Someone once said in exasperation, “I know you believe you understood what you think I said, but I am not sure that you realize that what you heard is not what I meant!” Communication difficulties are a daily challenge of the cross-cultural missionary. Unfortunately, I seem to have more than my fair share of communication problems.
One day, I asked one of our neighbors if he could come and patch our leaky wooden boat. We had left it lying behind our house baking in the hot Cambodian sun until it resembled a potato chip. Since the flooding season was almost upon us, I thought it best to patch up the leaks so it wouldn’t sink to the bottom on its first voyage of the year. After our neighbor skillfully squished oily putty into each crack in the boat, he gestured to me for a hammer. “Just a minute,” I replied, “I’ll go and get a smile.” Of course, I had meant to say hammer, but the words for hammer and smile are very similar. Needless to say, I felt like a babbling fool, but my neighbor certainly got a smile out of it.
On another occasion, my family and I were at the home of a neighbor who had been bitten by a snake. As we were sitting in a circle on the floor visiting, my cell phone rang. I quickly answered it and confidently explained to the caller that I was at the house of the man who bit the snake. Immediately, raucous laughter thundered around the room as our hosts caught the gaffe. After Molly explained to me what I had actually said, I sheepishly joined in the laughter.
One of the more embarrassing moments came just a few days ago. It was almost dark, and the kids and I were in the front yard getting ready to go into the house. Suddenly, we heard a dog yelp, then a sickening thud and scraping sound. We looked up to see a family who had been riding their motorbike tumbling off and rolling down the road. They had hit a dog. There they lay—a mother clutching a one-year-old baby in her arms, and her husband lying beside her. Fortunately, they had only minor cuts and scrapes—a miracle since none were wearing helmets. I quickly invited them into the house so we could help clean them up and give them some band-aids. As the woman came in, I very politely told her to clean our dishes! I immediately caught my mistake and hurriedly corrected myself. I had meant to invite her to wash her hands.
Fortunately these little communication blunders were just that—little. Though the words were wrong, the intended meaning soon became apparent, and the hearers mostly just had a good laugh. But what about the more subtle communication blunders we make—blunders we may not even be aware of? Blunders that come from actions or the use of words that have negative connotations in our hearer’s culture? As a missionary, that’s what really scares me. In my attempts to communicate the good news of the gospel, at times, could I innocently and unconsciously communicate the opposite? Just as I made funny blunders because of my ignorance of the language, could my ignorance of my friends’ culture and worldview cause me to say or do something that would communicate the wrong message? Could I actually turn what is intended to be good news into bad news?
Working with Muslims has made me more conscious than ever of the importance of understanding the culture and worldview of the people before I attempt to communicate the gospel. Muslims see the world differently from how I do. For example, in the past, I used to throw the word “crusade” around freely. Of course, I was thinking about evangelists preaching the gospel. But to a Muslim, a crusade is a Christian army coming to slaughter Muslims and take back Jerusalem.
I love the old hymn “Onward Christian Soldiers.” Every time I sing it, I get goose bumps as I imagine an army marching out to victory. We westerners don’t associate that hymn with armies from Christian countries going out to do war with Muslims. But that image is exactly what the song would conjure up in most Muslim minds. Even the term Christian itself is loaded with baggage for many Muslims. Because of their belief that culture and religion are one and the same, Muslims think of Christians as the Hollywood stars they see in movies—people who drink alcohol, eat pork and are immoral and irreverent. Christian is not a positive label and certainly not something that one would want to become. To many Muslims, Christian worship is irreverent, too. Christians don’t prostrate themselves before God when they pray, and they often treat their holy book—the Bible—very casually, even piling other books on top of it. To be fair, the culture and worldview differences cut both ways, and Christians could make a list just as long of things they find offensive about Muslims.
Now that we have reached a reasonable level of competence in our people’s heart language, we will be starting an in-depth culture and worldview study of our people. Our goal is to understand not just what they think but how they think—how they view and relate to God and the world around them. We don’t want the good news of salvation to be superficial. We want it to be what God intended—transforming good news that penetrates deep into hearts and minds and fulfills people’s deepest needs.

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