09952
November 4, 2009

No quick fix

Service in mission field requires recognition of diversity, Mission Challenge speaker says

by Duane Sweep
Special to Presbyterian News Service

Editor’s note: This is the latest in a series of stories about the more than 50 Presbyterian mission workers and international peacemakers who are speaking in more than 150 presbyteries in the coming month as part of World Mission Challenge. — Jerry L. Van Marter

Roger Marriot

EAU CLAIRE, Wisc. — When looking at creation and the diversity among animals, plants and geographies, God called it good.

“So different is good,” said Roger Marriot, a mission co-worker with the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).

“Although we’re all different, we’re still brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ,” Marriott told the congregation of First Presbyterian Church here when he provided the homily during Sunday services Oct. 18.

Marriott was in the Presbytery of Northern Waters during the denomination’s World Mission Challenge, which sought to connect mission co-workers with Presbyterians across the country. From late September through mid-October, 45 co-workers visited 152 presbyteries, sharing their stories and describing how to get involved.

Marriott, who has served in the Central America nation of Guatemala since 2002, pointed out that it’s important for workers in the mission field to recognize and accept the cultural differences where they serve.

Failure to do so can lead to embarrassing results. That can happen, Marriott said, when a mission effort will “focus on a miracle cure rather than God’s compassion.”

He described a mission effort that focused on a “cure,” resulting in three large ovens, 10 feet in diameter and 6 feet high. Those who constructed the ovens expected the Kekchi people of Guatemala to benefit from the ovens by baking and selling bread. The mission force that constructed the ovens “felt sorry for them (the Kekchi), felt pity for them,” Marriott said.

But the Kekchi don’t eat bread unless it’s given to them, Marriott pointed out.

“They eat tortillas,” he said and added that the Kekchi accepted the ovens because in their culture it would have rude to turn down the gift.

Marriott called the ovens “a monument to arrogance” and said the ovens are now used to burn trash.

Arrogance afflicts some mission efforts when those providing the help believe they have the ability to quickly correct a long-existing condition.

“To be compassionate requires that we live in community,” Marriott said, pointing out that effectiveness in the mission field requires knowledge of and respect for the local culture.

“You first have to know them to build a relationship,” Marriott said.

Marriott and his wife, Gloria, who serve together in mission, are trying to improve the education of the subsistance farmers with whom they work.

“We work with folks that have no power, no money,” he said.

Through education, Marriott said, the Kekchi can acquire confidence in themselves and begin to make changes on their own.

Before becoming long-term volunteers, the Marriotts owned and operated their own executive search company. But a visit to the Mexican border and multiple mission trips to Guatemala awakened a call to the couple.

On the trip to border, the Marriotts noticed the disparity in wealth and abundance that existed on opposite sides of a man-made border.

 “If we honestly believed what we said we believed, we had to respond,” Marriott said. “If we didn’t respond, we’d be nothing more than charlatans.”

There is no doubt that moving to the mission field was a life-changing experience.

“We were living life well, but we weren’t living life abundantly,” Marriott said.

The couple’s life in the mission field is a matter of faith.

“We reach out because we are instructed to do that,” Marriott said. “It’s not really an option ... We do it because we are faithful followers of Jesus Christ.”
 
Duane Sweep, associate for communications for the Synod of Lakes and Prairies, is a frequent contributor to Presbyterian News Service.