Resident missionaries at a high school camp

A few day ago we came home from another camp. We spent four days in Samford Valley, just north-west of Brisbane. This one was a high school camp comprising mostly of youth groups from Presbyterian churches in north Brisbane. There were more than 70 campers. It was a fun camp where we were the official missionaries-in-residence. 

We got to run three 1.5 hour sessions over three days. The first one was for everyone, the other two were electives. 

We got to do our classic: divide the group into four and rotate between four different activities. My job during the rotations was to teach them how to fold an origami balloon: which was pretty challenging when you realise I had just 10 minutes and over 20 people in each group. David taught groups the Japanese words to go with Rock, Paper, Scissors game and one of the four groups learned how to play the "Jan-Ken-Poi train game". We had another missionary who came along to help, ran a chopsticks relay, and they were on their own with instructions on how to run a Japanese slipper relay.

With such generous amounts of time, we got to share quite a lot of stories, especially the story of how we came to be missionaries in the first place, one that originates back in the late 70s. And we spent time on our central theme: missionaries work in teams (at least those in our organisation do). We don't all spend all our time doing church and evangelistic ministry, but we help one another with lots of practical tasks that people don't often think about that are necessary for ministry overseas.

The hidden value of a camp is that you get to talk to people at all sorts of other times too. For example, over a bowl of cornflakes I got to answer the question: So what's helped you stay in Japan for so long? While eating sticky date pudding and ice cream I got cornered by a bunch of older teenage boys who wanted to know about street evangelism in Japan. So many questions: What food do you miss when you're in Japan, and when you're in Australia? How did you meet? Do you enjoy being a missionary? What's your favourite ice cream in Japan? Which convenience store has the best fried chicken (obviously from someone who's spent time there)?

But all this interaction is exhausting. I didn't get to join in all the fun activities because I was so tired, especially at the start of camp (strangely...I think partly due to sleeping badly the first night). We left after dinner on Wednesday night, the day before the camp ended. Yesterday I was fairly blotto. David came and helped me do grocery shopping (on his birthday). Today I'm feeling better, but I'm thankful we have a quiet weekend in front of us, and several days before we're speaking again (next Thursday).

Bush!

The other fascinating aspect of camp for me was that, while we didn't know many people, we had common connections with quite a few. Though we are no longer members of the Presbyterian Church of Queensland (the denomination running the camp), during the first 21 years of my life I went to two of the biggest Presbyterian churches in Queensland. There were a number of other common connections as well, mostly from our university and young adult years.

This camp was not under canvas, but rather we were in cabins. It was in a part of Queensland that we've never been before, a gorgeous large scout-owned site! I'm so glad we went. Most people start to consider mission as something they can get involved in when they are young. Having the opportunity to talk seriously to high schoolers about mission was an incredibly valuable opportunity. Surely more valuable than them just seeing us speak one-time for less than 10 minutes at the front of their church. Only God knows what the long-term effects of our time with these campers and adults will be. 

Campfires every night, with marshmallows on sticks. No s'mores.

This was a fairly central quiet corner of camp: the verandah on the side of 
the main meeting area. I retreated here a couple of times when my voice
and ears were tired!

In case you've never seen one: a paper origami balloon. At least one person 
began this activity saying, "No way, that doesn't even seem possible."

I didn't get the timing right for a full-on sunset, but this was close on the first night.

End of our Perth trip: it was good and hard

Birthday cheesecake.
A very rare occasion
when I didn’t make it myself! 

It’s only been ten days since I last wrote, but a lot has happened in that time. In terms of what we’ve done, we:

• Spoke in front of small and large groups (six times, once in Japanese).
• Had meals or “coffee” with people while answering questions about our life and ministry (eight times at least, I think).
• Spent about 40 hours at a church camp, interacting almost all the time we weren’t asleep.
• Travelled back to Brisbane (about four and a half hrs on a plane).
• Celebrated our middle son’s birthday with a family party on our 26th wedding anniversary.
• Spent a number of hours planning for future events.

Many evenings we’ve had things on: a dinner or party, an event to speak at, or we’ve been travelling. That’s been hard, because we’re used to relaxing after dinner. Talking intently to people until 9.30 at night doesn’t help with sleep!

