So am I called or not

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Other, Arab World

Serving cross-culturally often begins with a call from God into this ministry. Sounds straight-forward, right? Well, not really. As you can see from the stories in this edition of Go, people experience “call” in many different ways and some of our established ideas about “call” are often challenged during the journey.

Firstly, we often think that call needs to be something that is specific and direct. However, aspects of the call can be just as valid when they are general and indirect. Scripture is full of statements which call us all to sacrificially serve Christ throughout our world. This general call is so powerful that we could argue that no further specific calling is necessary, or that not to serve in this way demands a clear call.

Furthermore, our knowledge of the immense needs in a hurting world surely constitute such a compelling indirect call that a direct call from above should hardly be necessary. However, what emerges from these stories is that obedience to explore what the general call to be missional means for us personally often leads to specific and direct aspects of this call on our lives.

Secondly, how the call to cross-cultural service develops is often as much about common sense as about extraordinary events. We already have gifts and abilities that we believe God has called us to thus far. How can we use them in another culture? How can we develop and grow spiritually and professionally as we explore God’s purposes for us? But beyond our common sense we need to remember that God’s call is to be a particular kind of person over and above what job or location he calls us to. This is where we should start to look for His call; the practical will unfold as we remain faithful and obedient.

Thirdly, we need to be open to change during the journey. Sometimes, we get the message wrong and God needs to change us. As Bernie found (page ?), “It was a very fluid yet intentional process”. We may be clinging on to false dreams. We can also mistake circumstances or closed doors as direction from God when it may be a test of our resolve or an attack of the evil one. Discerning the differences is not always easy, but God remains faithful and will continue to patiently guide, shepherd and grow us.

Finally, our personal call is not just between us and God. We are part of the body of Christ – a community on which there is also a call. Our church, family, friends and, yes, even our mission agency are also collectively called to discern God’s will for the body of Christ in this world. This can be a challenge to Western individuality and independence, but this was firmly part of the early church’s missional strategy and is still a powerful aspect of faith in action among other cultures. Let the Christian community speak into your life. Be prepared to let go, remembering that God’s voice is often heard through His people.

We need to be sure of God’s leading as we seek to serve cross-culturally. It’s a big undertaking with a lot at stake. And it will be this call that sustains us when the going gets tough. However, if we are open, our call will keep developing as God continues His work in us, not just as His servants but as His children.

Peter Smith is the new Church and Community Engagement Director. He and his wife Prue recently returned from serving in the Middle East.

Called to Connect

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Other

CultureConnect was established by Interserve Australia in 2007 to partner with local churches in mobilising Australian Christians to reach out with love and the good news of Jesus to their neighbours from Asia and the Arab world. No longer is cross-cultural mission exclusively the domain of theologically trained workers with overseas ministry aspirations. It is accessible to ordinary Christians doing everyday life with those around them. As we extend the hand of friendship to these neighbours, our prayer is that they will encounter the Lord Jesus and grow as His disciples.

So what does a CultureConnect team member look like?

Our paths are many and varied. I began this journey after years of working among migrants in factories in Sydney and seeing how open many of them were to discussing spiritual matters. I was born in Australia. I speak only English. I know nothing of lives endured in countries I’ve never even visited, and yet God opened my eyes to how he could use me to share Jesus with these people whom He loves. I joined CultureConnect in 2011 as a self-supported team member and began reaching out to migrants in south-west Sydney through church-based English as a Second Language (ESL) ministry.

Vivien* was born in South East Asia. She came to Australia for education and trained in health sciences. She first became involved with Interserve as an On Tracker and worked in Nepal for three months. In 2013 she joined CultureConnect and reached out to Hindus in Melbourne. As she still works full-time as physiotherapist, Vivien focuses her involvement on one Indian family that she regularly visits.

Evelyn* worked as a school teacher in NSW before first going to East Asia over 20 years ago. A long-term Interserve partner who is fluent in the local language, Evelyn moved back to Australia in 2015 and is studying Tibetan Buddhism. She is involved in training local Christians and making contacts in her home city’s Buddhist community.

All of us want to see the local church envisioned and equipped to reach out to our Asian and Arab neighbours. All of us want to see these neighbours’ lives transformed through an encounter with Jesus Christ. How might God use these people as their lives are forever changed by him?

