SpiriseBible
🌍 Meet Margaret Chen
In a small apartment overlooking the bustling streets of Bangkok, 68-year-old Margaret Chen sorts through four decades of letters, photos, and field reports. Her weathered hands, which have delivered babies in Amazon rainforests and taught literacy in African villages, now carefully organize the memories of a life spent crossing cultural bridges for the gospel.
Margaret's journey began in 1983 when she left her comfortable nursing job in California to serve with remote tribal communities. What she thought would be a two-year commitment became a 40-year odyssey across six countries, 23 languages, and countless moments where faith was the only bridge between despair and hope.
🤝 On Learning Cultural Humility
Young Missionary: "Margaret, how do you share the gospel without imposing Western culture?"
Margaret: "Oh honey, I learned this the hard way! My first year in Papua New Guinea, I tried to teach the women to prepare meals 'properly'—which really meant 'the American way.' They smiled politely and humored the strange white lady. It took me months to realize they had been feeding their families nutritiously for generations before I arrived."
"The breakthrough came when I started asking questions instead of giving answers: 'How has God already been working in your community? What stories do your people tell about the Great Spirit? How do you understand love and sacrifice?' Jesus became incarnate—He entered our culture. We must do the same, learning their language not just with our mouths, but with our hearts."
🗺️ Four Decades Across the Mission Field
1983-1990: Papua New Guinea
"The Jungle University" - Where I learned that God's love transcends language barriers and that the gospel spreads best through relationships, not programs.
1991-1998: Amazon Basin, Brazil
"The River Classroom" - Traveling by canoe to serve isolated communities taught me that God's timing is perfect, even when the journey takes months longer than planned.
1999-2006: Northern Kenya
"The Desert Seminary" - Working with nomadic tribes during severe droughts showed me that God provides in impossible circumstances, often through the generosity of those who seem to have the least.
2007-2015: Remote Philippines
"The Island Laboratory" - Establishing medical clinics on isolated islands taught me that healing bodies and healing souls often happen simultaneously.
2016-2023: Urban Slums, Bangkok
"The City Mission" - Working with refugees and urban poor showed me that unreached people groups exist in modern cities, not just remote jungles.
💔 On When Ministry Plans Fall Apart
Young Missionary: "What do you do when everything goes wrong?"
Margaret: "I'll never forget 1994 in the Amazon. We had planned a two-week medical mission to reach 12 villages. On day three, our boat engine died 200 miles from anywhere. Then our translator got dengue fever. Then the seasonal floods came early and wiped out half the villages we planned to visit."
"I sat in that leaky boat, crying out to God, 'What are You doing? We had such good plans!' And you know what? That 'failure' became our greatest success. We ended up staying with one village for three months. The chief's daughter, who had been dying from complications in childbirth, was healed. Three families came to faith. A church was planted."
"I learned that God's plans are always better than our plans, but He rarely reveals them in advance. Trust the process, even when—especially when—you can't see the destination."
🎒 Field-Tested Wisdom for Cross-Cultural Ministry
- Learn Before You Teach: "Spend your first year listening. Ask about their creation stories, their understanding of right and wrong, their deepest fears and greatest hopes."
- Meet Physical Needs First: "People can't hear about eternal bread when they're starving for daily bread. Compassion opens hearts that sermons can't reach."
- Partner with Local Leaders: "Foreign missionaries are guests; local believers are family. Train them to lead, then step back and cheer them on."
- Expect God to Change You: "I went to change the world, but the world—and God through it—changed me more than I ever changed anyone else."
- Celebrate Small Victories: "When you're working with unreached peoples, one person coming to faith is a miracle worth celebrating for months."
🏝️ On Dealing with Mission Field Loneliness
Young Missionary: "How do you handle the isolation and loneliness?"
Margaret: "Oh dear, that's the hardest part they don't warn you about in missionary training! You're surrounded by people, but you're culturally isolated. You speak their language, but you don't understand their hearts yet. You miss your family, your food, your familiar ways of doing everything."
"I found my anchor in two practices: journaling my prayers and memorizing Scripture. When I felt most alone, I would write letters to God—honest, raw, sometimes angry letters. And I discovered that those isolated moments weren't punishment—they were invitations to deeper intimacy with Jesus. He met me in the loneliness and taught me that His presence is enough, no matter where in the world I am."
🌉 Building Bridges: The Art of Cultural Connection
"I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some." 1 Corinthians 9:22
Margaret's Cultural Bridge Strategy:
The 5-Stage Bridge Building Process
- Observe Without Judging: "Watch how they greet, how they make decisions, how they resolve conflicts. Don't compare—just learn."
- Ask Deep Questions: "What makes your community strong? What threatens your people's wellbeing? Who are your heroes and why?"
- Find Redemptive Analogies: "Look for cultural practices that reflect gospel truths. God has prepared every culture with bridges to His heart."
- Share Through Stories: "Every culture loves stories. Learn to tell Bible stories using their storytelling traditions and cultural metaphors."
- Develop Local Leadership: "Your goal is to work yourself out of a job. Train local believers to be the primary voices of the gospel in their culture."
