Wednesday, October 13, 2004

"Missionaries and Youth Workers Working Together"

Missionaries who understand the dynamic interaction between youth culture and different kinds of societies are needed to help churches face these global challenges. But in order to do so, they have to be well-trained as both youth workers and missionaries.
“We handed out a ton of food and clothing to all those poor people.” (Never mind the fact that this initiative may have helped bankrupt several local businesses or that the items were later sold at a local market for a good profit.) “We went with these American doctors and nurses to set up an eye clinic and they treated 500 people in only a week’s time.” (Unfortunately many of the conditions they found required longterm care but the local physicians moved out of town when they found it too difficult to recover from the sudden foreign competition.) “We did this pantomime and music performance in the streets, and 500 people made decisions for Christ.” (Unfortunately none of these new Christians could be found in the local churches a week later.) “It was unbelievable how open and loving the missionaries and the local Christians were to us.” (Undoubtedly they were sincere, but they may have funded their entire year’s activities off the revenue generated by caring for that single short-term team.)
Read the whole article here.

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