Latest / The Ethnos360 Podcast / The Cultural Mistake That Nearly Ended Their Mission Work
Transcript
- Ethnos360: Luke, I I have walked three days and the the pain in my knee was a physical manifestation of the pain in my heart that you caused me. You have to leave. You have to get out. Get out of Udowa. You are not welcome here. You have to get on this plane and go. And I I was like, what is happening? I have ⁓ Luke Thech here with me, missionary to Papua New Guinea. ⁓ you've been there three years, right? Yeah, three years. How do you pronounce the people group's name? Uduwa? Uduwa. Uruwa, okay. When did you move in? It was mm the end of May 2024. So I've been in Papua New Guinea three years, but not all of that was in Udwa. So some people would say, like, why don't you just move straight into the people group? Like what why do you ⁓ take the time to learn the pidgin language? Like there's some very practical reasons just to be able to communicate like to to begin with. Like so we're doing like ⁓ surveys of the Uda people and in order to communicate what our like mission does and like are you guys we heard there's intro like you guys wanted that, but it what we don't know if that was like only one guy who said that or like a you know the whole community. Like we gotta find this stuff out, you know, because they're inviting us in. To be able to try and communicate with them in English, there would be no communication happening. So you learn I mean, just to be able to begin doing that, you need to know the national language to be able to communicate with them. Why don't you just teach them the gospel in the national language? Why are you gonna now take the time to learn the Urua's specific language? Well, that's a good question. The now there are there are a number of people in Udwa who don't know the national language. So okay, you're leaving them out. Also, you know, there's a varying level for those who do know the national language, varying degrees to which they know it and understand it, th then you're weeding another group of people out who only partially understand it. But then you've also got just the fact that it's it's not at all their their heart language, the language that like if they are reading the Bible, it's as if God doesn't know their language. If well there's no Bible yet. So it's just that depth of understanding of God's words not gonna be there. Those some of the main ⁓ reasons. Second Peter three, sixteen, Peter says about Paul's writings There are things in them that are hard to understand, ⁓ which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction as they do the other scriptures. The gospel is simple, and yet there are things in scripture that are difficult to understand, self-proclaimed, that's what scripture says. And so to then communicate that in a language that is somewhat foreign to them, even if they understand it to a decent degree, is gonna leave you with tons on the table. Okay. Yeah, that totally makes sense. What would you say is some of the standout stories that you've had while you're Just beginning to learn the Uruwa's language and culture. I mean the the greatest one that has just like r rear like been so obviously reared its ugly head for me and like just showed me ⁓ massive differences between our cultures has been indirect communication. Well what's funny is I I can share that only because I finally recognized and began to understand that portion of their of their culture. There are still many portions that I don't I am like learning and not understanding it, but Even by my own culture standards, I'm a very direct person, straight to the point, very blunt. So ⁓ it has clashed greatly with the Udwa culture. And so so let's say, you know, someone asks you for something and you're not able to fulfill their request, it'd be, yeah, just like horribly disrespectful and really show how how very little you care for them and really greatly damage your relationship if you kind of very directly and straightforwardly just told them that no, like I'm not gonna be able to do that. Even recently a friend of mine, like I managed to have the opportunity to talk with someone in Udowa just 'cause I missed them, because I I like called my coworkers and and then this guy, like he was happened to be in the area. And so I talked with him. He was like, Hey, you know, when you come back, I'm gonna give you a pig and we're gonna like raise it together. And I was like, ⁓ that's awesome. And he said, You know, ⁓ it'd be really cool if you could bring a ⁓ a pot, a pot so that ⁓ you know, so of course, so that we could cook food. For the pig that I'm gonna give you. And it's just this hilarious way of him asking for a pot. He wants a pot. And ⁓ but it's like with through this whole thing with the pig, it's that's part of the indirect even the ask is indirect. But then as I I'm not like I'm not saying no, maybe I'll get him a pot. I don't know, but I don't wanna guarantee it in case I either forget about it or like there's not enough room on the plane or whatever. And so I r am like responding. you know, super like like vaguely, like to not give him this like clear yes. I'm like, ⁓ man, that