Unharvested Fields

                                                               Arrival in Lesbos

If we cannot be part of the lives in these unharvested fields, we go against biblical principles. Isn’t that the essence of Christ’s Great Commission in John: “As the Father has sent Me, so I send you.” That’s the call to be incarnational in our missional efforts, and to do that with these unharvested fields is simply impractical and impossible.

Moving forward with the noble intent of “taking them the Gospel” leads to disparaging anthropology and dubious missiology. This is not to be obscure but to state the obvious. This anthropology assigns no value to their systems of health, education, justice, and family. They are merely souls to be won. The missiology justifies pressing on no matter what, but the results are all too often tales that leave Christians with red faces of embarrassment.

There are alternatives. We have inroads into a myriad of needy people within our reach. For these we can enter into their lives, understand their deep needs, and have the opportunity of influence, improvement, and mutual benefit. That is where we ought to be deploying our mission energy.

Response:
The question this raises is whether there are ways of incarnational mission to the fields that remain unharvested. The answer is, yes, there are, and the places are the cities of the world.

Before I give a microcosm of this from our recent trip to Ireland, let me give a link to a 16-minute talk I heard this recently at a Sunday School class. It is by Tim Keller, given at the Cape Town Assembly a couple of years ago. He expands on three simple points: why we must reach the cities, how we should, and why we can. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZfHx2NiV50

Now my microcosm. I’ll start with a report of our return trip from JFK airport to Leo House on 23^rd Street, New York City. We took the E Subway from Nassau Station to the 23^rd Street Station and were on the train for about 45 minutes. From where I was sitting I observed or spoke with these people:
A Serbian grandfather here for his grandson’s college graduation;
Three visitors arriving from Stavanger Airport, Sola, Norway;
Two others with the Russian airline “Aeroflot” on their baggage tickets;
Two women in intense conversation in their Eastern European language;
A Moroccan escorting the Serbian grandfather;
And the rest either giving attention to their screens or speaking Spanish.

Since I was sitting beside the Moroccan, I can tell you a little about him. He has been in the United States for eight years, studying film. He was from Casablanca, where I have visited, so we talked about the grand mosque right on the ocean and McDonald’s which serves travelers during Ramadan. He will return to his family and their village in three weeks for the month of Ramadan. He said that is a holy time for prayer, and the family time is most precious then. I forgot to ask my standard question of Muslims, “How many times have you been a suicide bomber?” I did tell him that I always join the Ramadan prayer discipline towards the end of the month when they pray for special revelations of God. He appreciated that but was unaware of the particular revelation of God that I pray for.

A couple of other spottings in the time away:

• Backing out of the car park at Cashel Rock, near Cork, Ireland, I was astonished to see the model of the Nissan right beside us: Qashqai! Who would have expected the Japanese to draw attention to this non-Persian people of Iran?
• If the Irish people are easy to spot with their peach complexion and red hair, most of the young walking the streets were definitely non-Irish.  What drew them to Dublin? Learning English. These students were there by the droves and were obviously from other parts of the world.
• If “the world’s largest village,” Dublin, has a multitude of internationals students, I’m probably not too far off the mark to say that the number of international students here in Richmond at Virginia Commonwealth University outnumbers the whole count of internationals in Dublin.
• If New York City has 95% of the world’s countries, again I am not too far off the mark to say that Richmond probably has 75%.

Another worthwhile link, after listening to Tim Keller, is to absorb the insights at https://globalgatesinfo.wordpress.com. This ministry, Global Gates, actively pursues the opportunities I refer to here. It brings understanding, reports, ideas, and encouragement in the metropolitan environments of the world. The postings show ways of effective outreach in metropolitan environments.

What about world cities where US citizens are prohibited? The answer is another question: What about Chinese Christians who are not prohibited, or Philippine Christians, or Nigerian Christians, or Indonesians Christians? And the list goes on.

I know there are some who prefer not to travel like us, with 10 pounds in our backpacks for twelve days. Some actually prefer cruises! 🙂 A cursory search about life on cruise ships below decks reveals society of many different nationalities. Each has its specific tier in the service structure–to clean, serve, cook, run the casino, and do on. Many of them have Bible studies in their common places; many others sell pornography to supplement their salary. For Christians, the opportunity for witness is there almost at every turn. A little time, an introductory conversation, repeated interest, and “a word spoken in season” can take root.

