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In their pioneering studies, E. Thomas and Elizabeth Brewster have applied the phenenomon of imprinting to missionary bonding. Just as a baby duckling is likely to become bonded with the first creature to which it is exposed (whether or not it is the duckling's actual mother), missionaries are also likely to experience bonding in a new culture. There are two distinct forms of bonding of which the would-be successful cross-cultural witness must be aware.

The summer prior to my final year of seminary I spent 17 days in Haiti, my first trip to a developing country. Memories from that journey haunted me: the sight of a little girl drinking out of a mud puddle, the smells of a village without plumbing, an encounter with a demonized animistic priest. I returned home heartbroken, and during the following year I concluded that God was calling me to be a missionary to Haiti. That was 28 years ago.

I never returned to Haiti. Instead, I served as a pastor in Virginia and then became a missionary in Africa. In retrospect, I realized that what I had perceived as a specific call to live and serve in Haiti was actually something very different. God wasn't directing me to live in Haiti; God was using that experience in Haiti to break my heart for a desperate world. In other words, I had to sort out the difference between the content of my call and the context in which that call occurred. It is no wonder that many times when someone applies for service with our mobilization department at The Mission Society, he or she often will express a "calling" to a country that they have visited as a work team member.

So, one form of imprinting is this tendency to become bonded to the place where one's initial mission exposure occurs. Perhaps this explains why the proportion of American missionaries serving in countries relatively close to home-places that work teams frequent-is much higher than the number of missionaries serving in parts of the world where most unreached people dwell-namely Asia and North Africa.

A second application, which is the original focus of the Brewsters' studies, is this: bonding may occur within the right country, but to the wrong people! New missionaries must be very careful that the ones to whom they bond are not other missionaries. Bonding with local people and culture must be intentional because the temptation is to minimize culture shock by surrounding oneself with the familiar, such as hanging around other Americans or taking refuge in the stash of granola bars brought from home.

One family I know moved to Central Asia with the intention of serving long-term among an unreached people group. They were aware of the importance of bonding with members of their host culture but, ironically, the policies of their agency thwarted this effort. When they first arrived at their new apartment, an elderly local lady "was there waiting for us when we arrived hauling our suitcases up the stairs, anxious to meet us and offering to go to the bazaar with us." These new missionaries were excited about this great opportunity, but their supervisor instructed them to refuse this offer because some other missionaries had already planned to take them on a similar orientation tour. Hence, a wonderful opportunity to bond with the local people and culture was lost.

Within a few weeks a new occasion arose when another neighbor invited the missionaries to a celebration of the country's independence day. Again, the mission leadership instructed these missionaries to attend the celebration with fellow team members rather then with their neighbor.

A third incident in this "perfect storm" of how not to bond with the local people occurred in regards to language learning. During their first week the new missionaries met a woman who had been trained to teach the host language with an immersion approach. In their words, "It was exactly what we were looking for, and offered a chance for us to develop a friendship with a local woman as well." But they were refused permission to use her as their language helper, because their supervisor had arranged for them to attend a language school for foreigners using a textbook-oriented approach. In retrospect, the new missionaries said, "It was both an antiquated approach to language learning and a method that kept missionaries isolated from the people during the language-learning process."

So, by attempting to enable their missionaries to transition smoothly into a new culture, the mission agency unwittingly hindered the bonding process. This family ended up staying for less than two years; however, today they are serving elsewhere under the auspices of a different agency; they are fluent in the language and are bearing much fruit.

Not only should the aspiring cross cultural minister bond to the right location on the map, but also to the appropriate people within that culture. A missionary knows that bonding has occurred when he or she loves the people, respects the host society, and is having his or her social needs met within that culture. It requires a willingness to persevere through culture shock, long after the cache of granola bars has been exhausted.

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The Great Commission Imprinting By Frank Decker

The Great Commission
Imprinting
By Frank Decker