Cultural Differences

(This post I originally wrote in response to a question on how to handle cultural differences. The person asking wanted to know how a missionary determines what is right or wrong in a culture and how does one go about changing something that is not right within the culture. I thought it would make a good post here.)

I am in a missionary working in a jungle village on a small island in the south Pacific. The culture here is incredibly different then what I am used to as an American. When I first arrived the culture shock was incredible and almost paralyzing.

After some time, I began my first church plant. When preaching and teaching on Sundays, I would have some women with no tops on. These women were usually breast feeding mothers who did not cover up after feeding their children. The children here breast feed until two to three years old. The children would be running around while I was teaching, and then run to their mother to feed. I am in a culture where fornication is rampant and expected. Most youths have lost their virginity by fourteen, especially if they’re female. Rape is against the law, but none the less it too is a cultural norm. A wife is almost property here and husbands beating their wives is common. Having more than one wife is also common. All of these items are clearly against Scripture. (Not the breast feeding of course, but the nudity, which occurred in between feeding the children.)

Now, my primary mission was not to end the nudity, remove the fornication, or stop the rape and wife beatings. My primary mission is to preach the gospel and as a result establish local churches. However, if a true church is established those things will change. The more who truly trust Christ, the more the local culture is affected and changed.

Let’s remember as Christians, in any part of the world, we will be different. We will be strangers and pilgrims on this earth. The people should begin to reflect the culture of heaven instead of the culture where they physically live. The missionary does not change the culture, but the Holy Spirit does as He changes lives. It is not up to the local people to decide what is culturally right or wrong either, it is up to God and His Word. Based on the authority of God’s Word, not my own authority, I teach against the unscriptural practices. There is something wrong in any part of the world where people make professions and yet there is no change.

“If any man be in Christ he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.” The Lord

As a missionary my focus is not on what part of the culture is wrong, but on drawing the people closer to a holy and righteous God. As a result, a new culture is formed in the church. This is not a western or village culture, but a heavenly one!

How is Your Vision of God?

Isaiah had seen the Lord as he never had before in Isaiah chapter six. The event forever changed his life. He saw the Lord “high and lifted up.” He saw a holy God with amazing strength. He saw the true “King” and “Lord.”

Today, many see God wearing a Hawaiian shirt and wearing flip flops, as one popular preacher described him in a book. They see the “man upstairs,” or their “buddy.” How we view God is very important, because it is directly tied to how we serve God. Yes that’s right; your view of God does determine how you will serve God. The devil has done a good job at painting a distorted picture of God, and it has affected Christianity today.

So, how do we get a proper view of God? Has God revealed himself to us? Yes he has! First through creation and second through His Word. In creation we see an all powerful God, who is remarkable. In His Word, we see a special revelation of God. We learn of his attributes. We see how He works, and what He desires. We see, first, a holy God. A just God; a perfect God, a righteous God. We also see a God full of mercy, love and grace.

As we get a clearer picture of God through His Word, this affects how we serve Him. You see in His Word, God is not my buddy or the man upstairs. He is not sitting down on a beach some where in a Hawaiian shirt and shorts. He is HIGH and LIFTED UP! He is holy! As you get closer to the Lord you realize, as Isaiah did, that you are “undone.” That you are a wretched sinner in need of grace and cleansing. The closer you get to God the more you realize how far from being like God you really are. The devil paints the opposite picture: one in which leaves off the holiness of God. The holiness of God is what drives me to try and be holy. Did the Lord not say, “Be ye holy for I am holy”?

This in turns affects our standards such as dress, music, social standards, and others. Our music is less holy, because we do not see the Lord as we should. The same applies to the other standards as well. Too often, standards in fundamentalism are solely based on what the preacher says and not a vision of God. When this happens people simply conform to where they are. This is why you see some people change their standards when they move to a new location and change churches. Their standards were not based on their view of God, but on the preacher. In other cases, their standards ARE their god. It is here where they judge their spirituality. This, too, is because they lack a clear picture of God.

