Articles

As the Muslim chief and I stood beside my white Toyota wagon, the traditional African gestures and greetings were exchanged. The scorching Saharan sun was beating down on all of us. Men greeted the chief and then turned to me. All of us were shaking hands and gesturing to our own hearts and foreheads showing that no ill will or thoughts stood between us.

How should missions proceed within the clash of civilizations? How should American missionaries operate within the context of anti-Western sentiment?

In early 1997, a regional church development working group asked what could be learned from existing churches to benefit those planting new churches of Muslim background believers (MBBs).

I meant well. My heart was filled with love for my Muslim friends and I wanted them to know how liberating salvation in Christ was. The more acquainted I became with my friends’ religion, the more I realized how bound they were to the plethora of futile rituals.

I had expected the physical poverty of eastern Europe to be accompanied by artistic and spiritual poverty. I found just the opposite to be true.

Seven ingredients that I discovered to be present in every successful TEE program that I researched in southern Africa.

A pastor from the US, just last year, was invited to speak at a weeklong Christian conference in Malawi. The music that preceded his message horrified him.

As a deputation survivor still on reasonable speaking terms with both supporting churches and family members, let me pass along a few of the survival tactics that have helped smooth our miles on the road.

Visual art can be very useful in supporting oral communication. This is particularly the case when communicating with people who are predominantly oral-aural communicators.

In the summer of 1998 one of my brightest Czech students, Petra, wrote my family from England about an important milestone in her spiritual odyssey.