Missionary Stereotype

Many thanks to the brilliant Mr. Don Newby. I am remembering your songs and my past this night, and am grateful that you put this in your album, as it has always struck a chord with me.

Missionary Stereotype
"Well maybe to you I look just right;
a missionary stereotype:
Old-fashioned clothes and hair and shoes,
I live a life that you'd never choose.
I'm never tempted and I constantly pray,
read my bible twenty-four hours a day
(which naturally is King James, black,
it's pages worn and its cover cracked).

Well I won 2,000 souls last week,
I'm always patient, kind, and meek.
My wife and I, we never fight;
our kids don't sin, our dog won't bite.
We dine on canned goods and monkey meat,
runnin' round the jungle in bare feet.
The natives like to call me b'wana.
I lost my finger once to a piranha.

Oh, but here I am, Lord,
You can send me. Help the world begin to see.
Here I am, Lord, your command is my goal,
to reach the lost and needy soul.

Well if you think that this is all true,
I have got some news for you:
A missionary is just like you or me,
he ain't got no super-spirituality.
He's got temptations and problems too.
He needs God's strength just as much as you.
But most of all this life that you see
is one of simple availability.

So here I am, Lord, you can send me.
Help the world begin to see.
Here I am, Lord, your command is my goal,
to reach the lost and needy soul."

~Don Newby.