Why Send Missionaries Overseas?

This is the last in a series of reflections on modern missions.  If you’re new, start at the beginning here.

As we were raising support to come to Kenya, we read a book by K.P. Yohannan called "Revolution in World Missions".  Its basic premise is that the churches of the West should stop sending foreign missionaries overseas and that several indigenous Christians, sent the same amount of money, could accomplish much more with less cultural mess.  It’s not really a book I’d recommend for missionaries trying to raise support.  But his point is a valid one.  I think we as Christians and as missionaries should take a good look at where the money we give is going and what it’s accomplishing.  There’s often a tendency to send off a check and consider ourselves ‘involved in missions.’


One of our supporters asked us just before we left what I thought about the book.  I told him that it raised a lot of good points, but that it was missing something – foreign missions are important.  I guess I’d still stand by that statement, but I’ve got a little more perspective now.  At one time, I would have said missionary work in Kenya needs to be geared toward equipping local Christians to care for themselves, the aim being that in a few years, western missionaries could leave and the Kenyan church would be self-sustaining.  I still think that’s largely true, but our day with the Maasai changed a lot of that view. (if you don’t remember any of the introduction, you might want to look at it here)


Our original plan was to meet Christopher (the trip organizer), distribute some maize meal and to return to RVA by noon.  We arrived at the village around 11:00.  We hadn't even finished the highly formalized ritual greetings at noon!  This was followed by a sermon; formal speeches of thanks by this community elder, this chief, that senior chief, the community chairman, the pastor of the Baptist Church, the AIC Church, the Pentecostal Church, The Presbyterian Church... Christopher's mother... Eventually we distributed food, but rather than the 135 families for which we'd planned, there were over 150.  At around 2:00 we sat down for a meal, followed by sodas, then oranges and bananas and finally chai.  Around 3:00 we began leaving.  This involved more formal thanks, and requests to send greetings to 'Bruce' at Kijabe (who's no longer at Kijabe) and to the members of our families and to our churches in the US, Canada and Korea.  There was a tour of the mud hut and finally at around 4:15 we left, the space once occupied by bags of maize meal now filled with 20 or 30 Maasai women and children who wanted rides back toward the main road.  We finally rolled back into RVA just after 5:00.  Hot, dusty, exhausted.


One could argue, that we could simply send Christopher money – there’d be more if we didn’t travel and it would go farther. But as a church we’re called to break bread together.  Most of this will naturally be done in our own local community, but it’s interesting to note that Paul revisited (or desired to revisit) many of the churches he’d started. In the last post, I talked about the importance of relationships in evangelism.  When we visited the Maasai community and spent a day sitting under their tree eating their food we established some real connections.

Christopher’s mother is a perfect example.  She spoke no English and was basically deaf.  We could not communicate with her at all.  Just the same, she loved Faith.  Kenyans in general love kids, but this woman really admired Faith, stroking her hair, patting her cheek and smiling - gap-toothed grin from ear to ear.  She appeared and reappeared several times throughout the day and each time greeted Faith warmly.   Toward the end of the day, she brought a beaded necklace and placed it around Faith’s neck, beaming with all the joy you can imagine.


Later, as the village elders were giving their formal thanks, they kept saying over and over that they were so grateful we’d come – but they rarely mentioned the food.  Instead, they said things like, “Thank you for coming to see what is happening here.  Thank you for visiting us – tell your friends about us, I think many fear to come here.” 

As I turned on the car, Christopher’s mother rushed over to us.  She stood at my open window, lifted her hands before her and spoke rapidly in Maasai – an uninterrupted stream of words for at least two minutes.  At first it felt awkward to sit there, unable to communicate and unable to understand, but her eyes spoke the most intense blessing I’ve ever seen and eventually, I think I did understand.


I don’t think Paul revisited the churches he’d established to police them or to give them advice – at least I don’t think this was the primary goal.  I think the primary goal was to break bread together – to maintain relationships.  I left Maasai-land feeling much more connected to their community.  It’s a shallow relationship – I can now recall less than half a dozen names from the village – but it has helped to shape a more robust vision of the global church and, more importantly, it really encouraged all of us and fostered a sense of unity. Churches in the West need to continue to send missionaries overseas – even to places where churches are well established - just so we can feel more united. Share some time with people from another church in your own community and you’ll see what I mean. The modern church is so disjointed.  We can use all the unity we can get.