The Land of Blue

While at the missionary retreat this month, this story was shared. It puts into words well what a missionary feels. The source of this story is from this blog: http://joe-holman.blogspot.com/2013/02/from-land-of-blue.html

From the land of Blue

One day a man from the Land of Blue heard about another country. It was a country full of people that did not know the truth about God. It was a country that needed help. It was a country full of people that were hurting spiritually and physically. The man from the Land of Blue felt God working in his heart, so he responded and became a missionary. He went to the Land of Yellow.

The man stood out. He was blue. His thoughts, mannerisms, and worldview were all blue. He evaluated things by their blueness. He was in the land of yellow. The people were totally different than he was. They had different systems. They had values that did not reflect the values of Blueness From the way that they responded to authority to the way that they crossed the street, they did it differently than it was done in the Land of Blue. The missionary stood out. He was different. He knew it. So did everyone else.

He stayed the course. He knew God had called him, so he adapted. The truth of God remained the same, but he started crossing streets like the people in the Land. As time progressed, he not only adapted to the culture of the Land of Yellow, he grew to appreciate many aspects of it. One day he looked in the mirror and saw something that he had never realized. He grabbed an old photo and compared it with what he was seeing. It was undeniable. He was no longer Blue. He had been influenced and changed by his life in the Land of Yellow. He was now green.

He still stood out. He was different. He was not Yellow and all could see that. However, he was not longer Blue. He was a changed man.

Then, after time, he went back to the Land of Blue. His mission call was over. He had a problem. All around him it was blue. They drove like blue people, crossed the street like blue people and thought like blue people. They were blue people. He was no longer a man of Blue in the Land of Yellow. Nor was he a man of Blue in the Land of Blue.

He was Green. He did not fit in the Land of Yellow. He did not fit in the Land of Blue. He was some of both, and neither of both.

That is how I feel when I go to the States. I am a changed man. I hope for the better, but I cannot deny that my life and experiences here have changed me. I see that much of what I have done/believed are simply the way Blue people do it...not necessarily the way God does it or they way that all countries should do it. It is just Blue.

I am Green. My children are Green.

The literal way to describe this in mission thought is 'Third Culture'. There is our culture of origination. There is the culture of our mission. Then, there is a mix of the two. My kids are third culture kids. We don't 'fit'.