News From Lae
I sit under the fan, on a cooler-than-average Sunday, having come back from church and having most of the afternoon still ahead of me. Isaac has his nose buried in a book, looking up only to ask what a certain combination of letters, in a certain order, has as its result. Cheree sits and reads, intermittently interrupted by chatting with her sister, here to visit. Physically, this day of rest is particularly restful, where others haven’t always been.
The last two months have flown by, with work being incessantly busy, and with visitors coming from far and away. We had the pleasure of hosting my brother, Adrian, and his wife, Roslin, for two weeks, after which there was a short gap before Tash came and surprised Cheree. Rumour has it, Cheree was the only one who was surprised, as everyone else already knew.
While Adrian and Roslin were here, we managed to get away for a few days, making a trip to Ukarumpa, where we could enjoy a deliciously cool break from the heat of Lae, reset our workfamily priorities, tour the SIL (Summer Institute of Linguistics; mainly involved in Bible translation) facilities, and stop thinking about work for just a short time. I have come to understand that allowing work to take over too much of my time, or my thoughts, aside from having a negative impact on my family and my role as head, also has a negative impact on my mental, spiritual, and physical states – much the same as back in Australia, but harder to balance out when I live at my place of work, and when so much more work can be piled on and justified as “working in/for a ministry”. So, I come to understand a little more that, while The Doctor (Dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones) correctly stated that too many men spend far too much time listening to themselves, and not enough time telling themselves, it is also true that we must learn to listen to our bodies, and recognise when it is time to step back for a while, to find a quiet place, and recharge. And then we need to realise that the world keeps on spinning whether we are on it or not, and nothing will fall apart if we take a take a short break. This place ran before I got here, and will keep running after we’re gone, so it should run just fine in a short absence.
It goes without saying, then, that the break in routine can be a very big blessing, and we’ve enjoyed having visitors, even if there is always the nagging question in the back of our minds, “Do they get it? Do they understand why we left home for this? Do they like it? Or do they think we’re crazy?” Questions which, in the scheme of things do not matter so much (we didn’t come here to impress people), but the answers to which can impact the relationship with the visitors, for all of the foreseeable future.
And that is something which applies to all of our former friendships. This place is slowly becoming our home, although I must admit there are days when I could easily just walk away, and the challenges we’ve faced are moulding us, softening some parts of our character while tempering other parts. The people who left Australia are gone; and we sometimes wonder, “will we ever relate to anyone back in Australia in the same ways we did before? Aside from people who have served in a foreign country, who will understand the the cry of the heart seeking to be fed at Church, yet understanding so little of the preaching?” Ah, you say, but what about audio sermons? Why not stream or download, or have them sent through? And we’re already ahead of you there – these sermons in our own tongue are cherished and have helped us immensely, yet (and this is the same reason as I would advise people who have the opportunity to go to church, to go, instead of to stream the live broadcast or sit in the cry room) there is a great deal of difference between simply hearing the preaching, and sitting under the preaching. It is a far greater blessing to participate, than to observe. To be able to go to a worship service in a language which I not only understand, but which is the language of my heart, is not something I can see myself treating lightly again.
My thoughts also run here, to a trend I noticed in some circles, of some saying that they would not invite people to our churches because our churches have so many problems that need to be fixed first. The question then, is, where would you have them go? Where would you send them to receive the full preaching of the truth of the Gospel? And if somewhere else is doing a better job, why are you not there? Having seen a broad array of terrible preaching (I thought prosperity preaching was a joke before I left Australia, only to come here and encounter it many times), and having seen our brothers and sisters here invite people to come to “this church, because it is where the truth is preached”, I must wonder why we can get it so wrong in Australia. Are we so comfortable with the truth, that we don’t see the need to spread it?
But I digress somewhat.
As mentioned already, work is busy. That rarely changes, and if it does change, it is due to materials being delayed, rather than a relaxing of the demands placed upon us. As our projects progress, we have finished one of the major three on which I have been working, and the new dorm is slowly being filled as the bunk beds are constructed and made available. A new design for the beds had us go through several prototypes before we finally settled on one which we found to be satisfactory.
