Advice to new missionaries

[Sister Alvear]

In a missions course I did many years ago I had to make a speech. This was part of it. Since my original computer was stolen I do not have the references I quoted from but anyway I did have a copy of the speech thought some might enjoy reading...

"HELPING A FOREIGN PEOPLE"


To be able to help a people one must understand at least a part of their way of life, customs, traditions, and background. If not, we generally approach them from our way of life. It is the opinion of this author that this has been one of the main hindrances to productive missionary service. So many times the missionary has set up " his home " in " their country " as soon as gets to the field. Expressions such as “these people “and closer home, “the Brazilians “, (or any other nationality of people) have cut the missionary off from being one of them. He has from the start placed the people apart from himself and his way of life. I have heard it said many times by missionaries, “I will not change my life or customs for the people…" and a large percentage never do! That is why they often fail in their missionary endeavors.
The great Apostle Paul understood the values and cultures were different to each group of people. An example of this is when he circumcised Timothy because of the Jews in Acts: 16:3, but did not compel Titus to be circumcised. Gal: 2:3. This was not incoherency (contradiction) on the part of Apostle Paul but a demonstration of the scripture that says, “He that winneth souls is wise."


There are some things such as the plan of salvation that never changes for any people. The way we present the message must relate to the people we are working among. No doubt that is why Jesus spoke so often in parables when He was teaching.

Their language became His language. Most Brazilians believe it is wrong to own a gun or rifle while many North American homes display guns and rifles both in their living rooms and cars. Many Brazilians think it is wrong to have birds in cages, others think it is wrong to buy a ball of any type for a child and for a girl to ride a bicycle would be, in their eyes, a great sin. Brazilians consider Americans cold natured because when they meet they do not hug and kiss one another. Brazilians are constantly hugging and kissing one another because this is a part of their nature and culture. The Brazilians culture causes them to choose rice and beans while the American choose potatoes and hamburgers.

The nationals regard the missionary as a foreigner- a stranger with odd customs from a far away land. He is not identified with the people unless he decides from the very beginning, “I will identify myself with the people that God has called me to work among. The missionary must divorce himself from his own culture and customs for he is not taking a culture to another country, but he is taking the WORD OF GOD.
Christ always identified Himself with the people. Oh, the adaptable Christ.

The love of God is for the whole world, for each human being. He does not see any one group of people better than another group neither does He love any one group of people better than another group. It is our job on earth to manifest his love to all nations.
I
n order to be able to pray intelligently for a people and most certainly to be able to win them to Christ, it is absolutely essential to understand them and way of life. For it is Christ we are taking to them. He is becoming to all kinds of cultures. It is He who breaks the bonds we are unable to break, but we need to know and understand something about the superstitions, fears, traditions, and customs that so bind them. The native has to be taught how God looks at human life and behavior. He has to learn what sin really is. "Oh", says the child of centuries of Christian background, "that is very easy; his own conscience would tell him what sin is." Oh, no it won't! Conscience is trained by background, until it is yielded to the Holy Ghost. A difficulty that missionaries often face is the nationals conception of what sin really is, which so many times differs whit our opinion. Once they hear and understand the wonder of the Christ child, their conception of a newborn babe will take on a new significance. Once they lay down their idol gods and embrace the Christian faith and experience the precious Holy Ghost baptism life will have a new meaning and a new value, for the life of a pagan has little value except to his own people. With the Holy Ghost experience a new conception of their old ways of life will take place.


The setting up of Christian homes will revolutionize their entire way of life. All the terrible satanic influence of the witchdoctor and Catholic Priest will disappear because evil spirits no longer control their homes and lives. Their homes will never be North American homes, but they will be Christian homes indwelt by Christy Himself.
The missionary that never learns the language is of little or no use in a foreign land. For the missionary's sole purpose is to reach a people that have not yet been reached with the precious Gospel. How can he effectively reach souls if cannot speak their language? How can one transmit that which is in the heart if he cannot express himself in the language? One of the most important things is learning to communicate fluently.


It has always been our custom to speak Portuguese around our people. Our home has become a Brazilians home. Our prayers are prayed in Portuguese. Our friends at home, who send us off to foreign shores with adulation and tears over our sacrifice, throw us out of step with the drumbeat of His army. They are apt to give us the idea our particular jar is really a vase; less of earth and more of porcelain, you understand. Then the Lord has the unpleasant task of getting us back into step with His drumbeat. Before we can show off our jewel, we must thoroughly learn that we ourselves are but earthen jars. And our fellow missionaries must be patient with us while we are learning. Anyone who comes to the mission field with even a subconscious idea that he or she is someone special is due for a crucifixion experience. That one will not be useful to the Lord until he receives it. It would be good if anyone planning to come and work on a mission filed could take a few lessons on mission work from some Bible school that gives guidance along these lines.
When a missionary is going through a crucifixion experience it will be a burden to have to live with him; for he may be forgetful, remorse, and irritable- and always critical. He may even write to the friends in the homeland criticizing the work on the field. This is generally the hardest thing for the resident missionary to take. After all, the resident missionary is usually the one that has labored sometimes years to bring the Christians to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.

