Real-Life Decision Making -- Solution
You go ahead with the trip.
This is a decision you made long before you were actually offered the chance
to do missionary work in Nigeria. You have planned and prepared for this day
for more than four years.
You are prepared to enter this new culture fully informed. You have studied
as much as you could about Nigerian ways, and spoken to people who have traveled
and worked there recently.
You know that there will be many things to learn while you are there and
that life will be very different from what you are used to, but you are excited
about this and feel confident in your abilities.
You know that to be as effective as possible in reaching the people of
Nigeria, you must accept and live by their laws.
"Each missionary, if he or she is to be effective in reaching
out to people of another culture, must decide to abandon expectations based
on his or her own cultural norms," says missionary Barney Davis. "The name
of Jesus will not be received well if the missionary persists in insisting
that the 'foreign' culture is inadequate."
Your family has always been supportive of your decision to be a missionary.
You realize that you are risking being away from your family when they might
need you, but it is the knowledge that you are doing what God is commanding
you to do that helps you decide on doing this missionary work. You go to Nigeria.