Our fencing project progresses in intermittent bursts, hampered by weather making terrain slippery and dangerous, as well as equipment failure (or lack of availability). Meanwhile the Children’s Centre, arguably the centrepiece of the projects team, is aiming for a mid-year completion. Much work waits to be completed, and some weeks are a poignant reminder that “unless the Lord builds the house” we’re wasting our time.
Yet the Lord does seem to be building the house. Our donor boards are happy with our work; so happy, in fact, that they were talking about getting us to complete an unfinished project at one of the other charities they sponsor, and while I had been told to think about what I would like to do in “life after projects”, we have been given more grants for more projects, for some years to come.
Meanwhile, the Lord builds my house also, with the boys getting back into school after a short break, with my wife flourishing as a teacher/homemaker/nurse/mother
There is much more I could write, boring you with the details of trying to modernise our office somewhat, of trying to recall lessons in database management from over a decade ago when I wasn’t really paying attention (and subsequently reflecting on all those reports where the teachers said, “David would do better if he applied himself”, and thinking, “I wish I had applied myself!”), of learning humility through making mistakes in management, of feeling like a child when I try to hold a conversation in Tok Pisin (and coming to realise that I need to change my thinking away from it being a simple derivative of English, and therefore inferior, and towards recognising it as a language in its own right), and of many other mundane things, but I’ll spare you having to sift through all that. Besides, I need to keep something up my sleeve, just in case nothing happens in between this and my next newsletter…
The last two months have flown by, with work being incessantly busy, and with visitors coming from far and away. We had the pleasure of hosting my brother, Adrian, and his wife, Roslin, for two weeks, after which there was a short gap before Tash came and surprised Cheree. Rumour has it, Cheree was the only one who was surprised, as everyone else already knew.
While Adrian and Roslin were here, we managed to get away for a few days, making a trip to Ukarumpa, where we could enjoy a deliciously cool break from the heat of Lae, reset our workfamily priorities, tour the SIL (Summer Institute of Linguistics; mainly involved in Bible translation) facilities, and stop thinking about work for just a short time. I have come to understand that allowing work to take over too much of my time, or my thoughts, aside from having a negative impact on my family and my role as head, also has a negative impact on my mental, spiritual, and physical states – much the same as back in Australia, but harder to balance out when I live at my place of work, and when so much more work can be piled on and justified as “working in/for a ministry”. So, I come to understand a little more that, while The Doctor (Dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones) correctly stated that too many men spend far too much time listening to themselves, and not enough time telling themselves, it is also true that we must learn to listen to our bodies, and recognise when it is time to step back for a while, to find a quiet place, and recharge. And then we need to realise that the world keeps on spinning whether we are on it or not, and nothing will fall apart if we take a take a short break. This place ran before I got here, and will keep running after we’re gone, so it should run just fine in a short absence.
It goes without saying, then, that the break in routine can be a very big blessing, and we’ve enjoyed having visitors, even if there is always the nagging question in the back of our minds, “Do they get it? Do they understand why we left home for this? Do they like it? Or do they think we’re crazy?” Questions which, in the scheme of things do not matter so much (we didn’t come here to impress people), but the answers to which can impact the relationship with the visitors, for all of the foreseeable future.
And that is something which applies to all of our former friendships. This place is slowly becoming our home, although I must admit there are days when I could easily just walk away, and the challenges we’ve faced are moulding us, softening some parts of our character while tempering other parts. The people who left Australia are gone; and we sometimes wonder, “will we ever relate to anyone back in Australia in the same ways we did before? Aside from people who have served in a foreign country, who will understand the the cry of the heart seeking to be fed at Church, yet understanding so little of the preaching?” Ah, you say, but what about audio sermons? Why not stream or download, or have them sent through? And we’re already ahead of you there – these sermons in our own tongue are cherished and have helped us immensely, yet (and this is the same reason as I would advise people who have the opportunity to go to church, to go, instead of to stream the live broadcast or sit in the cry room) there is a great deal of difference between simply hearing the preaching, and sitting under the preaching. It is a far greater blessing to participate, than to observe. To be able to go to a worship service in a language which I not only understand, but which is the language of my heart, is not something I can see myself treating lightly again.