What do these random observations have in common? Opportunities for incarnational mission among unharvested fields. On the subways, the buses, the streets, the classrooms, and around the pools of the ships, God is ready to expand these relationships and use them to show His love and mercy to the nations of the world.

Distributing Bibles in a city north of Islamabad

My rule of thumb for handling cross-cultural differences is to get to the point where I can say that the difference makes perfect sense to me. This allows me to show respect and honor to their culture and that I understand what they are doing.

To show them this respect does not mean that I agree with what they do. I may find some behavior distasteful and immoral and would never replicate it. But the people know that I have made the effort to understand them.

The natural temptation, when faced with something we disagree with, is to hasten to let them know that we find it wrong. That ends the conversation. Most of the time they don’t need to be shown that. What they really want is understanding.

Last week I posted on the theme of “Danger!”  This difficult exercise—and I fully acknowledge that it is that—takes on deeper challenge when we come up against codes of honor with dangerous people. These codes may not ever be written or in a manual, but they teach each person how to live.

These codes are found in the proverbs, the sayings, the legends of the tribes. The men know these proverbs, and they pass them on to their children. Among them these customs rule with unchallenged power.

One missionary working with one of the dangerous tribes spent years collecting their aphorism and proverbs. By doing that, he became intimately aware of their culture. This achieved a deep acceptance in an otherwise closed society.

I would like to look at the proverbs and codes of the Pushtun of Pakistan, a people usually not friendly Christian messengers. They have lived in Northwest Pakistan and Afghanistan since 1000 years before Christ. That would be about the time of King David. Their code, well shaped over these millennia, is known as Pushtunwali. Within this are twelve primary virtues:

Hospitality—This first one carries great weight and expects respect to visitors, regardless of origins or clan.

Forgiveness or asylum—This extends to protection from enemies, at all costs and is granted until the full dispute is known.

Justice and revenge—And there is no time limit to this. The revenge often extends through generations.

Bravery—This defense comes out for land, family, and the honor of the name.

Loyalty—First of all loyalty, and at great sacrifice, to family, to friends, to neighbors. Not to show this brings great shame to the family.

Righteousness—As in striving for what is good in thought, word, and deed, this applies to the environment, to the cattle, and to people.

Faith—The object is the one God of Islam: Allah in Arabic, and Khudai in Pushtun.

Respect or pride and courage—If one does not have these qualities, he is not considered a Pushtun. This is of paramount importance, for it would be shown in bravery, loyalty, and revenge.

Protection of their women—This includes physical and vocal abuse.

Honor—This particular quality is seen towards the poor and weak.

Country—The land of the Pushtuns is sacred to them. It is to be defended for honor and for name.

To be sure, there are facets of these that we find startling. But that is not the point. Reading these shows how much of their culture is taught through these primary virtues. We should respect what they represent and appreciate those things that are honorable in the structures of their cultural life.

On a visit to Pakistan when I was a guest of a Christian evangelist, I joined him and his team on a trip into cities north of Islamabad. We carried with us Bibles in Urdu and gave them to whomever expressed interest. The picture above shows our leader with courage from the Holy Spirit offering the Word of God to the Muslims.

On our way home and at several other times he and the team offered free copies of the Book of Proverbs. Proverbs? Not the Gospel of John, or something similar?

Proverbs.  He explained that is what shows the culture of God, the code of Christians, what they can see of the God and Father of Jesus Christ through our code of life. Brilliant move.

A sampling of proverbs from the Yoruba Tribe of Nigeria (Not a dangerous people):
A great affair covers up a small matter.
A man with a cough cannot conceal himself.
A proverb is the horse that can carry one swiftly to the discovery of ideas.
After we fry the fat, we see what is left.
Anyone who sees beauty and does not look at it will soon be poor.
As long as there are lice in the seams of the garment there must be bloodstains on the fingernails.
Ashes always fly back in the face of him who throws them.
Because friendship is pleasant, we partake of our friend’s entertainment; not because we have not enough to eat in our own house.
Covetousness is the father of unfulfilled desires.
Fear a silent man. He has lips like a drum.
Gossips always suspect that others are talking about them.
He who eats well speaks well or it is a question of insanity.
He who throws a stone in the market will hit his relative.