07663
October 17, 2007

International mission the effective way

A PC(USA) missionary letter from Guatemala

by Karla Koll
PC(USA) mission worker

Karla Koll (left) and her family in Quetzaltenango, Guatemala.

GUATEMALA CITY — “Why do we need long-term missionaries anymore?” The question came from a man who was one of the 700 people attending “World Mission’07: A Celebration of Grace,” held in Louisville at the beginning of October.

His challenge made me remember a time when I didn’t think there was any need for mission workers. As I grew up in the Presbyterian church, I recall being vaguely aware of mission work being carried out around the world, but it was far from the center of the local church’s life and consciousness.

As a social science student in college, I absorbed the critique of mission efforts that was common at the time. Mission was accused often of being aligned with colonial powers and of damaging local cultures.

On the other hand, strong and dynamic churches existed where missions once had worked. When I went to study at the Latin American Biblical Seminary in Costa Rica in 1984, I was convinced the time for long-term mission workers was over.

One day the dean of the seminary, Saul Trinidad, called me into his office. Saul, a Methodist pastor, is a Quechua from Peru. He said to me, “Karla, we Latin Americans know that the gringos (people from the United States) are going to keep coming. All we are asking, as church leaders, is to be able to decide who comes. And we want people like you.”

Saul’s words turned my understanding of my vocation on its head. I realized that if God was speaking to me, I needed to pay close attention to what Christians in the region were saying about the kind of accompaniment they wanted.

The rapidly growing churches needed theological education for their leadership. As many church groups from the United States were beginning to travel to Central America, there was also a need for people to serve as bridges between cultures. These two tasks have defined my ministry in Central America over the last 20 years.

The first place I taught theology was the Evangelical Faculty for Theological Studies (FEET) in Managua, Nicaragua. The leadership of the FEET knew they could probably have found Nicaraguans to teach the classes, provided they had money to pay them. The purpose for inviting me and professors from Europe to teach in the FEET was to provide the students with access to different perspectives.

Likewise, CEDEPCA, where I teach in Guatemala, lives out its ecumenical commitment not only by offering their gifts to the broader Christian community, but also by accepting the gifts that Christians from other parts of the world offer to CEDEPCA.

From Argentina to Taiwan, PC(USA) mission personnel are involved in leadership development at the request of churches and institutions. We bring our own perspectives and offer tools for Bible study and theology. Our students and colleagues also patiently teach us. Theological education is not a quick process. It cannot be done by short-term mission trips.

During a visit to a church recently I spoke of the difficulty of working in mission in a country like Guatemala, where so many of the structures in society, including the churches, are filled with corruption.

The question arose as to whether it is better to send aid directly or to work through church channels. Certainly, in many cases it is easier to send money or gifts directly to the local church or institution one wishes to support. The example offered was of an orphanage. Why not send toys directly?

But what happens when the toys have been broken and are discarded? Did the gift make a lasting change in the lives of the children or for those caring for them? The way to fight corruption is not by creating alternative channels, which often fall victim to the same corrupting influences, but by building broader circles of accountability that allow both ourselves and those with whom we participate in mission to live into greater faithfulness.

This requires long-term accompaniment, not quick fixes.
The desire of so many of our congregations and presbyteries to be directly involved in international mission brings new challenges to those who receive visiting groups. A week or two is not enough time to grasp the complexities of any context. Long-term personnel who have been in a community or a country long enough to have learned the local language and the dynamics of the local culture can help short visits be effective, leading to transformation not only of those who travel but of the receiving communities as well.

The call to mission is a call to participate in what God is doing in different places. Our globalized world and the resources that many churches in the United States have offer many opportunities for involvement in international mission. The continual challenge is to do mission in a way that respects and empowers those with whom we work in partnership.

Long-term mission personnel can help churches in the United States listen to our sisters and brothers as we seek to walk with them toward the future God has for all of us. But we can only do so as long as we have support from churches here.

For information about and letters from Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) mission workers and how to support them, visit the Web site.