Ronda Schmidt Training Cross-Cultural Missionaries “The Rest of the Story”
Last week I sent a “case study”, one similar that we have the students work through. Here is “the rest of the story”.
After consulting together with many church leaders from the area, it was decided that the building would not need to be torn down, but that a Christian “cleansing ceremony” would take place instead. Civic leaders and the entire community were invited to attend. The Christians from the village across the river were also joined by numerous church leaders from their tribal group as well as other prominent Christian leaders.
Although just a few unsaved people attended, the consensus at the end of the meeting was that God was honored by what was said and done.
After the general welcome to the meeting, prayer, and the hymn “Amazing Grace”, both the tribal people and the villagers had a representative talk about what they felt regarding what took place in the building. This was followed by another hymn, “There’s Power in the Blood”, and then the main tribal church leader spoke about God’s great power and ability to cleanse and restore. Two buckets of water were ceremoniously poured out to wash across the questionable area. After a concluding prayer, all were asked to join in a meal prepared by the tribal believers.
Thank you for all of your thoughtful prayers and responses regarding this scenario. I hope that it will spur you to continued diligent prayer for the missionaries that you are “holding the ropes” for. Missionaries need God’s wisdom and insight in dealing with these sometimes mind-boggling cultural issues and in counseling the tribal/national believers they serve.
What Would You Tell Them?
The Grammar 101 Class ended about 2 weeks ago and I am now teaching CLA (Culture/Language Acquisition) Methodology. This week we’ve been talking about Biblical Absolutes versus Cultural Norms. Often what we believe to be true or right is based on our culture instead of according to what God’s Word tells us. To teach these principles we have been doing case studies in order for the students to arrive at a reasonable solution.
Recently a co-worker forwarded a “case study” from missionaries that were in a difficult situation. These missionaries were students here a few years ago. What would your advise be?
When we were in the missionary training, one of our classes included difficult “cultural incidents” from different places around the world. In a small group, we were supposed to figure out reasonable solutions for these various cultural conundrums.
This week, one of these took place right across the river. I’ll warn you that it is not a pretty topic if you want to pass, just close this NOW. If you want to get a taste of what kind of cultural problems come up in a cross cultural setting, read on…
In this particular little village, a small group of Christians who met in someone’s home has finally (after many, many years) started building a church. Labor has been mainly volunteer, but much of the building and work has been given “as an offering” by one man and his employees.
The building has been in progress for a year now, and they were getting ready to put the windows in this week. It’s nearly completed.
About five days ago a sixty year old man raped a thirteen year old girl in the new building and blood stains abound.
Here’s the conundrum. The local believers want to be a good testimony and have their neighbors feel welcome to come see what Christianity is all about. Since the Christians cannot do any spirit ceremonies that would be dictated by a local headman/shaman, the local unbelievers will never consider that church building as anything but cursed because of what happened in there. The first consensus view was that the building needed to be torn down. The man who “offered” the most is willing to swallow the loss if that is what needs to happen.
How would you counsel this small group of believers?
I will let you think about your response for a few days and will let you know when I post “the rest of the story”.
What’s Next?
This week I finished teaching the Culture and Language Practicum. The past 7 weeks the 3rd semester students have put into practice many of the tools they’ve been exposed to in Language and Culture Acquisition. The students are now busy writing their cultural theme papers on this exotic culture.
The day after I finished the Practicum I started teaching Grammar for Language Acquisition to the 2nd semester students. People have a tendency to expect languages they are learning to act in ways that are similar to their native language. This can slow and complicate the language learning experience. In this class students are exposed to many languages to help them understand and accept the different ways languages work. The goal to studying grammar is to learn to communicate naturally and clearly within the culture the missionary is becoming a part of. Of course the ultimate goal is to clearly communicate The Gospel and to see churches planted among the unreached.
