1) they are not necessarily interested in eradicating breast cancer.  They are interested in perpetuating funding…something they have done masterfully.  Notice they promote issues related to detection and education.If you don’t donate to Breast Cancer awareness you are looked at like a modern day Nazi.  Breast Cancer awareness/funding has become the holy grail of non-profit work in the U.S. – There is BIG money in this and the Koman foundation is the biggest, the best, and the richest.  Want to watch the people at the Koman foundation get nervous?  Announce a final cure for breast cancer tomorrow.  I wouldn’t be surprised if they lobbied to get the cure outlawed.

2) there are clear links between abortion and breast cancer – the earlier the abortion, and the more frequent the abortion – the greater the chance that a woman will develop breast cancer.  Who does Planned Parenthood target – young sexually active/promiscuous people.  A majority of their services are related to abortion services and they are dependent on repeat customers.  No where on their site does the S. G. Koman Foundation discuss the risk factors associated with abortion and breast cancer – nor do they state that one of the most effective preventative measures a woman can take is to carry multiple babies to full-term and breast feed them.  Of course not – that’s degrading to assume that women would use their breasts for the purpose that God intended them for.

3) I’ll spare you, and my blood pressure..

FACT 1 - Romania has the highest level of cervical cancer in Europe (and it’s rapidly rising).
FACT 2 - Romania has the highest level of breast cancer in Europe (and it’s rapidly rising).
FACT 3 - Romania has historically had one of the highest abortion rates in Europe (and the world).

Is there a link between the high rates of abortion and the rates of female specific cancers? Many unbiased medical researchers believe there is.  There are many other health dangers associated with abortion that I am completely unqualified to address, but there is information available about them.  Of course they rarely make it into the major publications because there is generally little money provided for people who would demonstrate any negative issues related to abortion, and when the results do show correlations, they are generally ignored by the mainstream.  I’m not saying it’s a conspiracy…it’s just true.

Abortion is not just a moral/spiritual issue.  It’s also a health issue, a social issue, a psychological issue, a gender, and a race issue.  I don’t have time to explain each of those right now, although perhaps I should in subsequent posts.  But, I want to give one small example of why abortion is a health care issue.  Regardless of where you might fall on the spectrum of pro-life or pro-choice, there is one thing that we should all be able to agree on: pursuing abortion as a primary or even a significant method of “birth-control” is poor women’s health-care.

The lesson?  We often have the philosophy, “America is all,” or “Everyplace is like America.”  It’s true.  I’m telling you that we can be downright ignorant about lots of things in this world when we leave our homeland.  I have met Americans who show up in Romania with dollar bills and thinking they are legal tender.  And, generally, we simply expect everyone, everywhere to speak English, and often traveling Americans don’t even try to communicate in the other language, not even “thank you, please, hello, good-buy, excuse me”…you know, the basics.

This attitude also expresses itself when we expect everything to work in a foreign land just like does in the land of the free and the home of the brave.  I am guilty of this for sure.  In my mind, two lanes of traffic means two lanes of cars.  Not so in Romania.  Two lanes of traffic means AT LEAST 3 lanes of cars, but most likely 4.  In my mind, road blocks near the entrance to a supermarket mean “no parking”.  Not here.  In Romania you’d think they mean, “PARK HERE!”  or, “BMW PARKING ONLY!”  In my mind, “I’ll be there Tuesday at 10 a.m.” means “I’ll be there Tuesday 5 minutes before 10:00, or I’ll call to let you know I’m late.”  In Romania it means I will be there no earlier than 10 a.m., but probably before 10:40, with a 23% chance of not showing up at all, and a 50% chance of not calling either.”

A Romanian who I work with (a unique man here because he is actually very timely and punctual) reminded me one day, “Jon, you have to remember, we are 9 o’clock people here in Romania.”  He said this because I suggested that we start holding our morning meetings at 8:00 a.m.

