Marge Jones has written one of the best books I have ever read about missionary adjustment to overseas service. I can hardly wait to share with you, a bit of what I glean from it.

This is for those of you thinking of becoming a career missionary, those already in the field, and those returning. (And also for those desiring to be the best friend or family member ever…in support and encouragement to those you know in overseas service.)

There is a deep level of adjustment that MUST be achieved in order to truly think like the nationals for whom you have been called to share the Gospel.

Preface
She begins with this: “A great missionary quit last week. Resigned, just like that. After two terms on the field. After learning two languages. After adjusting to the culture. After learning to live with 120-degree heat, flies, mosquitoes, dirt, bugs, and plenty of sand. After living through several government coups. After acquiring cross-cultural communication skills.”

“He loved the people with whom he was working. He loved them vicariously before he ever met them and continued to love them after seeing them as they were…He loved eating their food, living in their homes, worshiping in their churches, singing their songs…” And yet he quit!

What went wrong?
She does not share why he left, because she does not know why. I don’t know that we will ever know what happened to the missionaries that leave so soon after being so fully prepared and so deeply embedded, because missionaries seldom give the deeper meaning of why they quit. Sometimes because they themselves really are not sure why. Let’s dig deeper…

Prevention
Ms Jones indicates that though we don’t know specifics of why others have quit, perhaps all that she has observed and learned over the years and now is sharing in this wonderful book…maybe her book will help others to persevere through the second, third, fourth, etc. terms.

Every page is rich with helpful content
This book is an attempt to look at “the total psychological problem of missionary adjustment, from the moment of feeling a “call” to the “foreign field” (a country outside the borders of the United States) to the ultimate time of retirement.”

Mission organizations
Most organizations prepare their candidates well for the various aspects of field work. So, they do not leave nor are asked to leave because of lack of practical training or theological communication, but rather “because of their lack of internal, or psychological, adjustment to a situation they are unwilling or unable to accept or for which no compromise can be found.”

Definition of a missionary as used in this book
She defines missionary this way: “Any person who works full-time for a religious organization outside the borders of the home country and whose primary purpose is to communicate the gospel as revealed in the Bible.” Though their areas of expertise may be medical or construction or translation, etc., “their goal is to convert people to Christianity.”

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Short term volunteers
Many are overseas short term for 2 weeks or 2 years, but not as a career. Their duties may be similar to career missionaries, but their time is limited and they can escape at any time. The career missionary does not have that option. Even if they do decide to move or are moved by the organization to a different location, the initial issue will go with them.

So the dynamics and inner struggle is different for short term and career missionaries. The adjustment to the ethics and social mores is different. Adjustment is a process. Short term and career missionary values systems and thought processes are not the same. So the adjustment is absolutely different.

Food, Dress, Home
Trying to fit in and copy clothing, behavior, diet, etc. is not an indication of adjustment. Rather: “Being able to think like the national is better indication of adjustment than merely dressing like and eating like the national.

Thank you for all you do!

Stay tuned…More next week…

For Part Two "The Missionary Pedestal," click here.

God bless you bunches!
Awaiting His shout,


The MomCourager™