Missionaries in the Amazon Missionaries

Missionaries in the Amazon Missionaries in the Mission Field Synopsis, with overview of story and approach: The project that is planned is a 30-minute videotape, showing the rationale and activities of a Korean-American Missionary, Chang Don Tuc, and his family, who are reaching out to the indigenous people in the Amazon River jungles in South America.

These tribes have been known to be cannibals, but past missionaries have made inroads into their lives of fear and hatred, which at one time had driven them to murder and make trophies (by shrinking the heads) of their enemies.

It has been a long, hard road, which included the murder of two missionaries, to arrive at this better and more optimistic era in the history of their tribe, but today the missionaries are able to live among the tribes people and influence their beliefs through daily work, education and discussion. The missionaries have even found a tribesman who has been able to translate the native language into writing, and this is being taught to the children in a school run by the missionaries.

This 30-minute video should be able to show how important the daily intercourse with the native people is in determining their future health, well-being and the fate of their souls. Simple rules of sanitation, cooking and safety can be learned, as well as deeper philosophical and educational lessons. Care is taken to teach the native ethical beliefs from their own culture, emphasizing those that instill sharing and caring among the peoples.

Not the least of the influence on these indigenous tribes is on their relationship with the neighboring tribes in the Amazon. A long history of hatred and strife between these small nations has led to bloodshed and hard feelings between them. The missionaries' influence may help soften the hard feelings and even lead to conciliatory talks between tribes, so no more blood will ever be shed.

Importance of the story This film will be aimed at an audience made up of church people who are mission-minded, or who it is hoped will be persuaded to be so. The aim of the 30-minute video is to demonstrate all the good things that missionaries accomplish in places in the world where Christianity has never ventured.

Care will be taken to show both the value of the indigenous Indian culture and how it is being preserved by the missionaries, while teaching them to read and write in their own language. Part 2: Information of how piece will be presented and appreciated: specialized audience. The video will be shown to audiences in churches throughout the United States. It will be added to a catalog of relevant contemporary topics distributed by a Christian film producer and churches may select it through the catalog.

A flyer, advertising the merits of the video will be sent to all the churches in the different regions of the U.S. that have mission programs, or who are planning to fund mission work. An offer will be made to have someone come to speak on mission work in the Amazon jungles, with the video being the centerpiece of the symposium, showing the actual missionaries at work on the mission field, how much their work has accomplished, and how much needs to be done yet.

The film-maker will be available to travel to various venues in order to speak on this topic and show the film, answering questions afterward, with the hope that audiences will be inspired to take a personal interest in this particular mission field and sympathize with and support missionaries on the whole.

Along with the offer to speak is the suggestion that the churches who hold these symposiums be prepared for offers to go as missionaries from among the viewers and for offers of money to support the program that is being revealed in the film. There are catalogs and websites available that list videos on this topic. The World Christian Video Directory. is one of them. It has a listing of videos in all the languages of the world.

There are video titles available in every language, along with the addresses where the videos may be purchased, with websites, e-mail addresses and descriptions of the videos. The U.S.

Center for World Mission (USCWM) is another organization which helps "churches and prospective missionaries face many obstacles to effective involvement in reaching unreached peoples." A third group is the Pantego Bible Church, which supports missionaries through "forming strategic partnerships with Christian nationals and through specific projects." Most of these organizations are non-denominational, but there are thousands of denominational organizations which have been set up to maintain that denomination's missionaries.

As far as broadcasting the film, it will be offered to various TV shows as a sample tape on how the missionaries actually work on the mission field. Oprah Winfrey is one of the TV personalities who shows this kind of work occasionally (Nelson 20). The Trinity Broadcasting Network shows tapes of this particular genre on some of their international programs. If this video were watched on TBN, it would reach billions throughout the world.

The Trinity Broadcasting Network also has a "Video Archive" in which thousands of videos are available to be watched. Questions to be answered: Here is the scope of questions to be answered through bibliographic and tape research.

