Kitti, Pohnpei
Wednesday, September 11, 2013
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Contextualization in Cross-Cultural Missions
For nearly two thousand years now, Christ-followers have been seeking to fulfill the great commission which Yeshua gave right before He ascended to heaven, saying, "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations." The Koine Greek word for "nations" in Jesus' short discourse is ethnos, meaning ethnic groups or people groups with their own unique language. At the writing of this blog post, the Joshua Project database lists 16,791 total living languages that exist today on planet earth, of which 7,275 are considered unreached by the gospel of Christ. Over the past 20 years as a cross-cultural missionary, it has been my heart's desire that ALL of these remaining unreached people groups would have the opportunity to hear and respond to the gospel in my lifetime. In fact, this is a main focus of our missionary team, as we are praying into each of these unreached people groups as well as training and sending a new breed of missionaries who will carry the love and glory of God to the ends of the earth and especially to the unreached. We recognize that each culture reflects and refracts the glory of God in it's own unique fashion. We don't desire to see cultures changed or westernized, but rather want to bring Kingdom culture to every people group and allow the Holy Spirit to transform lives, bringing hope and freedom to those who have been living in bondage for centuries. Love looks like something in each culture. We want to release a new breed of missionaries to discover what the love of Christ looks like in every nation and be the hands of feet of Jesus to them. This is the heart of cross-cultural contextualization in world missions.
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For the past two thousand years Christ-followers from all sorts of backgrounds and with various motivations have sought to further the Kingdom of God as missionaries. Some have succeeded to do so by allowing the foreign cultures among whom they were working with to retain their identity, while most have really blown it by colonizing entire countries and people groups in the name of Jesus, often condemning their cultures as "evil" while forcing their own concepts of God and their Western culture upon them. This has proven to not only be unfruitful, as most of these people groups are now either syncretistic or completely opposed to Christianity, but also catastrophic, as the beauty unique to each of these cultures has been almost entirely lost. For example, most native Americans were told by the missionaries from the early colonists that in order to "be a Christian" they must cut their hair, wear Western-style clothing and attend schools where they couldn't speak their own indigenous languages, all in the name of Jesus and missions. It is no wonder that there is such a small percentage of authentic Christ-followers among these indigenous populations. Unfortunately, this is not an isolated incident that took place. When you study the history of Christian missions, this is an all too familiar scenario which has taken place across every continent.
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Thankfully, in recent years, these atrocities have been recognized by a handful of modern-day missionaries who have sought to publically apologize and ask forgiveness of these people groups for all of the misrepresentations that have taken place and for the wrongs that were done to them in the name of Jesus. Along with the desire to see healing and forgiveness take place, many of these modern-day missionaries are on a journey to find deep in the history of each of these cultures the story of a Creator-God and stories that point to salvation through His only Son, Jesus Christ; footprints left by our loving Heavenly Father that lead to the revelation of Himself to mankind through His Word. We are hearing of many testimonies in recent years of these cultures following these footprints and that now have thriving, transformed communities of faith, and are seeing a resurgence of indigenous expressions of worship through cultural art forms such as song and dance. This is so exhilarating to me, as each of these cultures is like a precious stone in the hand of our Father, who shines His pure, bright light into them as He turns them in His hand which creates a beautiful rainbow around His throne in Revelation 4:3 and where every "tribe, nation and tongue" is represented in Revelation 5:9. In fact, heaven is not complete until all of these 16,791 people groups with their own unique cultural expressions of worship enter into a personal, hand-holding relationship with their Creator God (or whatever indigenous name He would be known by that is in line with the character of the biblical Elohim, which I will explain in future blog posts) through His Son, Yeshua Hamashiach (Jesus Christ).
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I consider myself honored to be among these aforementioned modern-day missionaries. I was able to spend a lot of time this past week with Daniel Kikawa, also a modern-day missionary who came to Pohnpei as a guest speaker to invest into a group of international and indigenous mission school students. I very much look up to this man of God who has been helping to spearhead this movement of cross-cultural contextualization worldwide and I count it an honor to have gleaned from him and his wealth of knowledge and experience this past week. I found the things that he taught refreshing, eye-opening, and yet challenging as I am still processing the stories and the ideologies that he presented in light of my own personal convictions and experiences in cross-cultural missions. Daniel says that Don Richardson, another modern-day missionary is his mentor. Don Richardson is the author of the books, "Peace Child" and "Eternity in Their Hearts," both of which have contributed to the shaping my own missiology over the years. I hope to stay in contact with Daniel Kikawa over the years, who would be an amazing sounding board as I partner with other indigenous Pohnpeians in a pursuit to find more and more of these "footprints" left within the Pohnpeian culture.
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Redeeming Pohnpeian Culture - "Sukisuk"
My son and I were invited to a birthday party yesterday. The local Pohnpeians from the village of Enipein brought the sakau root to "suk" or pound into sakau en Pohnpei (known as kava in other cultures), as it is a huge part of their culture to do so at such occasions. In our previous blogs I have gone into some detail about this cultural practice, and will continue to do so more and more as I am on this journey to see the Pohnpeian culture redeemed. It is going on three years total that I have lived as a missionary in Pohnpei and for the first time in three years, I was able to take part in "sukisuk," or the pounding of the sakau root. I couldn't help but think of the MANY WAYS that this cultural practice points to Jesus. Some of these "footprints" that I noticed were:
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(1) Sakau is a root that is taken from the dirt (Jesus is the "root of Jesse" [Isaiah 11:10, Romans 15:12] and born of human, being the second Adam [Romans 5:14]. Man or "adam" in Hebrew was formed from the ground or "adamah" in Hebrew [Genesis 2:7].).
