Administry

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Paperwork, spreadsheets, filing, correspondence, keeping records, compliance, logistics, making sure to order replacement toner for the photocopier… Administration.

It’s all pretty ordinary stuff. It’s not exactly the same as being a doctor or a teacher or a theological lecturer, is it?

It’s not the same at all. It’s an entirely different and valuable set of skills. Administration is necessary to run any organisation, program, or NGO. Administration is ministry. Administry.

Shared by a worker in Administry:

I long for others with various administrative giftings to recognise that, no matter where they work, at home or abroad, the role they fill is not service at the whim of their employer, but rather is support which enables their employer. It is valuable. To have an administrative position in an organisational office, a doctor’s surgery, a store, a church, a tiny three-person business – anywhere at all! – is to have an opportunity to support and enable that team in such a way that they can thrive in their roles – and all the while, the administrative person also thrives in theirs.

There are so many in various levels of mission leadership across the globe who simply need a helping hand. They need someone to carry out tasks within their administrative skillset which in turn releases the currently-weary leader to do the same within his/her own specific and God-given skillset. There are leaders who are losing sight of their own heart-ministry, simply because there is essential administrative work to do to fulfill their leadership role. There is, therefore, simply not the capacity to fully invest themselves in that original ministry. That is not to say that the role that God has placed them in is wrong – not at all! – but they simply need help to blend and fulfill their roles.

Ministries, organisations and NGOs across Asia and the Arab world need people skilled and willing to serve in administry.

 

Would you consider serving?

Project-based Web Development | South Asia
Finance & Facility Director | South East Asia
Office Administrator | Arab world
Administrator & Grant Writer | Australia
Publicist & Proposal Writer | Central Asia
More Administration roles...

Up to Him

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Recently, as I started the last chapter of Romans in my quiet time it struck me that Paul sent greetings to three women who have worked hard in the Lord. What got me what that in this particular letter he didn’t say these women worked hard for the Lord or even with Him but in Him!

Well-known worker Elisabeth Elliot spent time with a tribe in South America translating our Book into their heart language. At the end of her time there, all her hard work was destroyed and she was left with nothing to show for all those years.

If my goal is to work for Him or with Him without being in Him, then if something like this were to happen to me I would be devastated. To work for someone requires you to have things accomplished at the end of the day – otherwise it would feel like a failed day. To work with someone requires you to bring your own strength and resources to the table.

On the days when my language lessons end in fogginess and confusion; the times when I leave work frustrated because tasks I could get done in one hour in Australia seem to take the whole day here; and those moments when I find out that trying to be kind to someone gave them the wrong impression, these three little words mean everything to me! In the Lord. 


“What is the chief end of man? It is to glorify Him and to enjoy Him forever.”

To work for Him and with Him without being in Him will inevitably lead to tears and frustration because it means working in my weak strength and powerless power. In the end I will have nothing of worth to show. But to work in Him means I can work in His strength. I can make decisions in His wisdom, I can live at peace with others in His peace, and I can glory in His joy, righteousness, faithfulness, power, and Fatherly love.

Elisabeth’s response to the tragedy reflected her knowledge of this: “Now in the clear light of day I see that God, if he was merely my accomplice, he had betrayed me. If, on the other hand He was God, He had freed me.” She saw that her ultimate reason in going to South America was not to complete a Bible translation or to plant a church, it was to glorify Him and to enjoy Him there. Elisabeth and the women that Paul greeted were able to work hard for and with the Lord because they were working in Him. They could work hard in Him and then trust that the right results were up to Him.

Please pray that I might live and work in Him and not try to live in my own strength. I need to remember this daily.

 

These reflections were shared by an On Tracker working in Business as Mission in the Arab world.

The bigger picture

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I held the piece in my hand, staying intently at its detail. It didn’t seem to fit. I couldn’t make sense of it.

We were at breaking point in the puzzle-making process.

Recently, Mason had received a puzzle from his grandparents that was too difficult for him to do alone, so I had happily agreed to help. The initial sorting was easy. The making of the border, not too hard. But then came the middle section. Oh, the middle section! The pieces that make up the landscape of sky and trees that agonizingly all look the same the more you look at them. Where each ambiguous piece holds endless possibility for its placement in the bigger picture. But never seems to fits anywhere.

That was when Mason skipped off to play with his sister.

I was on my own.

Labouring on for what seemed like hours, I experienced moderate success but predominantly failed to place the pieces. The more I examined them, the less they looked like they belonged. As if they were independent of the greater scene. As if they were only there to mock me. I realised I needed a break, because this puzzle was no longer fun and because thinking that inanimate objects are mocking you is not normal.

