Dora and I completed an amazing training session with The Mission Society near Teresopolis, Brazil from July 1-20th. I had all intentions of writing about this a full month ago, but life has been crazy, and God has opened all sorts of awesome doors for us to share about this ministry all month. We spent a week and a half teaching band camp and preparing to share in three different churches upon return from Brazil, and then spent the next two and a half weeks sharing on Thailand and playing our instruments in the Carolinas and Kentucky. On a less strenuous note, we had a lot of great quality time with both sides of my immediate family in the two weeks we spent in the Carolinas.
MISSION SOCIETY BRAZIL TRAINING
Please Check out our Training Pictures here!
The Mission Society chooses to host it’s missionary training in Brazil for a couple of reasons: first, they want to put the training in a setting where all the missionaries involved are experiencing the challenges of communicating cross culturally, and second, because it was actually cheaper to fly to Brazil and train than it would be for all the American missionaries to gather for two and a half weeks in the home office in Norcross, Georgia!
CROSS CULTURAL CHALLENGES:
It is amazing to me how much more the challenges of entering and working within a foreign culture come alive when people from different cultures learn and engage in team building exercises together! Though many of the Brazilians spoke English and have traveled to the states, there is still a significant worldview difference between the Brazilians and Americans that was very present in our discussions of ministry. For instance, we did an exercise where we looked at a list of doctrines that different denominations have held over the past 2000 years to be essential to the Christian experience, and we were asked to make our own list of which of these doctrines we saw as essential. While each trainees’ lists varied significantly, the division between the lists of the members of the Brazilian Methodist church and those of the American Protestant churches was huge. But, then once we all argued our perspective on these doctrines, we were able to see how each other’s worldviews influenced each person’s reading of scripture, and we all walked away with a new and deeper understanding of the impact of the Word of God on our lives and potential ministries. Please hear me rightly, I am not saying we all compromised on the truth of scripture, but that our experiences, coupled with the knowledge we obtain about Biblical worldviews, and the modern understanding of those with a different worldview (a.k.a. the Brazilians), gives us a much deeper understanding of the relevance of the Word!
ENTERING THE SLUMS:
We were divided into teams of 12 or so, split completely between Americans and Brazilians, and sent twice into favelas in Teresopolis for a half day, and once into favelas in Rio for a day. You can see our team in our pictures posted on Picasa and Facebook. Now a favela is a slum-like neighborhood where the majority of the community members are living as ‘squatters.’ A squatter community is one in which most members do not legally own the land on which they have constructed their house or shack. In addition to this, the drug lords within the communities instead of the police often govern these communities. The ramifications of this were not evident to me when we were in the Teresopolis favela, but when we went to Rio to a favela called ‘Hill of Providence’ I was hammered with this reality. As we climbed the narrow alleyways (the entire community is built on the side of a VERY steep hill) we saw men with guns and radios at every corner just observing us. While we were reassured that our group had permission from the drug lords to be walking through and observing the communities that day, I could not shake the feeling that we were being watched like hawks by men who may not be in their right state of mind.
But, the amazing part of that Rio favela experience was that we observed the older missionary, who had been serving that community for 45 years and was acting as our guide that day, receive hugs from many of these armed men and most of the community members. Despite the armed men’s dark demeanor and occupations, the missionary had earned credibility with the roughest of the rough, and his ability to minister to their children and families was the fruit of these relationships. Darrel Whitman, a brilliant Christian Anthropologist who directed our training, said something like: “To be effective cross cultural witnesses we must have enormous confidence in the Gospel and ever-renewing humility so Jesus is always clear by our presence.” I believe this man exemplified this statement and I pray I may learn to live by it as well. Praise God that he uses the steady willingness of missionaries to reach into the darkest places!
LEAP OF FAITH:
While in Brazil, we discussed with Jim Ramsay, the field coordinator for Mission Society missionaries, the possibility of registering for our FINAL training in Colorado with Mission Training International. We will send more about the specifics about this training later. The Mission Society’s policy is that missionaries should raise 80% of their needed funds for their upcoming term of service before they attend MTI’s training. The training is a 5-6 week session and the last one for the year begins in November. If we miss this training deadline, we would not be able to begin training until January, which would prevent us for leaving for Thailand until at least March. At the time of our Brazil training, we had raised approximately 60% of our necessary funds, and Jim told us that he believed our funds were coming in well enough that he gave the ‘go ahead’ for us to register with MTI for November! He doesn’t want us to miss the opportunity to catch our training by the end of the year, which might ideally put us in a position to leave for Thailand in January, so we are taking a LEAP OF FAITH, believing we will be at 80% by November. Thank you all and Thank GOD for making this unreachable dream a reality!!!
PERSONAL GROWTH:
Finally, in Brazil, Dora and I had an unbelievable time of spiritual and personal growth. We both carved out significant portions of our day for prayer, bible study, and to discuss our fears of ministry and this upcoming leap of faith. We shared many tears and comforting, and I think God has opened each of us in new and deeper ways to each other’s needs. We are both realizing how desperately we must stay connected to each other and to God if this ministry is going to be a success. Fortunately, we serve a God who can do all things!!! How awesome is that! Please continue to pray for us that God prepares our hearts in any ways necessary for this coming challenge. God bless you all.
