Every mission movement begins its endeavour with its own baggage. Some of it is helpful, some of it not so. The modern mission movement was fired on by revivals in Europe and America and brought with it a wealth of knowledge. This included theological understanding, but also medical and technical knowledge. This was used to benefit the development of the church and of the communities the missionaries worked in.
Their negative baggage was an inherited worldview of Western superiority and colonialism, and sometimes it was hard to keep the spiritual mission separated from the political mission of the missionaries’ home countries. It is an ongoing process to evaluate what was good and what was not, and what future missionaries should learn from that.
The Back to Jerusalem mission movement was likewise birthed in revival. Local revivals in China in the decades prior to the communist takeover gave the first boost. But as we know, communism forced the church and the mission movement underground and kept it within the borders of China. When the dual forces of decades-long persecution and revival had multiplied the Chinese church and China opened her doors, the first pioneers of the new millennium set their faces towards Jerusalem. They travelled to the Middle East.
These Chinese missionaries had their own baggage. Persecution had given them spiritual endurance and a fearlessness which would help them reach places that were especially tough. Revival fire had given them a vision, love and desire to lay down their lives for the gospel. The rigorous training of the underground Bible schools of the house churches had given them a working knowledge of the Scripture unmatched by most Christians in other countries. What they lacked was an understanding of what life was like in other countries and what the day-to-day life of a cross-cultural missionary would require.
Recently, several of these pioneer missionaries who left China in the first decade of the millennium, met somewhere in the Middle East. One of the testimonies was striking. A sister told of her first years on the field. She had come prepared to die for the gospel. She was ready to face prison and execution, but she was not ready for the reality of life in this country, day after day, with people she did not understand and often felt repulsed by. Even as she learned the language and tried to build a life there, it was completely different from what she imagined.
After several grinding years, she returned to China, exhausted and disillusioned. She married and stayed in China for a while, praying and seeking God about her future. How could she learn to love these people that were so different from herself? How could she live there as a faithful witness to the gospel?
After a while, she returned with her husband, still ambivalent. As she crossed the border and first heard the guard speak to her in Arabic, her heart leaped. Suddenly, she knew that this was the home God had given her, and this is where she belonged. This time her heart was ready to live there and love the people. Now she runs a store, which is her platform to live in this country and become part of people’s lives.
She and the other pioneers have important lessons to share with the new BTJ missionaries going to the field. Just like the Western church did, the Chinese church is building up their own store of valuable knowledge about missionary work and what pitfalls to avoid. As their experience grows, may we see the new generation of BTJ missionaries better prepared for the work God has called them to and even more effective in reaching the unreached!
