I received an anonymous letter a few weeks ago that got me to thinking about the place of accusations in African society and especially how we Americans react to them. This is a really important area to understand, and one I am afraid many American missionaries don't catch too quickly - at least I didn't.
 My anonymous letter asked several questions and made lots of accusations. Let me list them for you and give a short response to each.
1. Do you know why churches have dropped from over sixty to about twenty? (Actually, there are over 100 churches right now and the work shows signs of tremendous growth - not dropping.)
2. During your stay here for the last two years there is nothing on the ground (meaning we have nothing to show for our work). (Actually, we have purchased nine town plots, built a church building, kitchen, and public toilets, purchased numerous church roofs, taught over twenty leadership courses, and graduated ten students in just the last two years.)
3. The Bible teaches repentance, but you do not want to do so. You keep on defending yourselves when you do bad things. (Actually, I think we model quick repentance and asking for forgiveness whenever someone comes to us - if they would let us know who they are.)
4. You have not shown us your work plan. (Actually, our monthly newsletter has spent the last year outlining all the areas of work, what we are doing, and what we want to achieve.)
5. You do not care when we present our problems of sickness, lack of food, helping widows, orphans, and the elderly. (Actually, we give out hundreds of dollars of benevolence each month. We just don't announce what the right or left hand is doing.)
6. When brethren approach you, you answer them rudely and chase them away from the office. (Actually, we are the only church office in town that offers tea and bread to every person that comes to our office. We also have a person who prays with every visitor, a counselor available for any problems, and a guarantee to see any missionary they want.)
7. When seminars are held, you give different and better treatment to Kenyans and poor treatment to Ugandans. (Actually, the Kenyans have to pay more and travel farther to attend courses.)
8. We are sure you get funds directed to Ugandan churches but we don't see that help in anything social. What gospel do you preach? (Actually, we have clearly written policies on how we use funds from the US and we are very transparent about how we go about helping. It is also apparent that their understanding of preaching the gospel means that we should be giving out assistance to them.)
9. We are ready to present a long letter of complaints to your home church in the U.S.A. if you don't change. (Actually, if they would have put a return address on the letter, I would have given them my sponsoring church's address. I have nothing to hide and would be happy for my sponsoring church to answer them.)

Signed: Your brethren in Christ.