My Nepali friends Larry and Simone* and their two children were baptised in Sydney in 2013; the baptismal service was skyped into villages of Nepal. The local church then decided to send a mission team to Nepal. They prayed. They raised money for smokeless stoves. And then they sent Larry and his family back to Nepal where he preached the gospel in his own language, in the villages he and his wife came from. People heard the good news of the Lord Jesus for the very first time, repented and believed.

This is global mission and, as followers of our Lord Jesus, this is what we are called to.

The life of faith is a life of living out our calling – the calling to follow Christ. How will I serve Christ? Who is he calling me to serve? These are questions for every believer.

“Therefore I, a prisoner for serving the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of your calling, for you have been called by God.” Ephesians 4:1

Lisa Bateup is the new CultureConnect Director

*Names have been changed.

Obedience

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Engineering

Some people have asked me.
Dear Sir they will say.
What fears do you have?
What scares you today?

When you think about moving.
To Nepal of all places.
It’s crazy. It’s silly.
To move. On what basis?

The earth shakes with earthquakes.
There’s landslides on mountainsides.
There’s monsoons from early June
And bumpy, treacherous car rides.

You’ll struggle to breathe
There’s hardly no air
On top of those mountains
And there’s Yetis. BEWARE!!

The food is unsafe.
The water’s not clean.
With lotsa trips to the loo
If you know what I mean.

The government is shaky.
There’s political unrest.
Public transport is dodgy
And their planes aren’t the best.

There are power cuts aplenty.
Crazy cables all around
And hazards are everywhere.
In the air and on the ground.

So tell me again.
Now why would you go?
After all I have told you
With all you now know?

I paused and I waited.
They had a good case.
There still is one answer
So I said it with grace.

“Make disciples of nations”
Is what God commands.
Obedience to Him
Is His only demand.

And Nepal is a country
With needs that are clear
And we’re willing to help
In spite of our fear.

So grant us the wisdom
Dear God we do pray.
To walk as you tell us
Each and every new day.

By Huy

God shaped me for this

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Medical / Health

The plane took off and, full of nervous energy, trepidation and excitement, I felt like I was flying to Neverland. For the first time in my life I was headed somewhere totally foreign. Four weeks before, I hadn’t even heard of this country, tucked deep in Central Asia. But that’s how God works sometimes – He brings surprises, a turn of events, the intercession of His children, to break our focus on the earthly, refocus on the eternal and point the way to something unknown. When the seatbelt light turned off, it signified a break from the safety of my culture and my lifestyle.

An email telling me of an American couple’s prayer for a music therapist to train their orphanage employees had instigated this departure from the norm. What’s a music therapist, you might be thinking. Exactly. Not many people know it’s a real job. The prayer of this couple was so specific that, when I heard of it, my interest was immediately sparked. I’m a music therapist, I thought. I work with kids with disabilities. I can do that.

But the greater reason for my going was that God had shaped me for this. In Ephesians 2:10 we read: “For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do”. It was God who created me and moulded my life to be on such a search – He built in me a deep-seated compassion for those in need, an interest in learning about other cultures, and a desire to use my skills and experience to be a blessing to others and a witness of God’s grace and mercy. I had been inspired and challenged by the stories of many other Christians who had served cross-culturally, and I wanted to see if this could be for me too.

On my connecting flight to Central Asia, I knew I was in foreign territory when, as soon as the “fasten seat belts” sign turned off, the duty free vodka started flowing freely. I felt as if I had gate-crashed a family reunion. We landed in freezing conditions and my senses were assaulted – there was nothing familiar to grab on to. Already, my trust in God was rising exponentially; I prayed and prayed! When I finally passed through Immigration and Tom and Kara*, the American couple I had been expecting, were there waiting, I sighed with relief, ready to follow them, to listen and to learn.

During the next three weeks I participated in Tom and Kara’s everyday life. I encountered many stories of how God was using them to change the orphanage from a place of hopelessness to one of life, with love and mercy penetrating its hard walls. In all they said and did, they beautifully intertwined word and deed as they played their role in God’s great story of salvation. I also met people like Zara*, a local believer who lost her husband in a terrible “hack job” surgical operation. She worked for Tom and Kara and exemplified compassion, gentleness and faith. And while I was able to share some of my knowledge and experience, I’m sure I took away the greater share.

So it was that in that country God fanned a spark of interest into a greater desire to explore cross-cultural service. It was those experiences that would influence my future decisions and where I am today, serving God with my husband and young children in South East Asia. Through all this I can see God’s hand, His call to “Follow Me”.

