Taking a Haitus to Work on the House

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Difficult Decisions to Receive

One of the responsibilities I carried during our time in W. Africa was reviewing funding proposals for a particular disaster assistance funding program. This "Hunger Program" connected with Church World Service (which also connected with One Great Hour of Sharing). And so, in western Ghana, with machetes in hand and boots on the feet the 6 km (3.7 miles) trek to the Cocoa farm out in the bush begins… The coop's farmers were trying to demonstrate their need for a $1000 grant to buy 35 pairs of rubber boots for women in the co-op.

You see, not infrequently, the women who do most of the physical labor, are found along the path having fallen under their loads or having slipped in the mud because they can’t afford the $30.00 for a pair of rubber boots, and in some cases they may have broken limbs and may have waited a day or more for someone to come. This is the life of a cocoa farmer.

Today, along the way we see signs of illegal timbering and a small (3’ black Cobra).

Neither is a welcome sight. One, however, is more acceptable.

The snake moves quickly away. The trees will take 30-40 years to replace.

And finally, the payoff. A well managed and healthy cocoa farm almost 4 miles into the bush.  It was the only land this co-op, of close to 100 people, could afford.

Most of the initial processing will also be done in the bush.

The pods are split open and the cocoa beans are dug out (much like seeding a pumpkin), wrapped in banana leaves, buried, and left to ferment for several days in the bush. Then they are unwrapped and dried.  When dried they are bagged and carried to town where they may only be sold to the government at prices controlled by the government.

In an attempt to minimize production costs and maximize the minimal profit that may be made, farming cooperatives spring up.

In this case when they heard that a white man was coming who was more interested in learning about their cocoa farms, than their former gold coast setting over 100 people walked and traveled by public transport up to 12 kilometers to see if it was true...

 

Even the Chief showed up...

...and if you're wondering, the request was denied.  This was one of the hardest parts of the job, reporting back to the co-ops (or any applicant) that their request was denied.  No reason was given it was just denied.  This has left a chip on my shoulder for some of these offerings, because as I reviewed (and I always did) the programs that were supported, it always seemed to be the more radical, liberal, "social justice" bent requests that saw the money flow.  And I, and others, were left informing the applicants that folks in the US couldn't afford $1000 to buy 30 pair of rubber boots...

 

Kenya, to Thailand, to Ghana

 

 

"Joy"

Copyright:

Artist: Tree63

Composer: John Ellis

Publisher: Hal Leonard

Great Challenges Yield Greater Blessings

 

Music Copyright:

"I Had a Farm in Africa"

from the Motion Picture "Out of Africa"

Composed by: JOHN BARRY

Arranged by: MICHAEL MARTINEZ

Universal Music Group

 

 

It's a trap!

It was an innocent enough question, or so I thought.  I was being interviewed by someone who would soon become my boss. We had been talking about cross-cultural issues, challenges, coping mechanisms, healthy boundaries, and other matters pertinent to living in a very different cultural context.  The question seemed a natural extension of that line of discussion.  "How are you at non-verbal communication?"

I answered frankly, that I felt I was reasonably well able to follow a lead, to read body language, and tone of voice to help interpret the person's communication. However, I anticipated that there would be increased challenges along those lines in a culture with which I was less "well-rehearsed or experienced."  And that seemed to be the end of the matter.  My future boss smiled and seemed to be particularly pleased with the answer. Duh!

It wasn't until things began to fall apart in our relationship that I began to understand that what was really being asked was "are you willing to read between the lines to discern what I am asking so that I don't have to actually come out and ask it?"

Now, on the surface even that may seem a reasonable request, but as most of my co-workers in the region at that time would attest, it was really nothing more than a cover to avoid responsibility.  The deeper implications were, can you discern what I am asking you to do without my actually asking you, so that when it blows up, I can deny ever having asked or even implied that you should do such a thing?  Are you willing to take the fall for my ineptness?  Will you guarantee me plausible deniability in everything I want you to do?  Will you insulate me from responsibility for my actions?  This person had built his career on plausible deniability.

Case in point, I was asked to team with two other missionaries to plan a missionary retreat for our region.  We took the responsibility well in hand and began the process.  I was warned by the others that there may be pushback as this director expected to be treated like visiting royalty.  

We found a very good deal at a resort at which the missionaries would all feel comfortable.  It was not a guest house nor was it a 5 star location. And it was within the budget we had been given.  As our plans progressed I stopped hearing from my director.  Later, at a gathering of the missionaries, one who had rarely been a part of our gatherings approached me and said that she was excited about having booked a certain rather fancy resort for our retreat.

When we talked further, she was honestly surprised I hadn't heard that the director had asked her to assume responsibility.  We were out of the picture.  She apparently was better at non-verbal communication and understood what was wanted.

