• Vol. 16, No.4 nternatlona October 1992 etln• Mission as Spiritual Pilgrilllage hen the author of this issue's liMy Pilgrimage in Mis­ cross-cultural missionary. It calls forth every gift, skill, talent, W sion" prepared to leave for East Africa, a well-mean­ andvirtue ...whileat the sametime demanding constantgrowth ing fellow Mennonite took him by the hand and admonished, in faith in God and in his marvelous people." "Brother Don, we hope you return from Africa just like you are The "My Pilgrimage" series encourages each of us to wel­ now. Don't change." Neither "Brother Don" Jacobs nor the come the changes that God works in us. admonisher had any idea of the changes that would take place. The "My Pilgrimage" series began with the autobiographi­ cal reflections of Donald A. McGavran in the April 1986 issue of the INTERNATIONAL BULLETIN. Since then, twenty-three other mis­ sionleaders havecontributed to the series. Sr. BarbaraHendricks On Page (April 1987) wasoneof the first to articulate the "reverseevange­ 146 My Pilgrimage in Mission lization" one is likely to experience, as the missionized are used Donald R. Jacobs by Godto revealwaysin whichtheGospelhasnotyetsufficiently penetrated one's own life and ministry. J. Herbert Kane ex­ pressed it in his winsomeway: "I should like to think that I made 150 Claiming Our Heritage: Chinese Women a smallcontribution to the causeof Christin China; butI received and Christianity far more from China than I ever gave to it" (July 1987, p. 130). KwokPui-Ian Oneof the most dramatic accounts of conversion in mission­ ary service was that of Nico Smith (July 1989), who went from 154 Maryknoll's Fifty Years in Latin America writing articles critical of European missionaries who ate at the Ellen M. McDonald, M.M. same table with African blacks, to resigning his academic posi­ tion and social privilege in Afrikaner society and taking up 158 The Legacy of Donald A. McGavran residence and pastoral ministry in a black community. George G. Hunter III Jacobs himself experienced a similar change in the course of his pilgrimage in mission. "In America," he writes, "I was not 163 The Legacy of Alan R. Tippett bothered with race prejudice, but not so in Tanzania .... I cried Darrell L. Whiteman out, 'Lord, you've brought me all this distance to preach the Gospel, but every time I preach it, it's dead. What's the matter?' Then, one night (I'm not a man for dreams) ... I saw the cross, 168 Book Reviews with a stream flowing from its base. Rushing to the stream for cleansing, I noticed there were some Africans bathing. Looking 182 Dissertation Notices around to see if anyone would see me, I started upstream. But as I did so, the Holy Spirit brought me down, and I bathed with my 183 Index 1989-1992 black brothers. Upon awakening, I knew what was wrong. The Lord gave me grace to repent. That was the first time I embraced 192 Book Notes an African brother in the Spirit. It was beautiful." "Thereis no doubt in my mind," saysJacobs, "thatone of the most demanding yet satisfying Christian vocations is that of the of issionaryResearch My Pilgrimage in Mission Donald R. Jacobs ilgrims supposedly know where they are going. I have while teaching in a Mennonite High School in Lancaster, Penn­ P been a reluctant pilgrim, and it was quite a while before sylvania. It was there that I married Anna Ruth Charles, an I knew where I was going. Before my wife and I left for Africa the eighth-generation Lancaster Mennonite. first time, one dear brother took my hand warmly and said, Inasmuch as the United States was embroiled in the Korean "Brother Don, we hope you return from Africa just like you are War just then, I was liable for the military draft. As a member of now. Don't change." a historic peace church and a committed Christian pacifist, I What neither of us realized was how impossible it is for knewthatwarwasnot for me, so Iembarkedon a master'sdegree anyoneseriouslyengagedin a missionaryvocationnot to change. in history in the University of Maryland. For part of my M.A. In fact, if one does not change, one is not going to influence very work, I wrote a dissertation on one of the Mennonite conferences many people at all. and discovered through that research that there was an opening At age sixteen and a high school senior, I had my first serious for an educationist in Tanzania. Anna Ruth and I applied and encounter with Jesus Christ. I needed him desperately to clean were soon on our way to a big adventure. up the residue of my growing-up years. He did that, and much My mission board had the sense to send us to the University more. In less than two years I found myself teaching in an of London, where I qualified as a teacher in the "British Empire." elementary public