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A Day in the Life of a Missionary

“WAS that the 6:30 bell?”

“Perhaps it was the 6:55 bell and we have only five minutes to get to the breakfast table. No, relax, it’s only 6:30. Plenty of time yet.”

This is a typical early morning exchange between my roommate and me. We still find 6:30 an early hour to rise, even though we have been doing it for years. As Jehovah’s Witnesses living in a missionary home here in Taipei, Taiwan, we gather with fellow missionaries for a prebreakfast spiritual discussion at seven o’clock.

Different members of our “family” take turns caring for cooking, marketing, housecleaning and other duties. That includes ringing those bells that help us to get ready for meals and other activities.

OUR PURPOSE AS MISSIONARIES

On hearing the word “missionary,” you may envision a nurse dressed in white, or a teacher instructing a class of children in some remote village. But that is not the commission Jesus gave his followers. He instructed them to make disciples. (Matt. 28:19, 20) Thus, as with Jehovah’s Witnesses everywhere, our principal work is that of teaching people Bible truths in this, our foreign missionary assignment.

As missionaries, we spend a minimum of 140 hours each month in the preaching and teaching activity. To find those who would like to learn more of God’s Word, we spend about half that time making house-to-house calls, having Bible discussions with the people at their doors. We then spend the remaining time revisiting those who previously showed some interest in the Kingdom message, conducting free home Bible studies with individuals and families desiring to learn more. By following the systematic method of study used by Jehovah’s Witnesses throughout the world, we find it possible to help Buddhists and others, who formerly may have known nothing about the Bible, to learn its basic teachings. This may take from six months to a year, but upon acquiring this understanding, persons are in a better position to decide whether they would like to become Christian witnesses of Jehovah or not.

OUR DAILY ROUTINE

Our lives are centered around spiritual matters. That accounts for our early-morning Scriptural discussion in Mandarin Chinese, the official language of Taiwan. These discussions get our day off to an uplifting and faith-strengthening start. Sometimes they also add a touch of humor, as when one newer missionary was flustered by the laughter of others when she was commenting on a particular Bible text. She could not see anything funny about her statement that Jesus is our High Priest. At least, that is what she thought she had said. Unfortunately, a slight error had turned her comment into a remark that Jesus is our great chicken!

After breakfast, 15 minutes are spent practicing the use of some new Chinese words or expressions. We try to master 20 each week. These are written on a blackboard and, each morning, a Chinese sister living in our home tries valiantly to correct our speech. We appreciate her help in improving our sentence structure and pronunciation (which includes tones in Chinese), for her efforts help us to become more effective in teaching God’s Word.

We are then dismissed with prayer and prepare for our day’s activity. Most of us spend two to three hours in the morning making house-to-house calls on people in our assigned territory. Yes, each pair of missionaries has a section of the city in which to concentrate its efforts. We try to locate interested people and gradually build up a group of Jehovah’s praisers that may eventually become the nucleus of a new congregation of Jehovah’s Witnesses.

The witness work is carried on here much as it is anywhere else in the world. However, there are some differences. One difference is how we get to the territory. I well recall that one of my first impressions of the Orient was that it teems with people, people and more people. My partner and I ride the buses to and from the territory. They are plentiful but are invariably crowded. During rush hours, this has to be seen to be believed! We are now quite adept at scrambling quickly on or off the bus. However, until we became accustomed to this it was not uncommon for us to find that our bookbags were still in the bus behind closed doors with us on the road tenaciously clinging to the handles! Quite a few missionaries prefer to use small motorbikes or scooters, as these provide more convenient and economical means of transport.

As with much of the world these days, people here are becoming more suspicious of others. But the traditional friendliness of the Chinese is often displayed as we call at their doors. We still find it common to be invited inside and given a seat, as well as tea or water that is so hot we have to prolong our discussion until it is cool enough to drink! In Taiwan it is not unusual for people with even minimal interest in the Bible to take our literature. Hence, we are able to leave many publications in the homes, and this literature may be read by persons even more interested than those who originally listened to us.

When we make return visits on the people, we find that many, including those of the Buddhist faith or some who follow the philosophy of Confucius, are willing to have further discussions and even agree to regular weekly Bible studies. Thus I can normally conduct 10 or more Bible studies each week, being limited only by the amount of time I have available for this activity. Many of these persons attend our meetings right from the start, so that 20 to 50 percent more people are present than there are Witnesses in the area.

AMPLE PROVISION

As missionaries, we are cared for very well. The Watch Tower Society realizes that missionaries living in a foreign land are not able to care for themselves as easily as they might in their home countries. In fact, in many lands, governments stipulate that missionaries cannot undertake secular work. Therefore, provisions are made for our material needs. We do not receive salaries, but the Society either rents or buys a home suitable for the group of missionaries that will be working in a city. In most cases in Taiwan, this means between four and eight persons will occupy a missionary home. However, as my partner and I live at the missionary home that also houses the Society’s branch office, we have up to 18 persons living here.

