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.