Editor's note: Since 2007, Dr. Mark Pitts has served as the deputy vice chancellor at Africa Nazarene University (ANU) in Nairobi, Kenya; Rev. Nancy Pitts served as a professor in the religion department. They have been known for their easy hospitality, wonderful Bible studies and listening hearts. This summer they returned home to the United States for their next position of service at Point Loma Nazarene University (PLNU). As they make the transition, they reflect on their time in Africa.
Nairobi, Kenya -- We made the decision not to extend our commitment to Nazarene Global Mission and Africa Nazarene University beyond its original length, and in fact had to abbreviate it just a bit to meet the wishes of Point Loma Nazarene University, Mark's new employer.
Following are some insights and thoughts about our time in Kenya:
• If we had it to do over again, would we make the same decision to spend three years in training and serving? WOULD we do it all again? Our answer is an enthusiastic "yes." It was a real experience with some aggravations and disappointments and challenges in it, of course. Even so, our time at Africa Nazarene University has been a highlight of our experience-blessed lives.
• We’ve learned that 21st century missionary training is very different from training and philosophy of missions a century ago. As a result, it’s useful to us in a variety of situations: listen more than we talk, cultivate partnerships, accept and allow for cultural differences, suspend quick judgment, avoid authoritarian language, and accept that understanding comes in several layers over an extended period of time.
• We are encouraged and blessed by the energy and growth of the church in Africa.
• We are constantly amazed at and instructed by the quality and the level of commitment of the denominational leaders in Africa. No one there told us, “Be more like us.” But daily contact with committed believers in Africa gave us a lot to think about. For instance, two of the people we spoke with are training to return to an area where they may be estranged from their families and their lives will be in jeopardy for sharing the gospel. One person was part of a house church in which 80 percent of the members were martyred in 18 months. Several of those we have spoken with have left jobs or training in engineering, veterinary medicine or government service to follow the call of the gospel. As we return to the U.S., what do we do with these examples of sacrifice made by some of the people we met?
• Our clear and easy “answers” to some of the challenges in Africa have melted away as we understand better the complexity of the circumstances. We recall the essayist who said, “There is a simple answer to every complex life question, and that simple answer is always wrong.”
• While it’s true that there is poverty and corruption and disease in Africa, it is also true that Africa is making progress in many areas and that the global church needs to see Africa as a real place—not all safaris or all slums, but a place with gleaming shopping centers and well-traveled, well-dressed and well-educated people, as well as those struggling with the widely documented challenges.
• Because we have heard African denominational leaders say so repeatedly, we believe that Wesleyan-Holiness is a unique and effective resource in addressing some of the key challenges in Africa. The idea of “prevenient grace” is good news to people for whom fatalism about the future is a natural response to great hardship. The idea that Christians are “co-laborers” with Christ is a powerful response to dependency. Those we met pointed to holiness over and over as an antidote to corruption and nominal Christianity if we dedicate ourselves more to imperfectly living it rather than to perfectly defining it.
• For ourselves, we are praising the Lord for the new opportunities He is providing, but admit to being in “listening and abiding” mode for His will beyond new business cards and position description. It’s so easy to see missionaries as the front line in evangelism and the Western world as a de-militarized zone, and yet the newspapers provide painful evidence that darkness is at work in comfortable American neighborhoods as well. In a powerful National Public Radio (NPR) interview before her death, Mother Teresa pointed to spiritual poverty as a more debilitating condition than economic poverty; she encouraged First World people to engage close to home as well as far from it. As we said in our deputation services, we do believe this is part of what the Lord is telling us.
The Church of the Nazarene, like all organizations, is changing, but we have benefited from the tradition of strong prayer and emotional support for missionaries. So, we have some suggestions for you to consider.
First, look for other international missionaries to whom you could extend some of your prayer and emotional support. But don't stop there. A new wind is blowing in missions. Today the church encourages committed Christians to have missionary hearts in more familiar settings. We hear occasionally from some young people or people in transition who say, "I want to serve God in a deeper way. Is there some work I can do in Africa?"
The answer to that question is always "yes," but we worry a bit that the reason it's phrased that way is because serving in Africa (or to some extent, other very different cultures, such as India) has been seen as kind of the "gold standard" for service and commitment.
Even some of our African friends are saying to us, "Why don't your people serve closer to home?" And of course Americans DO serve close to home, in all kinds of volunteer or service organizations, paid and unpaid. Yet, it would be so wonderful if the church could also extend its emotional and spiritual support in deeper, richer ways to those "local, tent-maker missionaries" and to see the work THEY do as part of a new "gold standard." Could you look for someone like that and give them the level of support and prayer you have given us? Many of you will say--I'm already doing that. We thank you for, as usual, being way ahead of us in your insights and faithfulness. One final thought: Any chance the Lord is asking YOU to be that "new era, local, tent-making missionary?"
For ourselves, we believe this new kind of missionary service is what God is calling us to, but we are feeling our way and praying for God's daily guidance and insight. The path is not clear, the job description and parameters of this new chapter are not set. But we would covet your prayers and we will be praying for you that each of us can have insights about what God is calling us to do in this new era where ALL missionaries hearts are moved, but only SOME missionaries' locations change.
Blessings on you, thank you again, and best wishes as you seek the Lord's will for your own area of service.