“If you lived here, you would understand.”
This is often the response we want to say to people who inquire about why, after five years in Meishan, Taiwan, has no one become a Christian yet? It can be a touchy subject to broach, but we try to be honest with people to help them understand.
In response, we often ask people to think about their own contexts – how do you share the Gospel with your non-Christian friends? Do you drop little bits here and there? Or do you bring up Jesus every time you have a conversation with them? Or do you pray for opportunities to talk about deeper things so that faith comes up naturally? Or do you demonstrate the love of Christ through your daily actions?
People often assume that missionaries are sharing the Gospel directly with every person, every chance we get. Most of us are not. “Why?” you ask.
“If you lived here, you would understand.”
Context is important. There are a couple of things about our context that are helpful to know.
First, as a small, rural town, Meishan is a very close-knit community. People know people, and families have lived here for a couple of generations. It takes time to build trust to “get into” the community. Southern hospitality is wonderful here, but, just because people are nice to us, that doesn’t mean they trust us and will be willing to share things of a personal nature with us.
We could share the Gospel right off the bat, and people will nod and say “okay” just to be polite because we are “foreigners” and they don’t want to be rude to us. But if we truly want to know them and hear their heart issues, and if we want to be able to share openly about our own struggles and how knowing Jesus gives us hope…that takes time. And it requires a willingness to give the conversation and relationship time to develop.
Secondly, in small towns, it is easy to find others presenting different sets of beliefs. Some even talk about Jesus, too. So, how can Meishan people tell us apart? It takes time for people to see that we are different. For them to ask us how we are different. For people to know that the Jesus we talk about is different.
These things are not excuses; rather, this is what we’ve learned by living here in Meishan, asking careful questions, and slowly understanding our context and the people. Of course, we wish we were able to share the Gospel quickly, but we’ve seen how that isn’t the most effective approach in Meishan.
So, when people ask us whether it is discouraging to be doing ministry here that is so seemingly slow, we don’t see it that way! Every little bit of progress is an encouragement for us. We notice progress in our conversations, as people begin to trust us more and more, and we know that God is at work here.
Below is a video about ministry work in rural areas that we were able to be a part of. We hope it inspires you in your own context, to continue being a wonderful witness for Christ among your non-Christian friends and community, and not to be discouraged when it seems like it’s taking so long for people to get to know Jesus.