A while later, I returned. And it was like seeing the picture for the first time. I suddenly became acutely aware of the whole scene and could clearly see where individual pieces fit. Piece after piece quickly and effortlessly fit into the spaces. Pieces that had previously been so ambiguous, confusing and stress-inducing now became obvious as they settled into their place. The more I added, the clearer the picture became. And once again, I found myself enjoying the activity.

Our lives can often feel like a puzzle here. Multiple pieces – relationships, activities, responsibilities, work – can be an emotional drain. When our gaze is brought low, we lose sight of the whole. Fixating on the minute detail of one solitary piece. Stressed by the detail. Unable to see how all the pieces fit together to tell a bigger story. This is what happens when we don’t step away from it all to look at the picture anew.

Recently, we did take time to pause, reflect and consider how all the pieces fit together in  the bigger landscape of our lives in this world. In this place where we live. Alongside our friends, colleagues and neighbours. From the mundane and routine to the special events. Each piece significant in its relationship to the whole. The greater story of why we are here. Jesus said the two greatest commandments are to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul and mind and to love your neighbour as yourself. And so, we discussed how each activity, relationship, responsibility is part of a bigger story. How we live to love and serve others. To seek God in everything. No piece more sacred than any other.

After that, the individual pieces began to fit effortlessly into the bigger picture. Once again, we could approach each aspect of our lives with joy and purpose. And when our gaze is brought low again, we will remind each other to step away, take a breath, appreciate all the pieces as they fit together, and give thanks.

So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.

2 Corinthians 4:18

 
Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’” 

Matthew 22:37-39
The author is an On Tracker in South East Asia.

Names have been changed.

Crossing cultures: 11 lessons learned

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Crossing cultures isn’t easy. Getting to know your neighbour, making friends and building cross-cultural communities is something that definitely takes time and effort. But it doesn’t take a superhero! Here’s eleven lessons learned by an experienced cross-cultural practitioner.

 

  1. Culture tends to follow the line of least resistance. So, unless we make a conscious effort, crossing cultures doesn’t happen. Birds of a feather flock together.
  2. Practise hospitality across cultures! Many Anglo Aussies seem to have lost the art of hospitality. We’re ready to attend cultural events or meals across cultures when invited, but do we invite newcomers to ours?
  3. People from other cultures are often very happy to talk about their own faith, and yours. For them, religion is not a taboo subject.
  4. Don’t limit yourself before you start. Some Aussie Christians with very little previous exposure to people of minority ethnic groups become excellent cross-cultural workers.
  5. Photo albums can be a great way to learn about your friends who come from other cultures, and albums work in both directions.
  6. For many migrants to Australia, ethnic identity is very much bound up with religious identity. Remember that it can be costly for such people to become Christians.
  7. We all have cultural lenses. We can look at the same situation but how we see it is different. If we’re aware of our own cultural lenses and other people’s, friendships will come more easily.
  8. If you want your church to be more multi-ethnic, it’s important to make sure the leaders are on board. They may not need to be the ones who direct cross-cultural ministry going forward, but they need to be involved and enthusiastic.
  9. In our churches, it’s inevitable that people’s cultures shape their understanding of what constitutes a good leader, and good leadership, as well as appropriate decision-making styles.
  10. Wherever possible, try to set up a diverse team! When planning for a multi-ethnic church, be sure to include people from minority cultures in the planning process, and ensure that they are in up-front leadership roles as well.
  11. There is increasing evidence that children of Christian migrants are leaving the church in significant numbers. We need to plan for this generation by addressing the challenges and overcoming them.

 

Hopefully these lessons will help you as you get to know your neighbour!

 

Andrew Schachtel worked overseas with Interserve for more than 20 years, and now serves as a team member of Interserve’s CultureConnect ministry engaging migrants, refugees and international students. He co-authored Changing Lanes, Crossing Cultures.

 

 

Learn more about each of these topics in Changing Lanes, Crossing Cultures by Andrew Schachtel, Choon-Hwa Lim and Michael K Wilson.

You can order the book here.

 

 

 

Ordinary Christian

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As I read the Gospels I am continually drawn to the disciples and the way they acted (or didn’t).

Far from being brilliant scholars, political animals, or seasoned leaders I see a ragtag bunch of people from across the spectrum of society at the time. Jesus didn’t head hunt any of them from high office or find people with exceptional people management skills. Throughout Jesus’ ministry and intensive teaching they really didn’t understand what He was on about. Metaphorically, they were still trying to put a square peg in a round hole.

Yet these people became the foundation of the church that grew like wildfire, grasped the deep truths of Jesus, saw the faith cross into other cultures, and led through much persecution. The transformation of this ragtag group came from a willingness to allow the Holy Spirit to work in and through them.