The bash was so extravagant that no other region in the world was able to have a missionary retreat for the next three years.  It exceeded the budget by close to five times I later understood. But the boss got to stay in the Presidential Suite during the retreat. AND was able to say he wasn't aware of the costs that were being incurred since he had handed the responsibility over to one of the missionaries.  The missionary took her bruises and went on.

We lost 8 out of our 11 missionaries (in that region) in just 4 short years over just such matters. Few could live with any integrity when the ones with which we were called to work and witness lived on subsistence level salaries.  We were being asked to make promises we knew wouldn't be kept...told to ignore somethings that were being said...and not to communicate with anyone back at the denomination's USA head office, except the director.

Thus it was that we left the mission field for the first time, resigning after our first year, and being black-listed by our director, ensuring we would never return to the country we loved as long as he sat in that seat.  And we didn't...

So if someone at an interview asks you about how you are at non-verbal communication, you might want to push back a bit on the question and dig deeper into what is actually being asked in order to avoid a misadventure in mission. 

Mission Mis-Policy

Faith based mission programs are, quite simply,the sending forth of missionaries based on the promises of people to support them.  The security of the funding of such positions lies in the promises of those who have "pledged" their support. This style of missionary support is distinctly differ from what might be called charitable support based missions.  Whereas faith based missionaries are expected to raise their own support, a charitable support based missionary has the commitment of the sending agency behind it.  Many larger denominations have historically utilized this charitable support model. Congregations give a portion of their offerings to a higher judicatory body which then utilizes that money to support it's missionaries.  

In the first instance, the funding is driven by support of the individual's understanding of his or her calling.  In the second, the funding is driven by the sense that the denomination will determine the calling and hire (much like a business) the missionaries to carry out that calling. 

I belonged to one of the latter, charitable support based organizations.   And therein lies the introduction of a related, but essential issue in missionary work - The Mission/Missionary Policy.  These are the rules and regulations by which and through which missionaries are selected and sent.

Our policy had some very good elements.  But, like any business enterprise or any organizational structure for that matter, the policy was only as good as its implementation was able to yield good results. And so my story goes...

A group from one of the denominationally affiliated congregations in the USA had come to the mission field to see first hand what we were up to.  A part of my task in mission was to coordinate these "looky-looky" groups as I liked to call them.  The wanted to see their money at work. These groups could be of great assistance to the missionaries in helping to advance the cause of mission back in the USA.  But so too, they could be a tremendous burden on the work of those in the field working in fields such as the engineering of water filtration systems, serving as physicians and surgeons, teaching, etc. So as someone whose task it was to keep the congregations connected to the broader mission work of the denomination, it fell to me to help itinerate the groups, and I REALLY enjoyed telling the story, making the connections, and watching people's eyes grow big and their hearts grow wide as they discovered just how real and exciting the story of mission work was.  Lives were being changed in the field in which we worked and in the lives of those who came to see that work.

This particular group was so enamored of the work, they asked why we didn't produce some videos that could be used in the congregations back home.  I hemmed and hawed a bit about how the sending organization/denomination was trying their best to bring some equipment into the field to interview the missionaries and then produce something for broad use across the many congregations.

"No," one person said. "Why aren't you making a video of this?" "Why aren't you sending video's back?" My reply was simple. "We don't have the resources to purchase a camera." (This was pre smart phone days.) So of course the funding was made available.  When I checked our Missionary Policy Manual, I learned that this sort of provision was against our policy.  I check with the folks stateside at the sending office as was told that the local indigenous organization with which I worked needed to receive the funds and own/hold the equipment.  When I responded that that would be problem due to some rather nefarious issues with the partner regarding such matters, I was told that was none of my concern.  The money needed to be tracked and the partner was notified.  Eventually the funding came through the partner's head office, to the department to which I was assigned.  I was given the money and told to "go buy the camera." 

Dutifully, and hopefully, I did just that.  We managed to make a couple of videos, but was asked to turn the camera over to the Department Head for safe keeping and broader use by the department.  Not a problem...

After several months, we had  another group coming and I ask permission to use the camera only to be told it wasn't available.  When I inquired further, I was told it was none of my concern.  As I probed more deeply, through the lower level staff, who really always tended to be the most trustworthy members and the "getitdoners" I was told that the Department Head had given it to his son who used in on vacation and broke it. $1000 video camera gone, never to be seen again.

This is the challenge of mission. Balancing accountability, responsibility, transparency, and practicality.

 Unfortunately, in this, and so many other instances, a policy which reads well, which interprets "partnership" in an egalitarian manner, and makes the decision makers look good to their constituents, fails so miserably in practice.  

