Enjoying our supporters

When someone asks how you are doing, it is often a badge of honour to be able to say, “I’ve been busy.” Our culture can equate busyness with importance. Saying we are busy can make us feel and seem important, demonstrate a good work ethic and provide us a sense of identity and value. That is perhaps doubly so for people “living by faith” on the donations of others.
When we’re living off donations and gifts from others, it doesn’t seem appropriate to say “I’ve been taking it easy”.

I’m well aware of the trap of needing to say “I’ve been busy” to justify our living off the charity of others. I try to avoid that mindset, though, as being busy doesn’t necessarily mean being effective. Busyness can (but doesn’t have to, of course) lead to a lack of focus, a false sense of progress, and a ministry defined by what we do for God rather than what he does through us.

I like to try and avoid telling people that I’m busy. I don’t want to boast in my activity, but I would rather talk about how God is leading us and caring for us. Thus, I find it a little embarrassing to sit down and write about being busy these last weeks!

How about I rephrase it then? We’ve been blessed by so many people being interested in the work in Kovol that we’ve been working through a packed calendar of visits. Having been in the UK for a month and a half now, our family hasn’t had the chance to visit our home church in Bracknell yet, as we’ve been giving reports every Sunday.
When I started on the path of tribal missions 15 years ago, I had no idea whether we would have anyone behind us. The costs of flying overseas, building a house in the jungle and being dependent on aviation for supplies seemed an impossibly large hurdle. We’ve seen God provide for all of that, and we’re in a position to continue. Week after week, we’ve been able to meet with different people who stand with us in our goal to teach the Kovol people the Gospel in their language for the first time.

We’ve been blessed and encouraged by the interest in the Kovol work, and in our family. We’ve enjoyed many conversations digging into the complexities of Bible translation and the challenges of working in such a remote place. We’ve also been showered with care and support. There have been several who have taken us aside and asked how we’re really doing. Are we well supported? Are we able to find rest? Have we got a holiday booked for ourselves? How are the children coping? Is there anything we need? It’s so encouraging and humbling to have people coming alongside us and making sure that we’re well looked after.

The challenge for our family, of course, is continuing to feel unrooted. Every week we’re in the car to go to a place the kids don’t recognise to meet new people. Often, that involves meetings and conversations. Not exactly the running and playing that our kids would most appreciate! They’ve done very well with it all, though, and we’re very proud of them.

This last week saw us taking a trip up to North Cotes, where NTM has their training centre. It feels like a 2nd home after we lived there for 4 years for our training. I was able to share with the students about life as a church planter, show the linguistics students some of our language data and chat with the staff and trainers.
From North Cotes it was on to Bradford to see a friend and enjoy a meal before hopping in the car again to visit the church in Milnrow, where we also felt at home. We lived some months in Milnrow back in 2018. It felt a little odd to visit what felt like a 2nd and then a 3rd home in the UK over a week.

Monday saw us going back “home”, but not before stopping at Pizza Hut. When living in Papua New Guinea, a common topic of conversation between missionaries can be the foods from home that we miss and are longing for. That was Pizza Hut for me – particularly the all-you-can-eat lunch buffet. We’re now coming near the end of our scheduled speaking engagements, and it seemed a suitable reward. 10 slices of pizza and 2 ice creams later, we were ready to continue our journey south, fighting off sleepiness as my body went to work digesting the pizza overload.

So now we’re “home” and gearing up for the next round of visits. A busy time for the moment. We’re thinking we may not go looking for more appointments for November and December. We might finish off our visiting and speaking and switch to a more relaxed schedule to rest up before we look at returning to PNG in the new year.

All I have to say is “wow”. God has provided for us. Hundreds of special people are praying for and supporting us. It’s been a real delight to see some of them and spend a short snatch of time with each of them. God put it on our hearts to want to be in Kovol to bring them the Gospel, and God has put it in the hearts of people to love, support and care for us.

everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or lands, for my name’s sake, will receive a hundredfold and will inherit eternal life.

Matthew 19:29 ESV