[Sister Alvear]

Ps: 51:17 speaks of a broken and contrite heart. Notice the word, " Brokenness ".
Hudson Taylor once said, " HARD MISSIONARIES ARE NOT OF MUCH USE: they are not like the Master. He is never hard. It is better to be trusting and gentle and sympathetic, even if often taken in, rather than sharp and hard." It is a broken earthen jar, which most reveals the jewel within. The Lord does the breaking through crucifixion experiences, but the out come of it is confession of sins. A modern saint has said, " In the deep mental and physical pain of humiliation before a brother- which means, before God we experience the cross of Jesus as our rescue and salvation.

Philippians: 1:12 " The furtherance of the Gospel " Dr. C. R. Erdman has this comment: " Passionate devotion to the things which are vital delivered Paul from bitterness of soul, from anger and ill will. Taking advantage of the fact Paul was in prison, some Christian leaders, jealous of Paul's influence, were preaching of envy and strife; possibly saying that God's blessings was not on Paul or he would not be in prison. But Paul was delivered from bitterness of soul at their puny thrusts by the fact that they were getting out and preaching. " Passionate devotion to the things which are vital! We must lay all personal feelings aside.
Every pioneer must learn that blood and sweat of our own are not in themselves payment enough to redeem souls. No souls are won without them, but they are not in themselves the payment. Redemption is God's gift. The shinning peaks of Everest look beautiful in a magazine with its dazzling snow crest and the blue, blue sky above. But the climber has to tuck that vision in his heart and climb on when there is no beauty visible, only the biting cold blast whipping against him, the slippery ice imperiling his foothold, and only canned food in his stomach. From dreamy aspirations to laborious doing. If a man has such a vision, then difficulties and even death itself are but mere details in themselves. The doing of the pioneer is to go on enduring privation, and preaching the Gospel when it seems foolish. It is a serious task!
"It is just the people who are ready to submit to the loss of the thrill and settle down to the sober interest, who are most likely to meet the new thrills in some quite different direction," says C. S. Lewis. The pioneer has to come to the where he is willing to go on without thrills. And the drumbeat of the Lord that calls to that monotonous plodding is also challenging prayer partners at home.
Am I saying, then that we should not look for glamour in our missionary lives? No, it will be given in an unlooked for direction, when the path of duty is soberly chosen.

The glamour of comradeship whit Him out weighs the toil, of hopes deferred, and steadies our life.
Did you ever think the missionary path was all glory? Then you have never read of the great Messenger to earth, who sat and wept over Jerusalem, crying out, “I would… but ye would not." There is a filling up of the sufferings of Christ, for the pioneer. It was Carlyle who said; “On the beaten road there is more tolerable traveling; but there will be sore pain, and many will have to perish in fashioning a pass through the impassable."

The dawn will never break in the souls of those to whom we long to minister until it has first broken in our hearts.
On the mission field one will be tested to the uttermost, beset behind and before, crushed and milled till nothing is left for the eye of man to find beauty in. And so it is when the work is accomplished the excellency of the power is shown and known to be of God and not our own.
Pen and paper could never fully describe the importance of prayer in a missionary's life. When theories ideas- plans, etc. all fail there is an unseen force much stronger that can prevail breaking down Satan's strongholds. As the moon so many miles distant, is able to pull the tide, so the prayers of the saints have power to pull these poor benighted, lost souls out of Satan's domain into the glorious kingdom of light.
" We don't have prayer or grace in our house and nothing has happened yet," said a girl to her minister. He answered sadly, No, dear, nothing has happened but deterioration… prayerless - ness means slow rot, not sudden calamity.
It is hard for a missionary to have a schedule to live by because life on the field is so different from that at home. But woe unto the missionary that cannot find time daily to set in “His Presence." Receiving orders from headquarters is not enough. Although I realize that there are well-planned programs that have caused the work to grow, out first priority must be to receive His orders first and obey them.
The road of time for God's people has been sacrificially marked. The first landmark, the cross, has become the guiding, lasting landmark for the Christian where pardon, mercy and grace full and free are found. But the cross is also the landmark of abnegation, sacrifice, and service. The length of the road is not so important as what is accomplished while traveling thereon.

The missionary must live at Calvary where you died with Christ, (and die daily) unto sin, so that he (sin) can no longer control your life through his subtle tools… self-esteem, self-pity, self-consideration, yes all these things which contest with the Lord Jesus for control of body, mind and affection; your time your possessions, and aspirations.


There is only one power, which can change the lost and set them free- Jesus Christ. At the mention of His Name the powers of darkness give way and light come in. But alas! The name never reaches many of them in message, prayer, or song. Their world is a prison; chains of darkness, sin and superstition hold them until God’s people move out to where they live.
Compiled by: Sister Janice Alvear

[Sister Alvear]

Since Brother Alvear felt I should not go to service as I am supposed to be resting and getting ready for surgery next week...I thought I would write here....

[berkeley]

Mother Alvear,

I really appreciate that you shared this with me. Thank you so very much.


love,
los

[Blubayou]

Sis. Alvear, I emailed you script to a young couple that are going to Ireland next year as AIM workers. Thank you for ministering to them. You hold a wealth of knowledge and wisdom that is invaluable to the younger generation.

[Sister Alvear]

Thank you...if I can just live in a little house by the road and be a help to the new ones that will climb the mountains...at least I can tell them what is up there....