How do you view God? Your view God will affect how you serve Him! I, for one, am sick and tired of the irreverent views of God portrayed today. Is it any wonder why sin is so rampant today! The media portrays Him as a God who makes homosexuals; as a God who if exist has no absolute standard for man. Religion paints him as a God of no judgment; a God where there is no personal accountability. Most people only know of God through what they have seen in Hollywood or liberal “churches.”

I suggest we dive into His Word and learn of Him! It will forever change your life!

Books I am Reading

Here is a list of books I am currently reading or have just recently finished:

The All Sufficient Christ, studies in Colossians by Theodore Epp.
Flyboys, Non-fiction about WWII flyers
Becoming A First Century Church, Clarence Sexton
Teaching to Change lives/Seven ways to make teaching come alive, Howard Hendricks
Deadline, fiction Randy Alcorn

Truck Trouble

Sorry it has been awhile! I appreciate the faithful still coming and reading.

Last week was a very trying week. Tuesday, I headed to Kavieng to get supplies. It is a five hour drive from where I live. We finished getting supplies for the month and headed back home Thursday morning. About one hour down the road, my water pump went out in my truck. The pump went out in the same area where three years ago my entire wheel flew off my truck! There is a bush mechanic right there in that village. This man let me use his truck to go back to Kavieng and get a new water pump. I went back and, praise the Lord, they had a water pump for my truck available. We decided we would head out Friday morning again. However, this time the starter went out and seized the engine! This happened before I left town, right at the work shop. They fixed that problem in about four hours. They did not have the needed part, but they did get the truck working again to where I could drive it until the part I needed arrived.

After I picked up my truck, we decided to try a third time to get back home. This time, about 30 kilometers outside of Kavieng, a welsh plug blew out of the side of the engine block! I left the family at the truck (we had supplies in the truck) and I headed back for Kavieng. Once there, I found a friend to come and tow my truck back to Kavieng with his vehicle. Other problems also occurred: my truck blew out the head gasket at the same time, the glow plugs also fried the day before, and I was leaking power steering fluid everywhere!

Saturday morning, I hired a vehicle to take my family and I home with our supplies. We arrived home late Saturday afternoon. However, because I have no truck I could not head out to the two churches and preach on Sunday. The workshop in Kavieng tells me they will need at least a week to make the needed repairs to my truck.

When we arrived back home, I turned my generator on. Two hours into that the generator broke down! I also have a small back up generator, which is good for lights. I turned that on Sunday afternoon, and it, too, broke down, after only fifteen minutes of use!

Today, I was able to rig the generator so it is working. I simply bypassed the circuit breaker by rewiring it, and that got it working. Hopefully, by the end of this week I will have a new circuit breaker for my generator. My truck, though, is a bigger concern, please pray about that. The truck has almost 300,000 kilometers on it, and has constant problems. (The month before, on the trip to Kavieng, four wheel bearings went out!) My truck gets a lot of abuse because there is no real road here. It has to go through rivers everyday, and what road we do have is just dirt and filled with holes that are bigger than Rhode Island. Truly, the Lord has kept this truck running. I do think it is now time to get another vehicle. I can not have my family stranded on the side of the road and the ministry comes to a stand still while I wait for parts or repairs on my truck. Please pray about that. Vehicles here are very expensive and getting a vehicle loan is not an option. A decent, used, four wheel drive, diesel truck will cost 17,000 to 18,000 US. And this would be a truck three to four years old, the size of a dual cab Ford Ranger.

My family and praise the Lord for looking after us each time the vehicle broke down. It truly was amazing. We broke down once right by a bush mechanic’s house, the second time I was at the work shop in Kavieng, getting ready to leave, and the third time I was only about 20 minutes outside of Kavieng and it made it easy for me to go get help. Had we broke down two or three hours down the road, we would have been sleeping in a PNG “haus boi” for at least one night.


