In the summer of 2015, I got a chance to have conversations with real missionaries. What a blessing!
Madelon met Akbar as she worked in his native country, India. They now both work together to reach the people of India. That summer they came to the States to do Literature Evangelism and attend the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists.
In the interview, I mainly talked with Madelon, but Akbar jumped in the share some wisdom at the end.
Where have you served as a missionary?
My name is Madelon and I was born and raised in the Netherlands
When I was 21, I went to England to do an Evangelism course. I worked there as a Bible worker. Then, I went to India one day with my brother for a visit, not a touristic visit, but more to see the culture. Then, I went back to India as a teacher for a medical missionary school and that’s when I got engaged. Then I became a permanent missionary in India after I got married. I also served as a canvasser (literature evangelist) here in the States.
What is your favorite thing about India?
The people are very hospitable. It’s a vast field for missionary work because only 3% are Christian and it’s the second largest country in the world with over 2.7 billion people 85% is Hindu and the next majority is Muslim. Adventism is very minimal. It [the Adventist population] looks like a lot when you look at the membership, but compared to the rest of the population is very minimal.
What is favorite thing about England?
Then culture is nice. The people are friendly in general.
Even more friendly than Americans?
In a different way. I mean the British people are a lot more, um… Well, the Adventist Church is not a very good representation of what the population of the UK is like because 80% of the UK is Caucasian and 20% is foreign people, but in the church it is the opposite. It is 80% from the Caribbean, from Africa, from India or from Asia and only 20% is Caucasian. So, the Adventist culture is very different, but I loved it. I love the Caribbean culture. They are trying to reach the white people more because it is the majority in England. So, that was the challenge while we were working there as Bible workers. Trying to reach out to, well, anyone of course. A lot of them [English people] are nonreligious, atheistic or just materialistic. They just have a postmodern mindset –what’s true for you is not true for me. That kind of: If that works for you it’s great, but religion, church, it’s just not for me.
What is your favorite thing about the US?
That you can talk about God so openly with any person at the doors. That’s something you cannot do in India, neither in the West, in my country –the Netherlands, nor in the UK. In the UK, I remember doing surveys at the doors and people would be very… Once you make that switch to more spiritual things people are a little bit more like, “Awkward…” They just, you know, feel awkward. But here in the US, you can just talk about God almost straight off. Someone just opens the door and when you see that they are maybe not that interested you can just straight away ask them, “Is there anything I can pray for?” You would not get away with that in Europe. People would just be like, “You’re a little bit strange!” That’s something that I really appreciate about America. That people, in general, are quite spiritual. Some less open than others, but are more open than many other parts of the world. So, that’s something that I really appreciate about America.
What have you learned through your experiences that has helped you spread the gospel in other parts of the world?
What I have learned especially from India is to just put things in perspective. What is really important in life. Yes, it is important to have a cellphone, but it is more important to have a roof over your head. Yes, it is important to have certain type of clothing and wear certain shoes, but it’s more important to have food. It’s more important to have friendships. And that something that I really saw in India that there are so many people that sleep on the streets in the night or have been rejected by their families or… There are just so many more things that made me appreciate more what I have and make me less complain [sic] about what I don’t have. If you have food, clothing, water… Those are the most essential things you need.
Apart from just the physical necessities, being in a Hindu country made me realize that Christianity is such a blessing. Something else that really made me appreciate Christianity is just comparing the culture and the religion with each other. Christianity brings so much common sense in life, it brings so much purpose in life. If you look at the rituals and the customs in India, they are empty. They are noisy. Their festivals are just like a bunch of noise. It’s just drums or loud music and you see people just not thinking straight. They’re drinking and they’re dancing and that is their religion –that is what they do to please their gods so that they will bless them.
It just made me realize what a blessing it is to have a clear mind and to choose to serve God. We also desire to please God, but not so that he will bless us. We please Him because he has blessed us and that it such a huge difference.
That’s why the West have been blooming and that’s why India has not. It may seem like it is blooming, but at the very foundation of it there is still so much corruption, so much dishonesty, that India –as a nation—if they do not become a more righteous nation, they will not grow. They will not prosper. I truly believe that Jesus will come before that will ever happen, you know.
That’s something that I’ve learned from being in India. What a blessing Christianity is. [As well as] what are the necessities –what do you really need in life—and what are just things that are nice to have, but they are not essential.
What are three things that you’ve learned while serving as a missionary?
Being in India, something I have learned –someone made it as a beatitude: Blessed are the flexible for they shall not break. That’s something I have really learned in India. You need to be flexible because time is like…how do you call that? Time is… It’s the variable. If they say that it’s 8 o’ clock that something starts. Keep it in your mind that it might start at 8:30, 9 o’ clock, 9:30, you know. Keep it in your mind that let’s aim for 8 o’ clock, but don’t be surprised if it’s later.
