Dealing with Christians in third world countries

Ignore them. Works great for me. I rarely am contacted.

But I guard my FB contacts carefully and don't add people I don't want to talk with and most of the e-mail junk gets caught in my spam folder.

 

Make sure you set your FB account so only friends and "friends of friends" can read your posts. That cuts down on the nutcases tremendously.

 

There will be...

....similar things done by Christians from non-third world countries! They all see you and me and others as potential cash cows and suckers for their sob story, and you gotta give them credit for trying!

It is no different then the transient at the offramp of the freeway, or the windowwashing transient in the parking lot. They are everywhere, not just in third world countries! At least that's MHO :flower:

 

cash. money. moolah.
yeah.
one of the reasons I and many other PB's REFUSED to join the pro-missions movement that seeped in among my people, the PB's, some years ago. I am from one of these third world countries, and have seen with my own eyes the corruption that some FOREIGN missionaries have inflicted on the minds of some, mind you, local pastors.
these western messengers from God come to a poor underdeveloped country with their gospel of salvation without which no one may be allowed into heaven, then locate a town, settle down in their big houses and air-conditioned rooms and their trucks and cars and jeeps provided by their 'mother' churches.
Then they go meet with the locals and go up ONCE or TWICE up the highland churches/missions/fellowships, take pictures of the miserable conditions of the buildings, the emaciated families of the pastors, some members, and send these pictures to their mother churches with sob stories and all, and the gullible folks back home ooohh and aaahh and take up collections and faith promises and monthly pledges and send additional health to the poor, brave, dislocated Western preacher.
They probably rake up 200, 300 dollars and send this to their missionary who then promptly assigns 50% to himself, and the rest divided among those poor wrethched souls just slogging along trying to serve a God who supposedly created the universe but is so lacking in power to supply all their needs according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus unless a blue eyed, blond, high-bridged nose from the more prosperous west share his money with them.

 

Then word gets around and so now more want in on the "take".
Am I saying all missionaries do these things ?
no.
But I AM saying that enough have done these things to create the impression that you guys over here are SUCKERS !
A few rotten apples destroy a whole basket of good apples, remember ?
I had a couple of visiting preachers from my country many years ago who requested to be allowed to speak at the church and maybe present their work and all because they were on a 'deputization' trip, courtesy of a missionary group in Marietta, Ohio.
I knew both of them, so, yeah, after duly warning them that we do not support missions, I asked the church to let them speak.....at the Fellowship Hall, during lunch, and the church graciously allowed them to.
After the meet, they went away, from non-mission supporting PB's, with more or less $300.00 as love gifts, some clothing, and a lot of goodwill.
But in private I reprimanded them for having the gall to testify that they were living by faith, because if they were living by faith, what the dickens are they doing 3000 miles away from where God supposedly told them to work, raising money for their schools and churches, as if it were impossible for God to do that for them ?
Was I being harsh to them ?
I don't think so, because the reason I knew them is that I was a former Arminian who graduated Bible College in an Arminian-leaning seminary in the Philippines, who went out and started a church FROM SCRATCH in the middle of a heavily and fanatically Roman Catholic SLUM area with its hoodlums and dope dealers and addicts and received almost NO SUPPORT from my sending congregation and in less than SIX MONTHS the Lord provided a worship building with a small pastor's room, and he NEVER allowed me to go hungry, and so I have little respect for "pastors" who go on deputizations with their charts and videos and endorsement.

 

But for every "pastor" in third world countries who think every Caucasian or foreign missionary is a walking dollar supply, bear in mind, TEN are just quitely doing what they believe in their hearts to be the work the Lord gave them.
So, please, do not think that everybody in the third world are like these opportunists who contact you.

 

Truth, my friend, truth.

 

That's why we have mission boards for accountability. I would never just hand out money to someone claiming to be a missionary. I'd check out which mission board they are with AND make sure the mission board is legit.

 

(Saw your postscripts about the chickens- thought you might like this)

One day a new chicken was introduced to the farm.



The duck, who was the main bird in charge, shows the new chicken around.


"This is where you go to get fed, this is the water trough and that is the coop. Chickens hang out near the fence, us ducks near the pond and the geese near the gate. We're pretty friendly but we keep to our own."


"Oh but whatever you do, DO NOT cross that road. You'll never hear the end of it."


(Sorry for the hijack- been wanting to get this one off my chest for a while.)

 

Thanks Mex, I needed that! :thumbsup: