I’m writing from the tropical island of Borneo, where this week I have been training about 40 Chinese pastors and cross-cultural workers. I sometimes wonder if flying halfway around the world to train people for cross-cultural ministry is making any difference. It’s not getting any easier; the transpacific flights feel longer every time, and adjusting to the time zones seems to get harder with every trip. All I need to keep going is just a little bit of encouragement that what I’m doing is making a difference in the lives of those I’m teaching and training.

So, after the first day this week, a Chinese missionary couple who had spent over twenty years in Tibet went to the organizer and, in tears, shared with him how much they appreciated my teaching. They told him, “How come nobody told us this when we were sent out? We have been making mistakes without even realizing it for so long.” Later in the week, they led the group one morning in singing The Lord’s Prayer in Tibetan. Sung to a Chinese tune in a minor key, it was beautiful and haunting at the same time. I’ll never forget that sacred moment of worship. The first image below is the Tibetan script to the song we sang.

During the last two weeks of February, I was at the Caleb Institute in India teaching 26 students in a course titled “Anthropology for Christian Mission,” held in a classroom honoring Sadhu Sundar Singh (1889- 1929). He was an early pioneer in helping people in India to understand and practice how they could become followers of Jesus without abandoning their Indian culture.

Unfortunately, in India today there is a widely-held perception that Christianity is a foreign religion. The bulk of my teaching is aimed at countering that perception, but sometimes it feels like an uphill struggle because a Westernized form of Christianity has existed in India for over a century. In the class photo, a picture of Sadhu Sundar Singh is front and center, which is appropriate, since my teaching is an attempt to counter the widely-held perception that Christianity is a foreign religion in India.

At the end of the course, several students commented how the class had completely challenged and changed their ideas of what it meant to be thoroughly Indian and a fully committed follower of Jesus.

I send this letter to you because I believe that when you are praying for me it makes a big difference in how well my teaching and training go. I felt very empowered in India and Borneo, knowing that day after day, I was being led by the Holy Spirit beyond simply following my lecture notes and PowerPoint slides to connect with participants and their needs. Thank you for praying.

Later this month, I’ll be back on the Camino de Santiago pilgrimage in Spain walking the next 125 miles. At the end of May, I’ll be in Brazil participating in a retreat with Free Methodists working throughout Latin America, and in July I’ll spend a week with Muslim Followers of Jesus in Bangkok, Thailand doing inductive Bible study together and sharing insights from my recent book.

Thank you for your continued interest in the way I am able to use these retirement years to contribute to the Kingdom of God around the world.

Cordially,

Darrell Whiteman