddened.
The work our families do is so important. And being an MK (you know this) can be difficult. Rewarding, but difficult. So we really really feel that we are here for a reason and not just because we are playing "missionaries."
It's also sad to us because we feel like our families have been called here. So it is weird to have someone say that it's not so important because maybe our families are not personally translating God's Word.
We wish you didn't feel that way about it. You were such an important part of us too. Teachers are so important. And that's what you were doing and it was beneficial and wonderful for us to have you as our teacher. And that is what you were you doing, you were here to help other missionaries help missionaries to translate, by giving their kids an education. It was all just kind of confusing.
We hope that there is more to all of what you said. We really do love you and miss you, Aunt Heidi!
To the two students..wish you had left your names so I could write you personally...It is a conversation we had in our classrooms many times, I discussed this with you many times. SO please..leave your names or email me so we can have this conversation. A. Heidi
One is Kayla Cripe (mari_kita_berdoa@yahoo.com).
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