Sample Issue

Answers from Ask A Missionary

1) WHAT IS THE BEST WAY FOR ME TO LEARN A LANGUAGE?
1.1) Spend time with native speakers.
1.2) Take a course and use a language helper.
1.3) Try multiple approaches.
2) I'M IN MY EARLY TEEN YEARS. HOW DO I GET READY FOR MISSION WORK?
2.1) Take advantage of opportunities.
2.2) Go, learn, befriend, read, serve.
3) HOW DOES SOMEONE DECIDE TO BE A MISSIONARY OVERSEAS INSTEAD OF SERVING IN HIS/HER HOME COUNTRY?
3.1) Ask God for discernment.
3.2) Consider the greatest need.
4) RESOURCES
4.1) Next steps for future missionaries recommended by Urbana.
4.2) Great Commission Opportunities Handbook charts and resources are online.
5) TO RECOMMEND OR SUBSCRIBE TO THE ASK A MISSIONARY NEWSLETTER

The best way to learn another language is to be around as many people speaking the language as possible. Remember that people are willing to help you if you have taken an interest in learning about them. By choosing to do so, you show them that you already care about them, which is perfect to begin step one. Of course, books and tapes help. See the article on http://www.calebproject.org/langlrn.htm

Many people still advocate using the Language Acquisition Made Practical (LAMP) method which majors on memorizing phrases that are useful and then going out to twenty or thirty strangers and repeating these phrases. Through repetition you learn the phrases and make new friends. However, this method is falling more and more into disfavor nowadays. The LAMP method is useful for standard greetings and phrases but does not teach you how to be creative and develop new sentences you have never spoken before. You must draw upon a list of memorized phrases.

Newer methods suggest that you spend more time working with an individual language helper or assistant. This way you can have more comprehensible input rather than just listening to speakers who use large amount of vocabulary you don't know. Then develop a small circle of friends so you can spend more time talking and interacting with them rather than parroting your phrases quickly to a large group of people.

Since you're currently in the U.S. and you want to learn Spanish, I suggest you take advantage of college or adult learning courses and cassettes. There are many books that teach Spanish, radio programs, and even TV stations that broadcast only in Spanish. Take advantage of these opportunities. I started to learn Spanish when I was in high school. I made visits with a Spanish pastor and attended Spanish church services. In church services, you will already know the topic or Bible story that the preacher is talking about, so you will be able to pick up new vocabulary more quickly. I am glad you are making the effort to learn Spanish as the hard work you put in on learning the language will bear good fruit in the end.

You asked specifically about learning Spanish to minister to Spanish speakers in the Minneapolis area. I am going to assume you are serious about learning the language (I studied nine in my first 31 years) because the answer I give will require an investment of time. However, it will not be as much time as going away to a Spanish language institute.

First, assuming you have little or no knowledge of Spanish beyond the 50 or so words most Americans seem to know, I suggest you check into community colleges in the Minneapolis area to see if one offers Spanish. A single semester can be helpful and a full year can be great. No, you will not be able to speak at all fluently after the one year, but you will have a good grasp of the basic grammar and a good command of the sounds.

Second, check your public libraries. Many have tape courses on how to learn a language, and Spanish is one of the most common ones available. These are free. Use this in addition to the college course. If you try this alone your pronunciation will probably be terrible. Also, you can review this a lot.

Third, after you begin to get familiar with vocabulary and sounds, get a Spanish New Testament and begin to read it aloud about 15 minutes per day. Since you know what it says in English, you will have a good idea of Spanish and begin to develop a spiritual vocabulary. You might even want to put about 50 verses on index cards to begin memorizing them. If you can befriend a Spanish speaker who has some English, you can tell them you are working to learn Spanish and ask them to help you with the pronunciation of the memory verses.

If you can get hold of some tapes of spiritual messages in Spanish, I encourage you to get a couple and listen to these often as you progress. Hearing a Spanish speaker will be helpful. Then, as you make progress, try to find a Spanish radio station and listen to it for a few minutes (not music) on a regular basis.

I was in my mid-teens when I felt a call to missions. I pursued that call by starting to go on short-term missions trips starting as a teenager. Also I became involved in church work with a different ethnic group (Hispanic). This gave me more insight into other cultures, helped to solidify my call, and equipped me for the future. Take every opportunity you can to find out more about missions. Read missions magazines about current mission activities around the world. Read biographies about missionaries. Talk to missionaries when you can. Find out more about missions by attending a Perspectives course. Continue to take any step that you believe will help you in your goal to become a missionary. Avoid choices which might prevent you from going to the mission field such as incurring large debt or marrying someone who is not interested in missions.

