Reporting Back in 12 Langugages

If you are in the Portland, Oregon area, please join us
for a “Peru Report”
on the Seminar in Creating Understanding that was held in Lima, Peru

Saturday, June 5 2010 2pm – 5 pm
WorldView Center
6012 SE Yamhill St
Portland OR 97215

What language should we use today?

There is more to that question than meets the eye! Language is not only the sounds that we pronounce – communication includes spoken words, of course, but it includes so much more. In fact, we have a saying in the Institute for International Christian Communication that there are twelve languages to learn as you enter a new culture.

So my question is not whether we should speak in Spanish or in English. . . . or Russian, Portuguese, or Mandarin. We also have to “speak” the languages of numbers, pictures, items/things, sounds (alarms and tones of voice, for instance). We need to include “body language” and the use of color, touch, space, time, foods, and odors. There are two important things to know about these 12 languages:
1) They vary from one culture to another. A smile, for example, does NOT mean friendship to everyone. In my country, it means friendship. In other places it can mean silliness or even insincerity. It is not that those cultures do not have ways to communicate friendliness; but smiles are not the way to get that idea across.
2) God can and does use all of the 12 languages to communicate with us, and we can and should use all 12 languages to communicate His Message with others.

So, as I asked before, what language should we use today?

And the answer – whether we realize it or not, is that we will use all of them. If we are in our own home culture, we will probably communicate just fine with all 12 of those languages. If we are in an unfamiliar culture, we probably need to specifically learn to use those 12 languages. That is part of the training that we provide in the Seminar in Creating Understanding.

It has been a little over a month since I got back from Peru and we want to tell the story of what God did during those 8 incredible weeks. How should we tell that story?

We could just use words – a purely verbal report of some kind.
We could just use written reports – I’ve tried to keep the blogs interesting, but we all know that long written reports are not the best way to capture our attention and interest.

We want to use many of the languages that are a part of Peru. So let me invite you to celebrate all God is doing in Peru and through the ministry of Peruvian missionaries. We will blend many cultural languages to tell a story that is definitely worth hearing!

If you are in the Portland, Oregon area,
Please join us: Saturday, June 5 2010 2pm – 5 pm
WorldView Center
6012 SE Yamhill St
Portland OR 97215

Beyond the Actitivities

The Seminar is over. After the joyful and very Peruvian closing celebration last Thursday night (April 8), many of the participants started traveling back to their homes. I travel back to Portland later tonight (Sunday, April 11).

Endings are always busy times. There were final projects to review, interviews with students, preparations for the admissions process into the MA program. There were goodbye parties and all of the details of the closing program (music, certificates, entrances and seating arrangements, invitations to guests. . . ). But all of that is now behind us – successfully, and pleasantly behind us.

What have we done? It is one thing to talk about the activities (“we taught these topics, and completed the following objectives. . . .” ), but over the last couple of days I have been looking for a different way to describe what was accomplished. Accomplishment speaks beyond just activity – beyond simply describing what we DO. I would like to use this blog to try describe what fruit, or outcomes, or results, have started to grow as a result of this Seminar.

In the short term - over the last 2 months, we together built four ministry programs – one for each of the four cultural areas of Lima where the students were working.

How did we build those ministry program?
We start with people who know the Lord and His Word. These are not novices – they are already skilled and faithful, mature in ministry.

Then we teach and practice and refine skill in observing - getting to know the people we have been sent to serve. So often, new ministries start with what the leader wants to do, what she or he likes or what is exciting and interesting to him (or her!). But that way of approaching ministry has an inherent weakness – it is built on what the one ministering likes, not necessarily on a deep understanding of the heart of the people. It will always sound like good activity, but the real results are often short lived. So we begin by building a deep understanding of the people we are sent to serve.

The Seminar then takes that understanding of a special people down deep - into the core of their culture. We create a “map” of how the people understand their own life. We learn to ask the questions that let us “see the invisible.” We describe life from the point of view of one living in that reality, seeing life through their eyes.

That culture map leads us to reflect on how the Bible interacts with the people and their way of life. God’s Word is true for all peoples of all cultures and in all times. But my people need to struggle with some truths that are not difficult for Peruvians, and in the same way upper class Peruvians need to struggle with some Bible truths that are not problems for those from the mountain villages (and vice versa!) . So we consider the Bible - both specific passages and general flow of Bible teaching, with specific and prayerful focus on the people we are sent to serve.