See people the way Christ sees them. That is something that God is still teaching me. It’s so tempting to, in your mind, make a hierarchy. Like, okay, this person has more priority. I should talk to him more because of what he has studied or what he has learn or the way he looks or whatnot, but that’s not what we should look at because every single soul is worth eternity –is worth the life of God.
Canvassing has been a great learning experience for me as well. This has been the third program that we’ve done. Just to realize that it’s not about my ability; it’s about what God can do. So just be willing. Be willing to do whatever God asks you to do. Then, realize that you’re not able to do it anyways. So, just do your God-given best and leave the rest up to God. That’s something I’ve learned from canvassing as well. You can know your canvass perfectly, you can know how to persuade people and how to bring them up to up to the right point and everything, but if you don’t have the Holy Spirit –if you don’t have the mind of Christ, all that is futile. There is just no point. So, a connection with God, in doing God’s work, is very essential. Without it you might have some success. People might be touched, but it could have been even much more.
What advice do you have for future missionaries? How should we prepare? What kind of thing should we be doing? So that we can be ready to serve God.
Akbar: To be prepared for God is to start the missionary work here at home. Many times we like to be a missionary going to another country, but it starts at our home –how we deal with our parents, how we deal with our brothers, how we deal with our neighbors and way we deal with them that counts first. God prepares you at your home first then prepares you elsewhere.
Madelon: That’s very true. If you want to be a missionary, be a missionary at home first. If you are thinking of being a teacher somewhere abroad, like helping out in the local church, first try to do something in your own church. If you’re just sitting somewhere at home and you’re thinking that you’re just going to change. Well, you might be shocked at what you don’t know.
Just start doing what you can even in simple things when you go grocery shopping try and see if anyone needs help. That is actually medical missionary work. Medical missionary work does not always have to have medical part to it, but it’s just…
Akbar: …simple help.
Madelon: Exactly, Christian service. Helping other people as you develop that you will have a greater longing to help people on deeper levels. Both spiritually and physically. Start from the home.
Also, God can give you a love for a certain place. Like, for some people that is the continent of Africa, for other people that’s Asia, or South America or America –North America. So, God will put on your heart a burden for a certain place or a certain people group or a country. God does that for a reason. Sometimes, He does call you complete out of your comfort zone, but that doesn’t come for everybody.
For example, for me as well, for quite some time, when I was a teenager, I had a slight interest in sign language and being able to communicate with the deaf. I learned the ABCs first and then I did some other things. Now, it seems that God is directing me to get even more involved with people who are deaf and to learn a little bit more sign language. So, God has put that on my heart already from very young and it has already developed more.
So, see what are things that are on your heart. What you may want to develop more and do your research. Be active. Take initiative. Try to learn more about a country even before you get there. Learn about their culture. Those are things that are important.
Before you go out first go up –connect with God. Let Him tell you where to go. Then, do as much as you can in your direct environment.
What is the gospel according you?
Madelon: Is of course the good news of salvation. That Jesus came to take us out of sin. Then, in practical form how we should live out the gospel, for me, that is medical missionary work. Let it have a practical form. That’s what Jesus did the most. Of the three forms –He did teaching, He did preaching, He did healing—what did he do the most? He did most healing. So, we also…
Akbar: …and teaching!
Madelon: We should not just be preaching at people and not just teach… Teaching is even more important that preaching. But healing… That’s when people see that you care about them. Not just want [them to] learn what you have to say and believe what you have to say, but they know that you care for them. Because there might be some people that have never… like people have not touched them for a long time because of an illness they have or for some sort of reason and touch can make such a big difference already.
Being able to the do that [bring healing] with simple remedies. That shows that God has to be the healer because it is from nature. It’s not some sort of unpronounceable medication that they are taking. It comes straight from nature. God wants to restore us back into His image and that’s what we ought to do as well. That’s what the gospel is partly. Just from the top of my mind.
Akbar: And it is hand in hand. Isaiah 58 speaks about it so clearly. If we don’t practice this at home, then again I say: It’s basically, as a family, if I am not able to relate to my wife when she is in need of help and even if she is not in need of help, how can I relate to the society that is around me. So, that’s what Jesus did he was always there around people. You know, that’s the same thing with us. The more we are able to reach out the more God is there with us. We should lack self and let God take control of our life. We should say, “God, I am going to do your will.”
“You want us to do your will. God we will do.”
But don’t think what is going to happen for us? Don’t have all those thoughts, but more forward with faith. That’s the main thing: preparing our hearts. The more we do the work that God has called us to we prepare our hearts as well as we prepare the people for the coming of Jesus. So, that they can see Jesus.
Visiting the mountains of Maricao with Yolanda. 
Emissus 