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(2) Sakau is pounded with stones in a rhythmic pattern (Jesus was "bruised for our iniquities" [Isaiah 53:5]. The Hebrew word for "bruised" is "daka" meaning to be beaten to pieces and crushed. Jesus was sent when the "fullness of time" had come [Galations 4:4]. The rhythmic sound of the "ketia" or small pounding stone against the "soumoahl" or larger principal kava stone in the "nahs" or feast house, uses time signatures which could symbolize the fullness of time in which Jesus was sent to the world to die for our sins. Along with the redemption of cultures, we are told to "redeem the time" and to "walk in wisdom toward those on the outside" [Colossians 4:5]. I also see how this pounding sound could be used as a potential indigenous sound in worshipping the Creator-God.).
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(3) Sakau is squeezed through hibiscus fiber producing a drink that is a muscle-relaxant, and causes those who drink it to experience a calming effect or a peacefulness (Jesus' blood was squeezed from His body on the cross. The hibiscus fiber could be a type of the cross upon which Jesus' body (or the pounded sakau root) was squeezed of it's blood (or sakua en Pohnpei), bringing peace (or calming effect) to all who partake (or drink) of His sacrifice. It is "through Him having made peace through the blood of His cross" [Colossians 1:20].).
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These are a few of the similarities between Pohnpeian culture and the gospel of Christ that I was able to see as I partook in the cultural practice of pounding sakau en Pohnpei. As I am in the process of taking a year to get healing and restoration after a failed marriage, I am thankful for the time to, among other things, continue this journey to see the Pohnpeian culture redeemed. With the help of my Pohnpeian friends and family, who really are the ones that can best find and recognize these "footprints," I plan to do in-depth research on the Pohnpeian culture through interaction with the indigenous Pohnpeians; listening to their stories and taking part in their feasts, as well as studying any written material that I can find on Pohnpeian culture. I then aim to document these findings here on this blog in hopes to collect these writings into a book and perhaps a video documentary in the future. I hope that these footprints can be shared and realized around the entire island of Pohnpei, so that within the beauty of the Pohnpeian culture, deeper meaning can be found, and instead of these practices being seen as incompatible with Christianity, the indigenous Pohnpeians can celebrate the beauty within their culture and even consider it as holy and able to be used in their worship of the Creator God and His Son, Jesus Christ. I'm not talking about syncretism (which is mixing Christianity with animism, or the worship of other gods that has taken place both here and in many cultures worldwide), I am talking about cross-cultural contextualization leading to the authentic transformation (turning away from a lifestyle of sin to faith in Jesus Christ) of the entire Pohnpeian population without losing their cultural identity and without compromising Biblical truth. I know it this is a multi-faceted process but I am in it for the long-haul. I also hope that this journey will inspire other modern-day missionaries worldwide to go into both reached and unreached cultures "low and slow" and to learn from them...to discover where their cultures and Kingdom culture intersect, to celebrate those convergences and to cheer those people groups on as faith communities organically form to worship their Creator God and follow Jesus Christ in their own indigenous fashion.
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The fact is that Christianity has been in Pohnpei since the 1800's, and although over 97% of Pohnpeians are considered to be "Christian," according to Herman Sado, Director of Every Home for Christ in Micronesia perhaps only 10% of Pohnpeians have experienced what it means to be "ipwsapahl" or born-again by the Spirit of God, and have experienced a life-altering transformation through faith in Jesus Christ. Much like within other cultures worldwide, the first missionaries to Pohnpei, as well as many modern church groups have deemed much of the Pohnpeian culture as detestable and evil in the sight of God, and therefore forced the Pohnpeians to abandon most of their cultural practices to embrace a concept of God completely foreign to them, leading either to syncretism as mentioned earlier, or to an altogether abandonment of Christianity which has become irrelevant to them. Pohnpeians have become disillusioned and have felt that they have had to either choose Jesus or their culture, but not both. Albeit, there are always things within cultures that have become tainted by the enemy and need to fall off, but not by an external set of rules and regulations that has been forced upon them, but rather by a personal conviction of the Holy Spirit as they walk their own journey with Him, "cultivating (their) own salvation with fear and trembling." [Philippians 2:12]. It is okay for Pohnpeians to feel drawn to their own culture. God created their culture and it is beautiful. It doesn't need to be "either, or." It can be "both and more." I pray that some of you are able to join me on this adventure and I welcome your feedback as I document this journey.
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"Maing Sahm ahi Koht...Ketkiongie sapwellimwomwi eripit nan seilokwet ni mwaren sapwellimwomwi Iehros, Jesus Christ. Amen." (My Father God...Give me your wisdom as I embark on this journey in the name of Your Son, Jesus Christ. Amen.)
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Christian Young
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