NGOs and Missions

In a conversation I had while being here, we discussed the differences I have seen in my experiences between how NGOs (non-profit organizations), such as New Horizons, and mission organizations, such as Hellenic Ministries in Greece I worked with this summer, differ in reaching out to others. Both organizations are working within the same area of the world, and are in the context of Eastern Orthodoxy. The difference is one has set itself up in opposition to the church already established and the other is working along side it. It has been such an interesting conversation, I decided I would share it with you all.
For those of you who do not know, I have had some background in studying other world religions and have even been lucky enough to tutor a class on the subject for two years. But until these past two experiences, I had only been able to talk about various religions and how to go about "tackling them" to bring the people over to a more Protestant way of thinking. I say Protestant because that is the background I come from, but it is true in a generalistic manor of many mission ideologies. This is a very crude way of thinking of missions, and I did have a more academic why of thinking, but the basics for missionaries before going out into the field is that we are going to help them. After being in the field and having the experience of seeing different ways of "fishing for men," I am able to better understand what my calling may be. I hope to explain that here without it dragging out :).
This past summers was one of the best of my life. I was able to experience something probably .0001% of the people in the world are able to experience. I worked at one of two water camps in Greece with nine other students from the United States. The last part of the summer we left the camp and went down to the lower Pellipines part of Greece where there had been many fires and handed out New Testaments. (The picture to the right is from this summer, the Greek Bibles we handed out and pamphlets we put in them.) I really enjoyed this, but struggled with the fact that we were handing these out to a nation that as 98% Orthodox. The picture we had painted for us of the 2000-year-old tradition was a pretty bleak one, and were told the Church was more of a political system. I came home from Greece for a month and then got on another plane that took me to Romania. Here the population is 70% Orthodox and one of the classes we were taking was Eastern Othrodoxy with the founder of the NGO who was also Orthodox, although he had became one while being here. I did not understand why the organization would join up with a church of the past that was corrupt (in my past way of thinking) when they were trying to bring up leaders of the future for a country that needed some serious direction. Through all of the classes, though, I began to realize that while the Bates (the founders) may not agree with all the Orthodox Church says, there is still good within the theology, tradition, and faith. By working along side the church they were able to breach gaps the organization I had worked with this summer would never have been able to do because of the stake that was intentionally driven. Even though the founders of New Horizons had to give up their more Protestant background, they were able to grow more and gain trust in a country where corruption and distrust had been instilled in every person through fear.
I am not trying by any means to raise up one example over the other, because there are weaknesses in both however I have now been shown a different way or lens of how missions can work. New Horizons and the ideas behind it have shown me you are able to use the resources available to you in order to further the kingdom. New Horizons is a non-governmental organization, thus it can not be under a Christian name, but it holds Christian virtues, and is instilling those virtues into the leaders of the future. While the goals of the two examples I have been shown may look different, they are both trying to further God's kingdom, and as Kailen Fleck says, are both doing kingdom work. However one has been around for half the time and yet has made connections, received grants, and become a nation-wide organization, while the other is struggling to get youth from their own country to come to the camps.

I have been very privileged to be invited into the family of both of the organizations I have worked with, and love the people in both very dearly. I am grateful for the friendships that have been made and the life lessons I learned. I understand the The Eastern Orthodox Church is different in both countries and has been changed because of past political problems within each country. As I said earlier, I do not wish to favor one over the other, only to put the two experiences next to each other, and to leave you with a few questions...what are the goals of missions really? What implications do our actions have on the ones we are "sharing the gospel with"? When looking at a place phenomenologically, how do we recognize the good within the tainted community and still be a servant-learner rather than bring our own ideas in?

Hugs and Hope,

Chelsea