Low and Slow – Missionary Lessons From Hawaii

Haole (Ha-olay) pronounced How-lee today is a Hawaiian word for foreigner. In more contemporary terms it has become a pejorative for presumptuous white people with no respect for local culture. Suffice it to say, that all white people are called Haole today.

The term Haole means “without breath.” Given that the spirit is regarded by Hawaiians to be in the breath, without breath meant devoid of spirit. As the story goes, Captain Cook was the first white man to land in Hawaii. He was greeted by the chief as he came ashore. As was the custom, the chief put his nose and forehead to Captain Cook’s and breathed out Alo…Ha, “Come into my space.” Cook did nothing. So the chief proclaimed Captain Cooke Haole!

Ironically many of the lessons I needed to learn about being a missionary came as a result of my being a Haole in Hawaii for 21 years. When I first arrived a local called to me from across the parking lot at a 7-Eleven. I put my arms up at forty-five-degree angles at my sides to indicate

“I don’t understand.”

It would have been fine had I still been in New York. In Hawaii it meant 

“I Like scrap!”

When I got to Honduras after 21 years of the Hawaiian Shaka

I found out the same gesture was a proposition for sex in Honduras.

Cathy and I left for the foreign mission field in 2016. We began with Harvest School in Mozambique then moved to Honduras for just short of six years. Now we are in Appalachia where the same lessons apply. We are missionaries wherever we go.

So what’s it like; you know, this missionary thing?

Well, I’m only one guy, and while some might disagree, I’ll give you my somewhat limited view. Here’s what I once wrote from Honduras.

Being a missionary is wanting God more than anything else. It is following the call of the one who is meek and lowly in heart Mat 11:29 It is counting the cost and laying down in faith whatever is, for what God’s word says could and should be. It is the willingness to be baptized by fire in ways you know could happen but maybe don’t believe ever will. It is wrestling with choosing to trust in the words and ideas of man or God alone when the country you’re in appears to be descending into civil war.

It is asking yourself if you have what it takes to give your life for the sake of the gospel if that moment of truth ever arrives.

It is waking up at 4 am to worship God alone in your secret place or hitting the road at 3 to spend fourteen hours in the back of a pickup. It is laughing with Hondurans and making jokes about pain as you are deluged for hours with inches of cold rain. It is confronting the worst poverty you’ve ever seen. It is witnessing the best and worst in others. It is exposing the same in yourself. It is witnessing God doing genuine miracles and the fulfillment of “greater things than these shall you do.” John 14:12-14 It is recoiling at those powered by pride, mesmerizing others with cheap grace and lies.

It is realizing that the “least of these” in Mat 25 might not be the starving child hungry for love as much as it is the charlatan you despise.

Being a missionary means seeing people joyfully come into the kingdom as they see their genuine needs. It means seeing people accept Jesus for the fiftieth time because they’ve learned that raising their hand is the PIN for the two-legged, missionary ATM. It is bringing your deepest, best, and most profound revelations, your testimony, your experience, strength, and hope to people amid the most unbearable suffering you’ve ever seen. It is confronting your inadequacies as you wonder if anything you do even matters. It is walking in the tension of differentiating between my will and. His will. It is discerning the difference between overwhelming emotion and walking in the spirit.  It is speaking, teaching, and praying to bring healing and hope.

It is the humbling recognition that you could never endure what they do and that perhaps God placed them on earth to bring healing and correction to you.

It is accepting that different people have different giftings and theologies and not everyone believes that as much as you. It is learning the meaning of James 1:2-4.

My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing...

It is watching God come through to weave His message from the words and testimonies of five-year-olds.

It is living without electricity and water and hot water for sure. Sometimes there’s a bucket for a shower — other times just a cup. It is being sick with the same bug over and over again sometimes for weeks at a time until you finally become immune.

Being a missionary means learning over and over again that God is always true to his word which may not be synonymous with our expectations.

It is loving, praying, feeding, blessing, laughing, trusting, weeping, sometimes wanting to scream or do worse in your rage. Being a missionary is the willingness to be broken because brokenness is where the Pearl of Great Price is found.

We have found that most of these lessons continue to apply in the continental United States albeit in different ways. This is especially true in Appalachia.

Appalachia is distinct from Hawaii in some ways and very similar in others. For example, Hawaiians are by nature distrustful of outsiders yet exceedingly polite as they pride themselves on the aloha spirit. Patience, humility, and generosity are nonnegotiables for a haole to be accepted among the Kanaka Maoli (Native Hawaiians). We have found the same principles apply here. Hawaiians have little patience for disingenuousness or facades. Once accepted the outsider becomes Ohana.  Ohana means family. Family implies trust. We have found a similar spirit among locals in Greeneville.

