The Story

Welcome to missionary life in the raw.

Set in a country known for its war crimes, Delgado’s memoir tells the complete journey of a novice missionary family. Readers come full circle, living out the call, the thresholds, the dark night of the soul, and the crucible return. Intimate dependence on Jesus becomes a tangible reality in the land . . . where shadows hide the sun.

The Purpose

By experiencing and discussing the highs and lows of missionary life, readers will be better equipped to support missionaries as they go, care for missionaries upon their return, or . . . prepare themselves for their own journey.

The Content

Below is a sampling of the situations encountered, the theological topics that arise, and the discussion questions included within the text.

Situations Encountered

• fundraising as “an unknown”
• moving to the field: homelessness
• conflict with team members
• civil instability in a militant culture
• arrests, imprisonment, expulsion
• effects of cumulative stress

Theological Topics

• personal price in accepting the call
• spiritual resistance and supernatural aid
• motivation and methods to proclaim the gospel
• unanswered prayers vs. answered prayers
• team life: sin, confession, forgiveness, and strength in unity
• fasting and encounters with Jesus
• scripture-based intercession and Spirit-led interactions
• God’s sovereignty in all phases of the mission: perceived success and failure

Discussion Questions

Personal Motivation and Accountability

• Reflect on how your core moments with God have shaped your worldview and your relationship with God.
• Make a list of friends with whom you have been transparent about your struggles while following Christ. Then list any friends who have been open with you about their struggles. If either of your lists is short, why might that be?

Team Life

• The gospel is too large for a person to be passionate about it in every aspect possible. Therefore, on a team, you may encounter differences regarding ministry values. Leadership may be passionate in one aspect, and subordinates may feel passionate in another. If we believe that God has assembled the team, how can the passions of both parties be acknowledged as part of God’s mission?

Sharing the Gospel

• What do you know of communicating the gospel to the culture you plan to engage? What assumptions have been pre-established—on both sides—to pit you and your audience against each other?
• Consider the following approaches to sharing Jesus: the “live-life-and-love-the-people-while-waiting-for-an-opening” method, the “3-minutes-to-Jesus” method, and the “Bible-study-with-locals” method. Also, notice the speed at which the refugees conclude that Delgado’s family knows God. What would you call that method? Which approach are you drawn to?

Surviving Chaos

• What do you do when you find yourself in a country about to go to war? Or when people start to riot? Do you live life like normal and “keep trusting God”? Do you believe “taking precautions” to be not trusting God?
• If you were given 24 hours to leave the country, how would you say goodbye to your community? Governments can hold onto your passport. How does that make you feel?
• What are you willing to go to jail for?

Marriages and Stress

• What do you think of the counselor’s perspective on missionary couples/families surviving upheaval?
• Reflect on a time when you experienced cumulative stress and make a detailed list of your stressors. For Dave, some compounding stressors are living in an oppressive atmosphere, being watched by Security, unanswered medical issues, lockdowns and riots, his children’s nightmares, and intrusive thoughts. How is Dave approaching God for help? How is God helping? How did you approach God during your time of cumulative stress? How did God help you?
• If couples returning from the field need each other to heal, how can churches help?

Prayer

• While prayer is not a science, can you recall—in the history of your Christian life, church, or ministry—an experience that supports the idea that unity in prayer is significant? What Bible passages do you know that correspond?
• Contemplate the times throughout the story that people get exactly what they ask for in prayer.

Experiencing God

• The lie that God is unknowable is strong in the teaching of Islam. What is a strong lie in your target culture? In what ways does your own culture limit how you experience God?
• How do you hear from God when you can’t hear from God? Especially “when it counts”?
• Dave’s desperate cry brings him full circle to the Dirt parable. More than a calling, more than a lifestyle of ministry—Dave needs Jesus! Explain how you think/feel about your need for a calling/ministry.

More at Interview and Where Story Fits in Academia