We are, however, getting into the groove and I’m feeling more relaxed in front of a group than a month ago. But still, we long for a much more settled life. Alas home assignment is never settled. There is no routine, no “normal week”. We’re working towards the goal of going back to Japan in July next year, so there’s no incentive to get really settled here either.

And then there’s all the conversations that make me feel unsettled and uneasy. All the questions about our lives. Many of them are great questions, but explaining our lives over and over again isn’t easy. And it is exhausting trying to discern what someone wants to know, or what they already know about us. The hardest questions (aside from  the “So how’s Japan?” ones) are about things that I feel insecure or somewhat regretful about. They touch on what I, like these people, have imagined in the past a “perfect” missionary looks like: wonderful language skills (our kids included in that), amazing evangelism stories, and a clear, succinct answer on why Japan hasn’t been receptive to the gospel. 

Questions about how our kids are doing are constant and not easy. Some are from people who have read between the lines on our prayer letters and know that we’ve struggled. Others are from people who don’t know us at all. How do I summarise and satisfy people’s desire to know about us, without sharing too much that our boys don’t want shared?

It’s been exhausting, but, despite all my discomfort, ultimately very good. We especially like interacting with small groups. I think two of my favourite events in the last week were groups of 20 and 50. Both had atmospheres of informality and the kind of intimacy that invited honesty and excellent questions. After events like that, speaking for six minutes in front of a church felt quite flat and shallow.

We flew back on Monday, arriving home after 10pm. So grateful we didn’t have to take a red-eye like we’ve done every other time from Perth to Brisbane, but still tired. We’ve had a slower week, but still had appointments to get to, and next week to prepare for. 

Next week is another big one: from Sunday for four days we’re at a regional church high schoolers camp. These are usually great times to interact, especially with the leaders. But I’m going to be careful about managing my energy and taking downtime. At least we don’t have our own children to take care of at the same time, like we did last time we did a school-aged camp (?about nine years ago).

On the home front: our time in Perth was a big event. It was the first time we’d done an overnight ministry trip away without our guys, and we did it for 18 days! It was good for us all to experience that. Our two younger sons lived at home during that time and by all observations did well. They felt the pinch of not having a car at their disposal, but they got by. They’re gradually learning about life in Australia, which is good, as this is where they’ll be for a while to come. It was good for us as a couple to experience an extended time away from our kids too. We had fun doing some different things as we stand on the cusp of living life again as a couple after nearly 25 years of having kids in our home.

Our trip to Rottnest Is. was a highlight I mentioned
in my last blogpost.

We usually set up some kind of “table” display
wherever we go. We managed to squeeze some things
into our luggage for Perth. Packing for Perth is another
story: it was done at the end of an exceptionally
busy day and I didn’t do a great job personally. I 
wish I’d taken a larger bag and more clothes.

A sand bar at Point Walter on the Swan River.

Catching public transport, especially buses, in
an unfamiliar city was a new challenge.

This was the auditorium at the church camp. Very reminiscent of the place where we first started applying to be long-term missionaries in Queensland.

Different ways of working

For the last three weeks, I’ve had Tuesday morning free to go to our local library and write. This last week was different. We spoke at a growth group from a supporting church (the same church we spent Sunday at, teaching in the Sunday school, being interviewed up front by the pastor, and talking to people before and after the service). It’s a more immersive approach to reporting back to a church that we’re thoroughly enjoying. And it’s made possible by having no school-pickups or needing childcare.

That same evening we went to another growth group from the same church, the first time we’ve worked in the evening like this for a long time. We’re far more used to working during the day and relaxing at night, and neither of us are night owls. It took a long time for me to chill out enough to sleep Tuesday night, and a while to get moving on Wednesday. 

In fact on Wednesday, an admin and preparation day, it was really hard to concentrate and check things off the list of things we had to do. Neither of us are used to working in pairs for planning and executing plans. Both of us usually work on our own for the “thinking” parts of our jobs. It’s not that we mind working together, and in fact we complement each other quite well, but it’s another adjustment, quite a large one.

We had another big day on Thursday: several hours of talking with people at a theological college in the morning, time spent with a couple of different professionals in the afternoon dealing with family matters, plus over three hours of city driving. It was tiring. And then when we got home we had

We got the crowd at the theology college
discussing tricky questions.

to finish packing for our 18-day ministry trip to Perth (west coast).