“Low and Slow.”

Low and slow like the one who was meek and lowly Mat 11:29 is the driving force in missions. It implies a willingness to learn and respect the culture to which we are called. It begins with a willingness to be taught by the locals even if their aim is to be taught by us. Scripturally that looks like submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ. Eph 5:21 This carries with it the assumption that while I might have a mission to fix something, the possibility always exists that I might be the one who needs fixing. It was on the mission field that I learned that sometimes God uses our pride to position us. We think He needs us. In truth, He needs to conform us. Rom 8:29 Our response to the locals will always show the true condition of our hearts. The approach always determines the response. The responsibility for the approach always falls on the outsider.

Low and slow means never seeking a position or platform. We find that obscurity facilitates peace and effectiveness. Luke 6:26  That doesn’t mean notoriety is bad by default. Our Pastor is the songwriter and lead singer for Mountain People Worship. He came to the US as a foreign exchange student from Brazil. When he arrived God told him to clean every bathroom he entered. If someone pooped on the floor, God would tell him “That one is yours.”

That’s low and slow.

All that being said, the reality within the body of Christ is that we are also missionaries to each other. This is particularly true in places like Greeneville where more and more people are arriving from all over the US and sometimes the globe. Everyone shares a similar story in that they are uniquely called by God. Still, there are profound, often unrecognized cultural differences around the US. Those differences include but are not limited to accents, hand gestures, vocal tones, personal space and touch, manners, and choice of words. For example, in Hawaii, it is customary to acknowledge anyone who enters a room even if you are engaged in a conversation. Anything else is rude. Here in Greeneville, people honor others by maintaining a laser-like focus on the one with whom they are engaged.

Sometimes cultural differences can be dangerous. Just the other day we were facilitating a group of women when a woman from the northeast became upset about the circumstances of her life. She was extremely animated in her description of what she was feeling. I was born in the same place so I understood her clearly. Meanwhile, two other women from Tennessee interpreted her behavior as aggressive and poised themselves for self-defense. It was a powerful teaching moment. We discussed cultural differences that became an inspiration for this post.

Another mission-killing error in any mission field is for a group of foreigners to come into a community and mostly fellowship among themselves. This is common on short-term trips where missionaries feel anxious. Familiarity is comfortable. Comfortable is a no-no in missions. Even worse is when a group unwittingly portrays themselves as superior, be it economically, intellectually, culturally, or theologically. The intent might be pure and they may in fact be humble, kind, and loving people. That is irrelevant if our cultural misunderstanding produces more misunderstanding. It is common for the unwitting to perceive a genuine need and jump right in to meet it only to find that their presumption was received as arrogance.

Expecting to be understood before taking the time to ensure we understand can be hazardous.

We did an outreach as part of our Harvest School in Mozambique. They sent us into a village to eat with some single mothers. I felt very uncomfortable being one of two men in the group. Naturally, I started looking for something to fix. I found a piece of rope, an old bicycle tire, and a tree and made a tire swing. The children had a blast. One child fell off the swing while we played. He got bumped on the head but otherwise was fine and immediately got back on the swing. “Boys will be boys.” I thought to myself. I was pretty proud of my newfound missionary prowess. We ate lunch and I was ready to return to the swing. But the mommas sent us on our way.  As we walked out of the yard I noticed the rope and tire on the ground. One of the mommas had cut it down. That’s when it dawned on me. I never asked if they wanted a swing or if they would even permit me to make it. I’d simply assumed that my perceptions and ways were right. In addition, someone later pointed out the fact that had a child been more seriously injured, there were no ambulances or emergency medical care. Even if there were, these single mothers did not have the money to pay for it. It was a huge revelation that shaped the way I perceive new cultures and environments. The same principle of low and slow applies if I move to a new country or change jobs within the same organization.

The biggest takeaway I had from being on the foreign mission field is that the first reason God places me in any position or location is for my transformation. He is God. He is not dependent on me. He is teaching me to be dependent on Him. He doesn’t need me to do things. I get to do things and learn from the experiences. Hence I never ask “Why?”. I ask “What?” “What are you doing Lord- in me, in us, in this situation…?” We would have a lot less misunderstanding and offense in the body of Christ if we would change our approach. At the end of the day, we are called to follow Jesus who is meek and lowly in heart Mat 11:29. Jesus walked with the end in mind – the wedding supper of the lamb Rev 19:6-9 The benchmark we should all be striving for in the meantime is unity in knowledge of Jesus in love.

And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love. Eph 4:11-16

Maranatha