A good friend who is a student at UGA is writing a paper on the effectiveness of missionaries to Peru. She asked me the following questions, and what follows those is my response. (I am blocking out a couple of names of people that I specifically mentioned.)
-How do you feel about missionaries, and how do you think the presence of missionaries has affected the Peruvian culture and religion?
-Do you think missionaries are effective in their efforts in Peru?
-What do you think Peruvians think about missionaries?
I think missionaries of Jesus in Peru are desperately needed. The economy in Peru is in bad, bad shape. Four years ago, there was enough gold in the decorations of the main cathedral in Lima to pay thePeruano national debt four times over…but the overwhelmingly vast majority of the population live on so little income, Americans couldn’t comprehend. Four years ago, there were 300,000 kids a year on the streets in Lima alone…that doesn’t even count the country areas that even Peruanos consider poor. The hearts, consciences and memories of the Peruano people have yet to heal from the Shinning Path destruction of the 1980s and 90s. These people need to see the love of Jesus lived in front of them in ways we could never understand as we sit in our comfortable homes. But, I’m afraid that too often American missionaries go to Peru with American culture rather than Jesus. We think we need to fix their economy and their culture before they will listen to Jesus. The reality is that they need to see and experience the love of Jesus before they will take to heart our desire to help them with everything else.
I think, in a lot of ways, our American mentality gets in the way of our ability to effectively share what we have come to share, especially in the outer areas that are still very much Indian and tribal. We know what works in our communities and cultures at home and we try to manifest those same programs into ministry in Peru. They don’t work, missionaries get frustrated or lose support because of a lack of definitive change in the people and they leave which results in the communities and villages having a culture of religion that is an amalgam of things they have been taught over the years. In the polytheistic cultures of the Indian tribal villages, the God the missionaries brought becomes just another God in a list of deities the villagers must appease, rather than the villagers understanding that He is the one, true God who is the giver of all they have.
Are missionaries effective? I don’t know that my answer to this is suitable for a research paper. The Bible says that God’s Word never returns void, so if we are teaching God’s Word, yes we are effective because God will use it. Also, I have to say that I have seen so many times in my own life…in Peru and Ecuador and even here at home, that God works through us, uses us, in spite of ourselves. That is one of the great mysteries of God, that He desires to use us when it would be so much more profitable and easy to do it Himself. Are missionaries effective? Yes, but it is not the missionaries themselves, but the Holy Spirit using what the missionaries are doing and saying to convict and draw the nationals to Himself.
My experience in Peru is that the Peruanos think of American missionaries as rock stars sent from God above to impart great programs. And I think maybe they get as frustrated as we do when those programs don’t work. I don’t think I’ve spent enough time there (all at one time) to really know the answer to that. I know how excited they have been to see me as part of a missions team, but would we not do the same if a group ofPeruanos came to our small community to build us a new church building. (That is, of course, if we could put our arrogance aside long enough to think they might could help us.) But, I have seen how they look at *missionary #1* as though he was Gabriel himself sent with a message of the great spiritual prosperity to come if you simply became a brother or sister in Christ. I’ve also seen how *missionary #1* accepts and perpetuates such adoration from the nationals. (Sorry if that’s ugly, but that’s what I’ve seen of how he treats and talks about the nationals in *the city he works in*.) I’ve also watched how the nationals respond to *missionary #2* who, although not Peruano, is from a neighboring country (one Peru has sparred with in the past, but neighboring all the same). Granted, *missionary #2* is a different man altogether from *missionary #1*, but I think the evidence is clear. The New Tribes Missions philosophy of missions is genius. Take Jesus to the people. When they know Him, teach them to know Him more. Teach the nationals to be pastors and missionaries to their own people. And get the heck out of the way so God can work incredible things in the lives of the people. A national knows best how things work in their own country and community.
Do these people need missionaries? Yes. But, not forever-missionaries. They need missionaries who will teach the people to be missionaries themselves and take Jesus to their own people.
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