Tribute to a Life Well Lived

During all our years in Kazakhstan and in the four years since returning, we could count on receiving birthday cards and notes from Miss Gertrude Bloede. The cards were always unique, as she would cut the front of a card she had, then tape it to a blank index card, and personalize her note. A true missionary – do not waste anything! I later got to know other missionaries she supported, and found they had the same experience. Whenever we sent a newsletter out, we would certainly receive a hand-written note from Gertrude. When our son Keith served two years on the ministry ship Logos Hope, he received letters from Gertrude.

I just received word that this dear woman passed away last week at 99 years of age. Keith and I visited her in June at her room at a retirement village just outside of Lebanon, Ohio. We had a delightful time with this godly woman, whose mind was 100% sharp. She retold the story from her perspective of the tragic day 40 years ago at Red Bird Mission in Kentucky, when Shawn’s father, after whom Keith was named, was shot and killed. Keith Myers had been a missionary pastor at Red Bird. Gertrude had been a nurse at the mission at the time, and spent the days following with the family – Shawn was 5 at when this happened. I think that experience gave Gertrude a special bond with Shawn and all of her family.

Gertrude served for many years as a missionary in Sierra Leone, traveling to her appointment by ship in 1951. I loved hearing her tell stories of those years. She then moved to Red Bird Mission in 1965, and even upon retiring made frequent visits back until travel became impossible, but that was only after she was 96 years old!

To be supported by and prayed for by her and to receive frequent letters from her over all these years has been a special blessing to our family. We will miss her kind notes, notes that made it clear that she read every word or our updates and prayed for us accordingly. She now joins the cloud of witnesses in my life that we read about in the book of Hebrews.

Thoughts on Short Term Mission Trips

The focus of our most recent issue of our agency's magazine Unfinished is ministry in Central America. For my column, I decided to broach the subject of short term missions. I did this with fear and trembling. I have become known as a voice of caution among our staff in this whole phenomenon of short term mission trips. I've not wanted to be a wet blanket on what I know has been a very wonderful experience for so many people, but I've also sensed the need to speak truth in an area where wishful and romantic thinking sometimes dominates the discussion. What began as my usual column for the publication turned into an article. It was kind of funny for me to write on this since I've never actually been on a short term mission trip myself! (Well, it depends how you look at it. I spoke in a church a couple years ago and was introduced by the pastor as "The Ramsays who just returned from their mission trip to Kazakhstan." Hmmm - 10 years is one LONG trip!). Anyhow, upon joining the staff of The Mission Society four years ago, it did not take me long to realize that short term missions is a dominant them in missions especially in Central America. I've had several opportunities to see various aspects of the impact on the receiving end, still not having been a part of the "going" end of a short term team.

As I put my article together, I worked with our missionaries in Nicaragua since I had visited them a year and a half ago and was encouraged by what I'd seen them do with short term teams. It gave me the opportunity to approach the subject with honesty and to ask some of the hard questions that are often ignored, but to point to a case where those questions had been addressed. I was still nervous in submitting the article and begged our editor to change or even to reject the article if it came across as too harsh or judgmental. I really had no desire to throw cold water on something I know has rejuvenated the faith of so many in my home country. I've thrilled to see more people engaged in mission personally - not to relegate mission to a distant denominational department or a once a year mission focus weekend at their local church. It's great to see US church goers speak of personal experience of ministry in different cultures. Yet I wanted to invite those same people to a sober discussion of how these good intentions have created some real problems in the region as well.

Since the magazine came out a couple weeks ago, I've been relieved with the initial feedback. Our Church Ministry department plans to use the article in their short term mission training component. Some churches have asked for reprints. I am so thankful to the Lord that somehow my intent of writing the article seems to have been communicated. So I decided I would share this with my e-mail list as well in hopes that it might be interesting to you or a helpful resource to your churches. The link to the article is http://www.themissionsociety.org/magazines/unfinished/2010-47/198 . There are other related articles in the magazine by my colleagues and some helpful excerpts from books that are worth reading as well - you can see these by looking at the table of contents on the right side of the page. You can also subscribe to the magazine using a link at the top of the page. Our editor does a great job of making it an informative, teaching magazine, rather than a self-promoting, fund-raising magazine.

Easter Holiday from Church?

Yesterday I met with a couple who are preparing to serve as missionaries with The Mission Society. We talked about various possible directions, focusing on possibilities of working among the unreached peoples of southern Asia or working with the house church in a closed country to help them reach beyond their borders. It was exciting stuff, just thinking of being part of a movement to share the gospel with people groups who have yet to hear.

