I was walking through the streets of India the other day smelling the typical smells and trying to love on the hundredth beggar when I realized that there was really no other explanation for me being in India other than God. My very presence in India shows the reality of God. There is just no other way a 21 year old guy would be living in India, eating rice everyday, and spending all of his energy on studying, doing, and teaching the Bible…
Airplane Crises
While I was on the plane ride over here the reality that I was actually going to India slowly began to sink in. Good bye food I love, good bye hot showers, good bye friends and family, good bye white people, good bye Starbucks coffee…I began to be overwhelmed with the fact that going to India for a year was a few hours away from become a reality. Suddenly none of my plans made sense; why am I teaching, who am I to teach let alone teach a different culture, etc. Was I about to make the biggest mistake of my life?
But then the Lord’s whispers slowly immerged from my doubt and self-consciousness…
If this year in India is going to be all about me, it may just be the worst year of my life. But if this year is not about me it may just be the best year of my life yet. I realized that my hesitation to teach and to do missions in India was because my focus was on my self. This year in India is not me having a life changing experience, or me growing in my giftings, or me getting a notch on my belt, or me getting another stamp in my pass port. Actually, this year in India has nothing to do with me, and everything to do with the people I will be ministering to. That is the heart of missions; changing our focus from inward to outward and from selfish to selfless.
Oral Communicators
We only have one week of Titus training left before we go on outreach to Bangladesh! Here’s a little rundown on one of the many influential things I have learned during training ->
Roughly 50% of India is illiterate. Many foreign missionaries come to India with good intentions, but actually end up doing a lot of damage. Teaching in a literate linear fashion doesn’t really communicate to 50% of India and actually leads to syncretism. Because of this we have been learning how to teach to oral communicators. Like Paul we are learning to say "I have made myself a servant to all that I might win more of them. TO the Jews, I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews...I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some" (2 Cor 9:13-20). Instead of communicating in a linear systematic fashion that’s more natural or comfortable to us, we must abandon the way we learn in order to teach in a way that the majority of our audience learns. And that is easier said then done. Western culture tends to communicate truth through ideas (God is sovereign, God is loving, God is just) while an eastern culture tends to communicate through stories.
It is an interesting challenge to learn how to teach in a culture different from your own. Though it is harder to learn how to teach in India, I believe I am learning valuable life lessons; teaching is not about what’s comfortable for me, or my content, or actually about me at all, but about my students learning. If my students are not learning I am not teaching. In the same way Christianity is not about what's easiest for us or most comfortable for us, but what is best for others.
Isn't that what Jesus modeled for us...stripping himself of his deity, laying down his life for the sake of others. As followers of Christ we are likewise called to live our lives for others.
Application
Well I just typed a freaking paper. God is good and his grace is wild. I am a testimony to that. I hope that some how my ranting and raving has encouraged you in your own pursuit of running recklessly after God. He's so worth it...
Do something unexpected for someone else today; let God love someone else through you. I believe you will be surprised just how beautiful life can be when you begin to live for others! Until next time…Sam
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