A MISSIONARY REBUTTAL
are Christians unbalanced?
by Lydia M aillefer
EDITOR'S NOTE: Upon reading the article "Are Missionaries UNBALANCED?" by T. Norton Sterrett, published originally by HIS magazine and featured in THE KING'S BUSINESS March, 1962, Lydia Maillefer, a missionary to the Congo under the Evangelical Free Church Foreign Missions, has written the following rebuttal. W h y sh o u ld t h e Christian missionary overseas be more “unbalanced” than the American Christian? “A chance to meet Toscanini personally?” , we’d love it. “ Know who Elvis Presley is?” Of course we know. We’d have to have our necks in the sand to escape him! We even meet him in Christian’s houses at times. “ No interest in the World Series?” Where did the mis sionary grow up who wasn’t interested in it? If a mis sionary isn’t rather normal, if he doesn’t have some hobbiese and outside avocations, what will he do for recreation and relaxation on the field? Perhaps American Christians would be surprised to see us missionaries grab for the Time magazine when it ar rives by air far in the interior of Africa. Shouldn’t a missionary be up on world events these days when the leastt political change in Venezuela might affect his stand in Nyassaland? What would folks at home think if they could see the missionary carefully following U. S. national elections on his short wave radio? We missionaries cannot reach the people to whom we are called overseas unless we meet them where they live. We must know about “Toscanini, Elvis Presley and World Series effects.” Can we do any less than be up-to-date on eevnts and people in U. S. while on furlough? Can we convince alert young people to give their lives to Christ if we don’t know what is going on today? You say “ clothes don’t matter for there is little time to see them.” That’s the old idea of the “ antique” look ing missionary of three decades ago perhaps, but where most of us missionaries live, we have to scrutinize our clothes habit to see what kind of example it is to the nationals, and to see how it fits in with their culture, how it compares to other Caucasians in the area as it might affect our testimony to them. And as if that weren’t enough, we have to be alert as to how our dress
affects various congregations and age groups in the U.S.A. while we are on furlough. No one is more closely judged by his clothing than a missionary. If we don’t dress care fully on the mission field, we feel sloppy and we run down our own morale as well as those who must look at us! You say “ a missionary realizes that the price of a suit would purchase 3,200 gospels in Africa.” Why should a missionary think about this fact any more than a dedi cated Christian in U.S.A. ? I know a lady in America who didn’t get the new couch she wanted for four years because every time she went to buy it, she thought of some missionary project which needed the money more than she needed the couch. And yet I know of a mission ary or two who had to come home because they couldn’t make the financial sacrifices needed on the field. Is the American lady then unbalanced? I know of a Christian childless couple in U.S.A. who “had” to buy a new three-bedroom $40,000 house even though their other house was beautiful and adequate and I know an African pastor whose child became deaf from malnutrition while her father sacrificed and went to Bible Institute. So now who is unbalanced? “ An American spends one day in business while 5,000 Indians, Chinese or Africans go into eternity without Christ.” Sure, but the American business man wasn’t called to Africa. Rather, one might ask what that Am erican is doing for the lost in “his” city, what percentage of his salary is he giving to missions? If he does his job for Christ, is he unbalanced? But is he doing it? The American communist gives 40% of his income to the party. W hat, does the American Christian give? The foreign comifittnist worker forsakes all to identify himself with those he is trying to win. Is the foreign Christian worker doing as much? My point. I’m a missionary too, but I don’t want to be considered unbalanced; I don’t want to be on a “mis sionary pedestal.” Better still, if all of us who name the name of Christ everywhere were to be a “ peculiar people, zealous of [a ll] good works.” Missionaries shouldn’t be any more unbalanced than any other zealous Christian in U.S.A.
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THE KING'S BUSINESS
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