Culture Shock!!! Part 1 of 3

I have to admit that I was not too thrilled about writing this blog, but between my wife's blog, and the funeral yesterday, I felt like this was an important blog to write. People might wonder why. When a missionary talks about their culture shock experience it is like rubbing a newly healed wound ~ though you are not bleeding, you still remember the pain. I am writing this in hopes that it might be a help to someone that will pass this road after me, or for those that hear of this phenomena, so that they will be able to pray from missionaries more intelligently.

A missionary that I respect told me that culture shock is just like dealing with a death in the family. The difference is that it is not just one person, it is as if every person that you have ever known has died. It is that real. You mourn, you grieve, you feel loss, not just for a person, but for a way of life.

I know that this is hard to understand for a person that has not passed through this valley of the shadow of death, but for the missionary, he/she has tasted it, and it can never be forgetten.

Try to imagine this scenario: You are a young person. It is Monday, August 6 of the year 1945, and you have gone for a walk on the outside of town. While you are walking, you hear a bomber plane overhead, but you do not fear because no one attacks your city. It has been untouched for most of the war. You feel safe in Hiroshima. Then you see it, the blinding flash. You feel the shock wave, and then in a second, everything you knew is gone! All your family, your friends, everything normal. In that fews seconds, you have lost everything and all that you feel is the pain of the burns. You hurt all over. You try to run back and pick-up pieces, but there is nothing left. As the weeks pass, you try to deal with the grief, but you do not even a have place to go to feel close to the ones that you have lost. Your home, your neighborhood, your way of life, it is all gone! You are in shock, and all you can do is grieve and ask, "Will I ever truly live again?"

This might seem like the words of an overactive imagination, but this is what culture shock is: grief of death, the death of your way of life! I studied some about grief, and here is what Wikipedia says: Elisabeth Kübler-Ross has posited sequential stages of grief including denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance, which are commonly referred to as the "grief cycle". This is exactly what a missionary goes through when he/she goes through the death of his/her culture. Not everyone handles death well. In high school, I remember when my best friend Larry's dad died. He never got over it. I am not sure he ever really dealt with it. Putting it in this light, you understand why so many missionries quit after the first term (the average is 3 out of 4). You pass through all these stages: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and if you look to God in it- acceptance.

Here is another quote about grief. Two scientists describe it this way:

Bowlby and Parkes both note psychophysiologic components of grief... Included in these processes are feelings of unreality, depersonalization, withdrawal, and an anesthetizing of affect. The person feels unable to come to terms with what just occurred. "Whenever one's identity and social order face the possibility of destruction, there is a natural tendency to feel angry, frustrated, helpless, and/or hurt. The volatile reactions of terror, hatred, resentment, and jealousy are often experienced as emotional manifestations of these feelings."

All these quotes are given about grief, but any missionary can tell you this is just what you pass through! I have found out that women and men face this problem very differently. I know for me it was mostly an internal conflict. When you first face culture shock ~ "cultural grieving" ~ you deny there is a problem. I remember that I was numb. You walk around in this fog (the difference here is that you are excited about the change, I doubt anyone dealing with death has felt excitment). You are just going through the routine. I would say that I was a robot for the first two months. I did not really face any home-sickeness. It was quite the opposite. I was a ball of activity. I just wanted to do, do, do... I was just like the boys that I wrote about yesterday. As a new missionary, you just want to get busy. You think that activity will take the fog away. If you can just get into a routine, then everything will return to normal. Then a few months pass...

Going to a One Week Celebration

I went to a one week celebration today. A one week celebration, is a gathering of friends and family to show support for a family after a person has died. This first gathering always happens after seven days, as you can gather from the name. It is basically the way to let the surrounding community know that there has been a death in the family, it is also a time for the family to gather together and plan for the funeral.





We heard about the gathering on Sunday. Theresa, one of Patty's sunday school girls, had not attended the week before, when Patty was talking to her, she shocked us by telling us that her mother had died last week. She said that she had gotten sick on Sunday and had died on Tuesday. Just that quickly! I had just talk to the women a month ago, she was the picture of health.

