Samoan pankeke cooking - there is an abundance of cheap food in the third-world Paradise, if you know where to look.
A Facebook friend is raising funds to come to Samoa. He’s got it all worked out but is a few bites short of a full biscuit at this stage. He says now that fund-raising for missions sucks, and that he’s hurting. Arrrrr, I understand that predicament REALLY well!
We did a few things differently to him when we came to Samoa. We self funded and our “missions” was not to save people, it was to help people and the saving part just comes as a matter of course. Let me talk for a moment about missions as they relate to Samoa . . .
I’ve got a personal issue with missions and missionaries. I never wanted to be one but in some ways I have ended up being one. The key verse for me when it comes to missions is in Matthew 28, where Jesus tells His disciples that he wants them to “go” – i.e. to go into the world. The problem as I have previously explained, is that in the Greek, the word “go” is actually continuous present tense, which does not actually mean “Get up off your bum and go out to the mission fields”, it is more accurately translated as “As you are continuing to be going . . . [about your business/life or whatever]“.
This changes our perception of Christ’s calling enormously. It means that as my Facebook friend is raising funds for surviving in another country, he should be loving and blessing the people around him day by day, minute by minute so that his mission-field for today is actually in his country, city, street and home, and not yet in Samoa.
I do not begrudge people who do want to “go out” – after all I have done this myself – but the purpose and motivation is very different. I can assure my Facebook friend, that Samoa does NOT consider that it needs another missionary, and does NOT consider itself to be a mission-field. Samoa also does NOT consider that it needs saving, as it is said constantly here that the country was founded upon God, and is a Christian nation. It is seen as the height of arrogance and generally highly offensive to say anything otherwise about it here.
Now this sentiment may not be shared by all (ask Albert Wendt and many others from outside of Samoa) but the starting point of planning to come to Samoa as a missionary is much more of a challenge that my friend may realise. There are many needs in Samoa – financial is top of the list of course and yes of course spiritual is in there simply because people are people the world over – but Samoa wants to be accepted and loved first. This takes a lot of faith, humility, time and commitment to achieve, and its HARD. Very hard.
I have noticed that the journey to engage with Samoa and Samoans can be brutal for the foreigner – for many reasons. The culture is so different to the Western world. The tropical weather. The third-world mentality and living conditions. But also because of the religious/spiritual climate here.
We must first remember that in Samoa, Samoans rule. They think differently; have different values and passions and they live their own way here. In regards to decision-making, power and money in Samoa, Samoans always have their way and as individuals and a people as a whole, they are ultra-resistant to change. We (Palagi) are foreigners and have no “right” to convert, sort them out or tell them what to do – other than what THEY want, allow or permit. Preaching is welcome here. Preachers are welcome. Church people and projects and funding and crusades and anything to do with Christianity (including missionaries) are all very welcome.
But change is not.
My friend will find the same as many of our SWAP Ambassadors, and almost every Peace Corps volunteer has done that engaging with Samoa is hard, and brutal, and it can hurt – sometimes badly.
But . . . that’s not all the story.
But . . . God!
But . . . faith.
If coming to Samoa is in this man’s heart – regardless of how hard it is to do; regardless of how many challenges or knock-backs or closed doors he meets – then by faith it will happen. As I said faith is hard, and it hurts.
The hard lessons in life are always about pride. They are always about having to humble ourselves and come down from where we think that we are entitled to be in life, or business or at home, and then just doing what God wants – His agenda, not ours.
This is not just hard, it is REALLY hard, and it hurts – REALLY hurts, but it is necessary to remove ourselves from the equation and let the Lord do what He wants us to do. Putting OUR vision and OUR calling and OUR needs and wants at the foot of the cross is pretty simple to say, but a deep challenge. Not all achieve this.
I understand his predicament – boy do I understand it, but I cannot change things for him. We’ve been there. We’ve done that. We’ve lost [insert:almost] all for the cause but hold on in faith, because we know that He called us here. That faith too (the knowledge that the Lord has called him to Samoa) will be all the help that my Facebook friend needs, because if the Lord loves him and is teaching Him the way He has the rest of us, one day it will be all that he has – literally.
I’d also like to make an observation about how faith is outworked and the way that God can bless whatever is rejected by man when used in faith. My Facebook friend has detailed his income and expenditure and has worked out that his accommodation costs are say $2 per month. His living costs are estimated to be say $1 per month making a total of $3 per month. He has income totaling say $2 per month and is therefore short $1 per month and so under pressure.
But if he has faith, why not seek to live with others who can provide him with free accommodation and share the extra $1.00 he now has with others in need? Suddenly, by reframing the situation he is blessed and able to share from an abundance. Sure, this may require a slight change of plans on his part, but it exercises faith, and is quite a biblical concept. After all, I remember the Lord himself doing pretty much the same once with a few thousand people. His disciples had a few logistic and supply problems until the boy offered his lunch to the Master and suddenly there was an abundance of food.
I’ve learned in my life that the bigger the problem – the bigger the opportunity. The difference between the two is faith, and creativity, attitude hard work.
Make sure that you enjoy YOUR day of faith today!
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