I believe the recent events in our country have served to once again prove a point made years ago by Lesslie Newbigin (1909-1998). Newbigin was a British Theologian and missionary. He spent many years in South India before coming back to lecture and address postmodern western culture.
Having spent many years working among a pagan society, he reflected on western culture in the UK and the USA and realized that it would be better not to attempt to treat and reach our culture as Post-Christian which had simply forgotten about God and the values that had made it great, but that we should instead treat and attempt to reach our society as a pagan culture that had false gods.
If you begin to understand culture this way, you don't call the way-ward back to a spiritual faith-home, but reach out to them as individuals that have no common ground with you.
We as Christians, if we life according to the values and teachings of the Bible - are so far removed from the American culture that we find ourselves in - that we are truly cross-cultural missionaries as soon as we walk out of our front doors.
As we prepare to leave (or should I say, prepare leave again - hopefully we'll be medically cleared again and be ready to head out soon after July 8) - Our hope is that once we reach the field, perhaps some of the lessons we learn about how to reach a culture that has nothing in common with us can be related to our supporting churches in the United States - and perhaps utilized to reach a culture that has increasingly less and less in common with the church and the Biblical values God desires of His people.
Check here for our thoughts, photos, and more about life in South East Asia!