Lausanne World Pulse – Perspectives Articles – Living Simply and Humbly in Ministry

By Samantha Baker Evens
August 2009

1. Missionaries should only bring what they can check in on the airplane. People have been surviving and even thriving in host countries for millennia. Missionaries should not bring any household items, but should endeavor to adopt local habits for their first term. A first-term missionary packing list might include nothing except a few personal mementos (such as Christmas decorations), special children’s toys, a few pairs of “airplane clothes,” and essential personal medication. There is a spiritual process when we move overseas and have our old lifestyle habits and possessions stripped away.

2. Missionaries should live with a host family before setting up their own household. One of the more helpful approaches that I have seen under-utilized is the immersion experience, where new missionaries live with a host family for one to three months as soon as possible after arriving in the host country.

In addition to the obvious language, culture, and bonding benefits, this helps missionaries to observe closely how the host families shop and set up their household. It also gives missionary families time to learn how to interpret the context enough to be able to choose a home that will continue to facilitate bonding with the culture. While the idea is often initially overwhelming for new missionaries, it often proves to be the highlight of their first term.

3. Missionaries should expect to adopt the standard of living of national pastors or NGO workers in the host country. It is, of course, a great and tragic irony in this world that the poorest twenty percent are dying of under-consumption and the top twenty percent are dying of over-consumption.

Moving cross-culturally affords us an opportunity to examine our standard of living, learn simplicity from our host culture, and attempt to make the uneven ground in this world level (Isaiah 40:4). For Western missionaries, a good rough goal in moving to a developing country is to aim to adopt the standard of living of a national pastor or NGO worker in that country. Aspects to look at would include where and in what kind of housing a national family would live in, where they would shop, what household items they would typically own, and what kind of vehicles they would use.

Westerners are often unaware that wealth can communicate distance and be a hindrance to relationship. This seems to come up on our team in relation to cars. If it is necessary for a staff member to own a car (and even that assumption should be questioned), what kind of car should that person drive? Better to arrive hot, dusty, and flustered on a local form of transportation and allow your host to show you hospitality with a cup of cold water and an opportunity to wash than to communicate wealth and inaccessibility in an expensive Land Rover.

4. Missionaries should seek out cross-cultural mentors. Although not always easy to find, cross-cultural mentors can be invaluable in helping to interpret the culture and in making economic decisions. Ideally, cultural mentors should be nationals who are familiar with foreigners. For example, a national educated in a Western country or one who has experienced Western culture in some way that allows him or her to bridge differences is invaluable. The mentor should be a peer or of slightly higher status and not economically connected to the foreigner or the foreigner’s agency in any way.

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Samantha Baker Evens has been a member of the InnerCHANGE community for the last eleven years in San Francisco, Australia, and (currently) Cambodia. She is married to Chris and has two small sons.