From Minarets to Steeples

Though I am free of obligation to anyone, I make myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible. To the Jews, I became like a Jew to win the Jews. To those under the law, I became like one under the law (though I myself am not under the law) to win those under the law. To those without the law, I became like one without the law (though I am not outside the law of God but am under the law of Christ), to win those without the law. To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some. 1 Corinthians 9:19-22

My wife Ashley and I were sitting on our front porch one night, mostly because we had chairs outside, and our house still sat empty. As we were talking, we could hear bells ringing in the distance, Ashley looked at me and said: "from minarets to steeples." That simple saying hit me; my first thought was we are not in Kansas anymore. Instead of the call to prayer five times a day from the local mosque, we are getting bells from the local catholic church. Is it bad if I say that I miss hearing the call to prayer? Not because I like it, I think its more because I got used to it, now when I think about the call to prayer, I think of the home that I made in another country. I made that home in that strange land because God called me there. He put that desire in my heart to see the least reach peoples of Turkey hear the life-giving Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Often we teach missionaries what it will be like crossing cultures, going from the one you know to the one you don't. This is a fundamental lesson for any missionary wanting to cross a cultural border. One question that we ask is, do we contextualize to this culture? And if so, how much do we contextualize it? These are great questions; I jumped in with both feet regarding social action. I stayed out late drinking coffee, and I learned to be ok with last-minute planning; I also got used to sitting and drinking tea with store owners all day. And certain things I didn't adapt to, for example, I did housework and publicly showed that Ashley was an independent woman. I felt like I was well prepared for going overseas; I mean, I planned and educated myself for four years. But what I wasn't prepared for was coming back to Canada.

Coming back to Canada was a cultural shift I didn't prepare for, I thought that just because it was a culture that I knew, there was no need to prepare for it mentally. To my defence, I wasn't expecting to be kicked out of Turkey either. I remember getting off the plane in Toronto and picking up the rental car. We jumped in and started driving out towards St Catharines; now I was used to driving in Turkey, and in Turkey, you use every part of the road and sometimes the sidewalk. So as we were driving on the Highway, I got stuck behind some cars blocking the lanes. So I did the Turkish thing and took the shoulder to pass them. As soon as I did it, Ashley hits my leg and says, "Tristan, this is not Turkey." This may seem small, but to me, it wasn't. I was not ready for this transition back to Canadian culture. I was constantly disappointed when everyone I wanted to connect with was not available. I then learned they were unavailable because this is a culture of planning and not the last minute kind of planning. In Turkey, I could call someone at 8 pm for coffee at 9 pm and nine times out of 10; they will show up. Life is different in Canada, and I didn't know I had changed that much.

This transition of cultures is not new to God; if you take a good hard look at the Bible, you find individuals in a culture, not their own around every corner. In fact, if we take the great commission seriously, we are to step out of our culture/comfort zone to reach other people in other cultures. Culture doesn't have to mean race or location; we have many cultures around us in Canada. The Culture in Victora B.C is different then Moose Jaw S.K, the upper-class culture is different than the middle-class culture. Those who are homeless or can't put food on the table is a different culture. We also have people from a wide variety of cultures around the world coming to Canada. Let me also say this; one culture is not better or worse than another. There is beauty in every culture, but because of sin, there are also things that are not so beautiful. We are not to share the Gospel so that they conform to our culture; we share it so that they can experience and accept Salvation.

My time in Turkey has taught me a lot about how to engage in a culture, not my own. It has pushed me to think beyond my perception of culture and caused me to ask the question of how can I engage in their culture. Paul said it in 1 Corinthians 9:22, "I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some." This can easily become a topic of contextualization, but I don't want to get into that at the moment. I want to make a point; we need to engage in their culture to relate with them. We need to meet them where they are, and I believe that if we take those steps, we will see lives transformed.

Tristan Owen K