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When I got the email from a Missionary in St Vincent telling me there was an opportunity for ministry there in early August I became very excited.  After a phone call with him and an hour on Skype with the Missionary who I would be filing in for that excitement was at a fever pitch.  In that moment my plan was to fly there, and throw myself into the work right away.

Instead of going along with that the Missionary and trusted friends encouraged me to take a two-week trip to St. Vincent, and then return for a longer ministry if God opened the door

To be perfectly honest part of me wasn’t too crazy about that idea.  After all a huge spiritual impact usually can’t be made in that short of a time, and taking two trips instead of one seemed like a waste of money as well as time.

It didn’t take long to realize just how wrong I was.

The truth is these short visits (commonly called survey trips) aren’t meant to make an impact upon a culture for the Gospel of Christ (though the Lord does use them in that way sometimes).  Instead they allow Missionaries to live in and understand the culture.

Now at first “understanding the culture” may not seem as important as evangelism or teaching.  But personal experience has taught me you can avoid many headaches in ministry by understanding how ministry is done best in that culture (of course the Gospel never changes, but people are reached in a different way in St Vincent than America).

A greater blessing of these trips however aren’t in understanding the Gospel, but knowing what NOT to do there.

For instance here are a few lessons I learned during my two weeks on the island

1. Always carry cash because nobody takes debit cards
2. When meeting someone in the cities main public transportation terminal under no circumstances leave the terminal
3. People will think your weird if you walk too fast
4. The majority of the day should be spent on your front porch (it’s cooler there)
5. It’s acceptable to preach for about an hour since people walk to the service

These and many other lessons have helped me approach the island with confidence this time instead of confusion…and a better understanding of how the Lord can use me there.

Best of all taking the time to understand a culture (taking two-weeks for a survey trip followed by about ten days in the States) makes you feel comfortable with that culture.

Last night about 6:00 I stepped of a plane in St. Vincent and was immediately met with sights, sounds, and even smells that were incredibly familiar to me.

And as crazy as it may seem, the island felt like home.

Because I had walked those roads

And listened to those crickets

And smelled that smoke from nearby cooking fires before

This morning I sat on the same front porch where I sat the evening of August 13th for the first time looking at a town that was absolutely foreign to me.  But this time I saw a town and people who had become familiar.

Do I know everything about the town of Barrouaille?  Of course not!  But I can tell you taking the time to experience and understand the culture for two weeks has given me a vision for the people I never had before

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Friday night the people of Tabernacle Baptist Church in Barrouaille St. Vincent, where I’m filling in for a veteran missionary had a diner in my honor filled with amazing food [1] and some games. My favorite one involved their writing down questions that I had to answer, ranging from the silly [2] to personal [3] and ministry related [4].

One of the questions was actually quite convicting…the person simply wrote down “why do you walk so fast?”

Last Monday I started taking at least one walk through Barrouaille every day. This had three goals.

1. Get myself back in shape
2. Learn where things are in town
3. And introduce myself to people [5]

These walks have greatly helped introduce myself to the community [6]. At this point however it’s time to take the next step, and develop relationships with other people, which means I need to really work on my “island walk.”

An island walk is built on stopping and having conversation with people along the way…which means it’s a lot slower than the “American walk” that I do by nature [7] 🙂

My walk may not seem important, but it symbolizes a much deeper issue…differences between life on the island, and life in America.

Life on the island is slow, and built on spending time with people

Life in the US is fast paced, and built on getting things done

As someone who comes from an achievement based culture to one that emphasizes interaction I need to be very careful about my American mindset becoming frustrated or annoyed with the island life.

Friday afternoon while preparing for the dinner I drove the Churches (Missionaries) van to three or four different places. Towards the end of our last trip I was parked waiting for a Church member to get something from his house when a thought came into my mind.

This could have gotten done so much faster!

In that moment I caught myself viewing life in another Country from an American worldview, and quickly repented.

It’s possible to focus on the few things that are different in another culture (getting less done) but approaching the island with an American view of life blinds me to the great blessings it offers (interaction with others, stronger relationships, small town way of life where everybody knows everybody).

Because a persons background can affect the way they view other cultures it’s my responsibility to adapt to the island way of thinking in every way.

Even how I walk

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[1]: they recreated the KFC menu for me

[2]: what’s the weirdest food you’ve ever eaten

[3]: why are you single?

[4]: Why do you visit Countries teaching the Gospel?

[5]: pretty easy since I’m the only white person in town

[6]: there are a few rumors about who I am, with the most popular being I’m the missionaries son

[7]: centered on exercise, so I go farther and faster than yesterday

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Last Thursday was my hardest day by far on the island…

The funny thing is my struggle didn’t come from things that I had planned for [1] but were purely physical.

The basic problem is my bodies still getting used to the islands hot weather, and lack of air conditioning [2]. Add in the fact that you have to walk everywhere, and it’s pretty easy to become exhausted

Unfortunately until a person’s body becomes acclimated to the heat there are only a few things they can do to keep their energy up.