On Friday we dragged ourselves out of bed with the sun and made it to the airport with time to spare, but not really on top of our game. The flight was good—on time and fairly smooth—but we happened to have seats amidst a group of very verbose older folk. Two of the ladies rarely stopped talking during the six-hour flight. It was wearing.

Now we’ve got mild jet lag, Ironic, really, that we can get that here, with a domestic flight, but not really when flying to Japan (one hour difference between Qld and Japan, two hours difference between Qld and Western Australia). I was awake before 5 am this morning, despite my fatigue. But, it’s mild and will resolve quickly. I can’t fathom what many of my international friends cope with, flying across multiple time zones!

The plan for our time in Perth is to visit supporting churches, individual supporters, and also to connect with the OMF network over here. It’s looking different to what we expected it might, but in a few ways that’s really good—when our expectations are foiled, we have to depend on God more, and seek what his plans are.

This is our first multiple-day ministry trip away from home without children. And the first time we’ve ever been away from our guys for more than five days. It’s different for us all, and will require some time to adjust to.

In addition to meetings, we’re planning some relaxing time. This is a beautiful part of the world that not so many people are privileged to see (many Australians never get over to the west coast), it’s always a special treat to be able to come here. One day we’ll plan it that we can get out of this small built-up part of the state and see some other parts of this massive state (the second largest in the world, Texas is only 26th on that list).

We’re missing our usual jobs and ways of working. Gracious, I’m even missing my newly formed Tuesday morning writing habit! But for now we need to be patient with ourselves and each other as we learn new rhythms of life and work for this season.

A typical week, not a chance!

No, no one has asked me yet what a typical week is on home assignment. I can't say we've had a typical week yet, and we probably won't ever get there these twelve months. We've now been in Australia for a month and our weeks have included:

• collecting furniture
• shopping
• setting up home internet
• sorting out stuff we've had stored for 4 ½ years
• figuring out how to make a functional home and office from the stuff we own and the stuff we've been given
• buying a car
• sorting out red tape—including stuff related to driver's licences, applying for Blue cards (child safety clearance), changing addresses, insurance
• debriefs of various sorts for our organisation
• medical stuff—bi-annual checks for our organisation, hunting down referrals to specialists, skin checks, blood tests etc. (this has actually taken up a lot more time that you might imagine)
• starting to get involved in mid-week events at our home church
• university open day
• social time—with our eldest son, with good friends
• driving lessons
• preparation for speaking events coming up
• a prayer meeting
• meeting with other members of our organisation to catch up
• walking and orientating ourselves to the local community

  

  The hardest thing to set up was our dining 
  room/home office. Without an extra bedroom
  we've had to juggle our living area to accom-
  modate a working area too. It turns out that 
  this large table doubles quite nicely for work 
  (except for me, thankfully I am able to
  work at the shorter desk you can see in the 
  corner).

  
  

Phew! In between all that I've been trying to do my best to relax by having a coffee break on our deck with a book in the afternoon, when I'm home. Other things that have helped me feel more grounded have been household management things—meal planning, grocery shopping on a regular day, regular basic cleaning, and baking. 

"There’s a big difference between living and visiting." That phrase that popped into my mind recently. A lot of what we've been doing is related to living here. We're not on a brief visit or trip. We need to, as best we can, establish our lives here for the next 12 months. That's been hard work, and it doesn't feel like it's over yet, though perhaps the pace is slowing as we gradually tick off once-off things.

Two weeks tomorrow we're flying to the west coast for 18 days to visit churches and others over there for work. That deadline looms large. We'd like our sons to be as settled as they can be at this time so they can manage independently for the longest time we've ever been away from them. We also want to be as prepared as we can for the speaking work we'll be doing over there . . . alas we're still waiting on replies from several people, so it's more last minute than we're really happy with. 

Ah, God's got us on our toes. But I'm reminded that he's the God who goes before us (Deut. 31:8) and that his mercies are new every morning (Lam. 3:22–24, KJV, more modern versions say "compassion"). And these are the truths I need to be repeating to myself when I dream/drowse in the early hours of the morning and my thoughts get filled with anxious thoughts.

