Ask A Missionary A Question

[Drops a Sweet Katana]

What's been the most interesting place you've visited so far, both culturally and geographically(?)?

 

[lacktheknack]

In your attempts to convert people, how dogged are you about it, and does it get to you personally if people resist?

I hate infringing on peoples' time and space. It's just a trait of mine. It means I'm a very mild-mannered missionary who's often cowed out of actually sharing the gospel. And yes, if someone gets annoyed with my efforts, it gets to me a lot, so I try my darndest to avoid annoying people.

Happily, outside of West Europe and North America, this is rarely an issue. As I mentioned before, people in India wanted our Bible handouts so bad that we ran out way before our we expected them to. We asked one person if he wanted a Bible, and then suddenly we got hit by a tidal wave of people who wanted them.

Plus, we didn't get a single convert on our outreach, but we handed out so many Bibles and had enough people ask about Christianity that we aren't too bothered. But yeah, we aren't annoying about it. People were always happy to have us around.

 

[lacktheknack]

What's been the most interesting place you've visited so far, both culturally and geographically(?)?

So far, it's a tie between Russia and Cambodia. Russia is a very strange place, feeling a lot like America except everyone is colder, the weather is colder and the buildings are all crumbly. There's a weird sense of oldness and majesty about the place. Walking around it demands a sort of reverence that I don't feel in other countries. Of the countries I've been, it's the only one I can imagine living in (which is good, since I intend to live there in the future, diplomacy allowing). Now, this was Vladivostok, which is significantly different from, say, Moscow.

Cambodia is basically a poor man's Thailand, but the people are so friendly and the culture so unique that I like it better than Thailand overall. There's a lot more green (since there's fewer people there), everything's more village-centered and it's got a lot of unspoiled landscapes (unheard of in other southeast Asian countries). There's a lot of wounding because of Pol Pot (virtually every conversation with a random Cambodian turns sharply into ranting about the Khmer Rouge, even among the younger crowd), which makes people a lot more open to foreign aid and religious talk. Also interesting (and difficult) is that the typical person is awake in a Cambodian village from about 3:00 AM to 7:30 PM, which made for some interesting challenges over the seven weeks we were there. Waking up at 3:30AM to the screams of agony from some poor pig in the slaughterhouse next door results is some very... interesting... waking dreams.

India's culture was possibly the most interesting (I mean, it's India, the most famous "Culturally Unique" country of them all), but after three weeks of doomtastic traffic, unending crowds and unending high noise levels, I couldn't wait to get out of the country.

 

[Mutant1988]

How do you explain the inconsistencies within your religious scripture and how it undermines it's merit as a moral guideline to those you preach to?

Not trying to start a fight on beliefs here but it really bugs me when people support their views on what the bible says, yet see fit to ignore parts of it when convenient. People are allowed to believe what they want, but I appreciate some consistency in those beliefs and not just using it as a fall back to not reconsider your views whenever it's convenient.

I don't like bigotry and especially not when it's based not on personal experience, but what an old book says.

I genuinely think that a good morality can be entirely detached from a theological source, simply because it's in our nature to interact with other humans and form groups and it's in our own best interest not to be jerks (Even if that point is missed and ignored by some people - Not specifically religious people, but anyone that is hateful regardless).

Sorry if this comes across as condescending or confrontational. I genuinely wish I could believe in something on a theological level, but my impression of established groups of believers just shows me it does more harm than good.

It would be really nice with re-incarnation though, but my hopes are low.

 

[DEAD34345]

If Youth With A Mission is a non denominational Christian group, what exactly is it/are you trying to achieve in Russia, where people are mainly Orthodox Christian anyway? Is the goal to make the people completely outside of Christianity in Russia join some denomination of Christianity (without being too fussy as to which), or are the Orthodox Christians part of the target too somehow?

 

[Arakasi]

What makes you think you have such a grasp on the knowledge of the universe over any other religion or philosophy? Let alone enough so to start trying to convert other people to yours. If the answer is faith, I ask you; why would anyone share your faith in your specific god over any others?

 

[Zombie_Fish]

Have you done any missionary work before this? And if not, do you want/expect to do it again?

Did you spend any time exploring the countries you visited and learning more about life there? Or did all of that just happen while you were spreading the word?

Sorry if either of these questions sound moronic; I know pretty much nothing about Missionary work.

 

[Sleepy Sol]

What's your proudest moment in missionary work?

Speaking as someone who used to be a Baptist Christian, I know that missionaries can do a lot of good work. So basically, I'm just interested in what you feel have been your best accomplishments. It was never for me given that I have extreme amounts of trouble with conversation. Though I would also say now that I don't think any religion is right for me either.

I'm still very happy to support such trips for altruistic purposes and whatnot, or volunteer at a 'Christian' homeless shelter or soup kitchen.

I like how you said you didn't want to talk about theological arguments and then a bunch of people proceeded to discuss theological arguments. Or take an immediately accusatory tone.