Theresa is only 10 years old, and her brother Claudio is 14 years old. I was not sure what I would see at the gathering. I mean they just lost their mother. I was really shocked at first, they seemed so normal! Everyone was gathered outside under the tents, they had all the speakers set up, and the loud music playing. Everyone was there. I was meet by a family member that took me around, and I greeted all the elders and close family members that where sitting in the fronts of each group of chairs. After this I was led to a chair, and sat with the family. (The point is to come and sit with the family to show your support, most people come for about 45 minutes and sit. This is a sign of your concern and support).

As I sat there, I was shocked, the three kids (Theresa, Claudio, and there older brother) where not even crying. But, as I sat there with them I realized that this calm was only surface deep. They keep trying to help others, they where trying to stay busy. If you watched Claudio close, you saw him fighting to be a man... but every once and a while you saw the mask slip a little. Even when they asked the boys to come up front and dance for their family in honor of their mother (this is something that people do here to honor a loved one) you saw them smiling, but their heart was not in it. I seemed that if they had to stop and think, they would just cave-in. I think this is why funeral are set-up the way they are here. Everything is very active. Loud music, a multitude of people, nothing stops for a minute.

For the western that comes to a Ghanaian funeral the whole things will be upside down. Funerals are supposed to be serious, reflective, somber, a time to let the family deal with grief. But, that is not the way that people see it here. Here you celebrate, enjoy, socialize, and most of all you do not talk of the pain, you do all in your power to help remove it's presents, even if this is just temporary!

I saw a lesson in these kids eyes, and in their fathers eyes (I had to go to the house to see him, he was not with the people outside, I think that the whole thing was a little to much for him), activity does not take away pain! When you go through such lose, the kind that hits you so hard, that it takes thinking just to follow the normal route, activity is not enough. Only God can see you through these times!

Please pray for the family, that God will use this time to draw them closer to Himself, and to show them their need of a Savior. Theresa's mom was unsaved!

The Leper's Spot

I was reading in Leviticus today. Currently I am on the chapters that speak about leprosy. I never really appreciated these chapters until I moved to Ghana. In Ghana it is still a common disease. I can still remember the first time that I meet a leper.

My family and I used to live in a community called Bomso. Whenever we went to town we always passed the main intersection on the Accra road. And just like many intersection in Africa, there where beggars that stood at this intersection and begged for money. One man always seemed to be there, and I gave him coins off and on. Then one day as this man was putting out his begging bowl to me, I noticed that he was missing all his figures, and that they where covered in Gentian Violet (that is an ointment that people use here on infected wounds, it turns the skin a bright purple). All at once I realized that he had not lost his fingers in an accident, like I thought, but that he was a leper. I will tell you, that when that thought hit me, while my hands where touching his on the begging bowl, the feeling that raced through me was utter terror! I was overwhelmed! Leprous! I saw the man off and on after that, but the disease keep progressing, until finally I think that he had to join one of Ghana's colonies.

It is amazing how the Bible becomes alive when you live in a third-world country. I have learned a lot about leprosy since I have been here. Leprosy is a disease that attacks the nerve endings first, this happens long before the deterioration even beginnings. So that means that the leper does not feel any pain, he/she is just slowly consumed by the disease until it spreads so much that the person finally dies from infection. The person is a walking, living, corpse. The amazing thing is, even when the person is utterly unclean, and has to cry out and tell everyone, though people see the lepers misery, the leper does not feel any pain. The feelings have been burned out of him. When I thought about that this morning it was such a perfect picture of sin. We are infected with it, and it begins it work within us, slowly it kills our feelings. Before long we see the damage of this sin disease, and before long we are 'past feeling' as the Bible says, and walking in the world with our lips covered, saying "Unclean, unclean". We have become untouchable by man, we are broken, humbled, and alone. Sin, even after salvation at times seem to make us so unlcean. And in the words of Paul "O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?"

As I thought about this sad reality, I read chapter 14 of Leviticus. Chapter 14 talks about how a leper was declared CLEAN! The Twi words to one of our hymns kept passing through my mind: Awurade, mahu! Se Wo tumi nkutoo, Besa kwata kuro... (translation: Lord, I have seen, it is your power only, that washes the leper's disease (spots)). When no one has the power to touch us, let alone heal us, He stretches forth His hand, and like every time in the gospels, he touches us. And with that touch we are healed.

God thank you for loving me enough to touch me with Your almighty hand! God help me to live as the cleansed person that you have made me.