At any rate, the attitude that “every place should be like America” effects missions work in a negative manner should be quite apparent without much explanation.  It creates animosity among people that we are working with.  We come off appearing as pompous jerks because we have the solution to EVERYTHING, and the solution is colored red, white, and blue.  I am not saying we don’t have experiences and things to pass on.  We do.  And they know it too.  Romanians appreciate the frankness and openness we have in America.  They appreciate the readiness with which we are able to discard things and ideas that don’t work, and adopt those that do.  They appreciate our willingness to try whatever might work.  They, in general, feel much more bound to tradition and example than we do.  This can be good, but it can also be bad, when it causes someone to do something a certain way just because it was the way the person before them did it, even though everyone knows it doesn’t work.

How can we avoid the “America RULES!” attitude and approach to missions work?  I value your input.  But here are a few of my suggestions:

• Learn the language.  Culture is transmitted through language.  If you think you understand a culture without speaking the language fairly well, you are only fooling yourself.  You’ll never be on the inside.
• Listen before you speak (I think that’s Biblical), and phrase your words of instruction or advice with something like this, “You know better than I do, you understand your own people better than I do, but if I was at home in America, this is how I would approach it/think about it/do it.”
• Learn how the currency works so that you don’t look like a Dufus every time you want to buy something but can’t tell if you are getting ripped off or not.  Get it (the exchange rate) stuck in your head so that you can do a mental currency exchange in a split second.
• Be willing to point out the faults in American society and culture.  We are actually pretty good at doing this.  Especially since my generation and younger have been told that we are basically a bunch of tree consuming, ozone depleting, historical slave-mongering, middle-class, hypocritical, war-hungry, gun-weilding meanies.  (That was my liberal arts college undergrad education in a nut-shell).  We are pretty good at pointing out our weaknesses.  We have a society where we discuss them openly.  We roll around in our own mud a lot.  We heap lots of blame on ourselves for all the wars and such, while people in this part of the world are still denying their involvement. – Point is…be humble enough to admit your cultures downsides without inflicting self-punishment.
• Realize that just because McDonalds (and now Starbucks) is everywhere, your western mindset is not.  Just because they eat our hamburgers does not mean they’ve started thinking like us….they probably shouldn’t eat our hamburgers either.
• Ask for help.  When you don’t know what to do, or need help fitting in, ask someone who you trust, and who can help you.  P.S. – ask a average/normal person in that culture, not a weirdo.  You are already weird, you don’t want to get weirder.

Enough.  Is it OK to say that America is the best, but not the best at everything?  That’s how I feel.  We have a lot we could learn from the other 6.8 billion people on the planet.  We also have a lot of ways we can help them.  Let’s be realistic about both sides, huh?

“I think we are well advised to keep on nodding terms with the people we used to be whether we find them attractive company or not…we forget all too soon the things we thought we could never forget.”

Joan Didion

Caution – do not glance over them for their simplicity.  There is a wealth and depth of experience, wisdom and knowledge behind each and every one of them.

Principle #9 – Nationals should be trained in both the medical and the spiritual work.

This might seem obvious, but you’d be surprised how often the local people are kept dependent on outside medical help.  It’s often viewed as too lofty for local people in needy communities.  Let’s face it, a majority of on-going medical care does not require a full medical education.  Lay people can often be trained to provide routine and helpful care, and many can be trained at even higher levels.

Caution – do not glance over them for their simplicity.  There is a wealth and depth of experience, wisdom and knowledge behind each and every one of them.

Principle #8 – Non-medical missionaries should be appointed to the hospital to share in the administrative and spiritual work.

Recently, I received a free advanced reading copy of David Platt’s, Radical Together from Mission Frontiers.  I volunteered to post a review of the book in exchange for being able to read it for free, but am not required to make my review positive by default.

This is the first of Platt’s books that I’ve read, and since this was an advanced reading copy, I suppose it’s possible that changes were made prior to final publishing.  For that reason, bear in mind that some of the things that I disliked about the book, may  have been changed in the mean time.

On the positive side:

The book is challenging to say the least.  The call to review and revise our priorities within the church and how we view our corporate and personal spending (of time, talent, and resources) was refreshing and uncomfortable at the same time.  As a recently returned missionary, I find myself freshly frustrated with what seems like an extremely internal focus in the church.

