Ex-Church of Christ Support Board

At my mother's church there was a guy that hired that was a missionary (don't think he could find missionary funding). He said the US is the worst place to be a missionary, that what he loved doing was being in a public place with a Bible and having people discuss the Bible with him (of course discuss is not really the right word). He says in the US nobody will do it. I was wondering what motivates people to be missionaries, I am sure a bit of it is evangelical zeal, but also I think the romance of foreign lands and being away from a boss with a paying job. I know churches are always suspicious that missionaries aren't doing anything.

I had a cousin marry a missionary. They were going around to all churches in the area trying to get funding to go to Africa. We knew the guy was weird but he turned out to be a paranoid schizophrenic, ended up praying all night in the front yard of his mother in law's house, speaking in tongues etc., my father and uncle took him to a mental institution, the psychiatrists told them he was very dangerous. We found out he was just pocketing the money he raise and spent a lot of it on a goat farm. .I am not sure whether my cousin divorced him, she retained his name. She eventually paid back the churches that gave him money. He spent most of his life in mental institutions.

That ought to be a book!

agricola wrote: ↑Mon Jul 29, 2024 12:48 pm That ought to be a book!

If they made a TV series of my family history nobody would be watching Yellowstone!

Hmm. Why don't you try to sell some stories and movie right

Namikango mission in Malawi was started by no Sunday schoolers and helped found lots of congregations. Anyway I read a report from one of their missionaries that said the different flavors of Church of Christ that fought so much in the states would actually help each other out when in dire need, at least the missionaries would. Funny when life is on the line one cup or many, instruments or none, ect all of a sudden isn't important

agricola wrote: ↑Mon Jul 29, 2024 12:48 pm That ought to be a book!

There is a book, fiction, about a missionary family in Africa. One of my favorite books, it's called The Poisonwood Bible, by Barbara Kingsolver.

My bishop once said that missionaries do it more for themselves, and the sense of satisfaction or accomplishment they get from producing some sort of measurable metric (baptisms, conversions, altar calls, whatever), than for the people they go to. I think this is true. Missionaries tend to be hero types, hopeless optimists who think they can save the world. They aren't typically deep thinkers either. They set off armed with their 3 or 4 talking points and think they can sell the message to anyone.

Ivy wrote: ↑Mon Jul 29, 2024 4:15 pm

agricola wrote: ↑Mon Jul 29, 2024 12:48 pm That ought to be a book!

There is a book, fiction, about a missionary family in Africa. One of my favorite books, it's called The Poisonwood Bible, by Barbara Kingsolver.

I also love that book. I thought the family seemed like conservative Baptists.