A million things about Latin America

Another dose of missionary medicine:

• Latin America is full of first generation Christians who have never lived in a Christian culture or seen any models of how to live as a Christian.
• The missionaries who have been to Latin America converted people and modelled converting people, so that's what the locals know to do - they just go out and convert people. They don't know what to do once people are converted and have only ever had bad methods of interpreting the Bible modelled.
• Pastors have no more than 1 year theological training, if any. Some can't read or write.
  
• Christian women will get together in a women's group or get children together, but often they don't know what to do in the group, so they just do cross-stitch or give the kids colouring in to do.
• People on the ball are keen to be taught how to read the Bible sensibly and apply it to their lives. But these things are new concepts.
• Because they're new concepts, as a missionary you need to propose something to the bishop or whoever. If you wait for them to come up with some ministry idea for you to do, you'll be waiting forever. There's every chance they will be totally keen for whatever you propose.
• There are two denominations that are evangelical (ie Bible focused) in Latin America - Baptist and Anglican. The Presbyterians and Methodists tend to be liberal because they come from the liberal US branches. The pentecostal churches are socially conservative - no dancing, smoking, drinking etc.
  
• The pentecostal churches have church FOR THREE HOURS EVERY SINGLE EVENING AND TWO SERVICES ON SUNDAY!!!!!! It stems from a culture where men would go out every night and spend their earnings getting drunk and come home and beat their wives. Once they become Christian, they go with their family to church each evening instead, give a tenth of their income to the church (they have to), then have money left over the next day to feed and clothe their family.

H/T Andrew and Paulina