Dwelling in the land of spoken word

This week, instead of doing my usual work that involves a lot of written word, I've been dwelling in the world of spoken words. I've been helping facilitate an online workshop for 17 members of our organisation. That means 3 ½ to 4 hours a day on Zoom, not just as a participant, but as one of those who is responsible for how it goes. But I really did struggle, at times, to pay attention when the other facilitators were talking. And then, towards the end of the week, I also struggled to get my thoughts in order as I taught someone else's curriculum. I avoid meetings as much as I can in my daily work, so this week has been pretty overwhelming. 

One of the concepts I taught 
about this week. "Six ways" 
of mobilisation.

It's interesting to read what I wrote in my blog post about it the week after it was finished last year. But especially how it gave me an "adrenaline rush", because that's not how I remember it at all, in fact I was pretty terrified at times and certainly completely wiped out afterwards (and am feeling some of that this afternoon, it's become hard to think and to write!). But thankfully I've felt a little more confident and less terrified this week!

Now we have a week's break and then do it again from Jan 31, with the same people, but different content and more meeting time (maybe 5–6 hrs every day online?). I've got plenty of tasks from my usual responsibilities tugging at me, so it's going to be hard to stay focused and not over-work next week.

On top of that we've had news over the last 24 hrs that COVID is touching closer to home, with cases at the school, including a colleague of my husband's. So school is going online again all next week. It's challenging times we live in!

Coming back to these verses again:

Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms. If anyone speaks, they should do so as one who speaks the very words of God. If anyone serves, they should do so with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ. To him be the glory and the power for ever and ever. Amen. (1 Peter 4:10-11, NIV)–my emphasis

Since getting back from Perth on Monday...

This is one of our supporting churches,
we always feel very welcomed here.

I thought this title only fitting as per my last post here last week! Since then we have done a full weekend of deputation and then flew back to Brisbane and our "home away from home" on Sunday night. 

The flight back was only four and a bit hours, but it happened in the middle of the night! From 10.30pm to 3am (Perth time) or 12.30 to 5am (Brisbane time). I slept on Sunday afternoon for three or four hours before we left (never happens—must have been exhausted!) Even so, I was pretty blurry by the time we got home on Monday morning, despite having stopped for caffeine near the airport. I mysteriously ended up with a large cappicino instead of the medium-sized one I thought I ordered, but it didn't stop me falling asleep for several hours soon after we arrived home thirty minutes later.

The weekend was exhausting, but full of good stuff: dinner with friends who love Japan (and us), breakfast with people who asked tonnes of fantastic questions, lunch with blogging friends I'd never met before, and the Saturday afternoon with OMF folk—hearing about and praying for so many different situations that Australian OMF workers are in right now. Followed the next morning by David and I splitting up and speaking at two large supporting churches.

Downstairs at our accommodation for the 11 days in Perth, the retired
couple who live here generously gave us their upstairs (including a living
area and bathroom).

Ever since we decided in 2000 to visit all the churches in our small Australian denomination, deputation has meant a trip to Perth, where our denomination began. Perth is one of our home assignment big-rocks. Organising home assignment takes a level of planning that I don't mind too much, but it is tiring. 

This trip especially requires a lot of organising: accomodation, car, and the sheer number of meetings in such a short period of time. We've been there five times now (or David has, I stayed home one year when our boys were little). It's a delightful place, and I'm increasingly blown away by these people who rarely see us, yet welcome us with open arms. Literally and figuratively. There are hugs and familiar faces, but also people who have never met us, but know clearly who we are because their churches have been praying for us. What a blessing!

However, I have to say that I'm glad it's over. It was intense and exhausting, just like I knew it would be. Next time we go all our boys will be out of high school and so we'll probably go on our own, taking our time there, instead of the rush-job we've done these last few times. Maybe we'll even drive all the way across the bottom of Australia to get there (4,500 km!). It truly was a grievance to me to be too tied down with home schooling and fatigue and stressed-out boys to be able to see much at all this time. Next time we will be better tourists and probably take some holiday time too.

Back in Ipswich now, and we're struggling to get back into the groove here. Monday was a write-off and even yesterday I was lacking in get-up-and-go, though I did vacuum the house. Today I've forced myself back into the office and have begun catching up on some things that needed dealing with up after being away 16 days (thankfully I've been able to stay somewhat up-to-date with basic email while I was away).

