LeAnne Hardy, author and editor
  • Home
  • BIO
  • My Books
    • Children's and Young Adult
    • Historical Fiction
    • Non-fiction
  • Blog
  • Editorial Services

My ​Times and Places
​


​​

Laughing at Life Jungle Style

4/8/2011

1 Comment

 
Picture
The 1960s were an era of counter-cultural rebellion—young people renouncing their parents' striving for affluence in the suburbs and choosing instead the simple lifestyle. For many of my generation that meant a commune with free love and drugs, no bras or baths. For some of us touched by the Kingdom of God, it meant committing to take the Gospel to the ends of the earth, no matter the cost.  I always pictured myself in a thatched hut in the jungle, befriending the ‘natives,’ wrestling with the puzzle of an unwritten language, creating an alphabet and translating the Scriptures.

 In this dream I was single, probably because I didn’t know any guys who shared my vision.  I looked forward to the adventure of it all. When they gave the call at our church’s missions conference for those who were willing to go to come forward, my struggle was always to be willing to stay.  I couldn’t imagine a more boring life than suburbia.

Then I met my husband.  We have lived in six countries on four continents, some of them in the middle of civil wars or political crisis. But he’s a city guy. No thatched huts or dugout canoes for him. (Well, once. The canoe tipped and dumped him into a Mozambican river. Everyone jumped in to save the ‘poor missionary’ [who used to be a life-saving instructor.] He had to walk the rest of the way to the village with squishy shoes. He was just glad he didn’t find out about the crocodiles until later.)

As I was saying, my husband is a networker, committed to leadership training, which mostly happens in cities with electricity, telephones and (now-a-days) Internet. After six years in the Mozambican capital of Maputo with broken glass, crumbling concrete, sporadic electricity, and running water until 9 AM (most days), we were able to visit Nauela, the town in the north where we would have lived if the country had not descended into civil war about the time we arrived. It didn’t have electricity or running water, but it was a beautiful town overlooking a fertile valley with mountains on the horizon. Again I had to struggle with the Lord.  “You mean my kids could have grown up here?”

So it was with memories of romantic teenage dreams of adventure in the name of the Jesus that I read Our Witchdoctors are too Weak; the Rebirth of an Amazon Tribe by Davey and Marie Jank. I laughed out loud. Davey Jank has a delightful ability to laugh at himself, his mistakes and his misunderstandings.  It was easy to see my own cultural ignorance reflected in those mistakes and laugh at myself as well. He includes just enough of the puzzle of linguistics to remind me of my teenage fascination with the subject. For example: this is a culture with no word for ‘no.’ So early on, Davey goes pig-hunting for the simple reason that he can’t figure out how to say he would rather not!

Our Witchdoctors are too Weak is told in short, three to five page chapters—quick reads for family worship around the dinner table. I am considering leaving my copy in the guest bathroom along side Readers Digest and The Bathroom Book.

This book gave me lots of laughs. I would have liked to have more spiritual insights along with those laughs. What can I learn about myself or about God by laughing at these experiences? There was some of that, but not a lot. The missionaries made the deliberate decision not to try to teach the gospel until they were fluent enough in the language to be sure that what they thought they were saying was actually communicated.  They had seen enough strange religious ideas gleaned from misunderstandings of Spanish to make it a serious concern. It is not until the last few pages that the missionaries begin to teach the gospel. When they do, a significant number turn to Christ, and a culture of fear comes to an end. It will be interesting to see how the church among the Wilo people matures with their own Bible and this base of understanding.

I highly recommend this book for your church library, especially if your church supports missionaries or sends teams anywhere in the world. The principles of being flexible and laughing at your mistakes will take any missionary a long way.

(So was it a mistake to neglect to tell us what country we are in or a deliberate choice? The Amazon lies mainly in Brazil, but the lingua franca here is Spanish not Portuguese. Hmm.)

1 Comment
LeAnne
1/7/2015 06:56:04 am

This post was moved from another site. All comments were lost.

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Author

    LeAnne Hardy has lived in six countries on four continents. Her books come out of her cross-cultural experiences and her passion to use story to convey spiritual truths in a form that will permeate lives.

    RSS Feed

    Add http://www.leannehardy.net/1/feed to your RSS feed.
    To receive an e-mail when I post a new blog, please subscribe.
    Subscribe to Blog

    Categories

    All
    Africa
    Author Interviews
    Current Events
    Devotional Thoughts
    Guest Blog
    Holidays Christmas
    Holidays Easter
    Holidays-Easter
    Holidays Other
    Holidays-Thanksgiving
    Missions And Missionaries
    Music
    My Books
    My Life And Family
    My Travels
    Non Fiction
    Orphans And Vulnerable Children
    Photos
    Publishers And Publishing
    Reading And Sharing Books
    Reviews
    Skating
    Theological Education
    Tributes
    Writing

    Archives

    March 2022
    December 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    August 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    September 2017
    April 2017
    February 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012
    December 2011
    November 2011
    October 2011
    September 2011
    August 2011
    July 2011
    June 2011
    May 2011
    April 2011
    March 2011
    February 2011
    January 2011
    December 2010
    November 2010
    October 2010
    September 2010
    August 2010
    July 2010
    June 2010
    May 2010
    April 2010
    March 2010
    February 2010
    January 2010
    December 2009
    November 2009
    October 2009
    September 2009
    August 2009
    March 2000

Proudly powered by Weebly
  • Home
  • BIO
  • My Books
    • Children's and Young Adult
    • Historical Fiction
    • Non-fiction
  • Blog
  • Editorial Services