The missionary’s training

The missionary must follow many different courses, for us it took one year and all in English. We studied to learn about the culture of the host country to know how to behave without breaking or hurting. How could we break or hurt while trying to help? I will share a story.

For Christmas, missionaries visited a poor family to give many gifts. All the children are there smiling and happy to have gifts and the mother smiles. Suddenly, they are questioning where the father has gone, he is not there no longer to be seen. He was found by himself, crying and ashamed, humiliated by the fact that he could not offer these gifts. He felt like a nobody. This type of story where the missionary makes a faux pas are not isolated, this happens often by missionaries that are not prepared who do not know the culture of the country to the point that many books have been written about this point.  We cannot act as Canadians there. Another example, missionaries planted a large field of bulbs to grow a certain fruit, many days of work. The day the bulbs were planted, I don’t remember the type of fruit, during that night the people came and unearthed the bulbs to eat them. We must remember that they are in a state of survival, for them it’s not the future that is important, its to eat now. Some missionaries expect recognition from the people, which often does not happen, they become demanding and that can discourage but we are not there to get recognition or to be thanked. Therefore, it’s important to know the host country to better help to not be deceived or disappointed.

We also learn about the pressure a host country can have on our couple for example, if you take your husband’s hand while you walk, and a woman comes by and hits you repeatedly with her purse because she finds this inconvenience, you must get over the culture shock, to walk without holding his hand and to walk five feet behind him. These are a few things that are not know concerning a missionaries’ life. I took out a pack of gum in Haiti, the 8 young men jumped on the pack of gum and went farther away. Then came back with their mouths full of gum, I asked them “Did you at least share the gum” they replied, “yes all got some” (those who ran away, obviously).

We work on our vision during our missionary training, as well as on our call, and we get many tools through our courses. We have leadership courses, learn how to build our partnership. For our preparation to leave and we have to fill out the tests and formulas that the government requires. The PAOC guides us through all this and are a precious help in the management of our mission.

 

Until next week for “The missionary’s partnership”.

Marie-Jo

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