Essay #1

 By Woody

When we think about missions it is important to know about people and places and how we view others. We may have a culture shock if we aren’t properly aware of other countries' cultures. We might look down on other cultures because we think our culture is superior. It is also necessary to have a geographic mental map if you are going to do missions in a new place.

One reason that it's good to have a good grasp of cultures is culture shock. Many people suffer from this if they go to different cultures such as China. One example in China is if you don't like what you are eating you can spit it on the table. You go there and all of a sudden people are spitting food out on the table and if you are there on a missionary trip, instead of being a good preacher all you're going to be able to do is think about those weird Chinese people and why they do that and about how disgusting that is.

So one point about having a good grasp of cultures is culture shock. Another is that if we don’t know about the other culture we might look down on that culture. Throughout history, slavery is a good example of looking down on other people. We have looked down on people's culture. Every country thinks theirs is the best, but in reality no country is perfect and no country is totally bad. Each country has good aspects and bad aspects. A bad one about America is we had slaves. One about Russia might be communism.

So the second point was looking down on cultures and thinking that they're disgusting and that they're bad. But another point is having a good mental map. Say you're headed to go preach at another church. Your Chinese friend tells you directions and you never had to learn to use a mental map. You get your directions and you start walking. After a few wrong turns you realize that you're nowhere you're supposed to be and that you're actually in one of the worst suburbs of Beijing and then you get mugged and you have to go home having no effect, but making Chinese people think you're not a very good missionary just because you didn't have a good mental map.

So in conclusion the question was do mental maps have an affect on foreign missions?  Culture shock, thinking you are superior, and needing a good mental map are three reasons we need a good mental map. Now that we’ve talked about all these points we can see that not being prepared for going to a foreign land is not a good idea. Not being well prepared for anything is a bad idea.