Data How many missionaries are sent out to other parts of the world to preach the gospel? There are thousands of missionaries sent out from almost all Christian denominations in the United States and from other Christian-oriented countries, such as Korea and EU countries, into parts of the world which have few or no Christians.

The Evangelical Lutheran Church, for instance, as of September 30, 2007, had 276 adult missionaries, "including long-term and short-term appointments, self-supported volunteers, seminary interns and participants in the Young Adults in Global Mission program" actively engaged in the mission field (ELCA 2). Denominations All Christian denominations have missionaries, so it is impossible to tell how many missionaries there are. During the Cold War, missionaries in Russia numbered about 100, but, because they were under cover, it was impossible to tell how many there were, exactly (Fagan 15).

How many people have converted to Christianity after the missionaries resided with them? Conversions to Christianity must have numbered in the millions since the beginning of the Church's outreach to the "heathen" communities around the world in the time of Christ, if numbers of churches and members of those churches in foreign countries is any indication.

How many missionaries were martyred during their time in the mission field? It would take a great deal of research to come up with the exact number of missionaries martyred during their time in the mission field. Those missing or those who apparently died of natural causes would create even more speculation. But it is well-known that many missionaries have been "boiled in oil" so to speak throughout third-world countries as they attempted to bring the message of Christ to those who have no knowledge of it.

History Origin of Christianity The origins of Christianity are one and the same with Jesus' mandate to his disciples to "go out into all the world, bringing the Gospel." It was because of those twelve disciples, the original missionaries, that the world of Christ has been spread throughout the civilized world today. Lives of past missionaries There are tomes written on the lives of past missionaries, inspirational literature which guides the footsteps of those who now go forth into the world to spread the gospel.

If one wants to know more about these lives, one has only to go to a library and face the wall of stories written about these brave men and women who gave their all to preach to those who they felt needed the world of God. Methods and their effectiveness The effectiveness of missionaries appears to be tremendous, largely because of their determination and tenacity.

In Dilke's Greater Britain, he discusses how the English missionaries affected India: There never was such a scene in the world's history as is presented by the relations of England and India.

Here are a half-a-dozen different peoples, with populations of forty to four millions each, some of an origin entirely distinct from the rest, dissimilar to each other in dialect, in character, and in shades of religious faith, in laws of property, of marriage, and inheritance, all ruled by a few Europeans, to whom they are far more unlike than any one of themselves is to any other... They, further, teach these people the English language, English science, and the religious dogmas of the Anglican Church...

They encourage the discontinuance of old customs, the discussion of new ideas, the propagation of a new creed (Dilke 475). It is evident in India and other "oriental" countries, that Christianity has had a tremendous influence on every part of those nations' and peoples' lives. Modern missionary methods and doctrines, their approach, motives, strategy and effectiveness. It is true that contemporary missionaries do not set out with exactly the same sort of tools that their predecessors did.

Today there is more respect for the indigenous values of the natives and their languages. There were hard lessons learned in approach and strategy from the failures, such as in Canada, where native Aboriginal Indian children were torn, screaming from the arms of their parents to be placed in State-approved parochial schools, where they were forced to wear uniforms and stand in lines, forget their language and customs and conform to the strict behavioral guidelines of the nuns and priests, often being abused and starved in the process.

The mental health issues and anger that were the result of this forced indoctrination, not to speak of the legal repercussions of that have ensued to this day (Miller 219). Interviews with Biblical Scholars/Pastors/Reverends/Elders/Deacons / Church members as to why missionaries need to be sent? Interviews with anthropologists regarding cultural imperialism.

Mission targets: the people who have been affected by missionaries might be interviewed regarding their life with the missionaries and how has it changed their lives? The main question would be to these "targets" would be if the missionaries made their lives better or were they more invasive? There is a broad range of issues which may be learned through background research and issues raised through interviews of missionaries being videotaped. Part 3 (Cont.) Review of library and videotape research to date with bibliography and annotations.