is such a great idea. And I I really hope, you know, that like that's be awesome if that could work out. But, you know, I'll know, like I'll I'll look at and like we'll see if there's space on the plane. And so, but essentially like I think he's he would clearly take that as like a a a probably not. And it'd be it'd like no big deal. If it doesn't happen, like no hurtfield. If I said no or like Nah, I don't think that's gonna work out. Have you ever done that? Like, ⁓ do you have any stories about you just saying no and ⁓ the worst one? Yeah. So this is before I actually knew hardly nothing of Udwa. The plane's coming in a good amount because we're unloading supplies to build our houses with. And we're I'm on with like twenty-five other people there. just a bunch of Udowa people. They're helping me unload the plane. We're bringing stuff up to where we're building. And then ⁓ I see A friend of mine coming and walking up the airstrip, and he's like one of the wealthiest, most influential people in Udowa. But he's a good friend of mine. I'm I'm grateful, you know, I'd be grateful to see him. But he ⁓ this time is not grateful to see me. He is so angry and so mad and so just ticked off. And so he is just and he gets he just comes and starts yelling at me, and he is like, Luke, I I have walked three days. And the the my have a bad knee, and the the pain in my knee was a physical manifestation of the pain in my heart that that you caused me. You have talked poorly of me, you've betrayed me, you have you have disrespected me and and dishonored me. And what what like what's wrong with you? And you have to leave, you have to get out, get out of Udowa. You are not welcome here, you have to get on this plane and go. And I I was like, What is happening to and so ⁓ I I mean, praise the Lord, I think the Holy Spirit allowed me to to respond positively in that time and I'm like, Hey, no, like I like you, like we're friends, like w ⁓ what is going on? Please explain, like I wanna make this right and so yeah, at the time you had no idea. No, I had no idea what had happened and the miscommunication that this very direct way that I did that I should not have done, like I don't know what I didn't I didn't realize that at the time. Super confused. But he was really angry, so they just like you know, he needed to cool off. So he like they kinda usher people like around, like bring him towards back down to his house. Then I they're bringing me up to our area where we were building so I could inform my team. And so anyway, ⁓ yeah, loads of shame that he was heaping on me. Massive broken relationship. I'm like, what happened? And I look back on our messages. ⁓ we had texted back and forth. And he had asked about using the plane. And I was not going to be able to fulfill his request. And I s you know, basically in my more direct way that I'm more natural to, I was like, no, that's not gonna be possible. But here's like the phone number if you wanna call him and see if it works out for you. ⁓ and he ⁓ he said, Okay, well then I'm gonna walk. And I said, All right, well, I'll see you when you make it into Udowa. And like that was it. And I didn't think like it like in the text messages, of course, you know, tone like doesn't always transfer that well with tech, but like I probably would have said a similar thing like if I was talking to him face to face. Yeah. So that exchanged, that was it. It was like that I was direct. I just said no. And that was like not at all the way to do it. That w communicate, what does it communicate? Like I didn't say anything about how like I like I was like, you know, ⁓ man, it's such a long walk. Like I'd like I was basically communicating that I didn't care at all about like him or his needs. And ⁓ yeah, it was just like severely disrespectful and and dishonoring to him. And so what I should have done is is said like, ⁓ man, that is ⁓ that's great. That'd be so good if we could get you in on the on the plane. but you know if ⁓ I it doesn't look like there's space this time around, but but we'll but you know actually that you know if that changes like I'll let you know. Just like kind of a bit more their style. It's like kind of like very positively saying no shows like you care, like you it's like you want to do it but can't or something like that. So that's just like more of a yeah, much better. If I had said that, we could have avoided the whole debacle. But even the thing is it gets worse because he was still mad, like we were trying to send intermediaries down and and like figure, like see about how we could make this right. And he was like, okay, like I still got to cool down, but in a few days like I'll come up and and we'll ⁓ we'll like make amends and everything. But he never came up. And and so we send like people down again. And he said the same thing, really, like, ⁓ you know, I'm I'll when I'm ready, I'll come. And then it like time just kept going and it was like weeks, and I was like, we we just kind of forgot about it because we were like busy building our houses and we're like, okay, ⁓ like ⁓ maybe he'll be all right. I don't know, like I've got it, like we're just working long days. And then