Have you ever been a missioanary in a poor country and how did it change you?

Answer 1

Yes, I was a missionary in India for six months and the Philippines for over a year. I'm currently serving in Singapore (which is not a poor country).
I think the most stunning effect of mission work is how it opens our eyes. If you have grown up in America, you truly have no idea what real poverty is. Even our "poor" people are much, much better off than those in povery in 3rd world nations-there's no comparison.
So I think the way it changed me was it gave me new compassion for those in need, and also affirmed my conviction that the only way our world can ever be changed is through the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Answer 2

yes. . It does change you so very much. NOt only in learning how to live and speak the culture/language but also it brings you down from your pride. Many of us go into another country thinking we are better then they are and our ways are better then their ways but you learn that it is not the way. You must meet half way. I have learned how to love people I have never met, how spoiled we are in America, how persecution makes y ou love God even more and I have learned how to love God even more and be very solid in my beliefs. When I go back to the States, I go in the churches and it makes me so sad because we have lost so much in having so much wealth and comforts.

Answer 3

I was in India, it was for 2 weeks with global Mission fellowship, but they go by some other name now.

It did not change me too much! It just allowed me to see that material things are ways to forget God easier. However, they were still sinners and needed Jesus!

It was a great time to see God work! that solidified my faith and helped me grow!

Answer 4

Yes. I was a missionary in a poor part of Mexico. It had a profound effect on me. I saw people who were living in conditions that we in the US would deem unhealthy and unliveable and yet they were smiling and happy. I found myself in an area that had a Catholic church and most of the locals would go to the Catholic church on Saturday for mass and then they would on Sunday go to the local evangelic churches like where I was located. After awhile I started to realize that the churches were competing against each other and there was pressure from the denominations to convert as many new members to that denomination and to make sure that they joined the denomination (that means not only convert but also to send money). I finally left and came home after my time there was up, but it had really changed me. Here we were living down there and there was so much that we could have been doing to help improve their lives. We could have went to the schools and helped clean them up. We could have even brough new text books. We could have set up scholarships so that children could go to high school (in Mexico only 1-6th grade are public education, after that high school is private and if you don't have the money you don't go). Instead we brought Bibles and are focus was to get money from them!!!It felt so corrupted. There was so much we could have been doing and yet we weren't. We had one focus, convert others and make them members of the denomination. I really thought we could have invested our time and energy and money there so much better.

I'm no longer even a Christian (this was a big turning point in my life, but not the only one that helped me realize that Christianity, as I experienced not only in my home denomination but also in other denominations as I watched them do the same things we were doing, was not at all like I had thought it was). After some time from the disillusionment I started looking into religion and spirituality again. There had been so many things, yet God was always there with me and I never lost my love for God. I never hated God. I'm now a practicing Hindu. I prayed and prayed that God would help bring me to know Him deeper, to help me find a spiritual path that not only would help me dive deeper, but also one that I could see the importance of doing good even at the sacrifice of making new members. Hinduism, a religion I never would have even thought to look into, was where God led me. I studied it, read about it, met Hindus and talked with them, and so on and there I found my spiritual home. The wonderful thing about Hinduism is that I can still honor and worship Jesus as an incarnation of God and as a great guru (Hindus call him Yeshu. which sort of reminded me of the Hebrew name for Jesus: Yeshua).

So that is how it changed me.

Answer 5

If you are sent to a missionary, you are given a mission to change the people and not to get yourself changed. So, there is no question of change having effected you.

Answer 6

Yes and Yes.

We have no idea what poverty is. Mission work changes that.

Answer 7

Whoa. You can be a missionary at my house anytime!

Answer 8

I dont know what u just asked cause i was blinded by your abs.!!! wow-o-wow