I Can Tell That We Are Gonna Be Friends

"Because our expression is imperfect we need friendship to fill up the imperfections." - G.K. Chesterton

Living in close community with a group of people and working toward a common goal can be a richly rewarding experience. Friendships forged here can be deep and lifelong. At the same time, we never know when we're going to have to say goodbye to yet another person, and that instability can make it tough to invest in new friendships.

I'm A Heartless Monster - Observations from Behind the Barbed Wire

"To love means loving the unlovable. To forgive means pardoning the unpardonable. Faith means believing the unbelievable. Hope means hoping when everything seems hopeless." - G.K. Chesterton

...or at least it often feels like I am.

Living in the midst of poverty is tough in all kinds of unexpected ways. It is easy to be crushed by feelings of helplessness in the face of such overwhelming tragedy. If you manage to survive that initial onslaught, you may well find your heart hardening - if only to allow you to make it as far as the supermarket without breaking down completely.

One of These Things is Not Like the Others

"The true way to overcome the evil in class distinctions is not to denounce them as revolutionists denounce them, but to ignore them as children ignore them." - G.K. Chesterton

I am a white male who is over six feet tall. When I wander around Southeast Asia, I stand out.

Depending on where you are, quite a variety of experiences await you when you show your white face in public. Here are a few:

"Drink is the enemy. Love thy enemy!" - A Missionary Position on Alcohol

"Drink because you are happy, but never because you are miserable. Never drink when you are wretched without it, or you will be like the grey-faced gin-drinker in the slum; but drink when you would be happy without it, and you will be like the laughing peasant of Italy. Never drink because you need it, for this is rational drinking, and the way to death and hell. But drink because you do not need it, for this is irrational drinking, and the ancient health of the world." - G.K. Chesterton

We keep a spreadsheet with the names of our fellow missionaries. It has two columns, "Lushes" and "Prudes".

Occasionally we share this fact with friends here (generally those we've already determined are in the "Lushes" column). They usually laugh, then think for a moment and ask if we can share the spreadsheet with them.

Culture Shock Round 2: Working with Americans

“There is nothing the matter with Americans except their ideals. The real American is all right; it is the ideal American who is all wrong.” - G.K. Chesterton

In a previous post I explored what it is like to be plunged into a foreign culture. When working with a team, though, it sometimes feels like you are in two foreign countries at once! I would love to be gracious and say that all cultures are equally guilty of this but I simply cannot do so with a straight face.

Understanding Culture Shock

“A man is perfectly entitled to laugh at a thing because he happens to find it incomprehensible. What he has no right to do is to laugh at it as incomprehensible, and then criticise it as if he comprehended it.” - G.K. Chesterton

Although the term “culture shock” is fairly well known, it has a very different meaning within the context of longer term adaptation vs a quick vacation or short term work trip.

We've all heard the travel braggart who never gets culture shock... “I guess I've just travelled enough that nothing shocks me.” Ha! Pride cometh before the fall, as the saying goes. And what a fall it will be!

There's No Such Thing as a Missionary

"The devotee is entirely free to criticise; the fanatic can safely be a sceptic. Love is not blind; that is the last thing it is. Love is bound; and the more it is bound the less it is blind." - G.K. Chesterton

Second post in and here I am undermining the whole concept of this blog.

Heaven Help Us, I'm a Missionary

"You cannot grow a beard in a moment of passion." - G.K. Chesterton

 
It's not something we expected. It's not something we planned for. Oh, sure, we said that at some point we might like to live overseas. We even went so far as to say maybe it would be to do something good for humanity. But then it just sort of happened.
My name is Theo*, and I'm a missionary.