The Png Buai Institute of Pacific Studies has videotape library with a broad range of subjects, including the Bouma Forest Project, Fiji, the Chinese Cultural Program, Indian Dancing and so forth, which videotapes are available for a price. The Montana Southern Baptist Convention has a library with books and videos on Southern Baptist missionary activities. The Alameda Church of Christ has a library of tapes/CDs and videotapes at their website with information about the Church of Christ missionaries.

There is a huge library of "General Pacific Rim" missionary activities, including documentaries, movies and TV programs available for viewing at the Media Resources Center in Moffitt Library, at U.C. Berkeley. There is a library of Children's Videotapes at the LINKS website hosted by the Church of the Nazarene. There are thousands of other libraries and banks containing relevant missionary videotapes are to be found on the internet, in churches, at public libraries and universities throughout the world.

Part 4:Index of experts to be consulted as part of research process with brief biographical information. Carlos Cardiza-Orlandi is an expert on religion in the global south. He holds a lectureship on Justice and Mission in the second annual Edwards-Presler Lectureship, which was held on October 15, 2007 in Louisville, KY. He is Associate Professor of World Christianity at Columbia Theological Seminary in Decatur, GA, and a minister in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ).

He has written books on history, religion and missiological interpretations of global religions concerning the Third World, Latin America and the Caribbean. His forthcoming book is entitled a todas las naciones: Una historia del movimiento christiano. Charles Marsh is the 2007 Edwards Lecturer on Peace and Justice. He is Professor of Religious and Theological Studies and Director of the Project on Lived Theology at the University of Virginia.

Raised as a minister's child in the south, he has published many books on the Gospel and theology, including his latest book Wayward Christian Soldiers: Freeing the Gospel from Political Captivity, published by Oxford Press in June of 2007 (LPTS 1). Summary of one research interview carried out to summarize the information gained through the film interview, I found that to be a missionary is not what it appears to be. The life of a missionary is one of being totally involved in the life of those one is ministering to.

The family of the missionary is also totally involved, as well. It involves living in a strange land, learning a strange language and learning strange customs, even though one is hoping to influence those around them in that foreign place. It often involves hardships that one does not expect. For instance, one cannot just open a can of vegetables for the evening meal. One might have to plow, plant, tend and harvest those vegetables before one can eat them.

It is quite a difficult life to live, when one is mainly motivated to preaching the word of God. Part 5: Overview of coverage of video to support story to be told in detail, as a narrative. Mr. Chang Don Tuc is videotaped on location in the Amazon, with some of the chieftains about him.

He holds a conversation with some of the chiefs and, through a translator (his daughter), the chiefs express their thankfulness for his showing them some progressive ways of finding water, planting crops and even creating a more effective bow and arrow, so they might get more food. Mr. Chang explains that he has come to the Amazon mainly to show the people there that it is possible to live a Christian life and find happiness and justice through the teachings of the Bible.

He has a class which he teaches the Bible to the children. His wife works with the women of the small village they live in, showing them how to sew or cook things. The women, in return, explain their diet and the benefits of their foods to her. The Chang's children, two girls, have lived in the village with their parents for two years, since the Changs came to the Amazon.

They are used to living in a grass hut and hunting for food in the jungle with the other children. They are well-educated and their mother continues to home-school them. The testimony of the chieftains and men of the tribe is positive and grateful, making for a genial and heart-warming experience as one watches the videotape. List of four potential funding sources for project. Explain why each would be interested in project.

The Southern Baptist Convention: The Southern Baptist Convention has the largest number of missionaries of any of the protestant denominations. They consider taking the Bible to the furthermost corners of the earth to be one of their main goals. A videotape of this sort would be welcome and would not be as costly as a film of the mission in the Amazon. The Church of the Nazarene has a budget to support mission activities.

Each missionary is able to draw from this budget and each church has adopted a missionary to support. The budget of the Church of the Nazarene includes contingencies such as videotaping.