Amy* is a music therapist serving in South East Asia.

*Names have been changed.

Go with God

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Education, Arab World

My initial “call” came in response to human need. I had been a follower of Christ for about four years, with a commitment to sharing the good news, when I attended a missions conference. The speaker told of the desperate need for the gospel among Muslim nations. I felt convicted in my heart that I could and should be part of God’s wider purposes in this matter. I did some short-term trips to check out possibilities overseas (none of which ultimately eventuated!), and then signed up for Bible college. From then a combination of nudges from the Holy Spirit, doors opening providentially, perceiving an alignment of my spiritual gifts and personality with potential roles, and a deep desire to serve God and to invest my life in significant ways led me to cross-cultural service. The advice and encouragement of others was a key part in my journey. It was a very fluid and yet intentional process.

We served overseas with Interserve for more than 21 years in four countries. In a couple of them, we were forced to leave by government order, a rather strange form of divine guidance! Looking back, we can see the Lord’s hand in those events, although it was hard to discern at the time. Our ministries were and are based on our professions – teaching for me and medicine for my wife. We are now living in Australia, having returned to help our sons settle into what was for them a foreign land. I teach Islamic studies at the Melbourne School of Theology and am involved in outreach and training with CultureConnect.

It has been exciting to see God actively working in the things He has called us to. We have, by His grace, been able to establish a clear gospel witness to our Muslim neighbours and friends in the different places we have lived. There have been many opportunities to influence individuals, families and communities for His sake. Some people have come to faith, grown in their discipleship and are reaching out to others. It was encouraging to see our Interserve teams grow, with more people being mobilised for mission and more ways of mission being developed. Having returned to Australia, it is heartening that God has opened up unforeseen paths of ministry through teaching, writing and evangelism to local and international Muslims. God never gives up on people if they desire to be used for His kingdom.

As I considered what advice I would give my younger self starting out on this journey, my initial thought was, “Relax and go with the flow”. However, on reflection, if I had done too much of that, I would probably not have been asked to write this article! So my more considered thoughts would be, “Trust God, step out in faith, be courageous, take the opportunities, don’t die wondering”. Other advice might be: “It doesn’t all depend on you. Jesus said, ‘I will build my church’. Let God be God.” This might seem contradictory, but I have discovered that there is a dynamic relationship between God and us which is described as “co-workers”. He takes our contribution seriously without needing to depend on it. Staying connected with God is the best way for that to happen, so that the glory goes to Him.

Dr Bernie Power lectures in Islamic Studies at Melbourne School of Theology and serves with CultureConnect. His first book, Understanding Jesus and Muhammad, was just published.

Why not

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Information Technology

God had planted a question on our hearts … could we go long term?

After a half-hour bus ride past the stinking palm plantations, we walked a couple of kilometres to the local supermarket in the midday sun with the humidity soaring. As we walked around a deep dirty drain, I remember the exact spot where we asked each other, “could we do this long term?” We were serving for four months in Malaysia at a school for people with disabilities as part of our honeymoon. As newlyweds, God planted this seed and over the next four years He gave it life. He did this through his Word, through people He brought into our lives who had served in that part of the world, and through revealing to us the need to go to the unreached.

Sometimes we concentrate so much on asking, “why us?”, but maybe a different way of thinking is, “why not?” Why not go and serve alongside those who don’t live in a safe and materially blessed society as we do. We feel that God has given us 30 years of abundant blessings, so why not now use these blessings to bless others.

When we returned from serving short term, we were disheartened to hear it would be at least a two-year journey before we could depart to serve long term. However, we now see that this time of preparation is invaluable as He reveals His call and purpose, and will potentially save us from making many cultural blunders!

God has led us to West Asia. When we were in Melbourne for Partner orientation, we asked our host where she had served. We were amazed to hear that she had served in the country we were currently considering! We plan to spend the first year language learning and from there use our professional skills to serve refugees and children with disabilities.

Even before we arrive in the country we see fruit in the way God is shaping both us and our church family. We are seeing our local church engaged in kingdom work outside of Australia. People are now involved and excited to see the unreached have the opportunity to hear of His love.

God has also changed our hearts and is teaching us to put our faith into action as we move out of our home, pack up our belongings and rely on His provision. A wise Partner advised that during the challenging process of support raising, “keep your eyes fixed on West Asia and the support will come”. We have learnt to rest in Him.

