The Mission of Americanizing

Take in an orphan from the streets. Cloth, feed and educate him. Raised by missionaries, he is taught american customs and culture. He goes out into the real world and he's ignorant of his countries social expectations and customs. Traditions and beliefs, of which he should be aware, are foreign to him. Many social concepts, like earning his own keep and paying rent are things he has no experience with. He might have Jesus and a great education, but he must now learn about his country's customs and culture on his own. We hope that he embraces the culture as his own and retains the faith in which he was raised.

One of the main goals of a missionary is to change lives.We maintain the functions of an orphanage, oversee schools, hold clothes drives, pass out bags of rice and beans, preform skits and do crafts, teach skills like sewing and cooking to use as a trade, run a missions guesthouse, found a maternity center, and start a jobs programs in hopes that an individual's life might be better off. Along with changing lives, be pray that the receivers of goodwill and free care can see that it was God that sent us to rescue and help them, in turn they look to him for, well...., everything. This is the ultimate end goal.

There's a challenge in this "change the world" thing. It's a question of what should and shouldn't be changed. You see, as missionaries to a foreign land it is our duty to respect the country's native culture while introducing the gospel of the Lord. I've seen, may times, missionaries mistake evangelizing with Americanizing. We do not enter into the nations to change customs and force our own ideology. We enter into different lands to make known God and the power of His salvation.