Pictures:
The one picture is of my truck broken down on the side of the road outside of Kavieng, waiting to be towed. The other picture is of the from the first breakdown. In that picture my family was loading up into the bush mechanic’s truck, so I could take them to Kavieng and get the water pump.

The Trial of Jesus

Here are some thoughts from John 18:28-40; 19:1-15

The trial of Jesus Christ has some rather remarkable events take place throughout it. Jesus told Pilate in John 18:37 that he came to bear witness unto the truth. A trial is supposed to be about the truth. In the office Pilate held, he always had to determine truth. However, truth was not what Pilate was actually seeking. He was seeking to please the people. He was seeking to be a good servant of Caesar, and if truth got in the way of those two areas, the truth would be ignored.

In this trial, Pilate did not completely ignore the truth. The chief priests did, though. Pilate went out to the chief priests seven times, seeking the release of Jesus. At least two of those times, Pilate declared to the Jews, “I find no fault,” in Jesus. The chief priests heard the truth, but totally ignored it. They heard what Pilate said, but ignored it. They simply cried out “crucify Him!” The fact is the chief priests knew the truth before they ever brought Jesus to Pilate. How many people today simply ignore the truth, even when faced with it? They know the truth will forever change their life, and they do not want their life changed. They think they have found pleasure in sin, but true joy comes from the truth. These people are like little kids playing in mud holes, who when asked if they want to go to Disney World say no because they are having too much fun in the mud hole. They do not realize what they are giving up. The chief priests were looking to protect their power, but instead they rejected the One who gives the power.

The chief priests also exhibited another characteristic we should avoid. In John 18:28, the Jews bring Jesus to the judgment hall. The Jews did not want to enter the hall lest they be defiled, as a result of going into a gentile’s house. This custom came from their tradition. They have no problem killing an innocent man, but they do not want to dirty themselves by going into a house of a gentile! What hypocrisy! Oh how often we simply have an outward form of religion and IGNORE the truth. People who do this have their religion in vain. Their religion is not about God, it is about self. They do not attend church and maintain standards out of a desire to please and love God; they do those things to please men; to gain favor and praise of peers. This is wicked. Life is about GOD!!!


Now back to Pilate. Pilate knew the truth, but chose not follow it. Why? Truth was not his end goal. He wanted to keep the peace. He was more worried what the people and Caesar thought, than what God thought. He did not ignore the truth all together as the Pharisees, but none the less, when he could not reach a compromise he chose to ignore the truth. At one point Pilate asked Jesus, What is truth?” However, he did not stay for the answer. He turned and walked away after asking the question. Many people today base their actions on what others think instead of truth. They might even ask about the truth, but they do not really want the answer. Pilate wanted to accept the truth without having the truth affect him. This is not possible. Pilate wanted to let Jesus go. He knew he was innocent. However, he knew if he followed the truth in relation to Jesus Christ, it would cost him. It probably would have cost him is job and title. So he traded eternity for a few years of “prosperity” on this earth. How foolish! His problem was he was only thinking of the present and not the future. He should have been thinking of his own judgment before a holy and righteous God. He should have been begging Jesus for mercy. Many people today make the wrong decisions because they base those decisions on what others think, or they are only thinking of the present and not the future!

How do you respond to truth when the Lord works on your heart? Do you ignore it altogether? Choose to accept it provided it does not change you? Seek to compromise with the truth. Or do you willingly embrace it, allowing it to do its work in your heart. You will never be sorry you chose to follow the truth!

Back Online! Last Two Weeks

I am finally back online! My internet company was having problems and I was not able to connect at all for about 1 week. Then I was able to connect periodically for short time periods. This is still the case.

