No offense, but did anyone from there invite you to evangelise and discipline? Makes the people who are about to inflict yourself on sound like wayward children.

Missionary, mercenary. I know which one I'm more likely to respect- the one who at least admits that what he is doing is for money.

I think you may have misunderstood... one of the roles a missionary plays is as an evangelist and i didn't mean "discipline" in the sense of punishment for something, but "disciple", which has the same root but in this case means to educate new Christians in biblical matters and following Christ. Its a guidance thing. On a side note, I don't think I completely understand your statement on mercenary vs. missionary. Could you explain what you meant to me?

Dont take this as an insult, but if you cannot understand that comment, you should not be guiding anybody yet.
From your comments, you appear to live in a black and white world with no grey areas, or have lived a sheltered life.
Missionary work maybe a dangerous choice for you until you have a bit more experience.

Yep. Olsen's book is about living off the land in the American West. There are, however, many techniques (as well as the mind set) that are applicable in any ecology.

It's the only book I've found so far (and I did not do an exhaustive search) that starts with the basics - your brain and fingers - and helps you think about how to use the materials provided in nature to survive.

Just as learning to be a neurosurgeon isn't taught in a single text, survival must be learned from a variety of sources. Olsen's book is a "Survival 101" kind of book.

If you haven't seen it, perhaps you should rent the movie "The Mission" with Robert De Niro and Jeremy Irons. This may help your understanding about how mission work is viewed by many, especially those being "ministered" to.

The first, and most important step, in mission work anywhere is demonstrating a genuine concern for the welfare of the people you are going to help. In order for them to accept your words, they must first believe that your intentions are for their benefit. This requires much labor on your part long before you can ever utter any spiritual advice or counsel. In fact, your entire mission may never involve classic evangelism or ministry. Many such missionarys go to far away places and do nothing but rebuild homes, or help with the irrigation, or provide medical aid, or distribute food. They have no message to proclaim, other than to simply help those less fortunate. This is the most you should expect of your mission, and the best thing you can do is to keep you mouth shut about spiritual matters until long after you have been accepted by the people you are there to help. Remember, "The greatest of these is Charity".

Once you have demonstrated by your deeds and actions that you have something meaningful to offer, then, if the opportunity presents itself, you may gently and gradually enter into religious dialogue. Your initial focus of any discussion should be on all the beneficial similarities your two faiths share. By focusing on the positives this way, you will allow them to become more receptive to your views. Since religion is a faith based experience, you should avoid entering into arguments about "facts". Your facts are not going to match their facts most of the time, at least not at first, but by finding commonalities, you can then get their impressions and opinions on different aspects of their faith, compare them to yours, and start exploring the origins of those views together.

Remember that most missionaries never make it to the discussion phase, so don't push to get there. If God is sending you to these people, it is because they need your help on many levels, and for them, spirituality is at the very bottom of the heap. Becoming their friend first will determine whether or not you have any success at fulfilling your mission. The rest is gravy.

I think you'll find this approach applies to all evangelizing you will ever do in life, whether at home, across the country, or in a far away land. It is also the best model of how Jesus really functioned while he was here.

So far in this verrrry interesting post, I believe Benjamin, in his message, has come closest to what I wish I would have said. I would like to add: you may well be amazed at how very much you would learn yourself and not neccesarily only from the people to whom you are ministering, but from the experience in toto, in this particular style of exchange. cm.

Well this horse has been beat to death!! I thought I would just add that there are special schools set up to train missionaries in these types of skills as well as many others. You might want to investigate what is available out there, no need to reinvent the wheel.

I may have also misunderstood your plans. From what you've said in this latest, you are going down to show people what you consider to be the way at thier invitation becuase someone else has already converted them. It's possible they converted themselves, even.

I had origionally understood you were looking to preach to the "dirty heathens". Or maybe just the "poor lost souls". In either case, preach at them until they convert and repent and all that other stuff that people do when they've been beaten down. Sorry, I'm a "dirty heathen", and I'm not terribly fond people who get it into thier head to go on a great Crusade, even they aren't bringing fire and sword with them this time.

As for missionaries vs mercs, mercs do things for the money, missionaries do the same things becuase "god wills it".

Benjammin that was very well said.

Excellent post, Benjammin.