Short Cuts

This note is especially for my four precious pearls! You know how your dad likes to take short-cuts – and is always looking for a new way to get somewhere? Well, it’s been especially fun here to find new short cuts (and be a bit confused for a couple of hours afterwards – like “where am I?”), especially during the days of confusion after coming from the northern hemisphere to the southern hemisphere. You know, just like the time I took a short cut home from the airport in Pittsburgh and we ended up in West Virginia! However, my internal compass has finally reset and I do finally know what direction is north, south, etc., so the being lost phenomena has decreased considerably.

Today we took Aimee out to meet our head OMS advisor, who works at the Nazarene College outside of Maputo. We drove in to town to pick her up and then headed out to the college to show her the ropes, introduce her, and also show her the nearby Baptist College where the director’s wife has a literacy program she is doing with the wives of students who come from remote areas of Mozambique. (Aimee has a great interest in literacy programs as her focus is women’s ministries). We toured both schools and met the various people at the schools, hopefully opening future partnership doors for Aimee. However, we knew we had to be back for our language class at 1300. It had taken us about an hour to get to the school because of some construction and traffic issues, and as we were leaving, one of our Nazarene friends mentioned he could be at CAM School (our missionary school) in about 20 minutes. I said “no way” and he explained his short-cut. He told me they had just completed a paved road that went straight to the coast and that we were only about 5 km from the coast. I had to scratch my head, thinking that it was possible – and I knew some of the area between the school and the coast – so, he gave some directions and with 45 minutes until class, we left the second school, with me a little panicked to think it was even possible to make class on time. So, we headed down the sand roads, second right, third left past the wall with eucalyptus trees and vines with fruit hanging over the wall, and onto a new paved road, and boom, we were at the coast and in a few minutes, dropped of Aimee at her house, and made it to class with five-minutes to spare. He also told me about another one I’ll try another day! I felt like I’d gone through some sort of time warp or something. Thank you Lord!

And then, after all that, our Instructor said, “what are you doing here? You have class on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday, not today” Oops – we mis-communicated that somewhere along the way. We readjusted for next week, but he was busy today - so after all that – no class.

On the way home, we stopped at the body shop to see if our car was ready (we’re using a rental and wanting to dump it as fast as possible!). I talked to the guy who took the car into the shop (it’s quite large – lots of wrecks here every single day!), and reminded him about the car. He looks at me and scratches his head and looks out at the shop and says “I’ll call you by the end of the day”. Not a good sign – where is the car…..Of course he didn’t call at the end of the day so we’ll stop by tomorrow and at this point I’ll have to insist on seeing the car! Gulp!

Our Advisor today told an interesting story to our new missionary. He advised caution as she moves forward. He pointed to a picture on the wall and spoke of a lady from Gaza province, who had been to the United States for a conference. When she came back, she spoke to the school there and said that she had never understood Americans. Her view was that they came here and acted peculiar and arrogant, always trying to push their culture and ideas on everyone. However, now that she had seen the houses they lived in, where they slept, how they ate, where they worked, and how they lived, and she finally understood what the missionaries here had given up to come live to Mozambique. She said she could have never understood without seeing what she’d seen because if you’ve only lived in one place, how could you possibly know what it was like somewhere else. She finally understood that it would take have to take a call from God for someone to leave America to come live here. So, our advisor then cautioned us to recognize that in ministering to those in the villages, and especially to the older of society, that there is absolutely no way they can understand where you have come from and your frame of reference. However, you are here, and you can, through asking questions and participating in culture can, over a long time, begin to understand and to be understood. However, the cultural gap is very large and will likely always be large. He said that God has called us as we are – we should not try to be someone we are not or could never be. We are giving the most important thing we can – ourselves. We discussed this some more as honestly, none of us felt that the cost of the things she had mentioned (the houses, cars, food, and the like) were things that we ever thought about as ‘giving up’ as we gained so much in other ways. The true sacrifice was not being with our precious pearls and we are so thankful that even in the last three years, we really have been able to visit with you, that you’ve been able to come here, and that we could talk on the phone - so more than we ever imagined would be possible and truly a blessing.

As another example, he talked about the Shanghanna word for human. The word actually refers to a Shanghanna person as a human and it doesn’t apply to other people. Other people would be Americans, Makua, Chinese, Lomwe, Mexican, etc., but you wouldn’t apply the ‘human’ term to them. This is a cultural phenomena that explains a lot about the southern culture of Mozambique and some of the conflict we’ve seen between southern and northern people groups. For example, if you act inappropriately relative to the Shanghanna culture, it is relatively tolerated because, well, you aren’t ‘human’. So, if you come in and try to say “you need to clean up how you handle your water because it makes you sick,” they might listen to you until you leave out of respect for visitors, but then go back to the old way because, after all, how do you know? You aren’t ‘human’. You must take the time to develop the relationship, and it is best to work with an intermediary, such as someone in the culture who has been educated and has an understanding of what you are trying to do. However, this person is critical to your success and must be chosen very carefully and very prayerfully, for your ministry to succeed. Wise counsel from a wise man.

I have pondered this counsel all day and have reflected on how we used to live in the States and how in our ignorance, we couldn’t really begin to fathom life outside of America because that was the only reality we knew. I wonder if culturally as a nation, we are also looking beyond our borders and starting to assume others ‘aren’t human’. It’s something we’ve seen through history, the dehumanizing of people groups, and is it a subtle trick of the enemy. But, I’m getting off-track.

We weren’t the world travelers that you guys were!, and even after a few short and carefully orchestrated trips here, we couldn’t possibly understand the living conditions and culture here in Mozambique until we lived it and experienced it. And even now in our third year, I recognize that it would take a life-time to fully have the understanding we desire and the language we need to move fully into community. But in the meantime, we need to try and be all things to all people so that some might learn the truth. There are no short-cuts for this work.

Blessings to my precious pearls. I love each of you dearly and thank you for your steadfastness, your faith, your love, and your gracious patience with your missionary parents. Our absence does not diminish our deep and abiding love for each of you. Not a single day goes by that you are not on our minds and deep within our hearts.

PS - I thought you might enjoy the photo of us with Juka (and me trying to smile. ;-))

Dad

“To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some. I do it all for the sake of the gospel, that I may share with them in its blessings.” 1 Cor 9:22-23 (Paul’s advice to all of us).