I don't know if it like a few weeks or like a month later, but then the plane's coming back again. And then at some point, ⁓ the pilot like looks down on the airstrip and he's like, Well, what what's that? Like he sees like a little white speck on the airstrip. He's like, I wonder if that's like a piece of paper from like someone's like school book or something and but as he gets closer and he's like fully committed to landing, there's no bailing out at this point. He can't like, you know, like crank it back up and like turn like he's like decelerated too much and He realizes it's like a cone marker that's that's from like meant to be on the side of the airstrip. And so he's like, ⁓ yeah, okay, I'm not I can't run over that. That could cause like severe damage to the plane and like like who knows what's like this is like bad news. He's like, ⁓ man. So somehow he like skirts out of the way of this cone marker thing and manages to land, but like, I this is a big deal. Like you can't just have cone markers lying in the middle of the runway every time you come to land and So they're like out and they're like everyone's really mad. Like they're going down to find out who who in the world did this so that we could we have to like make sure that this never happens again because this is very dangerous. And so, and it turns out it was that guy and we we hadn't we hadn't made the amends. He was still mad and he ⁓ yeah, was was doing that p I'm sure partially to express his anger and frustration. But I know that for sure he said that like I I was putting this out there to say Like Ethnos 360 is is not welcome. Broken relationship shame that was heaped on me. Okay, now we've got like danger to our pilots and ⁓ possibly thousands of dollars of damage that could have happened to a plane. And as if that plane's out of service, then other other travel works are now have that detriment of having that, you know, not being able to be serviced by that plane. So that's like massive repercussions from just like not. understanding not having adequate communication. And then later as I finally like move into Urua, begin learning and understanding, I actually finally begin to learn how to communicate these things, how to say no adequately so that relationships aren't hurt and things like this don't happen. Aaron So you're saying like it's not just language, it's also the culture that you were I mean as as any wife might say, it's not about what you say, but about how you say it. And that's it really is like it's it's Well, mean, you think about how much damage can be done when you're okay, when apparently you're just communicating no. So, I mean, you just multiply that by however however much the gospel matters, which is like infinity. If you're miscommunicating the gospel, then people are gonna believe well, what are they gonna believe? A false gospel. Like you're actually you're you're very practically like miscommunicating grand things simply because you don't know the culture mass even possibly generational repercussions if those things get passed down. You've been there three years, but you're just starting to learn the unreached people group's language. So it's gonna take a long time. ⁓ how how long is like the general estimate? I know things Yeah, I mean it varies greatly. I mean our language is I'd say medium in difficulty. Like it's tougher than Spanish, but not as hard as Chinese. That'd be awesome if we could like be done learning the language in like two years or something like that. If like it's a good goal. If sooner, even better. I mean, I'm gonna be going for as soon as as humanly possible. So you're not just Going there for a couple of years, you're committed to this for what's your commitment level like? Well, my I mean, for me, I mean, maybe it's different from missionary to missionary, but I think with your eyes wide open, like people don't just like accidentally fall into being a tribal church planner, you know, it's like, ⁓ well, ⁓ I didn't know it was that long. You know, ⁓ for me, I mean it's it's a long time. Like I'm like ten, twenty years. Like, I mean, and it's longer. I mean, whatever it takes, because really it's not it's not at all about the time, but it's about the goal. And the goal is to see a mature church established. If that is not yet in existing in Urua, a mature church, then I'm still gonna be there. At least that's my plan. And I don't think a church can be mature without God's word in its language. So Bible translation is also a necessary step. And then you can move work backwards from there as well. Well, that means they're gonna need an alphabet, so we have to teach them to read and write and also develop an alphabet. And and so there's just like all this. I mean that just kind of lengthens the timeline even further. Yeah, it's r it really is to to to kind of do it right. I mean, and hopefully see people come to maturity so that a true gospel can be propagated, kind of just at least for now, as far as we know, it's just it just takes a long time. Aaron Some people are maybe thinking of becoming missionaries and they're like, ⁓ I could do it for like four years or two years, which maybe it might