Pondering, being quick to Listen and when you can’t make sense of things in another culture…

Written by Anna Danforth

“My heart is so burdened for these people.  I mean, when I was living with them, we would sit in their kitchen every night for supper and their “stove” was an open fire in the middle of the floor.  It was so frustrating to try to carry on a conversation while all the smoke from the fire was blowing in our faces.  Everyone was squinting their eyes and I kept coughing.  Someone needs to teach them how to build a chimney that goes up through their roofs so they don’t have to suffer like that.  I just can’t believe they haven’t thought of that yet.”, stewed a new missionary to me several years ago after living in a village with a Cameroonian family for several weeks.

What do we DO with the things we experience and can’t make sense of in another culture?

As most people see new things that “don’t make sense”, they go through phases of honeymoon awe, then frustration, then writing it off as dumb or inferior.  This makes for a pretty frustrating and fruitless experience.

Those who have done well have learned the skill of pondering.  Everything exists for a reason.  Everything.  In every culture.

You may see or experience things that just rub you so wrong while in Cameroon.  Ponder it.  Take it in.  Be a Mary.  Ask someone if you can.  By all means, though, don’t write it off.

You may even be in an uncomfortable position where you see a long time missionary do something you don’t understand or say something that rubs you wrong.

Missionaries aren’t perfect, but there is probably a reason behind their actions, don’t let it wreck your view of their testimony of Christ.

Another example 

One such story is of a wealthy young American man who went to Cameroon on a 2-3 week short term trip.

He was SO excited for the Lord and SO burdened by the vast amount of NEED he saw.  While out in a village, he gave several hundred dollars to someone he saw in need.

He left several days later, feeling very good about himself.

Isn’t that what Christ calls us to do?  But what remained?  Quarreling and bickering among the family of the receiver (he had given to the wrong person in the family in terms of authority and the money was pilfered) and rumors that the long term missionaries posted there were so stingy in comparison to this man who gave so much.  If white people are so rich that they had piles of money at their fingertips like this man, why didn’t those missionaries pass out hundreds of dollars each day??  Though the missionaries gave much in different ways, they didn’t have hundreds to pass out on the streets on a whim like this young man.  Giving money is such an incredible gift.  Be careful to ask how to do it appropriately to maintain peace in the village and help maintain the integrity of people who have to remain long after you leave.

Watching, observing, pondering and asking questions will make much of your experience.  This world is SO fun to explore, but doesn’t come without work to try to understand it.

Become a good watcher, ponderer, and question-asker while in Cameroon.  

You’ll learn much about God’s diverse hand and how beautiful He is in a whole new way.

Fun Fact: The answer to my new missionary’s frustration about sitting around a smokey kitchen?  The villagers store their corn in the loft of the kitchen and it needs to be dried all year as a means of low-tech preservation.  It is also a super handy way to ward off malaria-ridden mosquitoes at night…they aren’t fond of the smoke!  Malaria or smokey eyes…take your pick

Until the last one has heard!

Anna