I was sitting here tonight reading a blog post of a dear friend,
Jolene
Sloan. What I read was so good that I felt I had to share it with you.
If you would like to check out her blog you can do that here. I hope the
words from my dear friend will encourage all of you, if you are a missionary
that needs encouragement or someone who wants to be a blessing to those on the
field.
Surviving
the New Adventure by Jolene Sloan
You have waited many years for this moment. You surrendered
to the mission field, graduated from Bible college, spent many months on
deputation, and now you are headed to the field! Life could not be more
exciting, more adventurous! The moment you have anticipated, dreamt
about, and talked about is finally here.
When you get to the field, it is exactly as you dreamed.
Everything is so different, yet so intriguing. The people live
differently, shopping takes a whole adventurous day, the local language
sounds just like you stepped into a foreign film setting. It is a lot to
take in, but you are basking in the thrill of it all. "Yes, this was exactly what I had in mind. This is exactly
what I have been looking forward to all of my life,"
you reflect.
The people do quirky things, and you think it
is charming. Things happen that you just know the people
at home will not believe, so you write home about it with great pleasure,
knowing your friends and family will be just as amused as you are. You
journal each day (whether on paper or on your blog) about the incredulous
things you are seeing and experiencing. This is the life!
And then, a few months down the road, those funny things
slowly start to lose their humor. They start becoming ordinary, and
the excitement that got you through those first few months starts
to subside. You have thrown yourself whole-heartedly into learning
the language, and you are coming to the realization that learning a
language is a much slower process than you anticipated. After all,
you have been here nearly a year and still cannot say an intelligible full
sentence correctly. People still ask you where you are from everywhere
you turn, especially whenever you speak. Winter comes and it is
bitterly cold (or even the opposite extreme and in the 90's!).... not at all
like back home. Christmas Day arrives and you might find yourself
completely alone or, at best, with another missionary family; and well, quite
frankly, you are slightly disappointed because you were not able to
celebrate like you know your family was celebrating at home.
Living on the mission field becomes harder and harder, and
suddenly you look back and realize that it is no longer an adventure.
Those customs that were "cute" to you at first are, really,
just rather annoying. After all, don't these people know that there
are better ways of doing things?
And slowly, little by little, the adventure has worn
completely off. Life trudges on and does not always take the
directions you had anticipated. People are not asking "What must I
do to be saved?" like you always dreamed they would. In fact, if
they were to
ask, you would not even be able to tell them. "Does everyone realize how hard it is to learn a foreign language?"
you wonder as you think about how embarrasing it is that you have not been able
to lead one person to Christ's sweet salvation yet.
The letters from home stop coming as often, and everyone expects
that you have settled into a happy, little routine. And you have...
except that you feel kind of stuck. "This is where I am supposed to be, but I did not realize it would
be so lonely. Every time I open my mouth to speak, people hang onto my
words trying to understand me like a mother watches her toddler trying to speak."
You feel foolish and want to crawl into a shell and hide. And it does not
help that you do not understand anything that is being preached at church
either. You, the "great missionary" who left all behind to
serve Christ, even start feeling un-churched. Of course, you sit faithfully
in every service (while training under a veteran missionary) but still
only catch words here and there - certainly not enough to feel conviction or
encouragement. You miss your home church; you miss traveling to the
greatest churches of America and being in the greatest Missions Conferences
ever to be conducted. Forget all of that... you just miss hearing English
everywhere you turn!
Slowly, discouragement sets in. "I will never fit in here. I will never speak this language
correctly. I will never adapt to the way they do things, etc..."
And then you find that you are in a place you never thought you would be.
After all, was it not you who, when you talked about foreign missions to
children's Sunday school classes, watched as those small eyes widened in
wonder at the adventure of taking the Gospel to a foreign mission
field? Was it not you who gave touching testimonies to ladies'
groups about your burning desire to reach these people?
But, oh, dear young missionary wife! You are crossing a
bridge between two mountains. The first mountain is the one you left back
home, and the second mountain is the one you will reach once you start making
friends and learning to adapt in your new home. But, right now you are
caught between those two mountains, on a shaky, rattling swinging bridge.
It seems so much safer to turn around and run back to the first,
comfortable mountain that you left not so long ago. But, if you
will just endure and keep taking one small, shaky step at a time, one day you
will find that you have reached the other side. And, it is a beautiful
mountaintop, filled with the greatest pleasures and beauty one could ever
imagine! From one who has made it to that second mountain, I
encourage you to hang on!
I often wonder, if young missionary wives understood this
transition process... from adventure
to loneliness and change and,
finally, to adaption, would
there be more missionaries who made it through those first, transitioning
years? Most missionaries who give up on their calling, do so during the
first four or five years.
I also wonder if praying friends back home truly realize the
lonely tears that are shed during that transition period. If they did, I
am sure they would be more faithful to write little notes and send little care
packages to those young missionary families. If you are one of those
praying friends, let me encourage you to find a missionary family who has been
on the field anywhere from one to five years and focus on that family.
And when the devil comes and tries to rattle that already-unsteady bridge, the
missionary family will hold on tighter and take another step forward....
another step toward their future of staying.