A Pilgrimage Of Faith, J.B. Toews, 1993

ildren go to special schools. They have cars. They live in modern houses. The nationals who struggle to survive eco- nomically are hesitant to assume leadership as long as there are missionaries who have the time to do the work. The mis- sionaries' identification with the local culture is marginal. When they speak freely of furloughs and their need for rest, they give the impression that their ultimate loyalty is still at home. Nationals often have die impression "thai the mission of Christ is very ethnocentric, and very Americanized." Some missionaries seem to think God works only through them. In too many instances the missionary acts as a chief and not a fa- cilitator.35 Paul, the apostolic missionary, addressed the basic prereq- uisite for an effective witness when he said, "I am made all things to all men, that I might by all means save some" (1 Cor. 9:22)* In contemporary language, it is a call for identification and cultural sensitivity. Contextualization and incarnation are essentials for an effective transcultural witness. This identification means to listen to and learn from the adopted culture. It is more than imitation. It means to learn a culture so well that one can feel with the adopted culture. The process of such identification takes time. Someone has said, "For God's sake do not do anything on the field for the first year" (some have even suggested waiting five years). By then the missionary would be approaching a position where meaningful identification is possible. Obviously, then, it be- comes very difficult to accomplish anything when the mis- sionary stays in an assignment for only two or three years. We North Americans find it very difficult to identify with 276 MISSIONS IN THE CONTEXT OF CHANGE another culture. Our affluence gets in the way of relational equality with the people to whom we are sent to minister. An emphasis on Western-style church organization is often pre- mature and restricts the maturation of the spontaneous inner life of the believers. Hugo Zorrilla has observed that despite their sincerity, only a minority of North American missionaries are really ef- fective in reaching the people for Christ because it takes years to speak a language well and with confidence. a we are con- vinced that if more nationals would be called into the ministry without the controlling hand of North Americans we would see more responsibility, greater fruit and greater vision for the work of the kingdom." He goes on to say, "For many of them [the missionaries] it is the first time they see or experience