If you’ve never seen a camel ...

After several people died in Brazil’s Pacaas Novos tribe due to illness, the missionaries felt they needed to speed up the sharing of the Gospel. The missionary with the best grasp of the language stood in front of the people and started sharing. His delivery was animated; he wanted to convey how important this was.

Missionary Dick Sollis, seated in the middle of the group, overheard one man ask another what the missionary was talking about. "Oh, don’t pay any attention to him, he’s just drunk," said the other.

More time learning the culture and language revealed that only when they were drunk did the Pacaas Novos stand up and talk to a group. So everything the missionary said that day was discounted and ignored, due to the culture of the people he was speaking to.

But sometimes the differences are even more basic. Most tribes in the Highlands of Papua New Guinea have never seen a sheep or a camel. What do you do then with Isaiah 53:6: "All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned, every one, to his own way"? Or Matthew 19:36: "And again I say to you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God"?

Those are easy for us. Sheep scatter and need a shepherd. Camels are large and have great difficulty going through small places. We know this, but those who have never seen these animals, or even pictures of them, have no idea.

Obviously, a missionary can’t just walk into a tribe and begin teaching. But they also can’t just translate word-for-word and teach what’s been taught in every other tribe, the same way as it has been elsewhere. Each people group has a unique culture and has to be worked with separately.

And there are other challenges.

In many places in Africa, according to one missionary, the attitude toward information is, "if this is so important, why are you sharing it with everyone?" Property and belongings are shared and disbursed, but information is hoarded. It’s commonly believed by the people that they don’t have power because others won’t share the information that would give them power. So there the Gospel has to be presented in a careful fashion, shared in a way that gives it value.

Another challenge is how to teach. The Tepehuan people of Mexico do not believe in gathering. Missionary Matt Arnold wrote, "The Tepehuans rarely meet together as a group and are not a very united society. We found trying to get a group together to teach the lessons was not happening. Some of the cause for this is the high level of distrust among neighbors and even family members."

The only social gathering they participate in as a people group are drinking parties, and "these too are losing popularity due to the high level of violence and the frequency of murder [there]."

This meant Matt and Starr Arnold and their co-workers needed to teach one family household at a time. Further complicating the ministry to the Tepehuans was their belief system -- that everyone who is not Tepehuan, including missionaries, are children of the devil and their message comes from the devil.

"For a Tepehuan to listen to the missionary’s message from the missionary’s Bible," Matt wrote, "puts one into risk of becoming a child of Satan as well. Those who are faithful in the teaching are told that they are losing their identity as Tepehuans."

But working within the context of the Tepehuans’ culture and language is bearing fruit. "God is adding numbers to the Tepehuan church, a few at a time, and it is amazing to stand back and watch the Spirit work in hearts and lives."

Missionary Sarah Deal, serving in the Asia-Pacific region, wrote, "Why is it so important to take the effort to learn about the culture and people around us? We believe that if we can begin to look at the world as much as possible through the eyes of our national friends, we will be more prepared to share truth in a relevant and clear way to them.

"Most of all, our prayer is that our friends see a difference in our lives -- that they see through us a God who cares about the intimate details of their lives and wants to know them more."

And He does.

Each people group is different. In order to really reach them, they must be ministered to in the context of their own culture and language. It takes more time, and can be a challenge. But the goal is to create disciples, not just believers. The investment is worth it.