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?

Right now, I am in Stockton, California, traveling with David Ille from LIFE Medical Center in Cluj-Napoca, Romania.  We are continuing our “worldtour” raising awareness and building funding partners for the LIFE Medical Center project back in his home city.

I’d forgotten how nice of a town Stockton can be.  I know everyone thinks otherwise (including many who live here) but I think Stockton has an under-appreciated charm to it.  The waterfront, the old neighborhoods, University of the Pacific, etc…  Okay, so there are a few black spots, but the variety of Asian food is hard to beat.

Stockton also has some nice people living here.  We spent time with some of them this morning.

Please continue to pray for our travels.  Pray for blessed meetings, open conversations, and receptive hearts as we share the plight and the promise of Romania’s women and children with all kinds of people in all kinds of places.