          There is no address or name or date on the letter. Obviously I was not meant to respond to it. But that is the whole point of THIS letter that I am writing. Americans don't normally understand the purpose of accusations often made by Ugandans (and Kenyans). Americans tend to get caught up in trying to defend themselves and to explain how the accusations are not true.  We present evidence to the contrary (something like my remarks in this letter). We will go to great lengths to show how the person was misinformed, got his facts wrong, or just didn't understand. We try to clarify as though the African simply made a mistake. But we are seriously missing the point
          The African will subjectively pad his accusations with untruth to emphasize broken relationships. His accusations, more often than not, are meant to show us that damaged relationship and motivate us to repair it. But we get so busy trying to untangle the stated untruths that we don't see the real purpose for the accusations - broken relationships.
          When we press for corrections and try to prove our innocence, the African will, to our consternation, sit there and deny our logic, reasoning, and proofs. He comes across to us as looking completely foolish, because he obviously is standing on untruth, but he is unwilling to budge.
          The African, on the other hand, is completely confused by the American's reaction to his accusations. Instead of sitting down to work on the relationship, the American goes off on some unimportant tangent and starts babbling about truth and proof. The African will refuse to recant the accusations because the real problem about the relationship has not even been addressed.
          There is a deeper level of broken relationship where the African making the accusations is so angry that he will work to add more people into the problem. He will still make false accusations, but he will spread them to other individuals and churches. The broader he spreads the rumor, the greater the hurt he feels. Of course, we see such actions as an attack against the missionary AND the mission work. We immediately consider this person to be more evil than the one who would come and complain to us privately.
          Perhaps the hardest situation comes when an African feels the relationship is irreparable. If he sees no way to restore it or does not want reconciliation, then he will lash out in anger and try to hurt the missionary and the church work. His accusations will be intentional. They will be mean-spirited. They will be exaggerated. They will contain a lot of lies. They will be very, very hurtful.
          It is extremely difficult to go against our cultural instinct, but there are some important things we missionaries must do when facing this kind of situation.
1. Do not get caught up in trying to prove our innocence or address each untruth. Recognize this as a relationship problem and address that first.  If we need to, we can talk about the accusations after the relationship is restored.
2. Try to ascertain what the motivating force is for the accusations. Did something go wrong? Was a promise broken? Did someone not get assistance?  Was someone unintentionally shamed? It will take great detective work to figure this out.
3. Try to figure out who is making the accusations. Is it an individual?  Or is he speaking on behalf of many? When we get into a group session where complaints are aired, spend less time on the accusations and more time identifying who is doing the accusing and who is defending. This will help us a lot in knowing where to go for deeper information. The one defending may be able to provide us with inside information or the cultural scoop that will save us lots of headache.
4. Do not be too quick or rash. We should not go into a discussion angry - a big cultural mistake in Africa. It is better to have a cooling off period. It is better for us and for them. A lot of times when Africans fight each other, time softens the problem. When an African does something very bad to another, he will slip out of sight for months before showing up again. He will carefully test the waters to see if his former friend is still angry. If he is, then the offender will disappear again until the air is clear. This is not a Biblical way of handling problems, but it is the way of many Africans. We just need to be aware of it. It also means that a real stinker may show up again in six months, a year, or even two. Be ready for him. If an American missionary gets really angry with an African, the trouble-maker may not come back to the church until after that missionary leaves the field, and unless he has found a better church home, it is almost a given that he will come back.
          As for my anonymous letter, I am not too shaken by it. I have my suspicions about who sent it, but since no address was given, I am not too concerned about responding just yet. I am waiting for things to cool down. Then we shall see if my accusers come forward and identify themselves so that we can work on the relationship.
          I am reminded of a similar letter sent to my elders at Quaker Avenue by the Mashine church in Kenya in 1983/4. They accused me of fraternizing with prostitutes and drunkards and asked that I be removed from Kenya. My elders sent a copy of the letter to me with a short note that said something like, "They are accusing you of the very things that the Pharisees accused Jesus.  Sounds like you are in good company and doing a good job. Keep it up."  When I received their letter, I knew that wise men were my shepherds, and I have never had reason to change my mind. May God bless them.

Shawn

Missionaries head home
There were over 100 missionaries with the Mormon Church in the capital city of Antananarivo until this last month.  Their work has been in progress here for the past ten years.  Most of these missionaries are very young, unmarried adults.  They have always been very visible on the streets, walking in pairs and sporting white shirts, ties, and standard issue backpacks.  We were very surprised to learn that they were sent home this last month due to the political unrest.  All the more reason why we need to be here during this time of uncertainty and unrest.  Please continue to pray as we try in some small way to provide the spiritual needs in this country. 

God Is Good!
          Even though the work has come to a halt in many areas because of the continuing political unrest here in Madagascar, we still see God working and encouraging us to continue working for him.  This last Sunday morning we met in Rivo’s home for worship since we cannot get into town to Ankadivato.  We did not expect many to come, because of the Malagasy people being so reserved.  We saw God working in the lives of the Malagasy people yesterday.
          When we started meeting in Rivo’s home three weeks ago, there were only 8 people in attendance.  Yesterday there were 16, and we know of one couple that is visiting family in the country that is going to be worshiping with us on a regular basis. It won’t be long before we are over 20 in number.
          Please continue to pray for God’s church that is meeting in Rivo’s home, and especially for Rivo’s father.  Rivo’s father sees the need to be baptized, but is still not totally committed to giving his life to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

• Pray for our efforts to reach out and teach the Malagasy people concerning the love of God for this world full of sin.
• Pray for the two house churches that have started to meet on a regular basis.  We meet at Rivo’s home in Ambohijanahary every Sunday morning at 10:00, and every Sunday afternoon at 3:00 in Nirina’s home at Ivato.
• Pray that we can find a way to receive funds that we need to continue serving Him in Madagascar.  The bank is unwilling to accept any more checks from us since foreign exchange has closed due to the ongoing problems.
• Pray that Rivo’s father can commit his life to serving our Savior, and enter His kingdom.