Recent Posts from the Mumena Team

Wednesday, January 11, 2012

MISSIONARY JOURNEY: Erin Davis

“but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord .”  Joshua 24:15  KJV

 

                In a land ruled by fear of the dead members of one’s own family, one of the first tasks of the missionary is to help establish Christian homes.  Erin has a passion for helping families along the journey of becoming more Christ-like day by day.  Conversion to the Lordship of Christ is just the first step.  Letting Christ permeate our most private relationships and thoughts is a lifelong process.  One of the missionary skills Erin has been studying is how to challenge a “pagan worldview” (how a culture in the world views reality) with the worldview of the culture of God.  This is a particularly difficult skill to become comfortable with because we as missionaries have to hold up our own cultural worldview to God’s way of seeing reality in order to help another culture do the same.  This skill is important because if a person isn’t thinking within the parameters of what God says is real, a person will be hard pressed to make a faith decision concerning those divine realities.  What all missionaries ultimately discover is that it is just as painful for a missionary to go through this as it is for a lost person to go through it.

 

“And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free."  John 8:32  NKJV

 

It is absolutely worth it, though!

Brian, Sondra, Noah, & Bryson

 

 

Pictured above:  Erin teaching ladies about the first family.

 

 

Tuesday, January 3, 2012

MISSIONARY JOURNEY: Apprenticeship Team Work

“… neither shall ye defile yourselves with any manner of creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.”  Leviticus 11:44  KJV

Our apprenticeship team work skills were put to the test recently when Whitney came from our boys room and mentioned that she had just seen the largest wall spider in her life.  As the old missionary, I condescendingly told her that “wall spiders are our friends”.  That is missionary speak for “Whitney, get a grip.”  However, when Noah & Bryson began “ooing and ahing”, I thought that I had better check it out.  To my surprise a King Baboon Tarantula was perched high up on the boys’ bathroom wall.  Now we had a problem.

Surrounded by able bodied apprentices, I felt a bit put upon when they looked to me, the mentor, for the proper response.  Theologically believing that all arachnids are a direct result of the fall of man, I was none too happy about having to demonstrate my superior missionary skills in this particular situation.  Add to this that our “Ag apprentice” (Jason) is also a firm believer in the un-holiness of all spiders, and my back-up troops were thinning.  Taking my favorite fly swatter (steel reinforced with leather covering), Jason helped me up on to the bath room counter top… after which he promptly left the room.  As Sondra mentored Erin on how to give lots of advice from the adjoining room, I approached within striking distance of the tarantula.  Striking it with all of my force, I managed to send the thing flying across the room towards Sondra and Erin.  (Enter Jeremy with his high school football ethic kicking-in.)  Grabbing a 5 gallon bucket, Jeremy managed to catch the beast on the fly – and in one fluid movement, dumped it into the commode.

I don’t remember who flushed – God bless them – as I was struggling with a series of shiver spasms.  Whitney, bless her heart, was desperately trying to suppress her gag reflex.  And as Sondra and Erin struggled with their feelings of “If he had done it correctly, it would NOT have come flying towards us!”, I thought to myself, “What a team!”

 

-          Brian

 

 

Pictured above:  Citharischius crawshayi (bites cause sharp pain accompanied with hallucinations)