The 3 S's of African Religion, Part 3 of 3

SALVATION-
You might be thinking, if they do not have a fear of judgment or sin then what is the need of salvation? That is a good question! Salvation for the Africa is not about a world to come, it is about his present world. The main need of salvation is in this life. The person wants a salvation that blesses in this life, and he does not worry so much about the life to come. Here is another quote to illustrate:

'Instead of speculating about life after death, salvation in African Religion is better located in this world. A big number of children who continue the family lineage, a healthy livestock and a good harvest are the expression of salvation, the assurance that God and the ancestors are blessing the community. Blessing and curse are defined from the perspective of the community, not of the individual. It implies also the just recompense of good and evil deeds in this world. In African Religion, there are no heaven and hell. Every evil is punished directly and executed either on the individual, his community or his children. The Luo tell a story of a family whose house was swallowed by the earth because they didn’t receive an old woman looking for shelter at night. The people say that this happened in reality, and the place of the incident is remembered.' (Mbiti, African Religion and Philosophy)

So to the African, he is not looking for a hope of forgiveness of sins or a hope of eternal bliss, but the hope of earthly blessings. The salvation of the average African is not about the future and the eternal, but about the present and the physical. This helps to explain the great spread of the prosperity gospel preaching that is fully embraced in most Charismatic churches.

To help you understand, let's look at the use of African language to express salvation.
'The main Twi term for salvation is nkwagye. It is made up of two words: nkwa and gye. Nkwa means vital life, vitality, vigor, health, happiness, and felicity. In short, nkwa means abundant life, that is, “life in all its fullness”. Gye has several meanings. But when used in the salvation sense it means to: rescue, retake, recapture, redeem, ransom, buy out of servitude or penalty; it also means to release, to free, to deliver, to liberate, to save. It could also mean: to lead, to conduct, to guide, to take along with; or to protect, to defend; or to preserve. The term nkwa-gye therefore is pregnant with rich meaning.' (Rev. Dr. Emmanuel Kingsley Larbi)

This term is correct, and when properly explained it lets the true believer understand that they have been rescued and given life. But when not taught or properly understood, the Asanti takes it to mean that God will give us all that we want for our ‘earthly salvation’. This is an area that the missionary must understand. The missionary needs to teach the real focus of eternal salvation and redemption.

From these blogs you can see the great differences. The African is not a person slaving away to get approval of God so that he might obtain forgiveness. He feels that he already has what he needs for eternity. His main focus is happiness, prosperity, and harmony in this life.

This has been a long three blogs, but here is the gist of it all. We need to be very thorough with Africans when we speak to them of our precious hope. Just because you use the same terms does not mean you have the same definitions.

Sometimes we need to return and rebuild, as there can be no building without a foundation. Hebrews 6:1 “…laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God..."

The 3 S's of African Religion, Part 2 of 3

SIN (Or in this context ORIGINAL SIN)-
The African believes that there are sins, but sins are actions that come from fundamentally good people. The African believes that there are no heart sins, just sins that disrupt life and society. Sin is only a verb, not a noun. Here is a quote to help you understand. It is taken from Evil and Salvation in African Religion and Christianity by Gregor Schmidt:
'In Christianity, sin is first of all rebellion against God, the Creator; in African Religion, the community is primarily offended… The biblical concept of sin against God is difficult to understand for Africans.'
And another...
'The idea of original sin is absent. Children are born innocent except in witch families.'
One more...
"In Christianity, evil infects us as persons in our very being; sin is there and always separating from God. Original Sin assumes that we have lost control and are slaves of sin. In African Religion, humans are free. Christ is only relevant under the premise of a lost state of humanity. Because Africans don’t have this worldview, the mediatorship of Christ is difficult to grasp.'

The African does not feel that he can offend God. It is only possible to offend people or lesser gods in the active world.
'Sin is anything that disrupts the cohesiveness of an ordered world and causes disharmony. When disharmony occurs, rituals such as sacrifices and offerings must be performed to restore order in the universe. For the traditional religionist, salvation is the restoration of harmony.' (Mbiti, African Religions and Philosophy, 59)

