How “green” are you?
I saw this website called www.myfootprint.org where you can take a quiz to see what kind of ecological impact your living style has on the Earth. In my current living state, I require about 19 acres to live. Which means that if everyone was like me, we would need 4.3 planet Earths for everyone to survive.
The idea of taking care of our planet is a high value for those in the area of Germany that we are moving to so I have to make a choice:
- 1) I could just be the “ignorant” American and go on with my life as normal (which would probably make many of the people around us angry)
- 2) I could be offended that they would expect me to do things the way they do them and try to make everyone else conform to my way of doing things. (boy, if you thought option 1 would upset my neighbors…)
- or 3) I could learn how the Germans do things and change the way I do things to integrate with their society
There’s a fine line that missionaries walk when integrating with a culture. As missionaries we are called to show God’s love and teach those we come in contact with about how Jesus Christ is the only way to have a close, intimate relationship with God.
Missionaries are welcomed when they fulfill that calling. They are shunned (or worse) when they come not only sharing about Jesus Christ but also pushing their personal/cultural values on top of the Gospel. The New Testament is filled with different situations where Paul had to struggle with those who were the “circumcision group” where they added to the gospel the Jewish cultural value of circumcision to the Gentiles.
Please pray with us and other missionaries that we speak only the Gospel to the world and do not add to it our cultural values.
