Mildred L. Larson

Sections of this book were fascinating but there were other chapters that had too much detail about organisational matters and procedures. The book would be a great read if it was half the length with some of the bureaucracy edited out.

The author Mildred Larson served as a Wycliffe missionary in northern Peru near the Ecuador border. She was sent to work with the Aguaruna people which had no written language at the time. She faced all of the usual cultural dilemmas when working with primitive people groups. She describes many of the issues in a lot of detail including relaying conversations in full. I found this quite interesting and amusing in places as it was evident where the misunderstandings had occurred. She set about producing a New Testament in the local language with the help of several Aguaruna students.

The short chapters in this book worked well but it also seemed as if she felt that she had to include everything that had happened in some kind of chronological order even if she couldn't remember exactly what had happened. It would have been better to have skipped those sections, leaving them out completely and just focused on the stories that would interest readers.

The mission work seemed to come under serious demonic attack and the Bible translators experienced some pretty heavy spiritual warfare at these times. I wasn't sure what to make of this as they seemed to be casting demons out of everyone. The author herself was dubious but allowed herself to be influenced by what she witnessed which is understandable. The exorcisms were apparently successful as the various victims returned to their work. However, some of them had to be repeatedly delivered...

I was more concerned by the author's turn towards ecumenism near the end of her work. There were RC congregations working in the same area and the mission ended up effectively joining with them and partnering together in ministry. The author had previously been against this idea.

The author shares a lot of her personal spiritual struggles and her journey with God. Some of this was interesting as it mirrored my own missionary journey. I did a double take when she quoted a verse that had convicted her when she began thinking about solving spiritual problems with money. The same verse had convicted me when I had begun thinking along those lines in a similar situation. However, it can be difficult to relate to someone else's spiritual journey and I would have preferred less detail in this area.

The most interesting aspect to this book is that due to the length of time the author was on the field, she witnessed the dramatic changes to the primitive culture as civilisation gradually took over. Some of this was due to the work of the mission through education and livelihood projects. Some was inevitable as the government wanted control of the land. The author highlights the positive and negative aspects of the changes to the culture. The people themselves complained about their new-found busyness and often longed for their easy going, relaxed past lifestyles.

This is not one of the best missionary biographies I have read, yet there are unique aspects to it that make it worth reading. Some may enjoy it.… (altro)