The Missionary Calling: Lessons from a Short-Term Missions Experience in China
Loading...
Authors
McNinch, Timothy
Issue Date
1999
Type
Thesis
Language
en_US
Keywords
Alternative Title
Abstract
My program was called the Tongliao, China Global Project 1998, one of several
summer missions programs organized by InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, an
interdenominational student movement. It was officially a lingua-cultural exchange
partnership with the Inner Mongolia Teachers' College of the Nationalities, in Tongliao,
China. Each American delegate was to be partnered with a Chinese student, from the
English department, with the purposes of building friendships, learning about each
other's cultures, and giving the Chinese students a rare opportunity to practice their oral
English with native speakers. For our part, we also hoped to model Christian community
and faithfully witness to the work of God in our lives. The program was mediated
through one of the college's English teachers, Narelle, a foreigner who, like many, uses
her teaching position as a legal contact point for her missionary calling. She put the
officials of the Teachers' College in contact with our team's directors, Ken and Carla
Bieber. Ken had previously spent a year in China, teaching English as a Christian witness
in Bautou (where he first made Narelle's acquaintance) and Carla works as an Area
Director for InterVarsity Christian Fellowship.
I had two major purposes for being in China. The first was to deliver a message
from God to the Chinese people; the message of God's gracious forgiveness and
salvation through Jesus Christ. I was a short-term missionary. My second purpose was to
be a student, learning from six weeks of experience what it was like to live as a
missionary in a foreign land. While I had some opportunities for the former, the latter
was more personally impacting. The six weeks I spent in China proved to be pivotal in
my own understanding of the work of Christian missions. Many of my former
associations with mission life were dismantled and reshaped, especially my glamorization
of the field. Before, I had visions of adventure, travel, excitement and power as hoards of
converts would come falling at my feet. But instead, I learned the labor, boredom,
homesickness, culture shock and frustration that comprise real mission work. These
lessons are invaluable for me as I consider the seriousness of committing to participation
in the field of Christian missions. I have begun to understand why the foreign missionary
must not be self-appointed: successful missions must be empowered by the Spirit of God.
More than a career, it is a calling.
Description
v, 62 p.
Citation
Publisher
Kalamazoo, Mich. : Kalamazoo College
License
U.S. copyright laws protect this material. Commercial use or distribution of this material is not permitted without prior written permission of the copyright holder.