My Dad has been a missionary in Brazil for 60 years, my brother and his wife, over 20, Vicki and I, over 30 years ministering in this needy
emerging country. Missionaries, who leave the U.S. to developing countries for long term ministry, are always learning to adjust in two
very different changing worlds. Each time we return to the States where we were reared, educated, and cultured, it’s not quite the same
any more. Government control and ethics have shifted some more to the left as we approach a post-American world. Most of our friends
and family look a little older and are a little heavier.
Life adjustments need to be made with each return to developing countries. This managing goes deeper than just dealing with climate,
language, culture, and bugs. A heart slit between the country where we’ve ministered, reared our children, and the country oceans away
where our relatives are and now our children have gone to live. As one of our retired long term coworkers, Russ and Judy Gordon, put it
recently in a letter, “We never feel like we fit completely into our home country and a piece of us is always in our ‘second home’ which
most of us adopted.”
Like Superman, we missionaries hear the calls for help and the sounds of evil from the distant land. In a single bound, we believe we
must leap to assist and save those in distress. In the minds of some, we are heroes, men of steel, lacking only the red cape and yellow
“S” on our chests. Though we are now adults and haven’t dressed that way since we were 5, the idea does feed our egos and alters our
self-perception. Though there seems to be no connection, in the 1930’s Superman writer Jerry Siegel and artist Joe Shuster developed
this American icon in Cleveland, Ohio, not far from Baptist Mid-Missions, our mission’s home office.
After a term on the field “saving” our part of the planet, we return to the United States. Like many missionaries teaching and preaching in
this hot, dry, dusty, part of the world, we’re returning having just finished a construction project, welding steel trusses, or doing a boat
engine overhaul. We guys can look pretty rough. Our hands are calloused, we seem to have some permanent grease under our
fingernails, our hair is still stiff, and we itch, but we’re not sure from what. In this condition, we may travel hours to get over to Mission
Headquarters on Webster Road, where the gentlemen are dressed in sharp suits with ties, and the ladies look and smell nice. Exiting
off Interstate 71 onto Pearl Avenue, dressed quite casually, we realize that we need an outfit change before going into the “Daily Planet”.
Like Superman in reverse, we look for a “phone booth” to change clothes so, in a mild-mannered way; we can look something like the
people in the office. The “phone booth” can be a challenge, usually the Sunoco Service Station’s tiny restroom in which we must dance
on one foot constantly while switching out clothing that has accidently dropped to the wet floor… several times.
Long term foreign missionaries, in particular, may feel a need to change appearance after arriving in the States on furlough. The iguanas
and occasional chameleons in our backyard do this. Sometimes they change color rapidly, depending on their mood, and sometimes
they change slowly depending on food, age, and temperature. Missionaries often don’t act quite the same during their furlough months
either. On the field was a weekly routine of living and ministering. We’ve left our house, pets, and plants. With reluctance, we have left
our projects and congregations of believers behind praying that they will grow and mature on their own. We’ve forgotten that the church is
not ours and we wonder who will still be in attendance when we return.
Now, traveling thousands of miles on smooth American asphalt highways with clean secure hotels, uncontaminated restaurants, and
Wal-Mart, we speak to a different supporting church each week. It may become obvious, especially at the beginning of our furloughs that
we’ve been on the foreign field a long time. Now, out of our natural environment, we feel once again a need to change our color. We greet
hundreds of church people every weekend, often with a silly grin saying religious stuff like, “Thank you, brother.” And, “God bless”.
At conferences, missionaries are often told how significant it is that they sacrifice so much. In most church services, they speak from
front-center. After a furlough of being looked at as some sort of superhero by Sunday School children across the country, it becomes
easier to live behind the “S” than to share reality. I like the power of the cape. But it is not real life, and I sometimes trip on it. Neither the
“S” nor the cape has ever helped when I’ve fallen short, especially from buildings made tall by religion. May God give to us missionaries,
supporting churches where we have the freedom to hang up our capes and see no need for the camouflage.
As always, Grace Precedes Peace,
Tim Reiner
emerging country. Missionaries, who leave the U.S. to developing countries for long term ministry, are always learning to adjust in two
very different changing worlds. Each time we return to the States where we were reared, educated, and cultured, it’s not quite the same
any more. Government control and ethics have shifted some more to the left as we approach a post-American world. Most of our friends
and family look a little older and are a little heavier.