not be like a church planting role. Yeah, it'd be a different role. It'd like and that that Like things like, you know, the the gospel's brought forth just in different contexts where that actually makes sense. Because you couldn't do this kind in that shorter amount of time without sacrificing some massive portion of quality or something. One thing I really love that you said in chapel is that CLA culture and language acquisition, the process of, you know, learning the pr people's language and culture, that it's a spiritual process. Can you can you ⁓ explain that a little bit? It is, yeah. It's a spiritual process and mainly because it's just a greatly humbling experience. And I remember even with that example that I with that story I told you about that man who was who was really angry at me, which, by the way, we did bury the hatchet eventually. That like, you know, it ⁓ he was it was that it was actually that day that the plane came that it was like, Okay, we gotta do this now. Like we can't just keep making this happen like like this. So So we were able to like make amends that day. And our relationship has has grown more positive. But even in that time, gosh, I was so humbled because like as my coworker Nathan was going around and like talking to people about the whole situation. People were saying, ⁓ Luke is young. He'll learn. And dude, it just hit me straight in my pride. I was like, What do you mean, me? What He put the cone. He was gonna like ruin the plane, dude. And so it was my pride. I mean, really. And then 1 Corinthians 6, ⁓ it's talking about lawsuits. Why not rather be defrauded? Okay, you feel you've been wronged and you want now you want to bring your brother in Christ to court or whatever. Man, rather than defaming the name of Christ and showing that we can't have unity and settle our squabbles among ourselves, just suffer the wrong. Like, just let it be wrong to you. That's like what I was feeling in that moment. I was like, I could okay, I I could go around justifying myself and be like, no, this guy's he's really the wrong guy, you know. But and then I like God was like using that scripture speaking to me in that moment and ⁓ and really later moments as I was like continuing continuing to process it and was like, Luke, dude, humble yourself. Like your character will be known, and it's not gonna be solely by this one instance. Just suffer the wrong. Let yourself be defrauded. I was like, And and yeah, it sucked. I didn't want to do it but that I mean it it helped me put put me at ease and realize that like that's like what the Lord had. What's one thing you're excited to see what God will do in the next four years ⁓ when you go back? ⁓ man, it's exciting. It's all exciting. I mean, I actually enjoy language, so I'm ex I mean it's gonna be awesome like like studying the language and and ⁓ like I it's just so novel and cool and interesting to me to be able to communicate it in in another language and ⁓ but then also just have good friends in Udoah like Like Venome and Soke and ⁓ and Mono and like man, I'm so like excited for these guys to like learn how to read and begin understanding God's word. Like and that's possible all within the next four years. I mean, we're gonna be grinding away on language and then we might be able to break into literacy and actually begin teaching them to read and begin developing lessons and and who knows, it's some you know, ⁓ maybe in the next four years we'll be able to teach. Maybe maybe just outside of four years or something like that. But yeah, there's just like great relationships that we have. They're our friends, you know. So we are excited for just like the the cool things they're gonna get to experience and we really like them. We get excited to just grow a deeper relationship with them as well. Do you guys still text or like now that they you're in the US US and they're like, Hey, when are you coming back? Is that like a thing? Not really. The whole international you know, it'd be one thing if we were still in Papua New Guinea. Okay. We could if we could probably text them about like I mean, so like Mono, Venome, so okay, none of them have even have phones. Okay. Okay. So Like it would have to be village it was the the influential guy. Yeah, exactly. So he's like wealthier and like so but really only like fifteen percent of the people there maybe have phones or or whatever. And you only get service in some of it. And even then it's just call and text. That even blows my mind that that's there. Yeah. But yeah, I mean the I I like I said, I was able to talk with Venome. We were talking about that pot and the pig. ⁓ that was I called my coworker. And he happened to be with my coworker. ⁓ okay. And I was able to do that on like WhatsApp or whatever. And so that's how we ended up talking. But no, yeah, so we haven't really hardly talked in, but we do get updates from our coworkers just about I don't know, just like things that have been going on. Well, thanks so much for speaking in Chapel and also ⁓ sharing some of your stories here. Yeah, no problem. The next four years ⁓ when you come back if you happen to be here. Next time I'll give you an update.