Missionary work has given Fr. Joe Hund more than a good grasp of geography. It has taught him patience, tolerance and flexibility. It has enabled him to see the world and discover the glorious diversity of its people. And it has shown him that there are many different ways to love the Lord — all valid, all valuable.

In 30 years of service in Malawi, Tanzania, the Philippines, Jamaica and now Namibia, “I have brought a lot of cultural baggage,” Joe says. “I need to be careful not to open that baggage when I’m on someone else’s sacred ground.” He freely admits, “I’ve made a lot of mistakes, cultural blunders. But you have to have the humility to begin again.” It is that humility — the knowledge that they are students as well as teachers — that has characterized the missionary service of the friars of St. John the Baptist Province.

The ideal missionary, Joe says, is someone like Br. Philip Wilhelm — “humble, peaceful, prayerful.” For almost 40 years, Philip has ministered at a public service hospital in the Philippines that is home to more than 700 patients with Hansen’s disease (leprosy). “I have great regard for his Franciscan witness and ministry,” Joe says. “Before I left for the Philippines he sat down with me and told me stories and

kindled the fire of my going.” And after Joe arrived, “He took me to a leprosarium and broke down all my fears.”

Stepping outside of his comfort zone — way outside — Joe has fought life-threatening illness, struggled to master languages, crossed scary seas in outrigger canoes, avoided encounters with panthers and learned to live with friars of every ethnicity.

For Fr. John Joseph Gonchar, “It was adventuresome,” he says of his decision to go to Jamaica in 2002 at the age of 71. “I always had a desire to be a foreign missionary, and I had the chance.”

When Fr. Sylvester Espelage left for China in 1905, “There was an element of, ‘We’re not going to see this person alive again,’ ” says Fr. Pat McCloskey, co-author with Arnulf Camps of The Friars Minor in China (1294-1955), published by the General Secretary for Missionary Evangelization (Rome, 1995). “It was a life commitment.” Letters home rarely exaggerated the hardships. Missionaries in China faced famine, floods, pestilence, prejudice and harassment, first from war lords, later from a Communist government that expelled most of the friars and imprisoned those they considered subversive.

Fr. Peter Paul James wrote from the Philippines in 1971: “Since coming here I have witnessed four big typhoons, two big earthquakes, a volcanic eruption, not to mention countless smaller shocks, electrical storms and even a couple of falling comets (which didn’t wreck anything). I can only say that things were never like this in Indiana.”

There are two seasons in the Philippines, says former missionary Fr. Dan Kroger, who returned from Manila in 2006: “Hot and wet or hot and dry.” Electricity had not yet reached the remote island of Maripipi when Dan arrived in 1979. Roads were rudimentary; when seas got rough, travel was impossible. Dysentery from drinking the water was inevitable. “Sooner or later, you were going to get it.”

The first rectory occupied by friars in Naval, the Philippines (in 1958), had “a thatched roof and a dirt floor, and that was all,” Fr. Bede Clancy wrote in a history of the missions. “Any plumbing and furniture there may have

been had been removed by the former pastor.” At the church they inherited on Biliran Island, “It seems that there were no front doors, and so the local animals went in and out and did what they wanted with no interference.... No matter what one imagines, the reality is always different and usually harder.”

“I knew it was going to be difficult,” says Br. Scott Obrecht, former Moderator of Missionary Evangelization for the friars and a veteran of service in the Philippines. “A lot of it is culture shock. You get there and everything is new. You don’t have the support groups you had. Everybody’s talking this language you don’t understand, and [because of your skin color] you stand out.”

For newly arrived friars, the main source of support was each other. “When I first got there, [Fr.] Elwin Harrington would be the one I would sit up with over a kerosene lamp and he would share his stories about being a missionary,” Scott says. “He was not a high-profile person, he wasn’t aspiring to greatness. He was just a kind man, content being a parish priest and serving the people — and the people responded to him.”

As John Joseph learned during six-plus years in Jamaica, success in the missions depends almost entirely upon “your health and your attitude.”

When three missionary friars moved to the Diocese of Montego Bay in 2000, they found a world of contradictions. Beyond the sparkling sands of resorts — the side tourists see — are many Jamaicans living in abject poverty, their families splintered by crime, drugs and prostitution. In a population that is 90% Protestant, only 5% are Catholic. “In evangelizing, you’re not going to teach them Christ,” says John Joseph. “They already know Christ.” Mindful of that, the friars are engaged in a ministry of presence — the legacy of which, God willing, is peace, hope and stability.

“You go to learn, to be of service to people,” Scott says of the missionary mindset. “You have to be open to new language, food, travel, and willing to let go of how you do things.” And eventually you realize that conversion, the centuries-old motive for missionary activity, is a two-way street.

Joe’s service overseas has taught him “the value of interpersonal relationships.” In the poorest parts of the world, “A person is more important than a goal. To make and keep friends is a treasure.”

Without question, Scott says, “I think the biggest thing people taught me is to trust in God and to open your life to others,” as a story from his early days in the Philippines illustrates. “I visited the family of a coconut farmer. They lived in this little hut and when I went to see them, we sat on benches around a table. The two kids ran off and came back with a big bottle of Coke and a bag of biscuits. These people were dirt-poor and they really couldn’t afford it, but they had a visitor and it happened to be me. That was a big lesson for me: No matter what they had, they were going to share it.”

As missionaries will tell you, they’re often the ones who are being evangelized.