Easy steps to performing your first healing:
1) go to a place where you don't speak the language.
2) make sure that the only people who come to you for healing have an invisible disability.
3) make sure you have a translator who has prepped the community for your visit.
1) go to a place where you don't speak the language.
2) make sure that the only people who come to you for healing have an invisible disability.
3) make sure you have a translator who has prepped the community for your visit.
Here's the thing: trying to confirm something like this is rather complicated.
And if it were confirmed and subsequently broadcasted as true, it would only serves to encourage more people to do phony faith healing activities.
And if it were confirmed and subsequently broadcasted as true, it would only serves to encourage more people to do phony faith healing activities.
Chan's initiative here is partnered with YWAM and Antioch church. They have a five year plan for flooding Myanmar with their brand of good news. I have yet to hear anything about it that sounds healthy or even well-thought out.
They're apparently coming to work with the Myanmar church, but get this: their latest official meeting was held in English, with NO translators present. A Burmese-speaking friend was invited to attend and couldn't understand anything because the meeting was not held in Burmese.
Another friend shook her head after attending the same meeting, saying,"what happens is that the only Myanmar church people who will end up getting involved with this project are the ones who speak English. And the ones who speak English are often quite proud."
fact is: when you come to a place like Myanmar and only work with people who speak English, you are working with a very particular demographic, one that's typically wealthier, and not uncommonly disconnected from the lived experiences of those outside of church socialite circles.
the other fact is: this rushed brand of microwave-brand, frantic evangelism leaves no room for the kind of slowness that is necessary for healthy relationships and learning.
It takes many years of immersion and language study to really understand what is going on around you.
It takes many years of immersion and language study to really understand what is going on around you.
The fact that Chan and these YWAMers are coming in for occasional quick trips is proof that they are not curious enough to find out more.
This is a campaign, and it is highly numbers-focused. The less you know, the easier it is to report great numbers for donors in America.
This is a campaign, and it is highly numbers-focused. The less you know, the easier it is to report great numbers for donors in America.
I honestly hope we stop seeing news bites about Chan b/c I don't like tweeting about this. But I know that there are people who want to think thru these issues, and that, due to the distance/culture factors, it's hard to know what questions to ask.
There is a difference between cynicism and genuinely challenging the way we use our power in cross-cultural settings. Hopefully Chan's poor behavior can help us all to form some new ways of thinking about both the power and the impotence of American Christian exports.