A fund is provided to enable the missionaries to purchase foodstuffs and pay for the rent, utilities, and so forth. Additionally, we receive a small personal allowance that enables us to buy things needed in our daily lives. In Taiwan this amounts to a little less than the equivalent of $10 (U.S.) per month. We also get an allowance to help cover our transportation costs, and the Society provides for a modest personal expense account to help us to buy needed clothing, pay our way to assemblies and the like. So we are very grateful that we do not have to worry about material things but can devote our time and full attention to fulfilling our goal as missionaries.

Knowing that all these provisions are made possible through the loving donations of our fellow believers who are unable to share directly in foreign missionary service, we endeavor to show our appreciation in two basic ways. First, we try to make our missionary service as effective as possible. Second, we view the money as belonging to the Lord and thus try to use it wisely. Cook day affords an opportunity to do just that.

COOK DAY

We have individual assignments to prepare meals on a certain day​—cook day, as we call it.

Once breakfast is over and the dishes are washed, we go to the market. During the morning, the two markets close to our home have a bewildering supply of fresh vegetables, meat, fish and fruit. Chinese vendors love to bargain, and this can be enjoyable, while also making it possible to save money. We have become experts at knowing what we should pay and in buying things in season, so that we can use wisely that portion of the home funds entrusted to our care on our individual cook day.

We have found many vegetables and fruits that we had never before seen. Understandably, we were a little wary of purchasing these because of not knowing how to prepare them. But, never fear. Upon inquiry the vendor is pleased to tell us how he or she prepares the item. Thus we have come to enjoy such new vegetables as sweet potato leaves and a small green three-cornered stem with a little bud on top and with a smell somewhat like that of mild garlic. By learning to use local foods, we eat well while not wasting any of the Lord’s provisions.

With live chickens, live fish, freshly slaughtered pork and beef and all the fresh vegetables on open tables, the atmosphere and aroma of the market differ from what we had been used to in other lands. For example, it took much self-control on my part to stifle the scream that rose in my throat the first time I saw a vendor take a knife and slit the throat of a chicken painstakingly selected by a customer!

In addition to the market in general, it is not uncommon to see the streets and alleys almost blocked by displays of clothing, material and knickknacks for sale. If we do not allow our curiosity to get the better of us, we can get our shopping done quickly and get back home to start preparing the noon meal, which in our home is the main one of the day. We have a cafeteria-style evening meal, as this allows more flexibility in the schedule of all who are conducting Bible studies in the afternoons and evenings. This also affords time on our cook days to do housework and personal laundry and otherwise to prepare for our activity during the next seven days.

TRUE FAMILY ATMOSPHERE

Even though our family is larger than most of the missionary families in Taiwan, we have quite a family atmosphere. For example, we have our own family study on Monday nights. We first spend an hour studying the Bible with the help of The Watchtower. Then we study a section of one of the Society’s latest bound books, so that even though we do not have some of these publications in Chinese, we are still able to keep up with all the latest information. At our breakfast table we read experiences and reports from the Yearbook of Jehovah’s Witnesses and material from Our Kingdom Service (Chinese) that we will be considering at a congregational meeting that week. Occasionally, we have informal get-togethers or go on a picnic as a group. All of this makes us more like a family.

IS IT WORTH IT?

Some readers may feel that the struggle of learning a new language would make missionary life more of a burden than it is worth. But I do not feel that way, even though learning Chinese was not easy for me. For example, knowing that there is a great need to proclaim the “good news” in our territory is always a stimulus to me. Why, even though the number of Witnesses in Taipei has trebled in the time I have been here, we are not able to cover our territory even once a year! Time and again, those hungering for righteousness recognize the ring of truth, even when spoken by a missionary with limited language ability. Consider this experience, enjoyed by one of my fellow missionaries a few years ago.

She had been in Taiwan only three months and was still learning Chinese when she met a young university student from a Buddhist family. This girl’s life had been filled with many sad experiences, including the death of two family members. She had been to some churches of Christendom in an effort to find comfort, but without success, and doubted that this new missionary could help her.

From the beginning, the young woman was impressed by how the missionary, in spite of her limited language ability, was able to use the Bible to answer her questions. She soon began attending meetings and made rapid progress. After nine months of Bible study, she was happy to become a dedicated, baptized witness of Jehovah. For several years this woman served every month as an auxiliary pioneer, devoting 60 hours per month to the Kingdom-preaching work, even though employed as a full-time schoolteacher. She has now quit that job and become a member of the Taipei Bethel family. Many similar experiences could be related to show that it truly is worth while being a missionary in a foreign field.

Every honest-hearted person enjoys sharing good things with others, and that is what prompts Jehovah’s Witnesses to be so zealous in their preaching and teaching work, no matter where they find themselves. But I deeply treasure the privilege of serving in a land where millions have not yet seen the Bible. What joy there is in helping some to come to a knowledge of the wonderful hope set out in God’s Word! While we missionaries do not receive a salary, we have superior rewards. These include a close relationship with many Orientals who have, due to the diligent work of missionaries from other lands, turned away from vain worship of idols to the living God Jehovah. Personally we have experienced the great blessings that result from complete reliance on Jehovah and his visible organization when making oneself available for foreign missionary service.

So, really, even though my roommate and I are not by preference early risers, we are glad that someone rings that bell at 6:30 every morning. That gives us an early start to a day that we know will be filled with interesting and worthwhile missionary activity.

[Picture on page 13]

Early-morning language study is applied later in Kingdom service