Ask A Missionary A Question

[Mezahmay]

How would you describe faith and what does it feel like to you (assuming a "feeling" can be attributed to it)?

 

[Lord Garnaat]

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.

Nice to see that it is, in fact, impossible for someone to innocuously talk about anything religion-related on this board without it being used as an excuse for smug condescension. Never change, Escapist.

Back to the topic at hand, how much of an impact would you say your missionary work had? I have a lot of respect for people that walk out into unknown places for what they believe in, so more information on that would be great. In fact, on that note, what would you say your proudest moment during your mission work was?

 

[happyninja42]

Nice to see that it is, in fact, impossible for someone to innocuously talk about anything religion-related on this board without it being used as an excuse for smug condescension. Never change, Escapist.

Heh, you're funny, I find you amusing, carry on.

 

[lacktheknack]

Well, this thread took off while I slept. Uberpost incoming!

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.

I can't comment, because you're asking me to engage with a question that I don't have experience with. I can't name any inconsistencies in the Bible off the top of my head that aren't easily extrapolated away (and I just read the whole freaking Bible keeping this in mind), but maybe I'll be more equipped to engage with this in a year or so when I finish the Biblical Studies course I plan to take.

At any rate, the average Russian/Cambodian/Indian doesn't really seem to care. Which makes sense in the latter two cases, seeing what their state religions are (Hinduism has literally millions of gods, consistency is optional).

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?

In the case of Russia, it's mostly trying to reach out to the Christians there and pull them into missionary work, as well as some local outreach to the other 25%.

...and then you find out that about half the Orthodox Christians are religious in name only, and then they become part of the target as well.

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?

I was going to answer this, but decided that you worded it too confrontationally for my intended tone of this thread, and I'm not interested in an argument about this topic right now. Maybe later.

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?

No, this was my first time.I do want and expect to do it again. All things allowing, I intend to actually move to Russia in a couple years to pursue it as a... uh, "career". That I pay to do. :S

Yeah, we explored the areas we were in, and used that to give us ideas for what we could do in each area. We learned a lot, too.

What's your proudest moment in missionary work?

My outreach didn't have huge highs, it was just a long string of pretty good stuff going on. I can't point at any one moment and say "That was more awesome than everything else".

If pressed, I'd say that discovering I really am good with kids after all (at a Battambang orphanage where the kids absolutely adored me) might top it, if only because it opened a door for altruistic work in the future (I never thought I could handle kids, but apparently, I can).

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.

Well, I can always hope.

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 put that in without thinking because the list of contributions seemed incomplete.

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.

It varies from situation to situation, but in the end, a group of Christians goes out to a group of non-Christians and explains Christianity to them, with the intent of converting them or at least generate some goodwill.

On my outreach, it mostly consisted of handing out Bibles, doing open-air sermons and presentations for passerby, and discussing Christianity directly with some people who asked us about it.

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.

Nail'd it. YWAM is well known for being altruistic at its core, but the people who work with them don't talk a lot about the altruism. Heck, I was even hesitant to make this thread because I was afraid it could come off as boastful, but I think I'm balancing it OK.

Did you actually meet with any Mormon missionaries at all?

Yes, once. In Russia.

It was a very awkward encounter. Me and the girl I was with were standing there, listening to them preach, and just wondered "Should we... preach... back...?"

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?

Oh dear. No, we're very thoroughly prepped on how to not be an ass overseas, and all the other missionaries we met were also with YWAM, so everyone behaved themselves.

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.

Our outreach wasn't as aid-heavy as others, but we still did our part. As I mentioned, we built a house, taught English and bought food for hungry locals. We didn't go in with a specific project in mind, though, we only helped out where the local church needed it, so we didn't do anything as high-minded as build a hospital.

...Yet.

How educated are the people you usually seek to spread the gospel to? Do you focus on any particular demographics, like, for example, the poor? Additionally, if you're dealing with a fairly uneducated populace, are there any other educational opportunites that Youth With A Mission provides to the native populace besides, well, english? It kind of strikes me as being potentially ethnocentric, given that I know of other missionaries that are fairly exploitative in their practices, such as trying to bribe natives to adopt names with a European origin (white people names, essentially), and while there's of course a language barrier, I think somebody without an education would benefit more from learning math and science than a second or third language. Do you deal with a lot of translators and non-english materials?