📮 Letter from the Field (1995)
Dear Supporting Churches,
I'm writing this by candlelight in a village that has no name on any map. Today I witnessed something that 20 years of missions training couldn't have prepared me for. Kalume, the tribal elder who has opposed our presence for two years, publicly accepted Christ after seeing our team care for his grandson during a life-threatening illness.
But here's what moved me to tears: his first question wasn't about doctrine or church structure. He asked, "If Jesus loves all people, does that mean He loves the neighboring tribe too—the ones we've been fighting for generations?" When I said yes, he immediately asked how we could make peace with them through this Jesus love.
Friends, this is why we endure the mosquitoes, the isolation, the language barriers. Not just to see individuals saved, but to watch the gospel transform entire communities. God is doing something here that our small faith can barely contain.
Your sister in Christ,
Margaret
🏔️ On Maintaining Faith in Hostile Environments
Young Missionary: "How do you keep believing when you face persecution or see so much suffering?"
Margaret: "Child, that question takes me back to 2001 in Kenya. We lost three children to preventable diseases in one week. I was so angry at God I couldn't pray for a month. I thought about going home, convinced I was useless, that God had abandoned us all."
"Then Mama Esther—a woman who had lost four children to drought but never lost her smile—sat with me and said, 'Sister Margaret, when you can't see God's hand, you learn to trust His heart.' She taught me that faith isn't the absence of questions; it's staying faithful in the presence of them. Sometimes our greatest ministry happens not when we're strong, but when we're honest about our weakness."
💎 Treasures from 40 Years in the Field
🎯 Mission Field Realities
- Expect to be Changed: "You can't love people deeply without being transformed by them. God uses every culture to teach you new aspects of His character."
- Patience is a Spiritual Discipline: "In American Christianity, we measure success in months. In missions, you measure it in decades. Some seeds take 20 years to sprout."
- Learn to Grieve Well: "You'll lose language helpers, see churches split, watch disciples fall away. Learning to lament biblically is essential for long-term faithfulness."
- Celebrate Every Victory: "When someone chooses to follow Jesus in a hostile culture, angels rejoice. Don't let the enormity of the task steal the joy of small breakthroughs."
- Partner, Don't Colonize: "The best missionary is eventually unnecessary. Build up local believers to be the heroes of their own community's transformation."
👥 On Raising Up the Next Generation
Young Missionary: "How do you prepare local believers to take over the work?"
Margaret: "That's the ultimate goal—and the hardest part of missions. You spend years building relationships, learning the culture, establishing trust. Then you have to be willing to hand it all over to someone who might do things differently than you would."
"I learned to ask myself: 'Am I training disciples or dependents?' Disciples can thrive without you. Dependents collapse when you leave. The measure of successful missions isn't how much they need you, but how well they flourish when you're gone. My greatest achievement isn't the churches I planted—it's the pastors I trained who have planted churches I've never seen."
🌐 Applying Mission Wisdom to Your Life
You don't have to go overseas to live on mission. Margaret's field-tested wisdom applies to your daily ministry context:
🏡 Your Mission Field (Workplace, Neighborhood, School)
- Observe Before Engaging: Study the culture of your workplace or community before trying to change it
- Ask Deep Questions: What do your neighbors value? What are their real fears and hopes?
- Meet Practical Needs: Show Christ's love through acts of service before sharing words about Him
- Be Patient with Process: Relationship-building and trust-earning take time—sometimes years
- Invest in Others: Look for people you can mentor and train to continue the work
📝 Margaret's Letter to Future Missionaries
To those who feel called to cross cultures for Christ,
The mission field will break your heart—and that's exactly what needs to happen. A broken heart is a heart prepared for God's love to flow through it without obstruction. You will cry more than you expect, doubt more than you want to admit, and need Jesus more desperately than you ever have before.
But you will also see miracles that Western Christianity has forgotten are possible. You'll watch the gospel transform not just individuals but entire communities. You'll discover that God is already at work in places you thought you were bringing Him to for the first time.
The cost is high, but the privilege is higher. You get a front-row seat to watch God move in power. You become part of the great story He's writing across all nations and cultures. And you discover that in losing your life for His sake and the gospel's, you find it more abundantly than you ever imagined possible.
With all my love and prayers,
Your sister in the field,
Margaret
🙏 Mission Field Prayer
Lord Jesus, You are the ultimate cross-cultural missionary who left the perfection of heaven to enter the brokenness of earth. Thank You for faithful servants like Margaret who follow Your example by crossing cultural, linguistic, and geographical boundaries to share Your love.
Give us hearts that break for what breaks Yours—peoples and communities without access to the gospel. Help us to see our own neighborhoods and workplaces as mission fields where You've strategically placed us. Grant us wisdom to build bridges instead of walls, to ask questions before giving answers, and to love deeply before speaking boldly.
Whether You call us to serve across the street or across the ocean, help us to be faithful ambassadors of Your kingdom, patient servants of Your timing, and humble learners in every culture You send us to. Amen.