AND THE MISSION FIELD
field, good picture-taking will come nat urally. Incidentally, in some missionary sit uations you’ll find the camera a real asset. Many people consider it flatter ing to have their pictures taken, and thus it’s one way to win friends! One thing that’s as traditional as the missionary in cannibal soup is the mis sionary and his prayer letters. You know what they are: mimeographed or printed letters mailed out monthly, ev ery quarter, or annually. Some are in teresting, inspiring, and informative; we need not discuss the others. But be that as it may, as part of your mission ary preparation you ought to do some serious thinking about prayer letters. First of all, work out your own let ter-writing technique. Can you write a vivid letter which sounds as if you were talking to a friend? Do you know the basic rules of good English grammar and punctuation? Do you know how to use varied sentence structure and quo tations and narrative to keep from sounding monotonous? You may wish to argue that it is time enough to think about prayer letters after you arrive on the field. But (and this is nearly always the case) once you actually become a missionary, you will lose the perspective of folks back home. Then, too, because of your very busy life, you will need to dash off your letters in a hurry—and if the result is not the best, you may miss out on a lot of prayer support and possible financial help because of inadequate representa-
Read, study, discuss—and prepare yourself. The missionary who arrives on the field more or less ignorant about politics, religion, economics and other factors in the country is making a grave mistake and leaving himself wide open for one blunder after another. On the other hand, if he shows himself in telligent about the situation, his testi mony will carry far more weight. “ Study to show thyself approved—” . At first this may sound a bit insig nificant—but the fourth suggestion is that you learn to be expert with a cam era! Don’t wait until you arrive on the mission field to experiment with your picture-taking. Film is expensive, de veloping and printing a complicated process, and when you take one-of-a- kind pictures you won’t be very happy if they turn out under- or over-exposed. Yet making good photo-records of your missionary experience is vitally impor tant in keeping folks back home alert to the challenge of the mission field. In an undertone it might be added that the quality of their interest is often in direct proportion to the quality of pictures the missionary is able to send home! Make yourself a promise that your missionary pictures will be well-com posed, well-planned, properly lighted, in sharp focus; and that they will truly tell a story and are full of human in terest. Begin now to develop the neces sary techniques. Get professionals to criticize your work and make sugges tions. Then when you arrive on the
of the Lord! But, you say, you can’t play an in strument. Then perhaps you can develop some other talent. Flannelgraphs and similar visual aids are a wonderful help in presenting the gospel, and the more expert you are the better. Possibly you have artistic talent to use in simple chalk talks. The woman who is a superb cook, or who can sew and teach others to sew, may find those talents surpris ingly helpful on the mission field. The man who knows how to engineer a building job, or fix a ham radio, or tinker with motors—well, the list is endless. In a rare case, even your magic touch with a tennis racquet might give you an opportunity to reach an impor tant official for the Lord! Third, keep your eyes open for infor mation about your future country, and about the predominant religious beliefs there. Once you get to the field you will be busy in language study and other duties, and you will be eternally grate ful for all advance information you’ve been able to pick up. Besides, the more intelligent you are regarding your fu ture work, the more intelligently you can pray and plan and seek to enlist prayer support. There are various ways to collect in formation. If you’re going to Latin America, for example, take every oppor tunity to fit in courses on Latin Amer ican history and literature and psy chology. Read biographies of significant Latin American heroes such as Simon Bolivar. Make it a point to follow the Latin American news week by week in Time or Newsweek. Tip off the local librarian that you’re interested in all new books about Latin America, and in many cases you’ll find ready access to a flood of material. And, since Roman Catholicism is the predominant faith in Latin America, make it a point to find out exactly what Catholics believe. Read books tackling various aspects—Blanshard’s American Freedom and Catholic Power, Macau- ley’s Truth Versus Dogma, Chiniquy’s Fifty Years in the Church of Rome. Learn Scripture passages which par ticularly apply. Study the best means of approaching a Roman Catholic with the gospel. Get acquainted with Cath olics at home and try to analyze their point of view—how they believe, why they believe, what barriers make their acceptance of the gospel most difficult. A U G U S T , 1 9 5 2
Latin women watching annual Good Friday parade in San Jose as Image of Christ in a gold and glass coffin is carried through the streets
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