Finally, as we know the people and refine the focus of God’s Word to touch their hearts, we design ministry so that it fits within the peoples’ normal patterns. For instance, if people normally use printed material to share information and ideas, we can include reading as part of our ministry plan. But if normal patterns don’t use reading, we design ministry around conversations or narrative teaching. That is just one example: the important thing is to know the patterns of the people and use those patterns as wisely as possible to develop our plans for making disciples.

What have we done? We designed four different approaches to ministry, emphasizing four different areas of biblical teachings, making disciples through four different sets of cultural patterns, to bring the Word of God into sharp focus at the heart of four different parts of Lima’s society. Each group of Seminar participants prepared a set of documents about these different elements: in a limited sense, you could say that the notebooks containing those documents represent the outcomes, the results, of this Seminar.

In the long term: And yet, there is more we trust will grow from this. Every step of the process was done as illustration, as example. The real fruit – the long term results – will show up as we see these fourteen participants designing ministry where God has sent them; and as we see them teaching others to design ministry this way, too. They cannot do it all – they can only faithfully serve: but we ask the Lord of the Harvest to produce fruit that abides – to His glory, and for their joy – as these fourteen use the skills learned these last two months to design ministries in the harvest fields where the Lord has sent them.

Of Soles and Dollars

Experts in languages say that between American English and Latin American Spanish there is only one sound in common. Other sounds can be approximated by speakers of the other language (especially with training), but it is only the sound of the letter “f” that we share together.

Beyond sounds, common facial expressions have different meanings. A smile in Portland, Oregon does not necessarily mean the same thing as a smile in Lima, Peru. Both cultures like to share a laugh, but the meaning behind the laugh and the appropriate time for the laugh are different.

The illustrations go even deeper into the heart of our two cultures: Americans value education because we love to improve ourselves and each other. Peruvians value education because it brings hope for a better tomorrow.

My point? If we differ at the level of the sounds we consider normal, why would we assume that we understand the deeper things of life the same way? The differences between how Peruvians and Americans view life are vast, complicated, and wonderfully alluring. I am privileged with the joy of learning to love what is of good report in both cultures – different though they are from each other!

Those deep cultural differences have been visible this week in terms of finances. Money, costs, prices, funding, income, expense. . . . all of the words and ideas that we use to describe the role of exchanging goods and services between people within a culture.

Some of the differences can be measured. For instance, the 2008 Purchasing Power Parity index says that a Peruvian has an annual purchasing power of $3990/person. Compare that to the purchasing power of a US citizen: $47,580. It is not hard to realize that one will have more money available than the other.

Look beyond the numbers and the message comes into even sharper focus. A preference for the well being of the group over the rights of the individual and a focus on nurturing each other are predominant in Peru; the US values individual initiative, and resources are more likely to be used to build infrastructure than for social nurture. At the core of the two peoples, there is a difference in what we feel and consider to be important, beautiful, and right. And those differences, of course, show up when we speak the language of money.

I have pondered this question long and hard this week. There is a financial side to providing the Creating Understanding training. Yet that financial side is not easily reduced to a spread sheet of income and expense. The differences go so much deeper.

Why, exactly, am I concerned with this problem today? In order for the World Link Grad Center to operate in Peru, we need funds. The operating budget of $4100 for this Seminar is subsidized greatly by the fact that many of our staff (both in Lima and Portland) are supported by different missionary agencies. It is a very low figure indeed. . . from American perspectives. Each student has been asked to cover $1000 of the costs of these two months. That includes about $290 per person that will be paid to IICC (to cover that $4100), with the rest going to our host ministry for food and lodging.

$1000, it turns out, is an astronomical figure. It is just about 25% of the average annual spending ability of a Peruvian. Imagine how many Americans would find it difficult to pay $12,000 for tuition, food and lodging for a 2 month seminar. That is an approximate proportional equivalent from that purchase power parity index.

The price tag of class work for the MA program comes to $5600 US ($700 for each of 8 learning units). As one woman said, “we buy houses for that much money, and then we live in them for a life time.”