1. Drink plenty of water
2. And have a rest-time during the day [3]

I’m doing an awesome job with number one, but to be honest am struggling a bit with number two. Which is why my body sort of forced me to have a rest-time Thursday afternoon 🙂

That morning we had lost power for two-hours since they were doing work on the power lines so I decided to go for a longer walk to a community two hills over called Peter’s Hope instead of Barrouaille.

It didn’t take long to realize that was a mistake

For some reason it was unusually hot Thursday, so by the time I got back from the walk both my shirt and khaki pants were soaked through with sweat. After lunch an attempt was made to write a blog post on The Front Porches place in Evangelism by my eyes kept closing so I took a thirty-minute nap.

Wrote and published the article but the whole time felt like I had no energy. Even a walk on the beach and short swim which almost always made me feel better didn’t help.  Finally around 4:00 I crashed on the bed and spent a few hours just resting (reading books, surfing the internet, watching dvd’s).

Now in my opinion crashing on the bed for a few hours is an incredibly lazy thing to do…but at the same time it was the absolute best thing for me to do.

See I had neglected giving my body a time of rest (relaxation) as it was getting used to the island weather. So it started to send some warning signs [4] encouraging me to take it easy. Unfortunately I ignored those trying to fill my day with as much work as possible till my body pretty much said “okay that’s it! Your going to lay on the bed for two hours!”

I’m actually grateful for yesterdays experience because it reminded me the body needs a time of rest or relaxation every day.

1. A time to read “fun books” [5]
2. Or listen to Christian Music
3. Grab a power-nap
4. Read the Bible
5. Watch Sports
6. Catch up on a Netflix obsession [6]
7. Or just sit on the porch and do nothing…seriously nothing

At first penciling “watch Netflix” into our schedule may seem incredibly selfish or lazy and in a sense it is. But it’s during those selfish moments reserved for rest or relaxation that our bodies gain energy.

So you have a choice

Spend twenty minutes of relaxation a day that involves healthy responses (I actually prefer an hour) or spend hours crashed on the bed.

I don’t know about you…but I’m going to choose a daily rest-time 🙂

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[1]: emotional challenges, spiritual challenges, homesickness

[2]: there is an air conditioner in my home, but in most cases fans do a good enough job

[3]: part of this is actual sleep, but the other just involves resting

[4]: soreness in the morning, lack of energy

[5]: I prefer biographies or epic fiction like Lord of the Rings

[6]: I’m currently going through Andy Griffith and NCIS ( a weird combination I know)

After being in St. Vincent for six days I can clearly see some differences between life on the Island and the United States. Most of them are obvious [1] but it’s the smaller differences that make the most impact.

One of those small differences I’m getting accustomed to is making the front porch a big part of life.

Just about every house on the island has a front porch, and almost everyone will spend lots of time (particularly in evenings or early mornings) on them.  Of course a big reason for this is it’s just cooler out on the porch, but I’ve learned there’s more to it than just cooling off

Like other cultures, life on the island is relationship centered, which means people enjoy coming by and visiting.

In Australia this kind of connection (often referred to as “having a chat”) is usually done at a local coffee shop over mugs of cappuccino or in the home. It’s not surprising that a cool breeze on the porch is preferred over hot coffee here 🙂

Interacting with other people from my front porch for the last six days has revealed a very painful truth…I’m terrible at small talk.

Unfortunately most of my conversations go something like this:

Me: Hey how are you?
Other person: Good and You?
Me: I’m good
(awkward silence)
Me: Well it was good seeing you!

It isn’t always that bad because sometimes we would talk about sports, television, movies, and if the person happens to bring up the subject of running we could talk for hours 🙂 But most of my small talk conversations last less than five-minutes before the “so it was good seeing you.”

It’s not that way on the island

Monday night a Church member came over so we could visit a chicken restaurant in the town. It was closed, so we ended up sitting on my porch eating a sandwich, then  talking for two hours.

Did you get that?

We sat on the front porch and talked for two hours!

As you can imagine he did most of the talking because sadly, we didn’t talk about running

This awkward small talk would unfortunately be pretty common for Americans because we happen to be a culture that no longer uses the front porch.  It’s not that we hate the front porch or don’t want to interact with people, but there are just too many other things to get done.  So “sitting on the porch and talking” is pushed far down the list of priorities.

Living in St. Vincent has taught me that isn’t a good thing.

Walking through town people often ask why I’m there (being the only white man in town) and I explain I’m staying in the house of a missionary that has gone to the states for a short time (pastor Berry).  The thing is EVERYBODY knows Pastor Berry because he has spent hours and hours talking with people on his front porch about the Gospel of Christ.

So I sit in a chair with my book or computer,

wave at people when they walk by,

And do my best to have a conversation that lasts longer than five minutes

But step one is making the front porch an important part of my daily life.

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[1]: roads are smaller, not everything you can get in the States

[2]: I don’t think relationships aren’t viewed as important. We just don’t have time for them