Turns out I write about Swaziland all the time!

Auditing my own work is not my favorite thing to do.  I am barely able to reread what I write for the simple task of editing, much less evaluating what I’ve had to say.  Sometimes I’m not so sure that what I’ve brought to the table is important and I doubt my ability to move the conversation forward.  Looking back over these blogs, I feel like some of them have failed at their purpose, but there are a couple that made me think and pushed me out of my comfort zone.  So let’s take a look!

I most often write about the mission work in Africa.  Until I reread these blogs, I didn’t realize how much I did that, but turns out that all but two (here and here) are about Africa.  The cause behind this bias is obvious- I spent 3 weeks in South Africa/Swaziland last summer.  Of course I think those are the most interesting stories!

As far as how my understanding of missions has changed, I think this is where the majority of my blog entries fail to really provide any insight or prove that I have any insight.  Maybe this is just because they are so limited in length (and therefore in scope), but I’m pretty disappointed in “Gender Divide” especially.  I feel like this is an ongoing conversation occurring in class that I did not really take up on the blog.

The next section we’re supposed to evaluate- “What general lessons would you begin to draw about the work of Nazarene missionaries from your own reading?”- is actually a bit unfair.  Honestly, the conclusions I would begin to draw are that Nazarene missionaries to Africa are racists working in the harshest of heathen conditions.  Of course, that would be a completely unfair assessment of their work.  They have done great things for infrastructure and healthcare in Swaziland.  Their racism is a product of the ideas that surrounded them.  From what I have chosen to write about, I do not think that any conclusions would be fair or balanced.

That, of course, is not to say that examining their work provides us with no lessons or with no greater value.  There is a ton of value in this assignment.  Understanding past mission practices that failed leaves us with less likelihood of repeating those mistakes, whereas reading about mission endeavors that succeeded gives us jumping off points for the future.  Understanding where our church has come from is valuable for even pure human interest reasons.  

This assignment, overall, is a fantastic one.  Sometimes navel-gazing leaves me a bit more cynical than I prefer to be on an average day, but it is interesting to see patterns that have emerged.  I guess this is the end of my self-audit!