I don’t write this blog with answers in mind, but I rejoice that the questions are taking on clarity. We are asking the God of all wisdom to help us construct a financial plan that is “third culture.” We want a plan that is not totally American, but is acceptable (at the deep levels of the word) to Americans. We want a plan that is not totally Peruvian, but is deeply acceptable to our Peruvian brothers. Most of all, we seek a plan that is God-cultured – that is led and formed under His direction. We are asking Him to build a bridge between the language of money as spoken in Peru and the language of money that is spoken in America.

Simply finding money is not the answer – mission history over the last century shows too many places where just sending money brought about division, dependency, and weakening. The answer is in mutual understanding that allows God’s people to fully join forces to accomplish what God has called us together to do. I ask you to please pray for both the Peruvian and the American servants who are seeking that level of understanding so that the vision before us can take root across the globe, even when spoken in the language of money.

Quien No Tiene Minga

“Quien no tiene minga, mendiga.”

“The one who doesn’t have a group to work with (a ‘minga’) will beg for food”

The Incan empire lived out that idea, which was later turned into a proverb in Peruvian Spanish (and less beautifully, into my English translation above). As we found in a visit to the Museum of Anthropology and History, the Empire thrived because of orchestrated team work; a community life in which people helped each other to plant, to harvest, to build. The one who didn’t have that group of mutual help would end up begging for his bread.

The Bible speaks that same truth in passage after passage: if one is alone and falls, who will help him? Two together are better. A cord of three strands is not easily broken. Jesus sent out the disciples by twos. Paul traveled the Roman Empire with a missionary band, and the picture that we have of Church life is a body, where each member serves the rest. It is a hard life when we try to go it alone; we are made to work together.

We weave that idea into the very nature of the Creating Understanding Seminar. Over the past 7 weeks, students in the Seminar have worked in four groups, not only visiting four different neighborhoods, but working together to analyze, write, and report on what they find. Each group submits written work; not each student. Each group presents their findings to the whole class; not each person. Each group suggests Biblical approaches to ministry in their neighborhoods; not each student. We don’t want to just talk about the importance of teams; we want to build cooperative learning into the very training of missionaries. After all, their success depends on their ability to cooperate. (look at John 17:20 – 23 to see how true that statement is!)

As I was thinking about teams this afternoon, I realized once again how grateful I am for the multinational team that is making this Seminar a reality. On the Peruvian side, we are blessed with hospitality and administrative ministry of Olga, Moises, Blanca, Jenny, Angie, Lina, and Maximo. On the IICC side, Mark, Karen, Andrew, Stan, Mark, Carmen and Katie are part of the “minga." (The photograph above shows many of the ministry team as well as the students at a prayer time we had in late February).

And the names that I have shared don’t even begin to mention the technical, financial, prayer, and administrative help coming from Portland, Lima, Philadelphia, and many, many other places.

May you have Jesus’ joy as you and your “minga” work together to make Him known this week!

Missionary Communities

Vicky is one of the students in this Seminar. She asked me a great question after class about 2 weeks ago. I’d like to share some of my answer in this blog.

The question? What is it about NEWMA mission that would convince a graduate center in Portland Oregon to send teachers, create internet mentoring methods, translate curriculum, and look for Spanish speaking teachers. . . . what is it about NEWMA that makes World Link Graduate Center put forth the effort to bring the Seminar (and later the full MA) here to Lima?

No doubt it is a big undertaking – one that is stretching us as an organization (and stretching me as a person!). But, as we say in Spanish, “bien vale la pena” (it is well worth the trouble).

NEWMA is sending Latin American missionaries to the ends of the earth. There are over a thousand who have already been sent out, and yet these faithful and highly qualified workers are not using the patterns of mission agencies from other parts of the world. Early on in their 30-plus years of history, NEWMA’s founders realized that sending missionaries from Latin America would need a Latin American model of missions. Enter the “Andean missiology” of NEWMA mission!

Dr. Maximo Hurtado gave me 15 unique aspects of NEWMA when he described NEWMA’s model of mission to me. When I answered Vicky, I only gave about five of the reasons that I see. Today, let me dig deep into just one of the unique aspects of NEWMA.

NEWMA doesn’t only start churches; they start mission training centers.

If you travel with a NEWMA missionary, you will see buildings where believers meet, pray, study the Bible, worship, give, share the gospel with their neighbors, and enjoy fellowship of all kinds. It looks like a church, walks like a church, and talks like a church. But if you look closely their literature and buildings call themselves more than churches. They call themselves, “Mission Communities.”

