Orientation

It was my joy to organize and conduct an orientation retreat for new missionaries joining our team. This was a new experience for our team. We held our retreat at the 2nd Mile Compound where 3 ACTION ministries are located. The building behind us is a new guesthouse that was built last summer. It was a perfect venue for orientation. Food preparations were done by Sharon Germaine and her daughter Hilary took care of the children during our meetings.

"What is your passion?"
This is a question asked of me by Anne Harper, an ACTION missionary who is now working in Croatia but at the time was serving in the Philippines. She asked me a few days after 9/11/01 at a time when I was really questioning what work I would be doing during the next 2-3 years. She also asked me what my talents and spiritual gifts are and I couldn't answer her question.

With Anne's wise guidance, I set out to be able to answer those questions. It was important to me to learn what would be the most effective use of my time, giftings and calling. What came back to my mind was how passionate I am in working with missionaries. My passion is two-fold: 1) to assist those who are called to be missionaries go through whatever it takes in order to get to the mission field; and then, 2) be successful in their first term so that they will return for a 2nd term.

First of all, I believe many are called but few follow through with that calling. Obstacles come up that hinder the would-be missionary from ever getting to the field. They drop out of the race for many reasons like debt, unwillingness to leave home, marrying someone who is unwilling to go, lack of financial support, settling for the Western dream. Jordan Grooms said, "If you are called to be a missionary, don't stoop to be a king." I have a passion to see people make it from the point of being called, trained, equipped and to make it to the field.

It is tragic that when many who have actually reach the field with thousands of dollars spent to send them, they do not last because they cannot adapt or get along with others or their support dries up. The attrition rate among missionaries is alarmingly high.

In my 23 years as a missionary (1 in Africa as a single short termer and 22 in the Philippines as a wife and mother), I have experienced and observed the need for solid orientation for new missionaries. Research had shown that a high percentage of missionary attrition could be prevented when new missionaries received effective pre-field training. Living in a cross-cultural setting, being away from our family support structures, being in the thick of ministry all present many challenges. I have heard it said that the mission field will bring to light the areas in our lives where we need to grow and mature. This has been true in my life and many others I have talked to.

It is my passion to see many sent out and succeed. At the International Council meetings in 2006, ACTION made a bold decision to move toward being a global sending mission agency, to send missionaries "from anywhere to anywhere." It is my privilege to be a part of figuring out how to make that happen.

Raising a Warrior Leader

Raising Sergeant Micah has been a very unique and challenging experience. We taught our kids early that safety is not in the absence of danger but in the presence of God and being where He wants us to be, in the center of His will.

Before our family came to the Philippines for the first time, my greatest fears was for the safety of Amos and Micah. I was overwhelmed at the thought of them riding a school bus without me through a city of some 15 million people. I had to learn to allow our children to face danger while trusting God to care for them when they go to places where I cannot protect them. When Micah was a junior in high school she wanted to go jogging in the early mornings before school. This meant about 4am when the streets are still dark and cars sped through on red lights. I remember having a discussion with Jeff and Micah about whether or not we were going to allow her to do this very dangerous thing. I was struggling with the thought of her being out there in such danger. Jeff asked her if she understood the risks and was she willing to accept them and be wise by being alert and avoiding trouble when possible. The risks would be things like kidnapping, being hit by a car, bit by a dog, being attacked and other such things. We talked about safety on the road and if she felt prompted by the Lord or if she observed something out of the ordinary that she would turn around and run home. She understood and accepted the risks. Because we couldn't think of any real reason to forbid her morning jogs other than our fears, I had to release her to this dangerous activity.

We raised our kids with danger all around. One night when she was scheduled to go ice skating at 9pm (she had to skate after the mall was closed because she was too skilled and fast to skate during public hours), she didn't want to go. She very unusually decided not to go skating that night. We later learned that someone had set off a bomb in a women's bathroom a couple floors above the ice rink which resulted in a panicked evacuation of the mall. Whenever we came home from ice skating, I knew we were always in danger just getting our car parked in our car port. It was not uncommon for people to hide in bushes or gutters and attack someone coming home at night as they have to open their gate. But there was no other reason to prevent her from skating at night. At 6pm one evening Amos found a taxi driver stripped, bound up, gagged and thrown in the gutter on our street but fortunately unharmed and alive. So the dangers here are real. Later when we were on furlough, a dead taxi driver was thrown into the same ditch.

As missionaries we have been through coup attempts, typhoons, floods, a volcano, theft, dangers on the road and probably other dangers we weren't even aware of. This morning as Micah and I talked on the phone, she prayed for our safety. Two days ago there was an explosion a couple miles from our house killing 8 people. Imagine, a soldier going off to war praying for her parent's safety. It boggles my mind.

I heard a mother say recently that she wouldn't let her daughter join the military--it was too dangerous. Hmmm. All I can say is that whether we are fools for letting our daughter go out into danger or not, God has not failed us. He may be preparing us for using our children in some mighty way that today we cannot imagine. We have no doubt that God led Micah into the military. If ever I am afraid that danger will befall her or Amos as they go where God takes them, I must trust God completely. All I know is that I must love God more than my children. I must entrust them to Him.

My prayer for myself and my family is that God would raise us up to where He wants us to be and not to dummy down His calling and standards to our level of capacity.

Paradox

August 26, 2007

It is a paradox. I met this woman before church began. Her tent is behind her. Her 1 year old son named Joseph cannot stand on his legs. They are too thin and weak. But that isn't the only sadness in her life. Only 10 days ago, during a major typhoon in Manila, she lost her 5 week old baby. But here she was at church, finding fellowship, belonging and freedom to worship the Lord. We sang the same worship songs in our large, air-conditioned church that these joyful folks sang at their church made of bamboo slats, tarp roof, cement floors and make-shift wood benches.

Here I Am to Worship
Tim Hughes

Light of the world
You stepped down into darkness
Opened my eyes let me see
Beauty that made this heart adore You
Hope of a life spent with You

Here I am to worship
Here I am to bow down
Here I am to say that You're my God
You're altogether lovely
Altogether worthy
Altogether wonderful to me

King of all days
Oh so highly exalted
Glorious in Heaven above
Humbly You came to the earth You created
All for love's sake became poor

I'll never know how much it cost
To see my sin upon that cross

On our way home from this church of extremely poor believers, Dave Majam had a CD playing. The Christmas song "Joy to the World the Lord has come" was sung by a choir. It was beautiful. These people can sing for joy, sing that nothing but Jesus satisfies, sing about how glimpses of God's glory satisfies and there is nothing they desire but the love of God. Powerful.

Once again I am very challenged by the Filipino workers who so faithfully work in these areas. People like Pastora Esmerelda, a very short woman who leads 2 churches. People may say a church should not be led by a woman. But I ask... where are the men? Only one shy man stood when they asked who in the congregation was a father.

I am overwhelmed again at the awesome privilege it is for me to experience such worship in the midst of such suffering. The needs are so great. What a privilege to have a small part in making a difference in this country. What a strange paradox I feel today. Joy and heaviness. God is good.

This morning gave me renewed motivation and an overwhelming excitement for my ministry of assisting new missionary candidates to come to the Philippines or be sent out to other countries. What a privileged life we have. You have to experience it to understand what I am saying.