I think that's enough today . . . I've had plenty of thinking time and not much writing time, but I think that those thoughts will make some nice posts in the coming days.

Since getting back from Singapore on Friday...

A church we'd love to be a part of if
we actually lived in Perth. They've always
been so welcoming of us when we're over here.

On Friday morning, after a 15-hours of being "on deck" the day before, I got up early in Singapore and caught the hotel's complimentary free shuttle bus to the airport (6.30am). I was about to take off on the second leg of this 16-day marathon trip. I flew to Perth, a five-hour journey. 

David and our younger two boys had flown to Perth the night before and met me at the airport. It turned out to be a really good thing that they'd gotten themselves situated the day before (we're staying with a retired couple who we've known for over 13 years). The "boys" had a chance to find their way around a little, to get some needed props (that were too big for an aeroplane), and a bit of sleep under their belts. 

I, on the other hand, stood up to speak in front of people only three and a half hours after I'd arrived and felt like my tongue was disconnected from my brain. Thankfully David was able to carry the show.

The weekend was busy with speaking at various groups: dinner on Friday night; breakfast and dinner on Saturday; and church, lunch, and afternoon tea on Sunday. I took every opportunity I had to lie down in between all of that. And Monday too! It was never going to be an easy trip: we've only come over for ten days, basically two weekends and the week in between, and in that time are covering five churches and two missions groups. The shortness of this trip is primarily because of our boys' schooling. Next time we do this, we'll be without kids and we'll probably stay longer!

This is possibly a Xanthorrhoea preissii or balga

The weekdays since the weekend have been much less busy: with only two mid-week meetings yesterday and I only did one of them (the other involved a long drive into the countryside). Getting the boys focused on schooling has meant it hasn't all been leisure, but rather patient reminders. We've gotten out for walks most days, though, which has been nice. There are a couple of lovely parks nearby, and a library (where I'm currently working...or will be soon when I stop writing this blog post...though I probably should consider writing a blog post work also I guess!).

We've got another busy weekend coming up, with several meetings and then a flight back to Brisbane overnight on Sunday night. Monday will be a rest day, and possibly a portion of Tuesday too.

I love this part of Australia. Perth really is a beautiful city and I'd love to spend more time here, exploring beyond the city. Our first entry back into Australia after our first four years in Japan in 2004 was Perth. One of our supporting churches paid for us to have a holiday south of here on a farm. It was the best way to re-enter the country with two young boys!

Coming back each time on home assignment (aside from 2009 when David came on his own while I stayed home and cleaned up vomit...another story). It's encouraging to find that people remember us here too! Obviously coming back time and time again embeds us in people's memories, even if we can only be here once every four or five years.

But enough day-dreaming and reminiscing. I've got editing work to do. Thankfully a coffee van has set up outside the library (the library is in a park) and I've been able to re-caffeinate and am recharged for another bit of editing work before heading "home" with some lunch.

So many unwritten things

I've got several topics of many unwritten posts in my head. It's a writer's dream or nightmare, depending on which way you look at it. 

Some pretty flowers from Toowoomba.
Unrelated to this post except that it
reminds me about some of the beautiful
things I've seen while travelling around,
and have been able to take photos of.
I'm taking my camera on this trip,
so hopefully there'll be some nice photos
to share with you at some point.

I'm shocked to realise that I've only published seven posts in October, I guess this makes the eighth. That means I've just surpassed July and September. Rarely in the last nine and a half years of blogging have I written so little.

The fact is, I've been busy, probably too busy. If I haven't had time to write, I've been recovering from being overly tired or I've been sick. But if you've been reading what small amounts I've managed to get up here, you'll know that. There's also been a bunch of stuff this year that I just couldn't share in this public forum, and that's clipped my wings a bit.

The crazy-busy metre is about to go up a notch, I'm afraid. I'm flying to Singapore tomorrow evening for a International Christian Writers and Editors conference. That's from Sunday to next Friday when I'll fly to Perth (closer to Singapore than it is to Brisbane) and meet David and our two younger boys. 

