Today’s inauguration reminded me of a missionary-related incident back in September. A couple who were raising support for a year-long missions stint in Slovakia were informed that, due to the wife’s public support of Obama, some people were reluctant to fund their ministry. It appears that things still progressed despite this snag and they are now in Slovakia. Welcome to Europe!
We’ve arrived back from taking a week off to celebrate a milestone anniversary. It was a great time of unwinding, disconnecting from daily tasks, and just plain resting. While we travelled a bit away from our home, it wasn’t so much of a sight-seeing trip but a get-away. Besides, the January weather of most anywhere in Europe just isn’t conducive to travel or outdoor activities.
But our supporters don’t know that we took a vacation.
Despite the fact that we only took four vacation days last year (it’s just so expensive for accommodation and travel in our neck of the woods), we risk criticism and support loss if we revealed we took a holiday or even some time off. Why? Because as we queried missionaries, pastors and supporters (before we began our mission) as to how they felt about vacationing missionaries (not on furlough), we were met with some disappointing responses.
Liam Byrnes over at Byrnesys Blabberings devoted a blog series to “21st Century Missions,” a series of interviews with the same questions asked of several missionaries/church planters. Their answers are insightful, and I tend to agree with many of their answers. Check them out here:
One of the churches where we help out here from time to time was gifted with a large amount of brand-new desktop computers almost four years ago. The donor from the States took it upon himself to decide that the church needed not only computers for staff use but a computer lab was necessary. On the surface, this was a great idea that made the donor feel that their money was being well spent, plus it most likely sounded impressive and generous to those in his circle (I happen to know the specific donor and his personality would bear this out). Then the donor disappears.
Fast forward a couple of years later to us entering the service of the church and offering our technical knowledge to help with the computer lab which by then was, simply, a mess. What we found was an unsecured wireless internet, viruses (or is it virii?) running rampant, and at least half of the computers rendered non-functional. It took us quite some time to clean up and lock down each computer, and acquiring security/anti-virus software ended up costing the church. After some rudimentary training of the staff on computer security and maintenance, the church computers were in much better shape.
Fast forward one last time to 2009, and the computers are nearing their planned obsolescent end-of-life. The staff have become dependent on the office computers for ministry, so the lab computers have been slowly repurposed as each office computer gives up the ghost. In fact, the lab no longer exists because there are no more computers left for it. Meanwhile, several office computers are making the sounds and signals of impending failure. The church, already financially struggling, may not have the finances to replace any of the remaining computers.
The donor just made a timely reappearance, but instead of asking the church what it needed (replacement computers, or maybe even cash to pay the heating bill), they were “gifted” with banner printers. That need a supply of ink. And a computer to run them. Read More…
Realising that we’re a realtively young blog site, we’re pleased to announce that one of our blog posts has been featured on Wrecked For The Ordinary, an online publication that is (in their words) “for spiritual misfits.” It’s a publication that we’ve been following for a while now, and it gives voice to the real struggles that Christians face throughout their walk.
Check out our article on their site here: New Year’s Confession: My Addiction to Anxiety
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