Last night I went to a friend’s house and met some missionaries. As a rule, I tend to avoid any situation that involves religious proselytizing, but I really wanted to see my friend and her baby and if that meant hearing the spiel so be it. It was actually very interesting. The missionaries were a husband and wife who had “so much love in their heart for the Cambodian people” that they moved to Cambodia 12 years ago to spread the message of Jesus. This is usually the time when my more sarcastic, social justice self righteousness kicks into hyper drive and I am internally sermonizing about the objectification of brown people and the fallacy of the great white savior come to heal the brown heathens. But as I said, I was in the home of a friend, so I chose to suspend my skeptical annoyance long enough to really consider the merits of what this couple had chosen to do with their life.
They started by trying to help Cambodian Christians strategize for how to get the word out about Christ, but through their work they realized that there were other pressing issues facing the Cambodian people, such as lack of literacy, basic hygiene standards, and the proliferation of human trafficking. They talked about how other White people had visited areas of rural Camobia theoretically to provide the community with food and clothing, then they asked the villagers to sign letters verifying they had received the donations. Being illiterate, they were allowed to simply ink their thumbprints, but in doing so they were not signing the documents that had been explained to them, they were signing away their land rights. A few weeks later, they were forcible removed from their homes by White People using their very thumbprints as evidence that their land did not belong to them anymore. Familiar story?
So the couple began hosting literacy classes and eventually started their own orphanage. They also teach adults how to lead groups and they prep Cambodians to educate other Cambodians about the dangers of sex trafficking.
While I may not agree with their need to Christianize Cambodia, I have to admit that I was touched by their sincerity and also it sounds to me like they might actually be making a difference. They are following a calling, but I suspect it is one that is much deeper than spreading religion. They are spreading literacy and self empowerment, which to me seems even more important and special.
Why is it so hard to see your own footprint? To have a genuine understanding of the ripple you are making on the world? As I am preparing for my book launch tomorrow, I have been in long conversations with a number of supportive friends. I have come to realize that what I am doing, in choosing to self publish my work and teaching others to self publish, has already had a much greater impact than I ever anticipated. People are telling me that I am inspiring them to follow their dreams. I don’t know about all that, but it is my hope that I can walk through my life with some measure on integrity and that even my mistakes might somehow make sense in the long view of things. I guess we’ll see.
