When you prepare yourself to go to the mission field for the first time it is a pretty challenging time. All the questions in your mind, all the opinions of people around you and even all the opinions of your closest friends, believers and family. I think the faith to believe in the vision in your heart is never tested again as in those times. Even when you are in the field and things are not going as you have hoped for, you at least have the previous testimonies of how God came through to keep you motivated, but when you are putting your first step out of the boat, man I tell you, it is scary and exciting all in one.
So I joined OM(Operation Mobilisation) in June 2001 with a 2 year commitment for starters. First it was 6 months of training at OM South Africa’s base just outside of Pretoria, South Africa. Back to team life and living in a group. Eating in groups, sleeping in groups, studying in groups, breathing in groups, hehe. Really getting your “personal bubble” invaded. That was cool for me because all my high school I was in a hostel, so nothing new. The first 6 weeks was just staying on the base studying the Bible and being prepared for cross cultural experiences. This time also included working through a kind of inner healing series of seminars on the father heart of God. Just to get some of the old baggage out of the way before you go into your first outreach.
In my mind I thought that I would do training and somewhere close to the end the Lord will start to talk to me about where to go for the rest of my 2 year commitment. But it was in the second week during our Wednesday prayer time where the request for a person was shared to join a team of missionaries to pioneer a field in Luanda, Angola, who is able to teach Computer Literacy. And it’s not difficult to figure out how it works when you are the only person on the training team in preparation for the following year to go to a field and you are the only one from an IT background. Except from that, I always hoped that I could be part of a pioneer mission. To break new ground. Be careful what you wish for, because you might just get it!!! hehe.
The first outreach was in Gazankulu, now known as the Limpopo Valley in a town called Kildare. Our complete training team was divided into 4 smaller groups and each group visited a different village. 2 Weeks in a place with your food rations per week being brought by the leadership and that is it. Living in tents and somehow trying to figure out what the heck is going on around you. Planning your program for the rest of the two weeks and getting to know each team member anew as the group is smaller and more closely knit together. Getting to know the local church that is hosting us and working with the leadership to guide us. I think the biggest realisation for us all was the first hand experience of the language barrier issue. Even though you knew it was coming the emotions you go through trying to communicate your heart with these people are just sometimes overwhelming. Feelings of uselessness. Feelings of frustration. But once again God is so faithful to just love us and I think sometimes chuckling while saying to himself, “tried to tell you”.
Overall it was a very sobering experience and we went back after the two weeks to share in everyone’s seriousness about how unprepared we really are to come from our culture thinking we are going to help the other people, who end up helping you more.
There was two more outreaches over the 6 months, both in the Johannesburg area. One more of two weeks in Lenasia, mostly a Hindu and Muslim community, and a week in Bertrams, a poor residential area next to Hillbrow in Johannesburg.
Early December, I think, we graduated and it was time to go back home before I would go and join the team preparing to start the mission field in Luanda, capital of Angola. If I need to single out one thing that I learnt in the midst of some of the best teaching on good biblical exegesis, culture, world religions, etc. is that the “mission” is about people and not about the message itself. A worthy saying that we learnt was that you need to deserve the right to be heard when entering into another people group’s culture to “teach” them something. To be stripped from yourself and your “ways” of being a christian. But to be the loving hand of God for the people you are trying to reach with the message of hope.
I’m posting the video that we made for each one as a remembrance to 6 months of being prepared by God himself for not only a medium term outreach, but as a missionary for life! You will need a fast connection to view the lengthy video(28Mb).
