Understanding Missions...

At the advice of a near and dear friend, I've been reading missionary biographies to better understand successfully sharing my life and faith with a different culture. Bruchko was given to me by my cousin a while ago and I would highly recommend it. I tend to tire of adjective injected, overly wordy stories, so this story was perfect. Bruce Olson, the author, tells honestly the story of his life with the notoriously dangerous Motilones tribe of Colombia. In a matter-of-fact manner, Bruce doesn't jazz up the missionary experience to make it sound glamorous nor does he only share his successes. It seems like there is an unspoken pressure in ministry to only share the successes.

But honesty is the only way we can truly understand each other.

Here's an exerpt:
"And after three years, I had no money, no mission board to buy my ticket home. In fact, the only place in the world where I was sure of getting something to eat was in the jungle, with the Motilones...Each morning I dreaded the thought of eating...With no salt or sugar, there was a limit to how good it could taste...My fleas were getting worse, and I had a skin rash from being constantly dirty. And why was the language so hard?...My chest felt tight. I closed my eyes to make it all go away...How long would it take? Three months? Four? Would I be able to communicate well in a year?"

To answer that question, it took him 5 YEARS to be able to share his faith with the people. The most important lesson to be learned in this novel is to take big failures with little successes. Bruce's time serving the Indian tribe was a long, discouraging road of successes, failures joys, and sadness. Without giving away the novel, there is much success in the end mixed with death and gut-wrenching sorrow. But did I mention SUCCESS! He was lead into a tribe no one else would dare come near and saw God change their hard hearts into hearts full of Christ's love. It is such an inspiring story to remember on my days of discouragement. If Bruce can keep his faith through his trials (I can't tell you what..READ the book) I will surely make it through...