Youth Overnighter
February 18-19 The Latin Outreach Team had an overnight activity with 15 of the Latin Youth here at MTC. The purpose of the event was for the new members of the team to get to know the kids and to build relationships. We spent the majority of the time doing activities outside. Who would of thought that in the middle of February we would be able to have a hotdog roast? That was one of the highlights for the kids. As well as going canoeing, another, “who would of thought?”. God knew we needed good weather in order to keep all of them occupied.
Facilitating Relational Learning Seminar
January 4-6 I took part in a Seminar called Facilitating Relational Learning. The methodology of this seminar is to facilitate learning among students in small groups. The facilitator’s role is to encourage learners to think critically and reflectively. I learned how to ask good questions that encourage people to share what they are learning and have learned from past life experiences. As a result we are all learning from each other. As I study more about the life of Christ and how He taught, it was often through asking questions that caused the listener to think critically and reflectively before arriving at a decision or conclusion.
So far I’ve been able to use what I learned in discipling single ladies, leading discussion in the classroom and at church.
…HIs salvation they shall know
On December 19, 2008, 95 students graduated from the Missionary Training Center. The next step for them is to build a support team before they leave for Indonesia, Paraguay, Papua New Guinea, Cambodia, Bolivia, Guinea, Mozambique, Mexico, Senegal, Bolivia, Brazil and the Philippines to name a few of the countries that they will be serving in. Pray that they will be diligent to make wise use of their time and for opportunities for them to share the ministry that God has prepared them for and that people will become a part of their support team both in prayer and encouragement as well as financially.
The Regions Beyond
To the regions beyond I must go, I must go, Where the story has never been told; To the millions that never have heard of His love, I must tell the sweet story of old.
To the hardest of places He calls me to go. Not thinking of comfort or ease;The world may pronounce me a dreamer, a fool, Enough if the Master I please.
There are other “lost sheep” that the Master must bring, And they must the message be told; He sends me to gather them out of all lands, And welcome them into His fold.
To the regions beyond , I must go, I must go, Till the world, all the world, His salvation shall know.
…What is CLA Methodology II?
The 2008 spring semester here at the MTC is well underway. The 139 students are in different semesters of training. The training is constantly being evaluated to give the students the best training possible for cross-cultural church planting. Last fall it was decided to shorten the training here so that more on-field training could be given. In light of that decision 41 students will be graduating the middle of March. From now on the MTC training will be completed in three semesters instead of four.
The fourth semester students (some of which were my students last semester) are busy with CLA (Culture and Language Acquisition) Methodology II. During this class, students continue their exposure to CLA methodology begun last semester (language acquistion), with an emphasis on culture acquisition.
Through an extended cultural role play they learn how to acquire culture through culture events (participation, observation, recording, and by getting to know a culture helper), through interviewing and learning how to file culture information using a software program designed by NTM. This software is used in analyzing the culture to recognize cultural themes. These cultural themes will then be used to help write bible lessons, addressing cultural barriers that are contrary to God’s Word.
…great is His faithfulness
Thank you for praying for the Mexico trip. I arrived back at the Training Center November 9. Since then I’ve been busy doing the final write ups on the students evaluations. So many neat things happened it’s hard to know where to start. The Lord was certainly faithful.
One of our main concerns had to do with getting everyone to Creel by bus and back to El Paso,
Texas at the end of our stay. Thankfully it couldn’t have gone smoother. At one of the bus stations
where we had to switch buses I asked at the ticket counter when the next bus was leaving. The lady
told me in 20 minutes. I told her we needed 12 seats and she said that was the exact number of seats
still available. If we couldn’t have all gotten on we would have had to wait for at least another hour.