The demographics we focus on are "nearby". In Battambang, Cambodia, most of the people were high-school educated and working. In Kampung Chang (sp?), many were not, but their kids were all being sent to the government-sponsored school, which is, uh, "adequate" on the science, math, social studies, and Khmer fronts. The only place it's really quite bad is in English, so the kids seek after-school classes to improve it.

You might think that it's ethnocentric, but the simple reality is that English is slowly taking over the world, and no matter where you are, it's incredibly useful to know it (especially in internationalistic countries, like India, and tourist-heavy countries, like Thailand). I'm ridiculously privileged to speak English natively, I've found out, because literally every international organization that anyone ever interacts with in these countries appears to be native English speaking.

That said, many people, particularly the middle-aged group, cannot speak English, so we relied on translators heavily. And for what it's worth, the church services in Cambodia/India were held in Khmer/Bengali as well.

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.

The thing is, I'm from Canada, which is famous for having citizens that "bring their country with them", and have had quite a few ethnic friends throughout my life, so I was actually fairly well prepped heading into these countries in terms of what to expect with food and culture. While the whole "Never Use Your Left Hand in India" thing kept coming back to bite me, the Indians were pretty patient with me about it, and the main thing to remember in Cambodia was "Never Touch Anyone's Head", which was easy enough.

In terms of food, well... I had pig heart/kidney soup with fried grasshoppers in Thailand on our way through to Cambodia, and everything after that was easy. You just stick the odd food in your mouth, chew, and remember that God loves you.

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.

Because my religion asks me to.

Plus, if they're true, as I believe they are, then it's no longer supremacistic, it's altruistic to share them. And if they're wrong... well, that would make me supremacistic. Oh well.

"do condoms really give you AIDS"

Is... is this an actual thing that people say? Like, out loud? D:

How would you describe faith and what does it feel like to you (assuming a "feeling" can be attributed to it)?

Faith is not a feeling, it's an action.

Faith is going to Russia in the middle of the Ukraine crisis because you think God told you to, and you're screaming "WHAT AM I DOING" the whole way. Faith is opening your mouth and delivering a sermon in an open-air setting, despite your brain going "DUD YOU'RE TOTALLY NOT PREPARED TO DO THIS". That's what faith is.

It hasn't let me down yet.

how much of an impact would you say your missionary work had? I have a lot of respect for people that walk out into unknown places for what they believe in, so more information on that would be great. In fact, on that note, what would you say your proudest moment during your mission work was?

As I said, I wouldn't denote any of it as a "proudest moment", and most of our outreach was low-impact altruism (the highest-impact thing we did was build a house, but we only built one) and low-impact ministry (we had no converts). That being said, we left behind so many Bibles, fed so many individual families, made so many contacts and talked to so many people that I still leave the field satisfied.

EDIT: I accidentally the format.

Brb, airplane.

 

[J Tyran]

"do condoms really give you AIDS"

Is... is this an actual thing that people say? Like, out loud? D:

Unfortunately yes, Roman Catholic missionaries in Africa and East Asia were convincing people that the AIDS epidemic was due in part to condoms spreading the disease because of their doctrines against birth control at one point. It had the predictable results of spreading the disease even faster, not that I'm accusing you of this because you said you are a non denominational missionary and you're not responsible for the idiocy and cruelty of others.

 

[f1r2a3n4k5]

How did you get involved with this?

What was your ratio of proselytizing to charity work?

How much did this travel cost?

Are you considering becoming a "career" missionary? Would you try to stay in the same place?

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.

I don't think that's exactly fair. It sounds like he did aid work. I'm agnostic, but I've traveled and lived with secular and religious disaster relief groups. There isn't much of a difference between the two, besides maybe prayers before meals or some such.

The Amish actually came down to NY/NJ after Hurricane Sandy and MAN can those guys build. I suppose they've got the experience.
And honestly, to me, it was hard work like that speaks louder than a thousand of those church leaflets.

 

[JonSherwell]

Hey man, I'm studying Biblical Studies/Theology right now, and one of my professors did missionary work in Ukraine and Russia for a long time. Even then, he had to do most of his work in a mixed-gender pair for the same reasons you're describing!
My questions are:
I know you said your organization is non-denominational, but are you personally a part of any denomination?