Adam (IT/project management) and Penny* (special education) have just left Australia to serve the church in West Asia.

*Names have been changed.

The unlikely missionary

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Other

For the longest time, I was pretty set on not being a missionary.

I knew the words of Jesus in Matthew 28:19–20 – the deep call to go and make disciples everywhere, which is so basic to our faith. But it was the portability of that call which made me so uncomfortable. It drew a strange divide in my world between places we ‘are’ and places we could ‘go’ and invited me to cross between them in Jesus’ name. I largely knew those places through the television news, and it was not pretty: scud missiles in the Arab Gulf, thick concrete walls dividing Berlin, tanks rolling across Tiananmen Square, and planes crashing through American skyscrapers. These other places were not hospitable, so I resolved fairly early in life that I was going to stay put.

It was six months after my wedding that I ventured beyond my border to South Asia for a short-term exposure trip. That was when God did His work. The experience wasn’t always pleasant – beyond the usual linguistic and cultural confusions, we were battered daily by appalling human need. What was compelling, though, was God’s people. The local church, loving the same Jesus I did, saw those human needs and met them as best they could, in the face of very real dangers, in the name of Jesus. I returned to Australia battered by a sense that my life is genuinely owned by Another, and I should be available to Him without condition.

We had no voice-from-the-sky moment about what cross-cultural work would look like for us, but we knew we wanted to do it. Our imaginations were captured by the idea of working alongside local believers, doing whole-of-life discipleship with them in a hard place. We prayed and planned and studied and talked, trying to work out how our personalities and skills could intersect with a church and a city somewhere out there. Things narrowed. A placement in the Middle East began to emerge. So when God put the brakes on and caused us to wait, to say we were frustrated would be an understatement. Months and years had gone into our preparations, only to now drift in the doldrums and wonder why the Sender Himself would blindside us like this.

It was a hard lesson in our Father’s logistics. Disappointment and confusion – yes, and anger – are natural reactions when we lose a sense of where God is taking us. Those feelings, however, should never blind us to possibilities He is opening up elsewhere. We changed plans for a time and joined an Interserve CultureConnect team serving ethnic minorities in Australia. We started working among people seeking asylum in Sydney’s northwest – people who live daily with a deeper uncertainty than we may ever know. Drinking tea, celebrating birthdays, laughing and crying and praying with them, we pondered the courageous faith Jesus commends in the face of anxiety (Matthew 6:25–34). We don’t always know the way, but our Father does, and He is never less powerful or less worthy of our trust because of it.

The delay turned out to be temporary. These days, our family is preparing to join the refugee-welcoming church in West Asia. I still glimpse the place we will go to in television-news images – bomb blasts, leaky boats and, above all, masses of people crossing borders, a river which stretches to the horizons of belief. Those pictures are still bewildering to me. They no longer frighten me, though, because they’re part of the same basic script our Father has always given to us: those old imperatives to go and to make disciples, to bind up broken hearts, and to set captives free.

Joel* (a social worker) is preparing to serve in West Asia alongside people seeking asylum.

*Names have been changed.

Vivienne Stacey Scholarship

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Theology / Church, Other

Vivienne Stacey Scholarship

Vivienne Stacey studied English at University College London then spent some years as a teacher before joining Interserve in 1954. When she learned that the United Bible Training Centre (UBTC) in Gujranwala trained Pakistani women for their witness among Muslims, she requested that as her place of ministry. From the very beginning of her mission career she was committed to equipping local people to engage in ministry among Muslims in their own context.

Established to honour this innovative pioneer, the Vivienne Stacey Scholarship is for equipping Christian women scholar-practitioners from Middle East, Africa and Asia to engage with the Muslim world. It follows Vivienne’s heart to see women, including those coming from a Muslim background, trained, equipped and engaged in ministry.

Soon after her arrival in Pakistan, Vivienne and Esther John became firm friends. Esther was born in a Muslim family but had become a follower of Jesus through seeing the love of Jesus lived out in her Christian school and through the study of scripture. She went to UBTC in 1957 from where she and Vivienne visited homes in the surrounding villages, sharing the story of Jesus. Esther went on to minister in other parts of Pakistan; she was murdered in 1960, becoming the first of many martyrs that Vivienne knew.

Vivienne was a much-loved friend, mentor and example. She worked with the Community Development Team from Multan Christian Women’s hospital, training them in outreach and setting assignments individually tailored to areas where each member of the team needed to grow. Vivienne challenged them to find ways of integrating what they learned into their work. The full impact of her commitment to that little community development team was immeasurable.