My thoughts also run here, to a trend I noticed in some circles, of some saying that they would not invite people to our churches because our churches have so many problems that need to be fixed first. The question then, is, where would you have them go? Where would you send them to receive the full preaching of the truth of the Gospel? And if somewhere else is doing a better job, why are you not there? Having seen a broad array of terrible preaching (I thought prosperity preaching was a joke before I left Australia, only to come here and encounter it many times), and having seen our brothers and sisters here invite people to come to “this church, because it is where the truth is preached”, I must wonder why we can get it so wrong in Australia. Are we so comfortable with the truth, that we don’t see the need to spread it?
But I digress somewhat.
As mentioned already, work is busy. That rarely changes, and if it does change, it is due to materials being delayed, rather than a relaxing of the demands placed upon us. As our projects progress, we have finished one of the major three on which I have been working, and the new dorm is slowly being filled as the bunk beds are constructed and made available. A new design for the beds had us go through several prototypes before we finally settled on one which we found to be satisfactory.
Our fencing project progresses in intermittent bursts, hampered by weather making terrain slippery and dangerous, as well as equipment failure (or lack of availability). Meanwhile the Children’s Centre, arguably the centrepiece of the projects team, is aiming for a mid-year completion. Much work waits to be completed, and some weeks are a poignant reminder that “unless the Lord builds the house” we’re wasting our time.
Yet the Lord does seem to be building the house. Our donor boards are happy with our work; so happy, in fact, that they were talking about getting us to complete an unfinished project at one of the other charities they sponsor, and while I had been told to think about what I would like to do in “life after projects”, we have been given more grants for more projects, for some years to come.
Meanwhile, the Lord builds my house also, with the boys getting back into school after a short break, with my wife flourishing as a teacher/homemaker/nurse/mother
There is much more I could write, boring you with the details of trying to modernise our office somewhat, of trying to recall lessons in database management from over a decade ago when I wasn’t really paying attention (and subsequently reflecting on all those reports where the teachers said, “David would do better if he applied himself”, and thinking, “I wish I had applied myself!”), of learning humility through making mistakes in management, of feeling like a child when I try to hold a conversation in Tok Pisin (and coming to realise that I need to change my thinking away from it being a simple derivative of English, and therefore inferior, and towards recognising it as a language in its own right), and of many other mundane things, but I’ll spare you having to sift through all that. Besides, I need to keep something up my sleeve, just in case nothing happens in between this and my next newsletter…
Prayer points
- Language – it is still a barrier, especially in worship services, and especially as I can easily go through weeks without even trying to speak Tok Pisin, as all of the business houses require their staff to speak English.
- Patience – as sometimes the biggest challenge is that you need to wait for things to happen, when you are used to them happening instantly.
- Grace – with the people for whom you are waiting.
- More grace – we growl loudest at those closest to us, and our spouses and children often bear burdens that are undeserved.
- More grace – to help out those closest to us, by shouldering the burdens with them.
- Health – our lives, as scriptures tell us, are like vapour, and the fluctuating health here is a constant reminder.
- Faith – a consequence of being busy, of not understanding the language, and various other things (self-discipline being a large factor), takes a toll on your spiritual health. Often times, the first things sacrificed, are the most important for good spiritual health, and this is (for me at least) a constant battle.
- Wisdom – in deciding which side projects are superfluous or pipe dreams, and which I should aim to make mainstream projects.
- Growth – scripture says that if a person begins to bear fruit, they’ll be pruned so that they will bear more. If this is true, and any of the challenges we face are the pruning of the Gardener, then pray we learn our lessons quickly, and do not despair in the hardship.
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