How was working in each of the countries different than you expected? How was it similar?

Thanks for your work, and for answering my questions.

 

[Godhead]

What's your favorite soda flavor?

 

[lacktheknack]

How did you get involved with this?

What was your ratio of proselytizing to charity work?

How much did this travel cost?

Are you considering becoming a "career" missionary? Would you try to stay in the same place?

I got involved with this after my pastor's daughter recommended me into it. It happened right during a sweet spot where I realized that I was graduating tech school with a diploma I really didn't want, so I was going to have to start over at square one again, but hadn't looked into any new schools yet, so it was the opportune moment to jump ship entirely and do something completely different.

The ration of proselytizing to other was really low... probably 1:5 or less. The only proselytizing was in-church events and open-air sessions, where people were allowed to come and go as curiosity led them. Most of our agenda was more social and altruistic.

The whole shebang set me back around $9000 (insert "Over Nine Thousand" joke here).

I am aiming to make this a long-term career thing, and yes, I plan to mostly work in and around Eastern Europe, mostly focusing on Russia, but a lot can happen in the couple years leading up to that.

Hey man, I'm studying Biblical Studies/Theology right now, and one of my professors did missionary work in Ukraine and Russia for a long time. Even then, he had to do most of his work in a mixed-gender pair for the same reasons you're describing!

Proof I'm not just making all this stuff up!

My questions are:
I know you said your organization is non-denominational, but are you personally a part of any denomination?

How was working in each of the countries different than you expected? How was it similar?

Thanks for your work, and for answering my questions.

I'm a baptist in the loosest sense of the word. I don't have any problems getting along with Charismatics or Orthodox or anyone in between, although I tend to gravitate more to the reverent end of the spectrum.

Russia: Everything went as expected, really, although people were a bit more "meh" on the religious front than I had prepared for.
Cambodia: Everything went so sideways here. Everyone was really open to us, and while I expected to be working with adult villagers, we ended up working way more with kids and English teaching than I had imagined. I also got really sick here, which I hadn't expected.
India: This was more standard. People were pretty open to our message (hey, they've already accepted at least 15 other gods each), we mostly made friends with the locals and did open air ministry, and I did NOT get sick here (which I did not expect).

What's your favorite soda flavor?

Depends on the brand. Coca Cola makes great lemon-lime soda (Sprite), Pepsi makes Dr. Pepper, BIG (Thailand) makes strawberry soda to die for, and Jones is the king of cream soda. All of them are about equally good.

 

[happyninja42]

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.

I don't think that's exactly fair. It sounds like he did aid work. I'm agnostic, but I've traveled and lived with secular and religious disaster relief groups. There isn't much of a difference between the two, besides maybe prayers before meals or some such.

The Amish actually came down to NY/NJ after Hurricane Sandy and MAN can those guys build. I suppose they've got the experience.
And honestly, to me, it was hard work like that speaks louder than a thousand of those church leaflets.

Not fair how? He specifically asked us to leave comments and questions if we had them. I left mine. I didn't question his belief, or question why he feels compelled to spread his belief to others (though other people in this thread did). I told him I had no questions for him, because I felt that his trip was fairly pointless in it's concept, and then said I hoped he had a fun trip. That's it. He asked for comments, that's a comment.

 

[Johnny Impact]

I'll bite. If this is too personal, feel free to ignore me.

1. Why do you believe in a supreme being? What process of thought and/or experience led you to it? Not going to deconstruct or debunk you. I just took the other fork and I'm curious how the other half lives.

2. Have you ever had an epiphany -- heard the Voice, seen a miracle, really felt the presence of god? I hear a lot of people say they believe in a supreme being, but I get the impression they haven't got a good reason for it. It's just how they were raised, or it's just what gets them through the day. Which is fine. But for someone to really believe, I think a bit more is needed.

 

[f1r2a3n4k5]

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.

I don't think that's exactly fair. It sounds like he did aid work. I'm agnostic, but I've traveled and lived with secular and religious disaster relief groups. There isn't much of a difference between the two, besides maybe prayers before meals or some such.