Life adjustments need to be made with each return to developing countries. This managing goes deeper than just dealing with climate,
language, culture, and bugs. A heart slit between the country where we’ve ministered, reared our children, and the country oceans away
where our relatives are and now our children have gone to live. As one of our retired long term coworkers, Russ and Judy Gordon, put it
recently in a letter, “We never feel like we fit completely into our home country and a piece of us is always in our ‘second home’ which
most of us adopted.”
Like Superman, we missionaries hear the calls for help and the sounds of evil from the distant land. In a single bound, we believe we
must leap to assist and save those in distress. In the minds of some, we are heroes, men of steel, lacking only the red cape and yellow
“S” on our chests. Though we are now adults and haven’t dressed that way since we were 5, the idea does feed our egos and alters our
self-perception. Though there seems to be no connection, in the 1930’s Superman writer Jerry Siegel and artist Joe Shuster developed
this American icon in Cleveland, Ohio, not far from Baptist Mid-Missions, our mission’s home office.
After a term on the field “saving” our part of the planet, we return to the United States. Like many missionaries teaching and preaching in
this hot, dry, dusty, part of the world, we’re returning having just finished a construction project, welding steel trusses, or doing a boat
engine overhaul. We guys can look pretty rough. Our hands are calloused, we seem to have some permanent grease under our
fingernails, our hair is still stiff, and we itch, but we’re not sure from what. In this condition, we may travel hours to get over to Mission
Headquarters on Webster Road, where the gentlemen are dressed in sharp suits with ties, and the ladies look and smell nice. Exiting
off Interstate 71 onto Pearl Avenue, dressed quite casually, we realize that we need an outfit change before going into the “Daily Planet”.
Like Superman in reverse, we look for a “phone booth” to change clothes so, in a mild-mannered way; we can look something like the
people in the office. The “phone booth” can be a challenge, usually the Sunoco Service Station’s tiny restroom in which we must dance
on one foot constantly while switching out clothing that has accidently dropped to the wet floor… several times.
Long term foreign missionaries, in particular, may feel a need to change appearance after arriving in the States on furlough. The iguanas
and occasional chameleons in our backyard do this. Sometimes they change color rapidly, depending on their mood, and sometimes
they change slowly depending on food, age, and temperature. Missionaries often don’t act quite the same during their furlough months
either. On the field was a weekly routine of living and ministering. We’ve left our house, pets, and plants. With reluctance, we have left
our projects and congregations of believers behind praying that they will grow and mature on their own. We’ve forgotten that the church is
not ours and we wonder who will still be in attendance when we return.
Now, traveling thousands of miles on smooth American asphalt highways with clean secure hotels, uncontaminated restaurants, and
Wal-Mart, we speak to a different supporting church each week. It may become obvious, especially at the beginning of our furloughs that
we’ve been on the foreign field a long time. Now, out of our natural environment, we feel once again a need to change our color. We greet
hundreds of church people every weekend, often with a silly grin saying religious stuff like, “Thank you, brother.” And, “God bless”.
At conferences, missionaries are often told how significant it is that they sacrifice so much. In most church services, they speak from
front-center. After a furlough of being looked at as some sort of superhero by Sunday School children across the country, it becomes
easier to live behind the “S” than to share reality. I like the power of the cape. But it is not real life, and I sometimes trip on it. Neither the
“S” nor the cape has ever helped when I’ve fallen short, especially from buildings made tall by religion. May God give to us missionaries,
supporting churches where we have the freedom to hang up our capes and see no need for the camouflage.
As always, Grace Precedes Peace,
Tim Reiner
To Contact Us
Email: timandvicki@inafarplace.com
Email: timandvicki@inafarplace.com
| P.O. Box 308011 Cleveland, OH 44130-8011 USA (440)826-3930 |
| Tim & Vicki Reiner in a Far Place - Nov. 2009 |
| SUPERMAN, CHAMELEONS AND MISSIONARIES |
Website: www.inafarplace.com
Surface Mail: Tim & Vicki Reiner
C.P.111
56.300-000 ٠ Brazil
Surface Mail: Tim & Vicki Reiner
C.P.111
56.300-000 ٠ Brazil
But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the
excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.
2 Cor. 4:7
excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.
2 Cor. 4:7
