halloween tales - bad missionaries

This is a mean and terrible tale. Missionaries who lie, steal and cheat their missions and the people they supposedly serve. Now I think I better understand the immense foreigner fatigue our partners had here in the early days we first arrived. No wonder it has taken so long for us to build trust. We have and that by the grace of God, but I would love to shoot a few of these people.

If you follow this blog, you know that Brenda and I are currently at Evangelical Theological Seminary, coaching, mentoring and encouraging students. So last night as we were sitting at a large table in a local pizzeria, we heard these young people tell us their worst experiences with missionaries, and foreigners in general.

We heard reports of missionaries submitting false receipts for reimbursements, inflated prices being submitted, pictures being sent of things not even actually purchased, opening orphanages and then forcing those children to go out on the streets and do evangelism! We heard stories of workers (these actual young people we were sitting with) being fired, not paid, stolen from, threatened with physical harm, and finally being kicked out onto the street with nothing in hand.
This made me cry at first, but then I wanted to rampage. I wanted to hurt these Westerner "Missionaries" . . . in the name of Jesus of course, but I really wanted to hurt them. And then I remember that precious verse that it is better for a millstone to be wrapped around the scrawny neck of the person who hurts a child, and that they then been thrown into the sea, than they fall into the hands of the living God (highly dynamic David Translation). I was relieved to realize that these "missionaries" are in the hands of the living God.

What was so humbling was that these kids had survived these experiences without massive scarring and damaged Faith. It was even more humbling to see how they can interact with Brenda and I even after all they have been through. We have restored trust in them, but look how many years it has taken! I am more determined than ever to not be like these other "missionaries."