Vivienne encouraged many to scholarly practice – in Interserve and other organisations, in local churches in the countries where she worked, and right across the globe. She formed a study group in Pakistan that gave many their first foot into research and writing on significant ministry issues for working among Muslims.

Ida Glasser, now Director of the Centre for Muslim Christian Studies in Oxford, wrote about her experience of Vivienne’s support as she pursued her PhD:
The great thing Vivienne did for me was to take me out for lunch when I was struggling towards my PhD, and then to ask whether money might help. She then (probably through a trust of which she was senior trustee) provided enough to pay Crosslinks for I think half my time for 3 months, so that I could break the back of the writing up. I might never have completed it otherwise. Another time, after a conference in Holland, she treated me to a day in Amsterdam – took me on a canal trip and gave me a good dinner – things I'd never have done for myself, or been able to afford.

The Scholarship does not just provide financial support. It is also committed to providing mentoring, both individually and as part of a learning cohort; to investing in the development of the whole person as they pursue their studies.

The Vivienne Stacey Scholarship Fund was launched during the When Women Speak… colloquium on 25 September 2015. It is actively seeking partnership with academic institutions in Asia and the Middle East, and in the West, as it builds capacity to support these women. Please join us in supporting the fund. You can do this through your local Interserve Office, marking your gift ‘Vivienne Stacey Scholarship’, or by clicking on ‘donate’ at www.whenwomenspeak.net For further information contact admin@whenwomenspeak.net or cathy@whenwomenspeak.net

By Cathy Hine

Three Ladies of Prayer

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Other, Other

In the past 12 months, South Australia has farewelled three wonderful saints of prayer. Since the early ‘70s, in prayer meetings in people’s homes and church halls, prayer warriors represented anybody who toured through Adelaide on deputation before the Father’s throne. They sent care parcels, wrote letters of encouragement and committed to memory the prayer and praise points in partner’s letters. These prayer heroes were, in the main, lowly educated women who developed outstanding knowledge of geography and world politics. They teamed with returned partners and short-termers, mentored younger people in the passion for prayer and launched seekers into careers overseas. The influence of Bible and Medical Missionary Fellowship (BMMF), and later Interserve, was extended because of their intercessions and encouragements.

Win Carson was generous in her prayer for overseas mission and, when she died this year, South Australia lost a Christian woman of great influence and Interserve lost a prayer warrior. Win shared with her husband Cec the lifetime habit of a breakfast prayer time dedicated to many missions and people, including Ramabhai Mukti Mission and Interserve. They believed God answers prayer and boldly claimed righteous territory for the Lord. They welcomed missionaries into their home and after Cec’s death, and even in increasing frailty, Win still clung to the privilege of offering her home for the praying circle so that she too could be included. Win was an inspiration to all and we give thanks to God for her life.

On Easter Friday this year, the Lord welcomed Bessie Eames into his presence. She first became involved with BMMF when her daughter did a short-term stint overseas in 1978; from then on she supported prayer meetings, attended events and more latterly offered her home as a prayer centre. As technology developed, she took a seniors computer course so that she could connect to the internet and print off prayer requests for her monthly gathering. She plodded along using one finger to write emails but much preferred to write in her flowing cursive script. Bessie loved prayer and exercised her spiritual gifts and discernment in intercessory warfare. She rejoiced in breakthroughs and tenaciously never gave up when answers were delayed. Partners enjoyed being ministered to by her nurturing embrace and deep insights.

Within weeks, Jean Illman, a stateswoman for God, also went to be with the Lord. Jean was a visionary and facilitator for all things mission. Under her prayerful care, BMMF was launched in Adelaide in 1959 and through her passionate commitment it grew. She served as secretary for 30 years and as mission representative. Jean supported each partner with monthly letters and treasured their letters, filing them away for prayerful reflection. Her house was the centre for prayer gatherings and fellowship meals, and she hosted every visiting missionary. Jean could see with clarity the needs of emerging mission and prayed to that end. She wrote letters and campaigned to implement strategies that would enable Interserve to flex and adapt to the changing mission culture. Mrs BMMF, SA, has left a legacy of devotion to mission.

These three women were passionate about their walk of faith, knew the power of God’s forgiveness and salvation and understood God’s open invitation to every person. Each was convinced of her calling to prayer and to make intercession for people and places, and was totally confident that God was more than able to hear and answer her requests. We thank God for their lives, their example and the heritage they have laid down.

