wfn.org | [PCUSANEWS] Learning the language of service: A missionary letter

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Note #8995 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

05583
Oct. 26, 2005

Learning the language of service

A missionary letter from Egypt

by Stephen Ogden
PC(USA) Young Adult Volunteer		  
	      
Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more
significant than yourselves.... Have this mind among yourselves, which is
yours in Christ Jesus, who ... made himself nothing, taking the form of a
servant ... to the point of death, even death on a cross.
- 2 Philippians 1: 3-8

MINYA, Egypt - It's a challenge to count others more significant than myself
when everyone around me is doing exactly that.

	Everywhere I go in Egypt, people treat me as more significant than
themselves. 
	    
	I was part of a group that went to a village near Minya one recent
Sunday afternoon to visit a non-governmental organization (NGO) called the
Better Life Association for Community Development, whose projects range from
providing sanitary water to opposing female genital mutilation. 
	   
	Some of the families there, who clearly had absolutely nothing to
spare, insisted on inviting us in for tea. I hope we said Shukran ("Thank
you") often enough to let them know that we were grateful for their kindness
and hospitality. The women who had made the tea responded, Shuker al Allah
("The thanks belongs to God"). 

	By the time we took our leave, there was at least one person outside
every house saying, Fadl! Fadl! ("Please, come in!"). Our efforts at
humility, as people from a country where doors are usually closed, seemed so
small compared to the generosity of the Egyptians we met.
	    
	Indeed, almost everyone here has been just as welcoming as the people
of that village. No doubt this stems in part from the Egyptian culture of
hospitality, and from the fact that we are working with respected NGOs. 

	But I know that our treatment also is partly due to the fact that we
are white. 

	I keep realizing here that white is never neutral. Simply being a
white American places me in a position of power. This is the reality. 

	How can I have the mind of Christ Jesus, the mind of a servant?
	    
	More and more I am finding the answer in my teaching. 

	When I learned that my job here would consist almost entirely of
teaching English language, my initial reaction was, "Just English?" It seemed
so different from the type of service I was used to, such as visiting with
homeless friends at soup kitchens in Memphis, TN. Teaching English seemed
comparatively insignificant in a country where half the population lives on
less than $2 a day. In fact, it seemed downright paternalistic.

	Yet, as I listen to the people here - and shed my preconceived
notions of what service should be - I find that teaching English is
important, and addresses a real need. So many people ask for help with the
language - everyone from my colleagues in mission to the man from whom I buy
fruit. I now have 50 people in my classes. 
	    
	They tell me that one must have English to emigrate or to get certain
visas. In addition, many need English in their work, or to get better jobs. 

	I also will be helping with an English translation of a financial
report for a Swiss NGO.

	That is what the group needs. Working in the association's clinic or
out in the villages is more like my idea of service, but the groups here are
already doing that work quite well, better than I could do it. I have come
for just one year, to partner with the faithful and effective work already
being done. 
	    
	They want a native speaker to teach English. By teaching, serving
where they ask me to serve, and trying to learn their language, I can, in a
small way, divest myself of the power I have by virtue of my skin color and
citizenship. 

	I hope my teaching will indirectly ease the poverty here by giving my
students a key to the locked door of societal power that I have as a
birthright. It is a small thing, but I pray that in this way I can have the
mind of a servant, the self-emptying mind of our Lord Jesus Christ, and bring
glory to Him.

Information about and letters from PC(USA) missionaries around the world are
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