NEWMA missionaries simply believe and teach that they were reached with the gospel in order to reach others. And as they reach others, those new believers also need to reach into the communities, villages, states, and nations. And so the focus is not only to start a church, but to start a mission center that will spread the Word around a whole new region. The Mission center idea puts multiplication into the forefront of thinking, praying and acting for new churches. It gives structure to the work. Believers meet several times a week – sometimes to deepen their walk with God, but at other times to learn ideas of ministry – how to reach nearby neighbors, and how to reach the furthest corners of the globe. One evening the church meets to pray for the sick and study the Bible. The next night, the same people get together to study missionary biographies, hear about unreached people groups, and consider what it means to be a cross cultural missionary.

Eusebio is one of our 14 students. He works in a church, and also works as the director of one of the larger mission center/satellite schools within NEWMA. His region is in the jungle areas of northern Peru. It takes 4 days to travel (by boat) from one extreme of his region to the other extreme. NEWMA missionaries have started 16 churches in that region, and now those 16 churches send approximately 10 young people a year to Pucallpa (where Eusebio’s mission center is at). They come for 5 weeks at a time, to learn Bible, theology, ministry, and missions. Then they head to different villages and cities to start new churches/mission centers. For 2 months they work with experienced missionaries. And then they return for another 5 weeks of residential training. That pattern continues for three years in Pucallpa and then 2 more years in the Latin American School of Mission in Lima -a total of five years split roughly 50% classroom and 50% guided practical ministry experience (and the classroom work is very well organized – they have a fully developed curriculum of 55 classes in place). When the five years are over, students are sent to a 2 year assignment either within or outside of Peru. They document their ministry, showing that they are applying the lessons learned in their first five years. And after the seven full years are complete, they receive their diploma as graduates of the mission centers of EMLA.

And guess what these graduates do? They go to the ends of the earth, making disciples and teaching them to know, love, and obey the Lord and His Word. They open yet other church/mission centers – in South America, California, France, the United Kingdom. . .. And they give a vision and a structure so the new churches can likewise start church/mission centers.

Vicky’s question has other answers. Eusebio’s story has other challenges. But from this short description you can see why WLGC is honored to work with the NEWMA mission, training the trainers who open churches and multiply mission centers.

Our Classroom - part II

Backwards, Upside Down, and Flat

It is a beautiful Saturday afternoon here in Peru and the students are visiting their primary classrooms – the different parts of Lima where they learn from the people about the people. While they are out of the building, I’m getting ready to guide next week’s classes in the more traditional classroom.

Only it isn’t really very traditional – the Creating Understanding classroom tends to be backwards, upside down, and flat. Before you jump to conclusions, let me explain!

How do you build a training program that will prepare young missionaries for cross cultural work? I get to lead that discussion next week – and what a great topic for this group! There are 14 people in our Seminar, and 7 of them are significantly involved in missionary training programs.

How do you train missionaries? By thinking backwards. We start with the skills, attitudes, knowledge that will be needed for the task, and then we walk our way “backwards” from that end point, one by one making sure that what is needed at the end is included in the curriculum. What activities will help us reach our goal? What new information do students need to know? What attitudes will let someone go to the trouble of learning this? As tempted as we are to fill the curriculum with topics that we enjoy talking about, the best way forward is to think backwards – starting with the end in mind and then identifying the steps that will take us to that endpoint.

And as for “upside down”? Traditionally, teaching starts with a theme or title – a proposition if you will. And from that proposition, students work on activities that will clarify its meaning, finally arriving at some kind of application at the end.

We tip that pattern upside down. Starting with the experiences that students or the teachers have lived through, we start with the realities of ministry. Then we create discussions into which we add new information, identify and discuss potential options, reflect on the key issues, and finally create - together – a few short summary statements. All of the traditional elements are still there, but we present them in an order that builds off of experience and involvement.

Finally, our classrooms are flat – as in Thomas Friedman’s book, The World is Flat. His point is that technology has made it possible for multiple cultures around the globe to interact non-stop.