In Perth we'll be visiting five churches, most of whom have supported us for the last 20 years, plus a mission prayer group and an OMF meeting. Eleven meetings in total, over ten days! My guess would be that I'll probably have time in Singapore to write, but Perth will be more difficult, although most of the meetings are on the two weekends, so during the week will be easier. We'll be back on Nov 12, and I'll breath a sigh of relief that this "big rock" of our home assignment is completed.

In the meantime, for the record, here are some things I've been thinking about writing on:

• friendship
• Australian bush dance (acutally, I might get this one done in the next 24 hours)
• boundaries
• grief
• about this conference I'm going to
• Christmas on home assignment
• internally judgemental
• When are you next coming to Australia? (I just wrote a short bit about that in our prayer letter that I sent out this afternoon)
• Kid's newsletter (which has completely fallen off the rails)
• the books I've been reading: Awe by Tripp, Making Sense of God by Keller

So you see. Tonnes of material. Just no time or frame of mind to get sorted in my head and down in a form that's in any way presentable.

But for now: it's off to packing on this stinking hot spring day (forecast around 36C, but very dry at 25%).  Let's consult the weather of my destinations: 

Singpoare weather: excessively humid (>85%, so currently feels like 31C) but not stinking hot (forecast temperatures around 28C), however I will mostly be inside in their famously cold air conditioning. But, as it's a professional conference, I can't wear jeans all week. Hmmm.

Perth weather: it's jumping around between high teens and mid to high 20s, but is dry (today 50%). With lots of up-front events, I also can't be too casual in my clothing most days either.

Sounds like layers are the thing! But now I've got to do it! (We've got a breakfast meeting tomorrow, so there won't be too much extra time to spare...sigh, it's going to be a long day.)

It was a big weekend

It was another big weekend! They seem pretty common these days, indeed we seem to lurch from weekend to weekend. 

Friday night we had our usual Scrabble date at a couple of local restaurants (mains at one and a cheap dessert at the other).

David and I playing travel Scrabble on Friday night.
We had two strangers say, "What a good idea!"

Queens Park in Toowoomba. Looking beautiful in
the springtime after the rain they've had these
last three weeks.

Saturday we got to sleep in, then headed up to my hometown after an early lunch (1.5 hr drive). It was delightful to see the difference that rain has made in the three weeks since we made this journey.

This is a portion of my parents' front yard. The top photo was taken at the end
d of September, the bottom one at lunch-time on Sunday. In the intervening
 three weeks, they'd had 80ml of rain (just over 3 inches)

We dropped the boys off at my parents' house and then spent 3 1/2 hours with friends I've known since I was 16. They asked great questions and the time flew by!

On Sunday morning we visited a traditional Presbyterian church. The congregation contained more than half a dozen people who I knew as a child in the church our family attended at that time. It was great to also meet others, afterwards, who've been praying for us over the years. Just before we spoke the pastor gave a testimony about two Japanese exchange students they had had at their home (and at the church). Both had become Christians through their experience in Australia and are both persevering in their faith back in Japan. It was a moving story and such an encouragement to hear.

We went back to my parents' house for lunch. During lunch, a storm came through that threw down 30.5mm in a short period of time. The wind was quite strong and they lost power. It was exciting to see the rain, there has been precious little of it in the previous months of our time in Australia.

Three galahs drying off after the storm.

We followed the storm east as we drove back home after lunch. I didn't have a great trip, though. I had a stomach ache and nausea, and an hour after we arrived home I threw up. Thankfully I felt better after that and there was no more pain. However, I took it as a warning sign that I needed to rest (I think the probable cause was stress). I spent the rest of the evening resting and a good portion of yesterday too.

An awkward selfie of me reading yesterday. My favourite way to relax
and favourite place to read a book.

I'd like to rest more today, but am also aware that I've got responsibilities to attend to. Trying to balance up those two things is definitely not easy! Also weighing on my mind is my trip to Singapore on Saturday afternoon and then on to Perth for deputation—a total of 16 days away. Preparation is needed. So...one day at a time I venture forth. Very aware of this:

He gives strength to the weary
    and increases the power of the weak.
 Even youths grow tired and weary,
    and young men stumble and fall;
 but those who hope in the Lord
    will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles;
    they will run and not grow weary,
    they will walk and not be faint. (Isaiah 40:29-31 NIV UK)

Weekend synopsis

I'm struggling to get time for this...the weekend was busy and I wanted to write a bit about it, but I've come back to the reality of several important things (including a magazine to finish) to do before we go away for holidays/visiting family.

