Customer Reviews

On Being a Missionary

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This book is a wonderful book to read if you are THINKING aboutgoing to the mission field or returning again. The author is frankabout the obstacles involved in missions work and how to overcome them.

I read this book a few years ago before I left for Asia and it prepared me to be a team player. It also gave me realistic insights into what was ahead.

Now I am going back to Asia- leading a team this time- and once again this has been a great book to read about building team unity, making mistakes, and just trusting God's soveriegnty.

This book is fat, but easy to read. I do not read much, but this book was hard to put down.

Of the four gospels, my favorite is St. Luke. Luke was a doctor and wrote as a doctor- precise, bearing on the facts, and somewhat paternally. I get the same sense from Hale's writing. Hale and his wife are physicians that have served as medical missionaries in Nepal since 1970. This book might be considered a primer on missions. For me, it was perfect. Having never served as a missionary, the book gave me an idea of what it's really like, the ups and downs, the realities of being on the mission field. In reading this book, I felt like I was sitting down with a very wise man, perhaps at a pub over a beer, and asking, "so, what's it really like to be a missionary?" and this wise man patiently taking the time to tell me. Five stars for sure, don't head for the fields without this one.

This book was published in 1994, as the eleven-year civil war was starting in Nepal. The author is an MD who has spent thirty years of his time in that country, with the same NGO for which I also volunteered on my two short-term trips there. I did not know of him, nor had I heard about this book before I left. Obviously, this book is an excellent resource on "my" country and on "my" NGO; but I think it will serve the reader well if they are going to any one of the 2,500 mission hospitals sprinkled throughout the Low Income Countries of the world.

The author is strongly bibilcally-based; he has a lot of stories to tell; and he has been in a senior leadership position of a complicated NGO trying to deal with crosscultural issues.

Now, that's not to say it's exactly perfect. the book is long, and there are just *so* many stories to tell that Dr Hale gives the short version of each. It's not a narrative with a plot per se, more like something where you can find a provocative idea on each page then think about it for a bit. To do this kind of work requires thoughtful maturity which the author possesses and dispenses in large quantity.

The conditioin of the book was good for having been previously used. The cover was a little worn and several sentences were highlighted, but those types of things are to be expected in used books. The book was rather langthy. I did not relize how long it was until after purchasing it. I found the information and insites by Thomas Hale helpful, tought provoking, and easy to read. The book influenced the way I think about missions and ministry.

Thomas Hale wrote this landmark book on missions in 1995. Every prospective missionary would benefit from reading it before leaving for the field, and every Christian should reread it annually. It is challenging and fascinating. The author pulls from his experience as a missionary in Nepal. The book is about being a missionary, what it's like, the problems, the challenges, the heartaches and the joys.

Hale talks about what a missionary looks like. Every missionary must be ready and eager to share the gospel at every opportunity. Teachability is an absolute necessity if you don't want to end up playing the part of a fool. He says that the single most important factor in predicting one's future missionary performance is one's past performance as a Christian. With that he says that nobody is qualified to be a missionary. Because being a missionary means denying self, and that is contrary to the teaching of modern secular psychology, which says, affirm self.

A missionary's pilgrimage doesn't end when he gets to the field; it simply gets bumpier. That's when he discovers new weaknesses, temptations, and sins. These are at the root of most of the emotional struggle and pain we experience as new missionaries. Our character is revealed most clearly under irritating and difficult circumstances.

Too many Christians are mainly interested in what's good for them, not what's good for God. They check out missions as if they were trying on a new pair of pants. Hale challenges us all to change our perspective.

I was looking forward to reading this since I have read other books by this author. However, I felt like I was slogging through the book as the author tends to write in medical textbook style: ten reasons for conflicts, ten details of each reason for conflict, etc. It is not a light read and has few interesting stories to illustrate his points. On the other hand, the book would make a very good textbook on missionary preparation if large chunks of time were taken to study and reflect on each chapter. I agree with the other review that the book needs to be condensed to make it a more interesting read.

He goes through important topics, but his take on things is very 'mountain top experienced' oriented. i don't think it is realistic because the truth is that missions isn't about trying to be the very best missionary ever, which is what the book coaches us on. we 'should' do this, we 'should' do that. the answers to issues are very simplistic when in fact on the field things are not simplistic. For example, in the chapter on stress: so you feel stressed? ask yourself do you need a vacation? well, when you're on the field it may not be as simple as "I need a vacation." It's not vacation time for the team. You don't get to choose what you want and go on vacation when the rest of the team isn't. You have to bear it until it's time. That's the reality. And that causes stress. Not relieves it.

He says to not push yourself to the point of exhaustion trying to be the perfect missionary but then he gives an example of a missionary who was dead-tired and had a full day ahead of her, incl 3 surgeries. But when someone knocked on her door needing to emote, she went ahead and answered it, helped the guy for 2 hrs, got 3 hours of sleep and then felt energized for all her work the next day. that was supposed to encourage us that God will give us energy. But the reality is that can't happen most days. We can't operate like that, hoping God will give us extraordinary energy while we push ourselves too far. It's the very thing Hale just said not to do And God will reward us with the ability to more than we thought? That's what leads to burnout.

the biggest problem I have with the book is the emphasis on all we should mankind. I just got the impression that if we are aware enough and work hard enough to walk closely with God and do what we are supposed to do, apply good coping mechanisms, then everything will be ok. That seems unrealistic.