Fruit

The value of long-term missions, especially cross-cultural missions, is the fruit it can produce. Time and investment are key. Not just marking time, nor the investment of money. These things produce their own fruit, but they are not spiritual, nor do they always further God's kingdom. I'm talking about the time it takes to invest in people and God's mission, which will always extend God's kingdom. 

It's not rocket-science, as they say, it's obvious. It's what Jesus did when establishing the Kingdom of God on earth. He invested His time in people—twelve men in particular, three men more deeply (Mark 1:14-20; 3:13-19). This same model works today, but is not always followed. Why? Because it requires commitment, faithfulness, persistence, and other such qualities and disciplines not so popular in our current age.

2 Homes

This week I'm traveling with my wife to the Philippines, so my regular weekly post will be a little late. But a quick thought.

It's been said that missionaries are only at home while traveling between their home culture and their home on the field (where they are involved in ministry). This expresses the dilemma most missionaries go through after assimilating into another culture and developing a home abroad. When returning to their home culture, it often seems foreign.

Not only does life continue on without us when we go from one place to another, but the missionary changes as well. Their worldview changes. Their perspective on their home culture changes. And like it or not, the passing of time changes each person, that is, we get older. 

People often make a big deal about climate and food and customs. All of those require a certain adjustment to cope and function within a new environment. But the one thing that a missionary misses most are the relationships made in both homes. It's hard to say goodbye and leave behind family and friends. But you have to get used to it, because that's a pretty constant reality!

I'm writing this late before we head out early in the morning, so hopefully it's coherent. I'll be checking back in when I'm on the other side of the world from my home in the US. What are you up to?

Small Biz Missions

Last weekend—in between huge shopping days, Black Friday and Cyber Monday—small businesses were spotlighted on Small Business Saturday. That's pretty tough competition. How do you compete with a stampede of "blowout deals" and stay-at-home shoppers who don't have to pay sales tax?

Last Sunday I visited a good-sized local church who were featuring a well-known, multi-million dollar international mission. From what I know, this mission is a good organization doing a good work in the name of Jesus. I laud the church and pastor for their enthusiasm and commitment in support of this kind of ministry.

Faithfulness and the Future

This past month I had the privilege of teaching several young people in two courses at a Bible college. The study and work the students do is quite demanding. I helped one group learn how to study parables, and we studied the Book of Daniel in the other course. Daniel was a man whom God showed the future, and I was reminded that students like these are the future of the church.

I also enjoyed visiting with many alumni during the school's annual Founder's Day conference, and several others in a second meeting before I left. They naturally look to me for guidance as their former teacher, but it's they who encourage me when I see their faithfulness and vision for ministry.

God Speaks

I came of age during the tumultuous sixties. The Vietnam War began in the middle of that decade. Prior to this, America was immersed in a promising rise in economic power. The middle class’s growth was the engine that powered the American economy after decades of depression and wartime economies.

Along the way, America seemed to lose its soul. Social protests marked the latter end of the sixties and became a cultural undercurrent against racial injustice, materialism, and a war far from home. This undercurrent created a spiritual vacuum, and nature abhors a vacuum. It was quickly filled with a myriad of philosophies, religious movements, and lifestyles. The range was staggering—eastern religions and philosophies, a resurgence in witchcraft, experimentation with illicit drugs, communes, and along came the Jesus Movement that challenged the traditions and status quo of Christianity.

The Core of the Gospel

Culture has an amazing impact upon people. It subtly shapes their worldview of everything in life, from birth through adulthood. This impact is strong and resistant to change, but it will change given sufficient cause. The change can be either good or bad depending on one’s worldview, values, or beliefs. For example, the enslavement of Africans, abducted and traded as if they were cattle, was culturally acceptable in European countries and America.

Tapestry of the Gospel

Karen conference in N Thailand ©tkBeyond

Picture a tapestry woven with five different colors of thread. Choose some bold colors like red, blue, green, and perhaps some purple and gold. Or choose your own colors and imagine someone at a weaver’s frame with five different shuttles. The tapestry begins to take shape as the weaver moves the shuttles back and forth across the frame. It may take some time before you see the completed fabric, but when finished it will be bold and beautiful.

Christian Language and Gospel Ignorance

A growing number of people in North America and Europe have no background or understanding of Christianity. One reason could be the great influx of immigrants from many nations. But an increasing segment of Western society has grown unengaged and uninterested in Christianity, the result of a shift in culture. America’s culture is becoming both post-modern and post-Christian. Many sources discuss this at length, but I won’t here.[i] Europe and Canada have preceded the US in this cultural shift, but America is not far behind. 

Learning, Listening, Leading

Last week I bandied about some thoughts on WWJD and my own acronym WDJD. This week I'm looking at what got me thinking about all this. The point of last week's post is not wondering what Jesus would do in a given situation, but learning what He did do. The Gospels reveal plenty of situations applicable to those arising in our own lives each day.

Lane-Lock

I don't do a lot of driving, but there are a few routes I take pretty often in and out of town. While driving I've observed a common behavior that at first perturbed me, and then gave way to some pondering.

I noticed how people would line up in a lane, sometimes miles before necessary, to exit onto another road or offramp. This seems to hold true for right or left-hand turns. Of course, this impedes traffic and causes congestion along the way. But this is not a post about traffic habits, it's an observation on life—and faith.

Altar or Throne?

Recently I was in So Thailand for some teaching ministry for a couple weeks. If you didn't know already, Thailand is a predominantly Buddhist nation, and Buddhism breeds and thrives on animistic belief. One look around at all the "spirit houses" and altars (shrines) erected throughout the nation makes this clear. It is difficult to preach the Gospel in Thailand and see genuine conversion.

Being in another culture different than your own helps you see things from a different perspective—one of the values of cross-cultural missions among other things. In a sense, I have two home cultures—American and Filipino. Although they are quite different from each other—one is western and the other eastern philosophically—there is a vast difference between both of them and Thai culture, which is Buddhist. Or is there?

Lots Going On...But Loving It

Last week's post was titled, "I 'heart' this." This is more or less an extension of last week's post. I just returned from So Thailand via Manila, where our little team taught through four IBS workshops, and I had the blessing of preaching in three church services last Sunday (15th). Yesterday (22nd) I spent flying from Thailand to Manila, including some time in the Kuala Lumpur Intl. Airport. Another flight today back home to Rainbow in Dumaguete where I'll be teaching a Bible College class this week. It's been a busy time, but good.

An American Icon and an African Story

The death of an American icon, Steve Jobs, captured the headlines and induced reminiscence by many last week. He was a creative and marketing genius, no doubt, and I appreciate the products he introduced into American life. For a while, his death took center stage in the midst of a growing protest of Wall Street's excesses. But my heart has been captured by a young South African girl named Chanda.
(BTW, the girls in this photo are from Ethiopia © tkbeyond)

MOTROW

© tkbeyond

MOTROW— no, not Motrin, nor is this some phony, phonetic attempt at saying Montreal with a peculiar accent. It's an acronym, a set of letters that stand for something, but more on that in a bit. I use acronyms, but don't always like them. Acronyms are big in special fields of study and institutions, like government for example. They're great shortcuts, especially when writing, so you don't have to waste time and effort writing all those words. The problem is understanding what they mean. Unless there's some familiarity with the acronym, it may look like a jumble of letters or something written in code—actually, it is code, it's symbolic.