Prior to going out as a missionary to the Western Sahara in 1975 we received a series of talks by Father Barrytown that spring in which he outlined what it means to be a missionary. I suppose one could go back and dig them out and get a more accurate reading. But let me recount what I burned into my heart when I heard them and carried with me through my years as a missionary.

Basically, there were two key principles. . . everything else was a digression of these rules:

1) Do not get in debt, either materially, morally or spiritually.

2) Make it your absolute priority to find the way to love the culture and people of your nation. . . to so fully immerse yourself while maintaining your link to God that you can see them from God's point of view, as well as be a bridge that helps connect God to them. This means making it your first priority to love them and identify with them culturally above all else, and to not impose your own cultural prejudices or preconceptions on them. For only on this basis do you have the right to teach them anything. Less than that violates Rule Number 1 because you will not have earned anything. You will be imposing by force of will, which creates moral or spiritual debt.

In my 16-years overseas, it was my observation that those who followed those principles were generally successful as missionaries. Those who didn't, weren't.

What was always revealing -- to me anyway -- was that the Asian leaders in America who followed these principles were rare. Those who really "went native" and demonstrated love and respect for Americans were generally successful, and certainly beloved -- by Americans anyway.

A further irony was that I experienced some Japanese and Koreans who really came down on their Asian brethren for becoming too Americanized, and thus compromising their "superior" cultural traits to our "primitive" ones.

I also saw this among missionaries in Africa. Interestingly, it took three forms.

First there were the Japanese who would be critical of other Japanese brothers who became too friendly to the Americans and amenable to compromise with them over the approach to being missionaries. Certainly not all were like this, but ask any American missionary and you will find that they knew at least one who was like this. This cultural arrogance often made life hell. . .

Then there was a secondary level, in which some of the J-Bros. would be critical of Westerners who became too familiar or enjoyed too much the local habits and customs.

I got into trouble all the time because I was always immersing myself into the local culture. I think what irritated those that criticized me was that I relished it so much, and was constantly looking for things to love. . . a difficult task in the nation of Mauritania or other areas of the Western Sahara that I would travel to. For me it was just one huge adventure. . . plunging myself into the 12th century ways of life that existed there, investing a lot of time and energy to learn languages, customs, ways of thinking, etc.

And finally, there were the Westerners who would remain culturally arrogant themselves and disdain the "primitive culture" of the mission country, refusing to compromise their own "superior culture." The stupid thing was they would do the same thing to the locals that drove them nuts about the Japanese. . .

Fortunately, most Westerners who thought like this did not last long. The Japanese who thought like this were much more tenacious, and generally lasted a long time. One or two are still out there to this day.

In all these examples, this type of Asian would criticize anything that showed respect for non-Asian (lower standard) cultures. In their eyes this was tantamount to compromising principles of life and faith.

What always protected my faith in the face of such lunacy was the fact that Father had stated those principles very clearly to me, and I clung to them jealously. So nothing any other central figure said, whether out there in the mission field, or back here when my culture was criticized by Asians, bothered me that much. I knew what was right, and what the absolute standard was for a missionary. And that is what I chose to follow, no matter what anyone said.

I think the early Korean missionaries who first came to America in the 1960s, had a lot of this missionary heart in them. It is a pity that later visitors did not come here with that kind of respectful missionary heart.

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