In my role I get to work with and support people who are not super Christians. They have weaknesses and strengths like you or I. But what I do see is ordinary Christians achieving extraordinary things through the power, wisdom and strength of the Holy Spirit working within them.

As we pray for our Partners, On Trackers and CultureConnect team members this month, remember that these people aren’t different to you or I. While you might only see yourself as an ordinary Christian, through your willingness to pray you are opening the way for the Holy Spirit to work in extraordinary ways.

Would you take two minutes – right now – to pray for a cross-cultural worker you know?

Ben
Personnel Manger QLD/NT

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Reaching the scattered

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Diaspora missions is fast becoming a buzzword among Christian missions around the world.

While it may sound new to many Christians, “diaspora” is in fact a very old phenomenon since the Old Testament times. This word originates from the Greek translations of the Hebrew Bible, meaning “dispersion or scattering” of the Jews after their captivity in Babylonia in the 5th century BC.

Fast forward to the modern times, the last century has witnessed an unprecedented spike in both international and internal migration largely due to globalization, technological advancement, natural disasters, regional conflicts, civil wars, oppression, and persecution. The effects of the current conflicts in the Middle East and elsewhere are even more pronounced, resulting in the human tidal waves of refugees and displaced people flooding across Europe, Africa, Middle East and Asia. As if history is repeating itself, the worst-hit refugee crisis area happens to be the very same area where the ancient Babylonian empire once existed.

Christian mission “fields” are thus being redefined in the process. Missions is no longer confined to going into fields that are abroad or elsewhere to reach the unreached. Thanks to people movements across the globe, many unreached peoples from overseas are now part of the diasporas right at our very doorsteps. Therefore, cross-cultural missions can now be done without going abroad. Missions has become “from everywhere to everywhere!”

Discussions about diaspora missions in Malaysia today mostly centre around migrant ministries, particularly among migrant workers who come from Nepal, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Philippines, Vietnam and Cambodia. Official statistics indicate that in 2015, Malaysia has over 2.5 million migrants representing 8.29% of the resident population. Over one million Indonesians and 358,000 Bangladeshis are working in Malaysia. Those from Myanmar, Nepal, India and Vietnam make up 250,000, 200,000, 133,000, and 82,000 respectively. These figures, however, do not include many who have overstayed or are here illegally.

Migrants, whether legal or illegal, economic or non-economic, voluntary or involuntary, are mostly made up of expatriate workers (professionals, skilled and unskilled labour), businesspeople, international students, asylum seekers and refugees. Professional expatriate workers, businesspeople, and international students are obviously most welcomed and desired by governments because of their financial contributions to the local economy through their expenditures and student fees. In recent years the number of undocumented migrants (including victims of war and persecution) have also increased, helped by porous borders with neighbouring countries, human trafficking syndicates and corruption.

What does this mean to the Church and the individual Christian? What are the implications? Clearly, it is an issue that cannot be ignored or taken for granted. The mission field is already right here at our very doorsteps!

The Church has a responsibility to love her neighbours as herself and proclaim the Good News in fulfilment of the Missio Dei. We are called to be compassionate and care for the “aliens” who are in our midst, especially the less fortunate. We are also called not to harbour any racial discrimination or religious prejudices that prevent us from demonstrating God’s love to them regardless of their status. Many are refugees, international students and migrant workers who could be struggling with loneliness, homesickness, financial woes, hopelessness, fears, trauma and uncertainties about their future. They probably just need a friend to talk to and someone who cares about them.

We truly want to see them gathered into the Kingdom of God. So we want to challenge you – will you pray for us and partner with us in our mission to share God’s message of love and salvation to them? Will you be Christ’s ambassador to them so that they will meet and encounter Christ through you?

Perhaps you would like to encounter Jesus Christ by personally meeting and serving these people. After all, Jesus himself was once a refugee too! He said, “Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me” (Matt 25:40).

Philip Chang is the Chair of Interserve Malaysia.

 

Join a growing team

Teams in Malaysia and across Asia and the Arab world are actively growing their work among refugees and migrants. Learn more.

Serving people on the move

See some of the ways we serve across Asia and the Arab world. Would you come along?

Find out more about serving with us

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No room in our city

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I recently read the following legend, as told by Dania Ahmed:

There was a man who appeared before a great city, a wanderer seeking refuge in a new land.

When the king found out about this person, he refused to allow him in. He sent this person a pot of milk, and with it a message saying, ”See this pot filled to the brim with milk, this is how we are. We have no room for you in our city”.

