by Dr Rev. Suzette Hattingh
When Jesus said, “Go ye into all the world …” (Mark 16:15 NKJV), surely He knew that in ages to come, that message would extend way beyond the known world of that time. Billions of people have followed this command over the 2,000 years since Jesus said that, including me and members of our ministry.
However, going into different countries involves much more than just packing a suitcase and booking a flight ticket, it means the laying down of self, culture, opinions, family, taking up the cross of Jesus and proclaiming it to the world wherever the Lord sends you! I am not just talking of a two-week outreach. I am talking about living among them, becoming part of them, and building relations.
Without true grace from God, it would be utterly impossible for any person to fulfil such a call.
I always say, “Who is a true evangelist and missionary? It is a person who takes the message of Jesus to every individual that they meet, be it their neighbour or a soul in a far distant land.” However, if we talk about practicality, then I must admit of all the challenges of missions, dealing with culture is the most difficult of all to adjust to.
It is in the small things – celebrations, the way food is prepared or handled, the protocol in a meeting, or dealing with leaders – that we need grace, because the situation will be different to what you are used to. The way Christmas is celebrated or the tradition of a birthday, the loneliness of being far away and alone when the family gather at a funeral of a loved one, or the joy of a wedding, these things might sound small but that is where you will find you need the most grace on the mission field. It is not in the meetings or preaching, where the anointing flows or breakthrough happens in hearts, but the hours after that, the days and months handling small matters, things that are part of your foundational living, imparted into your life since you were small. Laying those on the altar are the hardest.
The reality is that you come amongst “them”, you are the foreigner who needs to find an open door into their hearts. This means you need to be the one who adapts to “them” and not “them” to you. This can take a deep dying to self, especially if you are alone out there without other people from your own gender or nation around you – like was the case with me in Papua.
A major milestone is to remember that you are sent to bring the gospel to affect peoples’ hearts, not their culture – unless that culture stands against the plan and purposes of God for their salvation. If that is the case, confronting that cultural issue can only be done by the grace of God in love, with the anointing of the Holy Spirit.
These matters have often brought me to my absolute limit and forced me to fall on my face in fasting and prayer, praying for the grace of God and the love of Jesus that surpasses all understanding, to be able to cope with the demand of the call. Indeed He has never failed to answer that prayer, strengthening me in the inner man to be able to say, “Christ in me, the hope of Glory“.
Dr Rev. Suzette Hattingh