Another quote about sin:
'According to my informants, there is no abstract concept of evil in African Religion, only concrete evil actions. Every action or behavior that destroys the harmony of the community is considered evil; everything that promotes the well-being and the life-force of the community is good. “Good and evil actions are judged according to the benefit of the clan.”; the individual asks always: “Does it bring me in good terms with society?”; evil is “not following the cultural norms and the commandments of culture … an action, always with negative social implications; it can only be identified by concrete examples; incest, premarital sex and to marry an older woman are evil...This shows the importance of taboos in the traditional context, especially concerning the regulation of sexuality and marriage.
The judgment to identify a certain behavior as evil depends entirely on its visible outcome, i.e. if it affects the community negatively. There has been no evil committed if life on the outside – the public harmony – remains normal, and prosperity is a sign of goodness. Therefore, jealousy is not evil. Feelings are considered evil only if they become an obstacle to interact with others. In the same logic, adultery is only an evil action if it is discovered. “Transparency is not an African value.”' (Gregor Schmidt)

To understand Africans you have to know that most do not believe in original sin. They do not believe that man chose to disobey God and therefore came under punishment. The most common belief is that the Creator God removed Himself from man because of other people's errors or His disapproval of normal things needed for daily life. I will illustrate this to you with the traditional story told to Akans about the separation of God and man.
'The Ashanti (Ghana) tell a story that the sky was very near to the earth. Therefore the Creator God was very close to man and fellowshipped with him. A woman who was preparing fufu, the national food, continually hit God with her pestle, and that annoyed Him, so He withdrew Himself from man. Since that time the sky (God's realm) is high above the earth.'

This traditional story shows you the mindset. Here is another citation:
'My informants couldn’t tell me how evil came into this world. Two...informants told me a myth how death came into the world: God sent the Chameleon to announce to the humans that they wouldn’t have to die. But the hawk was jealous and didn’t want to grant humans this favor. So he hurried and announced, before the Chameleon could bring God’s message, that also humans would have to die. This is the reason why there is death. God punished the Chameleon for its slowness and ordered that it would never conceive a second child. Therefore, Chameleons die while giving birth. In this story, death is the consequence of an unfortunate event, contrary to the African belief that it is always caused by a person or a spirit. According to another informant, God created good and evil as a way to make people learn and mature. Without the opposite, education would be incomplete.'
'The most surprising answer was that evil came to Africa with Christianity. People behave (in) evil (ways) because the churches have rejected the traditions that guaranteed good moral behavior. “Today we’ve lost our principles: The authority system is not working anymore, the difference between age-groups [youth, adults, elders] is not respected, female circumcision has been abolished, there are high promiscuity and prostitution. Besides, the churches have separated the people in groups. Before, life was good and there was unity.”'

The thing that needs to be understood is that the African worldview of sin is very different from the Christian worldview. The African feels that he is an innocent person that God has chosen to separate from. He believes that the Creator God does not punish his sin, and that only outward sin that disrupts the clan or society is worth punishment. He does not fear God; he does not fear judgment. With this idea it is easy to understand this verse of scripture...

Romans 10:3 For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God.

The 3 S’s of African Religion, Part 1 of 3

To understand the African's faith you have to understand the way that he thinks about his soul, sin, and salvation. Ancient beliefs root the African to the ground. These beliefs seem to have no skin in this modern world, but they still have muscle and bone. They might be covered over with modern skin, but they are the thing that controls how the African moves. The average city-dwelling African might not be able to articulate and divide his beliefs of the world, but they still exist. It is much like a pregnant woman’s cravings for burnt popcorn or ice-cream with pickles. She might not understand the why, but the desire is very deep and needs to be fulfilled.
Before starting on this subject, I want to make reference to a topic that I stated in an earlier blog. Worldview is very important, and a missionary needs to understand the great differences between the Western and African worldviews. You might be thinking, “If the differences are so great, then how come no one talks about them, or notices them?” I want to give one answer to this question now, and I will deal with the other answers in a blog that I hope to write in the future.

We have to remember that we are living in a modern world, a world where people have changed their exteriors greatly. They no longer seem so foreign. We also are living in a developing world in Africa, where Christianity is the popular norm, and people have embraced the forms, terms, and practices of Christianity. This skin of religion can make it very easy for a missionary to look past the deep-heart differences of the people that they are called to reach.

With this stated, let's go beneath the surface…

We will talk about three things in this blog: the Traditional African view of the soul, of sin, and of salvation.

THE SOUL
In the Akan tradition we believe that each person has three souls (or spirits)- the okra (soul), the som (spirit), and the mogya (blood). Each person has these spirits. The belief is that when a person dies his okra will always return to the Creator God. The som dwells on earth after death by entering the world of the Ancestors. This is the spirit that we pour libations to, and the spirit that must be worshipped, remembered, and kept alive. The mogya is the last spirit. It is believed to come from the mother’s blood, and enters the children when they are in the womb.

