“I think the best way to keep developing my language skills is to start writing a dictionary.”
I looked over at the older missionary in shock. Here I was, struggling to fully grasp what people were saying to me, yet reluctant to keep learning. But this missionary who had been there for 20 years and spoke the language fluently (as far as I could tell), was still keen to learn!
She wasn’t the first experienced missionary to surprise me in this way. Another woman I spent time with was constantly asking questions from a local friend about their culture and way of doing things. She always took the pose of a student rather than a teacher in her day to day interactions with people, and it was inspiring. Her relationships with people went deeper and she was more readily accepted by the local community.
Our culture informs our expectations. In my culture, we expect people who have more experience or education to take the role of a teacher. We want them to be professional and have a level of authority. When I was faced with my first class of 14-year-olds as a student teacher, my supervisor encouraged me to “fake it till I make it.” The only way I’d control the class is to pretend I had confidence and authority (even if I wasn’t entirely sure what I was doing!).
Mission tips this up-side-down. Those who are most likely to succeed are those who approach everything and everyone as a learner. Expect not to know and not to understand as you enter a new culture, and soon you will find a whole new way of seeing the world.
Learning to be a learner requires flexibility. It means letting go of how you want to do things and being open to something new. Sometimes that means you have to work against your own natural personality and tendencies. You may need to grow in your self-awareness and to know when you are approaching something with an agenda, because it is easy to be inflexible without realising it. We are inflexible when we base our expectations on our culture and previous experience. We then don’t ask enough questions because we think we understand what is going on.
As I talk to Bible college students, I meet a lot of people who, in their excitement to learn, have developed some strong ideas on theology and how to do ministry. They want to help everyone else learn what they have learnt, sometimes forgetting that there might already be some previous knowledge or more culturally appropriate ways of looking at things.
Most missionaries find that they need to set aside their own ideals and ideas. We need to be open to God working in ways we don’t expect.
Next steps
Finish these sentence:
- The best way to do ministry is….
- I like to ask people questions about……
Action Steps:
- Come up with a list of open-ended questions you can ask people to learn more about their opinions and ideas.
- When someone has a different opinion to you, take the time to listen and understand. As you listened, how did you treat the person who you disagree with?