 

[happyninja42]

NOTE: THIS IS NOT MEANT TO BE ABOUT THEOLOGICAL FIGHTING. That's why I put it in Off-Topic. Throw my weary ass a bone here and don't turn the thread into whether God is real or not, please.



If anyone has wondered where the heck I've been for the last three months and/or wondered what the heck missionaries do, I'm open to questions/comments/concerns/angry rants/whatever.

Not sure what kind of angry rants you are allowing us to toss at you if we can't discuss God, since you asked us to "ask a missionary" . I'm also not really sure why you'd want angry rants in the first place, no matter the subject.

I don't really have anything to ask you, since I don't believe in any god, your trip was basically just an extended vacation, talking to people trying to convince them to believe in your imaginary friend. So, yeah, hope you had a fun trip I guess. That's about it.

 

[Flames66]

I was wondering, what does a missionary do? I have heard about one of the goals of Christianity being to go out and "spread the word" or "save" people, but I have never understood how that manifests itself.

 

[Nieroshai]

I've got one, do you provide physical aid to the locations you visit? I'm not looking for any thing monumental like building a hospital or school, but something just like a soup kitchen or give a homeless person a place to sleep?

I'd continue my train of thought, but it goes down a road this thread doesn't need to become.

Yes, we did. In Cambodia, we built an adorable old lady a house, taught English at an after-school program, and we also bought and donated rice to quite a few hungry families the local church told us about. In India, there wasn't as much opportunity to do that sort of thing (we were situated in a more "well off" area), but we still did what we could. Our outreach wasn't as aid-centered as some others from the same organization, but we didn't just walk past people who were hungry.

That's reassuring to know. My only experience with missionaries in the past never really mentioned helping the local populace in a physical way, just spreading whatever religion they were. Thanks for the info, lacktheknack.

It comes with the territory, missionaries in general are taught not to even do anything that might look or smell like bragging. But the one and only mission I ever went on before falling out of grace with the church was to build an orphanage in Guaymas, Mexico and hand out medicine and hygiene products. Rarely is a mission simply about handing out bibles. And this is coming from a former churchgoer: exactly what Christians are bashed for not doing, some are out there doing in spades, and not even getting a good-morning for it back home.

 

[Arnoxthe1]

Did you actually meet with any Mormon missionaries at all?

 

[Lilani]

I have a friend who has also done missionary work, and she had a bad encounter with some younger missionaries who were extremely rude to the locals. I don't remember what denominations they were, but they were somewhere in Central America and had apparently taken great offense with how the poorer locals smelled and washed. So they spent some time very patronizingly showing them soap and pantomiming how to use it--note they didn't speak enough of the local language to very well explain what they were doing. Have you ever encountered any like that?

Also, in what ways do you go around "spreading the word," so to speak? I'm a Methodist, and while we don't really do "missionary work" per se we have many ties to Mozambique and Guatemala, with many church plants in both countries, and we have many charities and resources allocated to them. I suppose in a way that is our missionary work--we send groups to these countries who go and bring them resources as well as help them do work. And while they are there they also establish churches and spread the word. My brother is preparing for his third trip to Mozambique; the first time he went he was 15 and helped dig a ditch which was eventually used to build a wall around a hospital, which was needed because the hospital was often stolen from. The second time his group brought medical supplies and clothing and helped make repairs to some of that community's buildings. This third trip will actually be a bit less work-oriented since most of the others going are elderly. For them it will be more of a worship experience, simply meeting with the locals and getting a taste of how they live.

As for other charity projects for these countries, we have a charity dedicated to buying nets which repel and kill mosquitos since malaria is still a big problem in many parts of Mozambique, another dedicated to purchasing and giving animals to families so they can sustain themselves (animals for long-term sustenance as opposed to slaughter, like chickens, goats, cows, etc), and another dedicated to purchasing or renting equipment to dig wells from safe water sources.

The idea of a missionary in my head is just someone who goes around talking but not really doing anything immediately helpful to their situation, but I suppose I've also not encountered many missionaries in my life so I wouldn't really know if many are like that, if any at all.

 

[Timeless Lavender]

Wow, I hope you enjoyed your time oversees and I admired your hard work there. I want to know how you recovered from culture shock or homesickness, I mean I loved to know about other countries and their cultures but their are some foods or traditions I would not even try. So how do you overcome these obstacles and what cultural stuffs/food either scare you or things you may even like and want to carry to your hometown.

 

[K12]

The two stories that come to mind whenever I hear about missionaries are firstly the Scientologists who went to Haiti after their earthquake a couple of years. They hadn't brought any relief supplies (on ever stuff for themselves) because they were going to buy it all when they got there... as well as that there were issues of some Scientologists trying to adopt some of the children affecting and bring them back to America, which they were doing in a way that was essentially attempting kidnapping.