So to the Akan person, his soul is not separated from God. It will always return to his Creator. The blood is always passed to the children. The only concern that he has is making sure the earthly som (spirit) is maintained. Let me give you a quote from the New World Encyclopedia about African religions:
'Immortality is associated with a person’s name and with the collective memory of their family. As long as there is someone alive who can remember a deceased person, that person is considered as part of the “living dead.” After no living person remembers the name of the deceased, he or she becomes part of a collective, community immortality. For this reason, marriage and children are very desirable, as many descendants ensure the immortality of an individual.'

Here is another quote from Evil and Salvation in African Religion and Christianity by Gregor Schmidt.
'In African Religion, there is no heaven and no hell. As long as they (Africans) stay within this order, they consider themselves good and need no divine help to do what is right… Whatever the transgression is, humans remain within God’s creation that is sustained by his love for our well-being. “God is and was always with us. He comes in dreams and through mediators. He can renew our life through wisdom.”'
In the African view of things I do not have to wonder about my soul. All souls go to be with the Creator God. The only soul that I can influence is the one that remains on earth, and the Creator does not deal with this soul. He has no laws for this soul. The decision about the resting place of this soul will be determined by my family and the way that I follow social norms. Therefore, the Akan does not fear death.

Here is another quote from the New World Encyclopedia:
'With a few exceptions, most African religions do not posit judgment or punishment in the hereafter. There is no heaven or hell, and no desire for a closer contact or union with God. Belief in life after death is not associated with the hope for a better future or the idea of “salvation.” Death is regarded as part of man’s destiny, a departure in which the physical body decays but the spirit moves on to another state of existence.'
The idea of the soul is very clear. The African does not worry about his soul in relation to the Creator God. It will always be accepted. The fear of the soul is with the living in this world. The living determine how long the som (spirit) of the dead will remain.

Here is one last quote to illustrate my point. It is taken from The African Experience of God Through the Eyes of an Akan Woman by Mercy Amba Oduyoye:
'As God is the foundation of life, so nothing happens without God. God lives, God does not die, and so indeed humans do not die. Even when we do not occupy a touchable body, we still live on. People believe that all the good and well-being they enjoy come from God, and that if one is not yet enjoying well-being it is because one's time has not yet come.'

Who is Following?

"Little pitchers have big ears". That is how Patty always puts it. Today Carey was looking for some crayons to color with and found some extra Bible study invitations in a cabinet. She came and said, "Daddy, someday, can I go out and give people these and tell people about Jesus like you do?" Next thing I knew she had on a 'visitation outfit' with a little basket going around trying to give Ella invitations.

While I was sitting here I remembered this statement that I heard a preacher say once: "If you are a leader, and people are following you, where are you taking them?" Being a leader can be really scary sometimes. The thing that is so scary about being a parent or pastor is that people do not just learn the good, but the bad too. When you are a missionary this becomes really real to you. It is interesting on the mission field, if you see a convert, almost every time you will know what church he/she is from. You can tell what missionary/pastor led them to Christ, without even asking them a question. When you led people you stamp an image on them without even trying. Your life will touch theirs'. We all have sin, and this mares the mark that we leave, but this is why it is so important that we always point people to Christ! We are to led them to Christ, and leave them there!

We all have people following us. I just hope that I am building a bridge for them, one that makes it easier to come to and follow Christ!

-The Bridge Builder-

An old man, going a lone highway,

Came, at the evening, cold and gray,

To a chasm, vast, and deep, and wide,

Through which was flowing a sullen tide,

The old man crossed in the twilight dim;

The sullen stream had no fears for him;

But he turned, when safe on the other side,

And built a bridge to span the tide.

"Old man," said a fellow pilgrim, near,

"You are wasting strength with building here;

Your journey will end with the ending day;

You never again must pass this way;

You have crossed the chasm, deep and wide-

Why build you the bridge at the eventide?"

The builder lifted his old gray head:

"Good friend, in the path I have come," he said,

"there followeth after me today

A youth, whose feet must pass this way.

This chasm, that has been naught to me,

To that fair-haired youth may pitfall be.

He, too, must cross in the twilight dim:

Good friend, I am buildling the bridge for him."