YouTube has potential for building relationships and bringing different parts of the world together. I already knew that…but I didn’t expect it to be as literally true as this. Gret Glyer is a missionary living in the world’s poorest country, and he runs the Bad Missionary channel. This helps us get to know the names, faces, and stories of those he helps (and we can join him in helping).
Gret was kind enough to answer my questions about his own story about Africa, the direction of his channel, and a perspective you may not have heard before on world missions.
Can you tell our readers new to your channel a bit about who you are?
Gret: Don’t even know where to start with this haha. I’m a regular guy. I’m trying to follow Jesus and God has given me a heart for the poor.
What’s the story of how you became a missionary? Is it something you always planned?
G: Hmm, this is sort of a lengthy story. The brief version is that I was unhappy working at a rental car company, and I wanted something more out of life. I didn’t want to wake up in 20 years and the only accomplishment I would have to show for myself is being REALLY good at renting out cars. So I started looking for opportunities and nothing worked out, which made me depressed. Then after a season of being patient, God dropped the opportunity to go to Malawi into my lap.
What inspired you to create the Bad Missionary YouTube channel?
G: My first year in Malawi, I spent a lot of time blogging…with words. And it took about 6 months before I realized that words only go so far to express the situation in another country. Especially a country like Malawi that is so different than the States. It’s so different that it would be like describing another planet. There’s just no frame of reference for the average American to understand the culture. So I made the channel as part of my efforts to better relate my experiences in Malawi to an audience in America.
What does a typical day ministering in Malawi look like for you? Is it anything like a video game where you’re the wanderer in search of quests to help others?
G: This video does a decent job of showing an average day:
Lots of different stuff happening in all sorts of different contexts. I actually think an RPG character whose on a quest is a pretty good analogy. A lot of time I’ll have a loose idea of what I’m trying to accomplish, and I just know that I have to complete the problem in front of me before I move onto the next thing. Sometimes that means going into a village without a translator and trying to find the chief. Other times it means brainstorming a marketing strategy to fundraise money for a family that needs a house.
- Gret’s series “The Tour” tells a fun and witty story with a mockumentary feel. Think The Office meets African missions.