school in the mountains of Kentucky. With While in London, we sat under the preaching of Dr. Martyn one year of college under my belt, I tackled an impossible job, Lloyd-Jones Sunday after Sunday. This amazing man, schooled teaching fifty-seven students in eight grades, all alone in a one­ in medicine, expanded our minds and reintroduced us to the room school. But I loved it. Those two years living among cross of Jesus Christ. mountain folk, witha culturedissimilar from my own, served me well later in life as a missionary in East Africa. I started a little Quest for Renewal Sunday school in that schoolroom, where I preached my heart out. Iwas fascinated by everything "local," from squirrelhunting We arrived in Tanzania without any missionary training as such, to Hard Shell Baptist services, where, upon occasion, people and without a clear call. We were eager to give ourselves to one handled rattlesnakes. term as educational missionaries and then return home to pursue I was raised within the Mennonite faith and tradition in careers as teachers. We ended up spending twenty years there. western Pennsylvania. My mother was in the sixth generation of Our arrivalin Tanzania more or less coincided with the great hardy Mennonite stock, and my father was the son of a German tidal wave of Christian renewal known as the East African Lutheran immigrant. Dad "joined the Mennonites." Our little Revival. Germanic community was an island in a sea of recent immi­ As a student of the Anabaptist wing of the Reformation (my grants, mostly from Southern Europe. I grew up with a strong degree from the University of Maryland was in Reformation Mennonite identity. I knew intuitively that I was not one of history), Iyearnedto knowmoreof the spiritualitythatfueled the "them"-people from non-Germanic backgrounds. faith of my own spiritual ancestors. We Mennonites had man­ Church and home inscribed the Mennonite values on my aged to turn a spiritual movement into a sociological community heart. Honesty, hard work, community, commitment to church, that preserved the virtues of the faith but lacked the immediacy thrift, service, peace-these were the positives. There were also of the living presence of Christ. In East Africa, for the first time in plenty of negatives, such as, "Don't get too friendly with the my life, Ifound a communityof faith that had the markingsof my world; it is out to corrupt you." I was aware of the differences Anabaptist dream. I was fascinated to discover that these Chris­ between "our" culture and "theirs" as long as I can remember. tians represented manydifferentdenominations,from Lutherans This served me well later on as a cross-cultural missionary. to Seventh-day Adventists. That was my first reaction to the revival. The second was the Quest for Purpose realization that something must change within me if I was to know the living presence of Jesus Christ like these people did. I grew up "Christian," so when I had my first personal meeting But my spiritual pride and independent spirit, mixed with un­ with Jesus I knew that to say "yes" to him was for life and witting prejudice, conspired to build up a resistance. I found everything in life. Pouring out my life in a little Kentucky myself on a little island of my own making in a sea of warm schoolhouse fit into what I knew was to be my vocation. But it spiritual community. also convinced me that I had better get on with education, so I In AmericaI was notbotheredwithrace prejudice,butnot so pursued a degree in history at Franklin and Marshall College in Tanzania. When people knocked at my door during siesta, I found myself grumbling, "Aren't these people ever going to Donald R. Jacobs, anativeofPennsylvania andanordained ministerandappointed learn to follow the clock?" I became disillusioned, disheartened, Bishop in the Mennonite Church, was a Mennonite missionary in Tanzania and and lonely. I cried out, "Lord, you've brought me all this distance Kenya (1953-73),where hewasengaged in leadership trainingandadministration. He served on the first faculty of Religious Studies at the University of Nairobi. to preach the Gospel, but every time I preach it, it's dead. What's Following hisactiveAfricanministry,heserved asoverseas director ofthe Eastern the matter?" Then, one night (I'm not a man for dreams), I found Mennonite Board ofMissions andCharities andnowdirects theMennonite Chris­ I was crawling, looking for the cross of Jesus, for I had lost him. tianLeadership Foundation. Heandhiswife,Anna Ruth,currentlymake theirhome Then I saw the cross, with a stream flowing from its base. in Landisville, Pennsylvania. Rushing to the stream for cleansing, I noticed there were some 146 INTERNATIONAL BULLETIN OF MISSIONARY RESEARCH Africans bathing.