Seasoned missionaries with my organization rightly pointed out that the question should have never been asked of the policy issue. The gift should have been received, gratitude expressed, and the video camera purchased and kept; that it was none of the sending agency's/denomination's business.  But therein lies the other rub in these settings.  Principles.  How do we as people of principle and integrity, who believe in following guidelines, balance the need for this integrity with the on the ground realities...

It's not an easy question, but I do know, after 10 years of experience, that the missionaries who come down on the side of reality and practicality last long in the mission field amongst these charitable support based funding models of mission.

By the time I had realized this it was too late.  My constant questioning of the policies and the demonstration of their dysfunctional application, had earned me the status of persona non grata. It was known, in a sense, that I "had the goods"; that I was "not a player"; that I "dared to call out the policy failures", and even "the corruption" of the organization with which I worked.

My sense is that the more significant difference between these two models of mission funding is the reality that faith based missions is based on the integrity of the individual to do what they feel called of God to do, and that the charitable support based funding model is based on the need for the organization to maintain control, even when they haven't a clue as to what is actually happening. In this latter model there is an inherent patronizing attitude toward the missionary, an assumption that they are insufficiently equipped to make even marginally significant decisions. It ends in a micro management of the resources of the organization from a distant office which is too often out of synch with the particularities the missionary faces.  

This charitable support based model, in my particular case, has resulted in such increasing distrust that the missionary effort is largely a failure. Funding is no longer sufficient to retain a vibrant force.  The missionary force has been more than halved in just the past 15 or so years. Missionaries who were previously paid as couples are, in some cases, forced to live on single missionary salaries. Longer term missionaries were offered a buy out. 

It leads me to believe that many of the faith based, faith promise missions had it right all along.

Long-live faith based missions.

Non American Christian Faith Lessons

A recent exchange on Facebook about the worship like status afforded the Super Bowl, the contenders, and half-time performers by so many who also claim to worship the Savior reminded me of one of my first mission experiences on "this side of the pond."

Having spent a year in Kenya coordinating relationships between USA presbyterian congregations and Kenyan presbyterian congregations We returned to our beloved home in IL and set about trying to coordinate the relationships from this side.

Helping to develop the relationship between our local presbytery and one in Kenya, we invited several Kenyans to visit with us.  My job involved coordinating all aspects of that visit including the itineraries, interpretation, and providing counsel to both sides of the visiting teams - the hosts and the guests.

One of our guests, the Moderator of the partner presbytery and leader of the guest contingent was housed in a neighboring town.  That Sunday, just after worship I received the call.  The American host was upset that the Kenyan guest was steadfastly opposed to attending the region's Corn Festival.  When asked if he'd like to attend to see some of the culture, the guest asked what the Christian purpose of the event was? 

The response was given that it was not a particularly Christian event but a festival celebrating the crop that played such an important role in the region's economy and that a group from the church would be attending. The guest asked what the church group was going to do and was told, they'd be watching the parade and walking around looking at the booths.  The guest asked if they church group would be handing out evangelistic tracts or otherwise sharing their faith?  The response was no, it was just for fun.  And the guest declined wondering why the church would involve itself in such a thing without making some sort of witness.  The host was confused and a bit upset.  The host was committed to going and the guest was committed to not going and the  question arose as to whether or not the host could leave the guest alone...

The question was a multi-faceted one. At its core, however, there was a cultural disconnect between E. African concerns regarding the pantheistic aspect of agricultural religious movements (as witnessed in the Old Testament) and the western agronomistic focus on God's bounty.  But the response raises another question - why do we attend such events (as a congregational group) and not use it as a specific evangelical outreach.  I hear of church groups attending all sorts of sporting events, just for fun, going to theme parks just for fun, seeing movies as a group, just for fun.  There is no distribution of trracts, no purposeful witnessing, and I wonder, why not?  Why do we continue to compartmentalize our faith, limiting it to Sunday School, Worship, and Fellowship (and why do so many end up talking about nothing but worldly matters at Fellowship gatherings)...

Why is there any aspect of our lives wherein we do
not discuss, share, witness to our faith?  Because we might lose our jobs?  (Will not the Lord provide?)  Because we don't know how to witness?  (What is evangelism but one beggar telling another where to find food?)  I am left wonder if it is not a simple matter of not sufficiently trusting the Lord?

I headed out the door to the neighboring town and sat and talked with the host and the guest to try to ameliorate any bad feelings and any negative impact to the partnership.  It the end the guest gave in and went to the Festival.  I understand he was a bit "embarrassing" to the host church as everyone to whom he was introduced he asked if they know Jesus...  The heart of a true believer, cannot, will not be silenced. 

We have a lot to learn from non American Christians.  

And as a post script it's interesting to note that this international partner is now sending missionaries to sister America as a return favor.  They say "you once brought us the gospel, and now it seems you need it too."