If possible, find someone to mentor you and pray for you during the years of preparation to become a missionary. There may be many years between the call and when you arrive on the foreign mission field, but God is faithful to help you get there if you persevere.

Go on as many different short-term trips as possible. If you don't feel led to a specific part of the world yet, consider taking one trip to each continent. Try out different types of trips, but preferably those that would bring you into contact with long-term missionaries on the field. There is no better way to learn than to sit at their feet. I know that Pioneers emphasizes that type of trip.

Learn a second language in middle and high school. Learn Spanish if you have a heart for Latin America, French if you have a heart for Africa, etc. If there is a community college in your area that offers a language in a different language family than your mother tongue, take classes to try out and hone your ability. The classes normally offered in high school (Spanish, French, and German) are all closely related to English so that one can even recognize the words without much effort. Consider Russian, Chinese, Hindi, Arabic, or Swahili.

Make friends with international students in your school and community. There are many students from Vietnam, China, Japan, Korea, Latin American countries, Spain, and other European countries. Learn how they live and WHY.

Read, read, read. There is much to be learned from reading missionary biographies. Be inspired by their dedication unto death and their perseverance through every kind of trial and despite seeing little fruit for many years. Check out Mary Slessor, Hudson Taylor, Jim Elliot, William Carey, St. Patrick, the Judsons in Burma, Bruce Olson, and Brother Andrew.

Stay in the Word and prayer and look for an opportunity to minister in your own church (if you don't already serve). It doesn't have to be missions related. Just start trying things to see where your giftings lie. This will also give you great experience in working with people. Remember, the people you will try to reach overseas are not nice, sweet, honest people who are just waiting for you to come and rescue them. If they were already righteous, why would they need to be saved (Eph. 2:1-10)? Get experience in loving the unlovable and reaching those who don't know they need to be reached. Let God humble you through service.

You have a great question. Clearly God has given His people a global mandate to reach all peoples. This was apparent even to Abraham when God promised to make him the father of many nations and that all peoples of the world would be blessed through Him. (Gen 12, 15, 17) Jesus mandated that His message must go to the ends of the Earth (Matt 24:14, Matt 28:18-20). There are needs everywhere; so how do you know God is calling you to another place?

First, if you go elsewhere, are you willing to evangelize and disciple someone else to be an indigenous witness in their own place? Are you willing to learn a language to do this? Are you going to a people group that is unreached? People who 'go' must have the right wiring to be effective. Second, what does your pastor and church say about your calling? Third, by going to a new place, are you doing work that must be done by a missionary because there are no/few Christians in that place to do it? Or would you be doing work that could better be done by nationals? Will you empower nationals to take over your work when you leave? Fourth, what would need to happen for you to return from the mission field? Satan will throw all kinds of things at you so you must know you are called.

Last, is your call to make disciplemakers, like the apostles? Like them would you move to new places if you had empowered others? I hope answering these questions will help things be more clear. Attending a class like Perspectives On the World Christian Movement would also be very helpful. Ultimately, churches here ought to have people working in 'Jerusalem', 'Samaria', and the 'Ends of the Earth'. That means we must have a global perspective that looks at local, national, and global concerns.

I do encourage you to cast your glance overseas: the need is so much greater, just about any way you put it. Nutrition? A homeless person in L.A. gets more calories of quality food per day than the average person in Calcutta. (See books by Viv Grigg and Ron Sider.) Justice? Fifteen million children are sold into sexual slavery each year, primarily in Asia (see Gary Haugen's book). Access to the gospel? There are more bibles, Christian books and radio stations in the North America than we know what to do with. Never in a city in the U.S. are you more than a mile from a church. That is why I encourage you to broaden your horizons: Jesus is doing amazing things in an amazingly desperate world.

By all means, the work in California is very important. Many more of us need to be involved in our cities and villages in North America. But even those of us who are called to the most needy corners of the West need to continually refresh our perspective by learning about what God is doing to restore his Shalom to the world.

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Matthew 9:37-38: Then Jesus said to His disciples, "The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into His harvest field."