So this will be a quick one. On Friday afternoon we drove just over an hour to a place we've been to many times before: Tamborine Mountain. It's a little plateau that Wikipedia tells me is eight kilometres long, five kilometres wide and 525 m high. Not really a mountain by the standards of most of the world, but we're talking Australia here, the flattest continent! 

It's a place that, for more than 60 years, has hosted Christian conferences and camps. Mount Tamborine Convention Centre is a familiar place to us, though we've rarely been there in the last 20 years when we were in our young adult years we often went to camps up there. The weekend was nostaligic in many ways, not only did the place bring back many memories, the event did too. In 1998 we attended a missions conference there, International Outlook, as newly weds. It was that weekend in March that we began the long journey to becoming missionaries with OMF, we started filling out application forms.

Over the weekend we also met a number of people who we have known for many years. The furthest back was a man I knew as a child, he left to go to uni when I was around 12, but I saw him one further time when I was around 19. It's been a long time! 

The property is beautiful and well cared for. Eucalyptus trees everywhere. When you've never left Australia you don't really notice them so much as we do. In Japan we rarely see these trees, but they are everywhere in Australia. I can't stop taking photos of them! The weather over the weekend was gorgeous too.

Times have changed in 20 years. A barista at a missions conference!

More packed bags and in the backgroudn is
an exhausted boy asleep (he arrived
back from a school camp just before we left
for the weekend)

It was different being there with teenagers. They would have preferred to stay home, though our youngest soon found a couple of other missionary teens to hang out with. There were actually few teenagers around. I can understand why parents of teenagers don't bring them to events like this, though. We had to be there for work and had no other option but to bring our guys.

We spent a lot of time talking with people. I'm not sure how much good we did. The journey towards mission is long and involves lots of conversations, so who knows what part we played. This lady in the photo browsed our OMF stand and picked up our prayer card. She then sat down and read it. I was intrigued. I'm pretty sure I had a conversation with her the next day about Japan and students.

This is a former WW2 aircraft hanger, the main meeting room, about which we also have many memories, including that first step of getting application papers for OMF (not dreaming we'd be back there 20 years later as "seasoned" OMF missionaries).

It was a good weekend, in that we were reminded by the main speakers of the great need for the gospel in this world. Many still have not heard and have no opportunity to hear the gospel. It's the message that booted us into missions in the first place, it is good to be refocused on that need again, especially while living in Australia where it's relatively easy to forget the needs of the rest of the world.

Japan family fun night

On Saturday night we ran a Japan-themed family fun night at our home church. Of all the various up-front things we do, it's one of our favourites. Alas not many churches take us up on the offer to do it. Over the years we've done them in about six different churches.

The principle is simple: introduce people to Japan and mission in a fun way, with lots of interaction and activity.

On Saturday, we knew that people would probably wouldn't all arrive at 5pm when it began. So during the first hour we had a variety of individual activities for people to get into the theme: from origami to Japanese-themed colouring-in and worksheets to dress-up in Japanese clothes. The kids really got into the origami, but there were quite a few takers at the photo booth too.

Then we had a bring-and-share dinner, to which we contributed rice balls (onigiri) and coffee jelly.

After dinner the main programme began.

We divided the group into teams by playing "happy families" where people were given a card with a Japanese surname on it and they had to find the rest of their family.

Then we ran a slipper-chopsticks relay (pictured). They had to change out of their shoes into Japanese slippers, run up to the bowls and move five sultanas from one bowl to the next with chopsticks and then reverse the journey back to tag the next team member.

Chopsticks proved harder than the slippers, though David did advise them not to run in the slippers!

The next activity we started moving towards our theme for the evening: support. Each team got a bag with 45 plastic blocks and had to create a tower that would support this "Japanese missionary" (aka wooden doll). They did really well at this!

The main element of the evening is pictured below. One volunteer (a young girl) was our "missionary" who was first given a box representing "ministry". She was then given a lot of other boxes representing other things missionaries have to do, or need in order to function healthily, eg. visa help, language and culture learning, education of their kids, spiritual growth. Needless to say, she looked rather overwhelmed after being loaded with all that.