The other story is a personal story of the only time I've ever actually met a missionary (that I know of) and he was probably the most patronising and self-righteous person I have ever spoken to. It was in Cambodia and I was informed that he had come from Alabama to teach the book of God to all these poor lost souls.

My response (being the smart-arse tosspot that I am) was to ask which book of God he meant. The conversation went downhill from there...

I am aware that this isn't representative of most missionaries, many of whom are basically foreign-aid workers with the religion just being optional extra for those you are already being given real help (I'm an Atheist if that hasn't become obvious already).

 

[Ihrgoth]

How do you explain the inconsistencies within your religious scripture and how it undermines it's merit as a moral guideline to those you preach to?

Not trying to start a fight on beliefs here but it really bugs me when people support their views on what the bible says, yet see fit to ignore parts of it when convenient. People are allowed to believe what they want, but I appreciate some consistency in those beliefs and not just using it as a fall back to not reconsider your views whenever it's convenient.

I don't like bigotry and especially not when it's based not on personal experience, but what an old book says.

I genuinely think that a good morality can be entirely detached from a theological source, simply because it's in our nature to interact with other humans and form groups and it's in our own best interest not to be jerks (Even if that point is missed and ignored by some people - Not specifically religious people, but anyone that is hateful regardless).

Sorry if this comes across as condescending or confrontational. I genuinely wish I could believe in something on a theological level, but my impression of established groups of believers just shows me it does more harm than good.

It would be really nice with re-incarnation though, but my hopes are low.

What Inconsistencies are you talking about? If you are talking about the seeming inconsistencies between Old and New Testament that is a bit complicated. The Old Testament is God's work with Israel, his making a covenant promise with them and when they failed their end of the covenant he punished them as was the conditional covenant if Israel failed. All this was to prepare for the coming of Christ. The law was given to show how sinful humanity was and that it was a standard that couldn't be kept. That led to Christ's coming and the entire New Testament. Now before you say we pick and choose parts of the Law, you have to understand there are several parts of the Law. There is the Moral part of the law, the sacrificial part, and the separating from other cultures part. The beauty of what happens in the new is that God provides an escape from the punishment of everlasting death. I've heard people then say "What happened to those who came before Christ?" The fact is those who came before, were looking toward this coming saviour. So the entire Old Testament was pointing ahead to the New Testament.

If you are talking about inconsistencies between gospels let me use an illustration. If you were to ask three people what they saw during an incident, you would get different answers from each of them. All would have slightly different takes on something, as all saw it through their own eyes. That is why the four gospels occasionally seem to contradict each other, when in fact they aren't. Each gospel was written for a purpose, and what each gospel writer wrote was to emphasize that point. Matthew, Mark, and John were all written by eyewitnesses presenting their memories of the events. Luke was the product of a man named Luke going around and taking down people's memories about the life of Christ.

As for bigotry its people forgetting who Christ interacted with. Jesus befriended Tax Collectors (the lowest of the low in legitimate professions), fisherman, prostitutes, known sinners. He didn't shun them or treat them like dirt, he loved them, and was their friend. Christians have forgotten how Christ interacted with those who sinned.

As for God's judgment in the Old Testament, he was working to complete his plan for salvation, and if he didn't prove he would punish evil, then how could he be truly called just.

Take it for what it is, these are my responses.

sorry lacktheknack for kind of hijacking this questions response.

 

[J. Peterman]

Why do you feel the need to go to other countries and spread your beliefs?

It just personally seems to me to be rather supremacistic in going around that peoples' beliefs need to be changed.

 

[J Tyran]

I don't know about the wiping, all I know is that IndiGo but my computer and backpack through "an extra security check" and it came out unbootable with the hard drive fragmented to hell and back with a whackload of missing files. Maybe they dropped it, maybe they put a magnet on it, I don't know.

Also, talking to people in North America about God is tough because an increasing number are atheistic and/or assume anyone who wants to talk about God is just out to make converts, which makes them closed (in my experience, anyhow). Since the average Russian is Christian by default, they're usually not put off by someone asking them questions about it.

If its just the OS install damaged it could only be a select number of things, you or they went through a metal detector with it or the airline/airport has one of those newer hybrid X-ray/MRI scanners. The X-Ray machines don't cause any damage like that but due to the strong magnets associated with metal detectors they can fuck up a magnetic HDD, most of the airport X-ray/MRI scanners are for hand luggage so if they insisted on "extra security checks" and ran your notebook through one that could have caused the damage.

Those are in very limited rollout though, maybe less than half a dozen in the world at the moment but the idea is they can scan and distinguish different liquids. My guess is a metal detector, they are common and have strong induction coils in them that give off a magnetic pulse and can erase drives on occasion.

I very nearly asked something snarky like "do condoms really give you AIDS" but your a non-denomination missionary and you're not responsible for the failings of others so I didn't.

 

[the December King]

Thanks for sharing this! This thread has been an awesome read.

I appreciate the good work you are doing- perhaps not the religion behind it, but certainly the faith and goodwill.