By The Rev. Chris Royer, PhD
Executive Director of AFM
Helen Keller once quipped, “The only thing worse than being blind is having sight without vision.” These words took on new meaning for me following a trip through Thailand and Cambodia.
As you may know, these are both predominantly Buddhist countries. Having spent the entirety of my overseas cross-cultural experience among majority-Muslim populations, I must confess that even though I had physical eyes to see Buddhist monks and other worshippers prostrating themselves before statues of Buddha, I have little conceptual ability to step into their reality, to actually understand meanings they attribute to their actions which spring from their worldview. In a way, I felt blind to the Buddhist world even though I saw it with my own eyes for two weeks.
Manik Corea tells the story of a Cambodian woman suffering under the Khmer Rouge. She stepped into a dilapidated Roman Catholic Church for shelter where she observed a crucifix. She reasoned that this bloodied and helpless man hanging on that cross must have had bad karma in his previous life and thus no ability to help her in this life. She had physical eyes to see the crucifix, but her cultural lenses and lived reality blinded her to its meaning and Jesus’ power.
Scriptures speak repeatedly about the need for missionaries to possess cultural eyes to contextualize the gospel in areas and among peoples where the church is not. Whether addressing pious Jews (Acts 13:14-43) or polytheistic pagans (Acts 17:16-34), Paul continually adapted not only his preaching but also his discipleship and manner of living to his audiences’ cultural context.
Similarly, Scripture speaks of the importance of spiritual eyes. For instance, Paul prayed for the Ephesian Christians, that “the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you will know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe” (Eph. 1:18-19). One reason Cross-Cultural Workers (CCWs) and all Christians need spiritual eyes is that invisible spiritual forces are fighting against us: “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places” (Eph. 6:12). To stand against these forces with the armor of God, we must first see them with spiritual eyes; only then can we appropriate God’s power to defeat them.
At AFM, the last thing we want is for our CCWs to arrive at their country of service with cultural or spiritual blinders on. Our staff knows firsthand from our own service in frontier mission fields the sheer energy and commitment it takes to get to and serve fruitfully on the mission field. Because AFM CCWs need both cultural and spiritual vision for fruitfulness in missions, AFM goes to great lengths to thoroughly train each CCW.
This is why I’m so thankful for you, the one reading this letter. Through your prayers, giving, and support, you make possible AFM’s CCW pre- and on-field training so that CCWs arrive and serve effectively on the mission field with the ability to culturally and spiritually see.
While we’re on the subject of sight, the Magi were masters at it (Matthew 2:1-12). Unlike others, they saw the cultural and spiritual meaning of the star, discerning a deeper and more glorious meaning behind it than any of their contemporaries: that it portended to the birth of the King of the Jews.
As we head into the holiday season, the AFM Family will be taking time to pray for you, not only that you might see Jesus afresh in all his humility and glory, but for any other needs you might have. Feel free to email us your prayer requests (now and always) at prayforme@afm-us.org. We’re so grateful for you—that you have spiritual eyes to see the magnitude and weight of Jesus’ command to make disciples of all nations. We consider it an honor and joy to pray for your needs—during the Holiday Season—and always.
Advent Blessings & Merry Christmas!