Another testimony of God’s faithfulness was in how He protected some in the group from a bad batch
of cookie dough. Kimmie invited her language helper and some friends to the camp to make
chocolate chip cookies. As they were mixing the dough Kimmie couldn’t figure out why the dough was
so dry. Some tasted the dough and had to spit it out. Her husband tried a baked cookie and said it
tasted funny. Come to find out they had accidentally bought lime (the stuff that is in cement) instead
of flour. In Mexico lime is sold in the food section because they use it to soak corn in before they grind
it to make tortillas. Those who had tasted the dough and cookies had burns in their mouths for
several days which made it difficult to eat. We called the Doctor to see if anything needed to be done
since some of the lime had been swallowed. He said that if Aaron would have eaten anymore cookies
he would have had to have his stomach pumped.
God also showed us His faithfulness in providing some very precious language helpers for the
students. Everyone seemed to bond immediately
and it was neat to see how those cross-cultural
relationships grew over time. It certainly was hard
to say good-bye after four weeks. They were all so
gracious to open their homes and share their lives
and families with us.
Thank you for praying for us during our time in
Mexico. It was certainly evident that you were
bringing us to the throne of grace on a regular
basis.
…the truth shall make you free
If therefore the Son shall make you free, you shall be free indeed. John 8:36
These days we think about freedom as July 4 is just a few days away. We celebrate the freedom that so many have given their lives for so we can live in a country where we enjoy many freedoms that people in other nations can only dream about.
There is another freedom that comes to my mind as well these days and that is the freedom we have in Christ. For those of us who know Christ as our Savior we now have the freedom to choose between obedience to God’s Word or to sin – to follow our fleshy desires. Before our salvation we were like the people who live in countries that can only dream of a free democracy, we were enslaved to sin because that was all we knew. Jesus promised “If you abide in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine; and you shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free”. John 8:31-32.
On May 19, 67 students received their degrees here at the New Tribes Missionary Training Center. As brand new missionaries they look ahead, trusting God to work out every detail so they may serve Him wherever He leads. There are more than 3,000 tribal groups still without the Gospel in their own language. These people live in fear of Satan’s bonds and the control he has over them, not having ever realized that they can be set free. These new missionaries will be scattering all over the world in the next few months to 2 years, desiring to share with tribal people how they can experience true freedom that is only found in Jesus Christ. Please pray for them that God will raise up folks to partner with them in prayer and finances as soon as possible so they can be on their way to where God would have them serve. Some of them have medical issues that need to be resolved and others left MTC with a school debt.
My mom fell about a month ago so I will be home for most of July, helping my parents with things around the house. While home I will need to do some preparation for a class that I will help teach in the fall as well as visit supporters in my home area. I also have a trip planned to Illinois and Michigan to visit friends and supporters. I will return to MTC at the end of July to get ready for a trip to Mexico August 1 – 9. Several of us will be going to finalize our plans for the Language Practicum in the fall. Our main goals for the trip are to find language helpers that speak some English, make contact with the local pastors and make sure that things are in order at the camp where we will be staying.
Thank you for partnering with me as I serve here at the Missionary Training Center, preparing people for the task of telling unreached people groups of the freedom that they can have in Jesus Christ.
How valuable is your Bible?
How important is the Word of God to you? Would you be upset if you misplaced your Bible or lost it? The following is what one girl thinks about her Bible.
Dear Finder,
If this Bible is to get lost, please do me the favor to send it back if you’re not in the area, but if you are in the area please call so I can pick it up. (phone number and address are included).
Sincerely,
Brianda Cepeda (owner of Bible).
P.S. If you send it home or call I’ll give you my thanks. This Bible is very special to me. It has taught me lots of things that have brought me to being saved, in other words it brought me to being born in heaven exactly on Fathers Day, 4:15 A.M., 2005 as if I were another present to the Lord. So now I consider this Bible a very valuable treasure.
The above is written in the front of Brianda’s Bible, one of the children from Mision Bautista Latinoamericano. It has been a blessing to be a part of this small group of latin believers. The group isn’t very large, but those that do attend on a regular basis, desire to walk with the Lord.
Please pray for Brianda and her family as well as the rest of this group as they seek to walk in obedience to God’s Word.