When you come to South America, one of the big questions to ask is, “To flush or not to flush?” I am serious! Not everything goes down the toilet here, and that includes toilet paper. Ok so there is also a name change that comes with that. If you cannot flush toilet paper down the toilet, well it makes sense that it shouldn’t be called toilet paper. So, what better name to use than hygienic paper? Now, I have started doing a survey and so far, it seems many countries in South America actually do not flush toilet paper, or hygienic paper. I have learned flushing toilet paper could be problematic in Brazil, Bolivia, Chile and Colombia. However, Argentina is one of those countries that has that capability. Praise the Lord!!! Therefore, you can flush away in Argentina without the stress of remembering to put that paper in the garbage bin instead of the toilet.
Imagine my horror on my first day in Brazil when I was told by Swiss missionaries that I couldn’t flush paper down the toilet. I laughed, thinking they were joking. But one of them looked at me and while shaking his head he said, “You don’t want to do it.” With that ominous warning, there started my stress. Tension built every time I had to go to the bathroom, and I usually go a lot, so I was stressed out often and on high alert when I used the bathroom as I did not want to create a major accident. On those occasions when I was not focusing, I threw the paper in the toilet unintentionally, so in went my hand to retrieve the paper before it flushed. Now this stress happens in reverse also. A friend from Chile told me the first time he went to the United States he was very concerned when he could not find a garbage bin in which to put the used paper. He went around walking with the paper in his hand until he could find a place to deposit it. Finally, later someone told him that was not done in the United States.
When you go into a different culture you never know what you will face. Not only are foods and languages different, but also medicines may not be similar. I just wanted a simple Advil cold and sinus capsule, but in a number of countries finding it is not that simple. There is no such brand in some countries, while in others the brand is there, but they don’t have the one specifically for cold and sinus. I had to find this out the hard way. Also, a common wash rag for your body can be rare to find as it is not used in some countries. And mops don’t look like what many of us regard as the norm.
I am learning that what others do may be strange to us, and for those same people what we do is quite weird to them. However, we should never let these things become obstacles to sharing the Gospel and spreading God’s love. In God’s Kingdom we should always be ready to adapt and not to just settle in our own ways, thinking our way is better than the other person’s. Different may not mean better or worse. And whether we go to spread the Gospel across the street, across town, across the nation, or across the world, we must never forget we all have different backgrounds and ways of doing things. The Apostle Paul understood this well as he went on his missionary journeys.
And to the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might win Jews; to those who are under the law, as under the law, that I might win those who are under the law; to those who are without law, as without law (not being without law toward God, but under law toward Christ), that I might win those who are without law; to the weak I became as weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all men, that I might by all means save some. 1 Corinthians 9:20-22
On our missionary journey (once we become a Christian, we are on a missionary journey no matter where we are as we need to not only speak about the Gospel but live it as well) we too must be adaptable as Paul was so that he could win some souls for Christ. We should never think that a person’s culture is inferior to ours as our prejudices may hinder us in sharing God’s love and thereby displaying the Gospel in our lives to the lost.
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