I was also personally challenged to seek a greater heart for the lost, world wide and locally.  I was challenged to consider my worldwide missions strategy to account more heavily for unreached people groups.

I was challenged by examples in the book of movements within his church to tackle tangible social problems in the community.

Summary – the book was challenging in many respects and resonated in other ways with some of my own concerns and reservations.

On the down side:

The book was not extremely well written, but seemed rather disjointed, poorly edited, and rambling.  The introduction and conclusion seemed to lack draw and finality.  Chapter 6 (The God who Exalts God) seemed to borrow it’s main premise from John Piper but then went no where with the idea, and seemed a bit disconnected from its own title and the rest of the book.

Again – on the above points please remember that I am not familiar with Platt’s writing style, so I cannot compare this with his other works.  And, this was an advance copy, so I am assuming that changes (possibly significant ones) were made after this version was created.

I would recommend this book to church leaders who are beginning to feel like the rat race is not working, that bigger buildings and bigger budgets are not reaching people, and who are ready to quit.  Perhaps this will give them the motivation to go out on a limb (with good company) and try something radically different, together.

Caution – do not glance over them for their simplicity.  There is a wealth and depth of experience, wisdom and knowledge behind each and every one of them.

BASIC PRINCIPLE #5

Western doctors and nurses going overseas must have proper time for protected and uninterrupted language study.

This again highlights the difference between the long-term perspective that many on mission held in generations past, and the short-term thinking tendency of some of our most common approaches today.

Caution – do not glance over them for their simplicity.  There is a wealth and depth of experience, wisdom and knowledge behind each and every one of them.

BASIC PRINCIPLE #4

Doctors from the west who attempt to go to the tropics and treat natives should have studies in tropical diseases before attempting to help.

Caution – do not glance over them for their simplicity.  There is a wealth and depth of experience, wisdom and knowledge behind each and every one of them.

BASIC PRINCIPLE #3

At least two or more doctors are necessary to provide continuity of medical care.

This simple statement is power packed because of the last 4 words that are rarely considered when providing short-term medical relief care.  More on this later…

With much gratitude to one of our donors who has pledged a 5-year commitment to LIFE Medical Center, HealthBridge Global has been accepted into MERCK’s Partnership For Giving Program.  The program is simple…a past or present MERCK employee makes a donation to HealthBridge Global, and MERCK matches it.  The employee logs the donation on MERCK’s Partnership for Giving WebSite and MERCK contacts us to ensure that the gift was given.  MERCK keeps track of the employee’s/retiree’s donations, and makes quarterly distributions to HealthBridge Global.

NOTE: I believe this acceptance applies to past and present employees of Schering-Plough as well.

The POINT – If you or someone you know works or has worked for MERCK – think about getting on board.  This is a terrific way to DOUBLE your contribution.

Another POINT – it’s possible that even if you don’t work for MERCK, the company you do work for may have a giving program.  They may or may not match every gift, but they may do something.  Please consider inquiring about it.  Having Corporate partners is a great way to increase our reach, and our impact.

Contact us for more information…

Caution – do not glance over them for their simplicity.  There is a wealth and depth of experience, wisdom and knowledge behind each and every one of them.

BASIC PRINCIPLE #2

Because “black bag” and clinic treatments fail to heal many patients, a hospital is a desirable beginning.

Caution – do not glance over them for their simplicity.  There is a wealth and depth of experience, wisdom and knowledge behind each and every one of them, starting with this first one…

Basic Principle of Medical Missions #1

Only high caliber, compassionate medical work is worthy to represent the Lord.

“First, we do not treat sickness; rather we care for human beings afflicted with sickness.  And second, we must care for the whole man, not just his sick body.  Man is body, mind, and spirit.  Illness striking any one of these three parts of man almost always upset one or both of the other segments of his being.  The complete physician or surgeon sympathetically and compassionately treats the whole patient – body, mind, and spirit.  Our Lord, the great Physician work in just this way.”