Now it is time for the next generation to step up and assume their positions.

Tributes by Carol Eames, Aileen Pike and Geoff Pike.

Grace for the long haul: reflections on 13 years o

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Medical / Health

Grace for the long haul: reflections on 13 years of service

“We don’t see you as a foreigner, we see you as one of us.” I was so stunned to hear those words three times, soon after I reached 10 years of service in my adopted country.

The first hint I got that I might one day have some level of approval in my new culture was when I returned after my first Home Assignment. The local people realised then that I was serious about being in their culture and their acceptance of me began to grow. So when I crossed 10 years and people acknowledged me as one of the team, serving together, my heart was so encouraged. Ten years is considered a long time to serve in cross-cultural work these days but it has some excellent rewards. As I look back I can see how the Grand Weaver has been weaving the threads of my life and experience to bring me to where I am today.

I remember being handed an exercise book with four pages of notes, essentially my first job description as school nurse at an international boarding school. Over the four years there, I found tasks I did not enjoy doing and others I had never been trained to do: making budgets in a currency I didn’t really comprehend and working with children who had suffered sexual abuse are good examples. Even as I struggled with some of those challenges, I also saw how my previous training was used by God in that placement. Being the eldest of eight siblings and working in children’s camp ministry was helpful experience. Working in the Emergency Department in a major Melbourne hospital proved very good training for handling the accidents that occur in a school of 300 children.

I guess in some ways I have done it the hard way with four different placements in three different language areas. I remember a particular time when I felt I was a failure. I had persevered with a placement for five months but it became obvious that it was not going to work out. Eventually, when I was removed from the placement, feelings of failure overwhelmed me. I learned two things from that experience: failure (real or perceived) is not final, and you are not a failure if you have been faithful. I took a month out to recover, then moved on to a placement that was a much better fit and led me to the unique niche I now enjoy.

Teaching and mentoring health care workers to be involved in health research came to me after some years in the country. Despite its challenges, it has been a fulfilling role, teaching people theoretical and practical skills, but also having opportunities to teach life values along the way. I have grown into the role, but God has also brought people across my path who opened doors for me to do this job.

There were a lot of things I wanted to achieve in the early days. I remember the list I kept on my wall of what was still to be done. These days I don’t have such a list but I still have dreams of what I’d like to see done. I now focus a bit less on the tasks and more on relationships with people. We have wanted to do a community survey looking at a local health issue. It has been delayed for two years because I wanted it not to be driven by me alone, but this year I have a local colleague who has a passion to see it done and I am trusting others to work with us will be provided.

I now have more white hairs. Sometimes that is helpful in Asia because people give you more respect. However the respect that comes from the wisdom and experience gained can only come from living each of the 365 days of each year. Someone recently asked me how I learnt resilience. My reply was, “You can’t learn it in a week!” On my wall is drawing of a tree with the words of Jeremiah 17:7–8 (NIV):

But blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in him. He will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when the heat comes; its leaves are always green, It has no worries in the year of drought and never fails to bear fruit.

That verse became very precious to me and some of my local colleagues when we faced a difficult time in the leadership in an organisation. Together we dug deep into our relationships with God. Resilience comes from plodding on and remaining calm, through the summers and the droughts.

Luke 10:17–20 tells how the 70 disciples came back to Jesus and reported on their mission. Their highlight was the power they had over Satan but that was not Jesus’ agenda. “All the same, the great triumph is not in your authority over evil but in God’s authority over you and presence in you. Not what you do for God but what God does for you – that’s the agenda for rejoicing.” (The Message) These words have been a strong reminder to me as I prepare for my next Home Assignment that God has taught me much and it’s really important to share what He has done in me.

“For God’s love compels us” is the verse on my prayer card. In recent days God has been teaching me new things about his love, especially from the Servant passages of Isaiah. “Take a good look at my servant, I’m backing him to the hilt. He’s the one I chose, and I couldn’t be more pleased with him” (42:1 TM). It’s been good to be reminded that He is pleased with me because He chose me out of His love and not because of the tasks I do. I can relax in that and then serve freely because I am secure as His child. And His love becomes again my motivation to serve. I am still learning; I wonder what more I will have learned in another 13 years’ time. I do know the loving Weaver will be at work making me a more useful servant in His service.

The author is a Partner in South Asia