So we got more volunteers to take some of the load off her (I've blanked out faces for privacy reasons). It was quite a powerful demonstration of how missionaries involved on the "coal face" of evangelism and church planting, can be mightily helped by having others around them to help. It was pretty obvious that without all those other tasks, the missionary would have a lot more time to do ministry.

The analogy was continued when David asked everyone else to form a circle around the kids. We represented those who remain in the sending country and we support the missionaries by praying, giving, etc.

It was a fairly small group but we were hopeful that those who did come would not forget what they learned there. As our home church, it hopefully helped them to understand why we're doing what we're doing as support workers.

Speaking at churches when you're a support worker in mission isn't the easiest thing. People like to hear conversion stories, news about people being baptised. Teaching science and editing a magazine doesn't have quite the same impact. So we've been trying our best to raise awareness of how important what we do is to those who are evangelists and church planters. That what we do will help those who do those things stay longer and be more effective.

We have one other opportunity to present this to a church group this home assignment. Though if you're reading this and would like us to do this in your church (and you are in SE Qld), then do get in contact with us as we've still got some Fri/Sat nights free (or even mid-week nights).

Different presentations every time

So, one of our most obvious jobs these six-months is the up-front speaking. We spoke at two churches in July, and three Sunday morning church services plus one mid-week church meeting and three other groups in August. September is not too much different.

For our sanity we're using the same basic presentation every time. One that we mostly prepared before we came to Australia. However, it also gets tweaked every time according to what we've been asked to provide, the audience, the time we've been given. We add bits in, or take them out, and now, ⅓ of the way through our time here, getting quite adept at this. Tweaking also means altering the power point presentation as needed. 

For example, here are some of the requirements we've been asked to meet:

Church A: 
1.     Share during the service for 5-10 minutes with maybe a summary of what’s been happening in your family and in Japan
2.     After morning tea, to do a 45 minute more detailed summary/presentation of your ministry and OMF’s ministry in Japan (and able to take questions at the end)

Church B:
He (pastor) concurs and you have all the time from 10.00am to present your story and finishing with David preaching. We will need to finish at 10.45

Church C:
Would you be interested in attending a church breakfast? You would have the floor after we had all eaten.

Meeting at a theological college:

[Speaking] from 0930-1020 followed by morning tea 1020-1050 where there is time to chat with the students in a more relaxed setting. . . it will be great for them to hear directly from you of your own experiences, positive and negative, your learned priorities and how you have changed or had to adapt during your time away from Australia. Plus whatever else you deem appropriate. 

Church D:

MLT will try and organise you to visit Bible study groups between those dates and speak at the Mission spot on the Sunday. The Mission spot is 10 mins long and if you have any visuals if you please contact this person...

Mid-week church meeting:

We would like to invite you to one of our Wednesday mission nights to share with us. You have been once before and always appreciated.  I remember you had an activity on sorting garbage in Japan. We start at 7pm and finish at 9pm, with a coffee break at 7.40pm.

Another mid-week church meeting:

Our group can be anything from 12 – 26 people, and yes seniors. All able to drive them selves to the church. We don’t know anything about you or your mission. The group loves hearing from those working in Gods field and you would be warmly welcomed.

We start at 9.30am with morning tea, followed by a devotion – I can get someone from our group to do it or you can do it – about 15 minutes. Then our guest speaker for about 30 minutes with a question time if possible. We can provide a computer and screen if you want to show photos etc.

As you can see our "brief" varies significantly between groups. Sometimes this is written clearly in an email, sometimes it is nutted out over a number of emails or instant messages, or even on the phone (shock! Yes, it still does happen!)

It keeps us on our toes. We enjoy the more formal, small group times where we can interact with our listeners more, but understand the value of getting some precious minutes in front of the captive audience on a Sunday morning.

Our theme of Support and Mobilisation is helping to keep our presentations focused. We're telling people how important it is to have support personnel in mission and putting faces on what that looks like.

Of course this whole thing comes unravelled if we ever have to face the same audience twice, but thankfully that doesn't happen very often.

Ah, but now I need to get back to actually doing that: editing work for the magazine. Thankfully our two meetings for Sunday are pretty well organised, thanks to our method above, plus a little bit of experience under our belts (more than four years experience over the last 20 years) and I can spend time doing other things!