A letter from Burkhard Paetzold in Germany
July 2011
Grace and peace to you all.
Students from Lviv/Ukraine in their folk dresses at LCC International University.
Today my newsletter comes to you from Klaipeda, Lithuania, on the shore of the Baltic Sea. It’s refreshing to be here in the heat of early summer and to have long daylight and short nights this time of the year. I’m here to visit again with our PC(USA) mission workers Becky and Eric Hinderliter and Jane Holslag, who teach at the LCC International University, a PC(USA) mission partner.
But this is a special visit because I also have a chance meet with a group of 18 Presbyterian mission advocates from Carlisle Presbytery who are on a mission trip throughout the Baltic states. They are teaching a summer course to students from Latvia and Ukraine here at LCC and doing hands-on work in the gym construction. The Carlisle Presbytery group is part of an ongoing mission connection between LCC International and Presbyterian congregations in the United States.
One member in the group told me that people at home had asked him, “Why do you travel 4,000 miles to help people? We have poor people in Pennsylvania as well in our own backyard.” The way he responded was, "It’s a privilege to be with people of other nations and to learn from them and their culture and about their way of life.”
Becky and Eric Hinderliter with teachers from Lviv/Ukraine.
Eric and Becky had arranged a discussion with the Carlisle mission group about the change in strategic direction of World Mission. I was asked to give a presentation about the critical global issues and the goal to establish and strengthen communities of mission practice. We had a brief discussion in the group, which for me triggered more questions:
The obvious question seems to be “What is really needed to move the core of the Presbyterian Church from 'mission interest' and 'mission trips' to 'communities of effective mission practice' ”? For instance, how does one educate Presbyterians to be more observant and thoughtful about the obvious side of globalization? Every time I’ve accompanied or guided a mission trip myself in different parts of Europe I’ve had to ask myself: What do short-term mission trip participants really see? (What does it mean that nearly everything is conducted in English? Or that people are using the latest communication technology but have a different culture or style of communication in their everyday life?)
Let’s look at a mission group in a restaurant of the host region that becomes increasingly impatient with getting their food and worrying about getting exactly what they ordered (too many people ordered the same dish, so the restaurant ran out of food). Do we understand what it means to be an entrepreneur in this part of the world (if there is only one cook and one waitress, who becomes frantic and doing the best she can)? We are hungry, so none of us thinks of the meal from the point of view of the waitress. The point of course is not to judge (God, give us the gift to see ourselves as others see us) but to think about the saying of Jesus, "harassed and helpless, the sheep without a shepherd" (Matthew 9:36). We need to pray and work together to be more faithful, especially in mission, to be led by the Spirit.
Assessments of effective mission practices are common these days. Dennis Horton of Baylor University, who conducted a recent study on mission trips, stated: “What makes a difference ... is pre-trip training, on-site mentoring, and follow-up after the trip”.
Let me add a few comments about the meaning of the critical global issues in Eastern Europe and add learnings from the Carlisle group to each issue:
1. How to Strengthen the Church’s capacity to survive, to thrive and to witness to the good news in Jesus Christ
Jane Holslag in Klaipeda/Lithuania.
Even 20 years after the regime changes of 1989, the legacy of the communist regimes is still very present. People who “lost” the communist ideology that infiltrated every part of their lives like a religion longed for new meaning in life. So foreign charismatic churches with their quick and easy answers have increased their membership numbers.
How to prepare young people for a mature church rooted in the culture of their own region?
And in this way, how to help the traditional partner churches to thrive and survive? Becky, Eric and Jane set the example as teachers rooted in the Reformed tradition with an ecumenical understanding of contextualized church situations. This ministry of Becky, Eric, and Jane is not just about Lithuania—LCC is a school that reaches out to students from other former communist countries like Ukraine, Albania, and Moldova.
Some learnings mentioned by the Carlisle group have been: "Listen to our hosts. Be humble. Demonstrate faith through action. Support their efforts."
2.Addressing the root causes of poverty, including the negative effects of economic globalization on the poorest and most vulnerable in every society, paying special attention to women and children
Transformation in former Soviet countries happened like shock therapy. Overnight many people lost their jobs and social benefits (poor as they were) with new benefits not yet in place. Neither were there checks and balances for the creation of a new social code of conduct. Those with access to the means of production, power, and the media (generally the old communist elites) became super-rich.
So people had learned their lessons during communism: capitalism is a system of cold market economy overarching every relationship in life—“what else can we do but use our elbows and act according to these cold capitalist rules?” This means, for example, almost nobody here understands the importance of voluntary work, the kind we see in Western societies and churches. When mission groups come to help with a habitat-humanity approach, spending their time and money, it’s probably not the immediate result of the work but the example of volunteerism that touches people’s hearts and prompts them to rethink their own understanding.
How does the Carlisle group understand the challenge of globalization after interaction with students from Latvia and Ukraine? One of the group observed about the students, "They are in a hurry to use all of the new technologies, but they are holding tightly to the past."
3. Engaging in reconciliation amidst cultures of violence
Many conflicts in Eastern bloc transformation societies and their churches are rooted in history. Most of them are just hidden. Generations don’t talk about it with each other. Not knowing or unable to describe or voice the conflicts of their past, young people are left alone. Some marginalized young people fall into depression or old stereotypes against minorities like the Roma. These young people are attracted to right-wing groups that suggest that violence is again the solution.
How can our presence as mission co-workers and teachers and informed outsiders serve as a catalyst to help people understand how important communication is to recognizing conflict? How has the mission group come to understand the idea of reconciliation after interaction with students from Latvia and Ukraine? One of the Carlisle group who taught students noted: "Many freely demonstrated how they have forgiven the Soviets. This is now their time to shine. No amount of darkness can put out God's light."
Gift exchange between folks from Carlisle Presbytery and students from Ukraine.
After our discussion with the Carlisle mission group, someone came to me wondering how we can really measure “effective” mission. And I heard myself talking about the difference of "results-based" and “impact-driven” mission activities. My feeling, however, at the end of the day was that all you can do is strive to build long-term personal relationships and thus aid a spiritual journey.
What will happen after the encounter of this group with the teachers and students from Latvia and Ukraine? It is too soon to tell. You can read about Paul and Cornelius (Acts 10) and learn that both groups were changed. But we can only plant the seeds for relationships, and it’s by God’s grace that they grow.
Burkhard
The 2011 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 197
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