The man smiled and placed a flower on the pot of milk, and sent back a message to the king, “I want to live among you like this flower floats on milk, to spread the fragrance of love”. And so it is said that this man was Lal Shahbaz Qalandar and the place Sehwan Sharif.¹

 

A dreadful atrocity committed in Pakistan on 16 February brought this legend to my ears. It is a travesty that the shrine in Sehwan Sharif, which is dedicated to the venerated Sufi poet and philosopher Lal Shahbaz Qalandar, should be the site of hatred and violence.

The legend captured my attention because it reminded me of the many places in Asia and the Arab world where our Partners struggle to gain access, due to visa restrictions. They experience the message “we have no room for you in our city”, even though they have come to offer the fragrance of love and life.

It reminded me of Paul, who described his presence among the Corinthians in these terms: “Our lives are a Christ-like fragrance rising up to God” (2 Cor 2:15, NLT).

It reminded me of a claim by an Interserve Partner in his recent book that “Only the motivation of love will never fail us. Love will guide us to the best response in every situation, whether we face opposition, government restrictions, or a lack of response from those who hear our message.”²

Many of our Partners offer their lives, and their love, as guests in cities where they are not always welcomed. As they live out their lives among the people in these cities, their desire is that a Christ-like fragrance might rise to God. Let us pray that this fragrance might be life giving for many, as they put faith and love into action.

Ruth Thorne PhD
Interserve Australia Board Chair

 

¹ http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2017/02/lal-shahbaz-qalandar-pakistan-pluralistic-history-170218112828742.html, 19 February 2017

² Hale III, T., (2016). Authentic Lives: Overcoming the problem of hidden identity in outreach to restrictive nations. Pasadena, CA: William Carey, p. 140.

 

Gritty Grace

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“As you learn more and more how God works, you will learn how to do your work. We pray that you’ll have the strength to stick it out over the long haul—not the grim strength of gritting your teeth but the glory-strength God gives. It is strength that endures the unendurable and spills over into joy…”

Colossians 1:11–12 MSG

 

March marks the start of Lent. It’s a time to pause and reflect on the sacrifice Jesus made. It’s a gift of grace to us, that terrible death on the cross, and what does that cross mean for us who follow Him? It is our life-ring, a sign of our rescue. At the same time, it’s a reminder of the cross Jesus asks us to take up as we follow him.

As we look to Jesus’ example, we learn about grace that just gets on with it. Showing and sharing the love of Jesus in the hard places and in the hard times is not easy. Let us pray that the glory-strength of God would enable all of us to stick it out, spilling over into joy!

Kaitlyn, Communications Coordinator

Pray. Trust. Wait.

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During last year I found myself pondering the writings of the prophets: How did they keep trusting God in the light of strong opposition and even exile? When everything in their observable world seemed hopeless, how did they keep holding on to God’s promises? Although written so long ago, their words and their lives are such an encouragement as we think about persevering in prayer for our broken world.

Isaiah writes, “in repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength… the Lord longs to be gracious to you; He rises to show you compassion. For the Lord is a God of justice. Blessed are all who wait for Him!” (Isaiah 30:15,18)

May we each experience the blessing of God as we pray and trust and wait.

Jenny, SA/WA Personnel Manager

Cost and honour

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Over the Christmas break, my husband and I went to Asia to spend time with family members, who are serving as part of an Interserve team there. My lasting impressions on my journey home, as I reflected on the amazing band of people that is being forged as a spiritual community, are of cost and honour.

It has cost many of the families much to live in that city. For some families the cost is being far from home and family during a pregnancy, for some the stress of acculturation, and the unrelenting heat. For others the cost is of being shunned by their neighbourhood for being foreigners, or the struggle with language study. Other families bear the cost of watching their children suffer allergic reactions to the environment, or seeing their children unable to express their grief during the adjustment period, or struggle at school. I hasten to add that I did not hear one complaint about the cost. Rather, I heard stories of endurance, determination, passion, prayer, excitement, courage, encouragement and hope.

So I asked myself – why do these people bear the cost, and lay their lives on the line? Not for adventure. Not for excitement. Certainly not for fame and fortune. They do it because each one of them is compelled by the love of Christ to love their neighbours, the shopkeepers and the people they meet and befriend. They do it because God has called them to be in that city, and to put their love and faith in a faithful God into action.

The other overwhelming sense I had was one of honour. It is a great honour for me to do anything I can in the year ahead, as part of the Interserve Australia community, in the service of such people, to pray for them, to give, to encourage those in Australia who support these people, and to find others to support, and perhaps find people to join this particular spiritual community, and many others like it around the globe under the banner of Interserve.

Interserve Partners need not be unusual in the sacrificial way they are putting their faith into action. Together, let’s renew our passion to share the love of God with our neighbours and friends, and support those who have been called to serve in less than comfortable environments.

 

Dr Ruth Thorne is the Board Chair of Interserve Australia.