It is hard to imagine people who have no clue about Who Jesus is. They haven’t had the opportunity to make a decision about him, to answer that important question he posed to Peter, “Who do you say that I am?” As we were wrapping up our time together, we began talking about their children and how they were doing with the whole idea of packing up and living in a far-away place. At that point, they related an experience their 13-year old daughter, Mary, had recently.

Mary was talking to a friend a few weeks ago. The friend suggested that they should spend the night together that Saturday. But Mary, knowing the coming Sunday was Easter said, “It probably wouldn’t work out since Sunday is Easter.” The friend responded, “But Easter is a holiday – do you have to go to church on holidays?”

The discussion served as a reminder to me about how many people all around us in the U.S. are as clueless as to who Jesus is as those who live in places that have never had access to the gospel. Why is it that they are clueless? We can blame the media, the lack of prayer in schools, MTV, postmodernism, or whatever we want. But the fact is that the way people learn about Jesus is when someone who knows Him shares about Him in word and through their lives. In an unreached people group, the reason people don’t know is because there is no one there to do that. But in our U.S. culture, it suggests rather that the many who do know and believe are not being very intentional about telling those around them.

On Jogging and Mental Maps

I’m attending a missions week up at Toccoa Falls College in the mountains of NE Georgia. Today I decided to go for a jog. I looked at Google Maps to chart the course. And off I went. It didn’t take me long to realize I should have checked out the topographical version – the first mile went up, up, up – a 400 foot rise a later map check revealed. Then I came to a fork that was not on Google Maps. I went one way, up, up, up for about 10 minutes – dead end. So I came back and went the other way – another dead end. Oh well, I finally returned – so much for my nice, clean 5-mile loop!

Being the somewhat neurotic sort, I got back to my computer and turned on satellite view. Aha! There were more roads than the map showed, so I should have made a turn somewhere that just did not show being a crossroads. I also could see now that this was a mountainous trek, so I should anticipate some hefty hills.

This reminded me of what I learned way back in Missions 101 about world view. Our world view contains all the assumptions we make about how the world works, how we relate to one another, how we do the basic routines of life. My prof called it our “mental map.” When we go to another culture, it is a different “mental map,” which can cause disorientation.

Well, I knew I needed a different map here, but I didn’t take the time to look at all the dimensions of the new map. So I ended up with unexpected difficulty and I made wrong turns. If we head to cross-cultural ministry, however well intended, without doing the hard work of learning the various facets of the new culture – the new mental map – we are apt to run into all sorts of surprises and difficulties that just didn’t show up on the initial rendering. And we very well may end up getting lost in the process and create problems not only for ourselves, but for others. Most importantly, the very Gospel we came to share can get distorted or even just lost in the process.

That’s why good preparation for missionary work, whether for a 2-week trip or for a life time of cross-cultural ministry, is of vital importance. I get very concerned when I hear of a church group going to another country to “do ministry” with only an hour orientation before heading to the airport! They are going with a surface version of the new mental map at best. We need to show our love for the Lord and respect for the new culture by doing the work required to get a decent handle on the new mental map we’ll be using to negotiate the culture!

Tomorrow I’ll try my run again, this time armed with satellite imagery that should help me find the elusive loop!

A New Generation – Urbana 2009

I just finished attending the huge Urbana 2009 student missions conference. Over 15,000 young people gathered to learn about and explore commitment to God’s mission in the world. It has been an amazing time.

As I have listened to the sessions and had well over 100 individual conversations with students, I began to see an exciting pattern develop. It is clear that God is calling a new generation to His mission. No surprise there – every generation is called by God to His mission. Yet each calling has its unique characteristics – each generation has aspects of God’s mission that is revealed with more clarity than other generations may have had. They come with new passions and new ideas. The same Mission of God, but new facets and approaches.

There is an exciting passion among students to confront issues of injustice and poverty with the power of the Gospel. This isn’t a fuzzy “do-gooder” type of approach, trying to come up with human solutions – the approach that has characterized various “social gospel” attempts of the past. This generation seems to be gifted with a radical abandon to Jesus Christ and a willingness to confront systems of poverty and injustice with the light of the Gospel. They seem to experience the deep offense that such systems are to the Creator and feel compelled to challenge and change.

As I listened to them and felt this passion, I realized that it is not a negation of what has gone before, but it really is that God is stirring something new. Those of us who are a bit further along in years – parents, church leaders, mission leaders – need to recognize what God is doing and do all we can to encourage, to advise, and to release this incredible energy and passion.