The past two weeks has seen many trials and many blessings. We have had power trouble, we are without water again, and the lawn mower and truck are both having lots of trouble right now. During all this, though, the things that really matter have been going strong. Many of the Christians are really showing signs of growth. One man, I believe, has the potential to be the future pastor of the work. I run a one on one discipleship program with those who trust Christ, and Joel is really growing. He has a strong desire to serve God. I have been praying, asking the Lord to show me who is the man I should begin serious training to be the pastor, and Joel may be that man. During the past nine days there have been two men and another teenager saved! On Sunday, I baptized 4 adults, a 14 year old, and an 11 year old. The four adults were two married couples. The picture below is of one the married couples getting ready to be baptized. Saturday, during my visits, I spent time with two men and their families. They have been visiting the church for several Sundays. Neither man trusted Christ on Saturday. However, on Sunday both were in church again, and one of them, Bennett, made a profession of faith!


I must admit, I am coming across one of the hardest parts of being a missionary. This church is the first church the Lord has ever used me to plant. (I hope, because the need is great, it is the first of many.) The church in the village of Kudukudu was started almost two and half years ago. It is a true church plant, not starting from a split or pulling members from another Baptist church. There is no other Baptist church! It started with the Lord putting this village on my heart and I began praying. Then I led a man to the Lord from the village and the work began. Now, we are averaging 70 to 85 every week, and the work is growing at a steady pace, doubling over the past year. As I am pastoring this work, the love for the people grows everyday. My desire for them to grow is great. I know that soon the Lord will confirm who it is I need be training to be the national pastor. At the tim, that man is ready, I will step aside and let the church run completely autonomously. I look forward to that time, but at the same time, it is hard for me to imagine stepping aside. Once the sheppard has looked after the sheep for several years, He knows all of the sheep personally. He knows them by name. He knows which ones are strong and which ones are weak. He knows which sheep need to be encouraged regularly, and which ones encourage others. He loves the sheep. Yet he has to turn it over to another shepherd. This is not easy. These are people I have personally seen put their faith in Christ. The Lord, of course, reminds He is the true Shepherd. He is the great Shepherd. He also reminds that, “Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform until the day of Christ:” The Lord used a missionary to pen the words to a church He planted. This verse gives me great comfort when I think of the day I am no longer the pastor. I know the Lord will continue His work. We always need to be mindful the work is the Lord’s and we are simply the tools. Any true progress made in the lives of men is 100% a result of the Lord giving the increase.

Wedding Aniversary

(I have received an email from at least one person telling me their comment did not get posted. If you have sent a comment and I did not post it, resend it. For some reason, I am not receiving some of the comments, since I have enabled comment moderation. **If I choose to reject a comment, I will post a comment saying so, most of the time.)


Saturday will be mine and my wife’s 17th wedding anniversary. We were married on November 11th, 1989, Veterans Day. (The war was on! Just kidding.) Looking back 17 years ago, little did we know what all the Lord had in store for us. Here we are now with five children sitting in Papua New Guinea!

My wife and I were married after I joined the Air Force and finished my training. I was 19 and she was 18 when we were married. We met in high school at a Bible class I taught after school on Thursdays. We ended up being members in the same Baptist church a few months later. She has had to put up with me all these years, but my good looks make up for any trouble I have caused her. :)

The Lord used good examples of other marriages to strengthen our marriage. There were three in particular: Pastor Willie J Byrd, Missionary Bill Stewart, and Pastor Stan Roach. Pastor Byrd became our pastor about one year after we were married. (Now, for our first year of marriage we had a pastor in New Mexico that was an example of everything NOT to do in a marriage!) Missionary Bill Stewart was our pastor while we spent one year in Korea. Pastor Stan Roach is still my pastor. He is pastor of the I.B.C. of Anchorage Alaska, my sending/home church. All three men loved their wives with passion. They did not bury their wives while they were working in the ministry. Their wives were right there with them. Growing up in a broken home, I had no idea how to truly love my wife, but through the influence and teaching of those men, the Lord showed me.

I wonder what the Lord has for us in the next seventeen years! The Lord is so good. He provides man with a woman, a completer/helper. A companion with which to share all the joys of life. I love my wife and am thankful the Lord has given her to me.

(Proverbs 18:22) Whoso findeth a wife findeth a good thing, and obtaineth favor of the LORD.