The Amish actually came down to NY/NJ after Hurricane Sandy and MAN can those guys build. I suppose they've got the experience.
And honestly, to me, it was hard work like that speaks louder than a thousand of those church leaflets.

Not fair how? He specifically asked us to leave comments and questions if we had them. I left mine. I didn't question his belief, or question why he feels compelled to spread his belief to others (though other people in this thread did). I told him I had no questions for him, because I felt that his trip was fairly pointless in it's concept, and then said I hoped he had a fun trip. That's it. He asked for comments, that's a comment.

Eh, maybe I took your comment as slightly more aggressive in tone than it was meant. For that I apologize. Probably being part of The Escapist too long, I would suppose.

I just see this view pop up in my atheist/agnostic circles all the time, that somehow religious missions are less meaningful or more self-serving than secular missions.

In short: If the organization's focus is strictly preaching/taking cool Facebook photos with orphans, I'm probably opposed. If the focus is on hard, dedicated labor to improve the local quality of life, I don't care if you're doing it in the name of God, Ahura Mazda, Pazuzu, or Kareem Abdul-Jabbar; it's honorable work.

 

[lacktheknack]

How many bags of multi-finish will it take to skim a bathroom that's about 2m x 2.5m?

I don't know. The only thing I did in our Indian 2m x 2.5m bathroom is clean it, which took 2.3 bags of knock-off Pledge.

I'll bite. If this is too personal, feel free to ignore me.

1. Why do you believe in a supreme being? What process of thought and/or experience led you to it? Not going to deconstruct or debunk you. I just took the other fork and I'm curious how the other half lives.

I grew up in it, always assuming it to be real, and then...

2. Have you ever had an epiphany -- heard the Voice, seen a miracle, really felt the presence of god? I hear a lot of people say they believe in a supreme being, but I get the impression they haven't got a good reason for it. It's just how they were raised, or it's just what gets them through the day. Which is fine. But for someone to really believe, I think a bit more is needed.

...this happened. I won't get into any details, because it's waaaay too personal for this forum (and I'd like to keep this sucker in Off-Topic if I can), but I've had multiple "epiphanies", as you say. Which I'm sure skeptics would dismiss as brain glitches caused by "I Want To Believe" syndrome, but I work with what I felt and remember.

 

[Luthor55555]

You said that you are taking a class in theology, is that so that you can do a better job in places like Russia and the places you already went or more for when you are in more of a western area? I ask because I recently was thinking of going to seminary not necessarily to get a degree but just to have a more firm theological background and as a way of being able to more definitively share my faith where ever I am through my own personal greater understanding and I was wondering what exactly your reasoning is. or is there some other reason?

 

[lacktheknack]

You said that you are taking a class in theology, is that so that you can do a better job in places like Russia and the places you already went or more for when you are in more of a western area? I ask because I recently was thinking of going to seminary not necessarily to get a degree but just to have a more firm theological background and as a way of being able to more definitively share my faith where ever I am through my own personal greater understanding and I was wondering what exactly your reasoning is. or is there some other reason?

It's not a class in traditional theological arguments and such, it's literally a 9-month crush course on the whole dang Bible, cover to cover. I'm doing it not to "raise my effectiveness" (directly, anyways) but just because think that it's a good idea for me, a Christian and potential long-term missionary, to know the Bible as well as possible.

My motivation is "I'd love to understand these 1094 pages as well as I can, but I don't think I can do a great job by myself".

brb airplane.

 

[The Rogue Wolf]

Does this mean we get to ask about the missionary's positions? Heh heh heh.

Every religion seems to have its own subdivisions, sects, what have you. What made you choose your particular one over others?

 

[Mezahmay]

Have you heard any interesting expressions or idioms in your travels that have stuck with you?

 

[Ambient_Malice]

What are your thoughts on Gospel for Asia, and their idea that the ideal long-term course of action is to train missionaries to minister to their own people instead of importing foreigners to run things?

 

[Thaluikhain]

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?

Oh dear. No, we're very thoroughly prepped on how to not be an ass overseas, and all the other missionaries we met were also with YWAM, so everyone behaved themselves.

Oh, what sort of things did this preparation include?

I've always been interested in how groups train people to go overseas and play nice with the locals, possibly because of all the times you hear when someone should have had more training.