A tentmaker’s life, work, and ministry balance is a tricky one. Being in a strange culture takes its toll, and dealing with co-workers from many nations while trying to find downtime is an ever-present challenge.
Add to this the many interactions, welcome or not, with locals and their agendas, and avoidance of people can easily become commonplace.
The most frequent interruption is someone wanting to practice their English skills, who views the tentmaker as a free lesson or perhaps as an opportunity to make a new friend to take these lessons even deeper. It starts innocently enough with common greetings and questions. What is your name? Where are you from? Why are you here? What do you believe? These are the most common questions heard by tentmakers.
It is easy to just dismiss these situations as interferences or annoyances.
Why did you come here, when everyone in my country wants to move to yours? is a frequent question from a curious local. Can you help me immigrate to your country? Again, the tentmaker is seen only as a means to an end, and the local is not really interested in building a relationship.
Let me show you this product that you can sell in your home country!
While tentmakers in Asia, our pharmacy owner would always corner me to try to go into business exporting his vitamin line. A quick check on how much his vitamins were selling for in my country made it obvious that his price was already higher than what they could be sold for. No amount of sharing this information with him dissuaded him from trying to start a partnership that would only benefit him. I started avoiding him at all cost.
Depending on what country you are from, people want to criticize your country and government. Usually, these same people are also very fluent in English and think they know everything about your country and its errors. It is easy to dislike people who put down what you hold dear.
How do you then deal with these locals with agendas?
Look at it this way: you have come to their country in the hopes of sharing your faith and seeing people come to Jesus. While you are busy trying to figure out whom to reach out to, they are already coming to you. What if they are sent by God?
“The reason we miss divine appointments is that they often seem like divine annoyances”
A recently returned tentmaker told me that the most annoying person they met had become a believer and was already discipling others. The personality characteristics of a seemingly “annoying” person also made him a “go-getter” for the Lord.
Next time you see someone heading toward you, why not try sighing a quick prayer, asking God to intervene, and following His lead. Who knows, it may be a divine appointment after all.
By Ari Rocklin