Take yesterday’s class session as an example. Dr. Donald Smith, co-founder of the Institute for International Christian Communication ministries (which includes the Creating Understanding Seminar), could not personally come to Peru. But he joined us for a 90 minute session yesterday, sharing his heart and his experiences via internet and web cameras. Students asked questions, and he responded. He told the stories that shaped a generation of missionaries – including this current Seminar. He could talk with the students, complete with hand gestures, voice inflections, laughter, and responses to questions. Even working through a translator in the room did not diminish the connection that was made in that “flat world” interaction.

Why are we backwards, upside down, and flat? Some of the reason has to do with the world we live in. But the bigger reason is the ministry we are called to. Making disciples is a deliberate process. So we deliberately think about what needs to be “learned” (in the deepest sense of the word). From that starting point, we move forward by thinking backwards – guiding our students toward the deliberate goals that we find in Scripture.

Making disciples is also not only a matter of knowledge – Jesus was so clear that it is a matter of “obeying all things that He has taught us.” You have to be upside down to teach obedience – it isn’t just a matter of conceptually grasping propositions that Jesus said. It is a matter of experiencing Him as we grow in obedience to all He told us to do. And so, in the cyber world of 2010 we take that upside down and backwards discipleship, and make it flat at times as well.

Welcome to the classroom - part I

Since we are in Peru to train the trainers of the NEWMA mission, it makes sense that I should introduce you to the place where we do that. Where do you teach missionaries? Specifically, where do you train Peruvian missionaries who are training others as well? Of course the traditional answer is, “we teach in classrooms.” And to a point, the Creating Understanding seminar does use classrooms. But as a friend once said, teaching missions in a classroom makes as much sense as teaching skydiving or scuba diving in a classroom. A little bit of information is needed, but a LOT of hands on experience. And so, welcome to the four classrooms where our students are learning about mission:

-The Upper Class church in Mira Flores. Four of the students are involved with Sunday activities, mid-week activities, and weekend special ministry in a major denomination’s upper class outreach in the upscale community of Mira Flores. The church has 3000 members, and a pastoral staff of 11. Members come from all over Lima (they have their own cars), though most are from the Mira Flores district. The church is known for its unique leadership structure – a pastoral team rather than the usual strong senior pastor role.

-The neighborhood of Tahuantinsuyo. The name of this barrio was used for the Inca capital area where four regions all merged (the word means, “four regions”). This neighborhood carries a proud name, even though the Incan central was located in Cuzco, very far from Lima. The reality of the neighborhood is rough and tumble. Gangs, drugs, street fights. . . the barrio is a mixture of recent immigrants from the Peruvian countryside, and a second generation of street smart inhabitants. The gospel is growing solidly (city statistics say that 28% of the residents call themselves evangelical), and yet the violence and poverty remain as major realities.

-The “stop suffering” churches. This fast growing group is touching a nerve in Peruvian hearts, as they present a form of prosperity gospel that developed in Brazil. The preachers are Peruvian, but speak as if they have Portuguese accents. . . . a fascinating but sad study. This group is touching core issues in Peruvian hearts, but they are changing the gospel to do so. Our students are grappling with understanding why this group is growing as it is.

-Finally, Lima is home to Latin America’s largest China Town. Four of the students attend services in a Chinese church that offers preaching in Spanish with translation one week into Cantonese, and the next into Mandarin. The church is seeking a trilingual full time pastor to attend to both of the Chinese language groups and to the youth who prefer to worship and study in Spanish. The Seminar overlapped with the Chinese New Years celebration, and our students were there to watch the processions and activities.

What do our students do in these classrooms? We start by developing skills for learning what is happening in an unfamiliar culture – observation, research on the internet, interviewing, and visiting the places where activities are underway. That set of notes (multiple dozens of pages, by the end of the 2 months) becomes the “raw material” for analyzing the culture through the lens we call the “Cultural Onion” and then for developing ministry that will fit the heart of the people.

All of the observation and wise questions in the world won’t help if the Lord isn’t giving insight, understanding, and discernment. Would you please join in prayer that the Lord would give two kinds of fruit from this classroom? The first fruit we ask for is solid skill in the process we are teaching, so that the students in the Seminar can duplicate this in other ministry areas. The second fruit is for the opportunity to minister while they are in these neighborhoods and churches. The technical word for what we are doing is “participant observation” and we take that seriously. We want to observe, but we also ask God to allow us to participate, to touch the lives of the people we rub shoulders with in all of these different “classrooms.”