Who is Jesus?

Srey Leak grew up in Stung Meanchey, Phnom Penh which hosts the biggest rubbish dump in the country. In the area live thousands of the poorest of the poor, scavenging to survive. Srey Leak’s parents decided to give her up for adoption. She was adopted and taken away at the age of eleven despite both her parents still being alive. Srey Leak has ended up in the same class at school as Aimee – but has struggled to adjust in the massive shock of leaving family and friends in poverty-stricken Cambodia to a whole new massively affluent way of life in a new family, country, language and culture at the age of 13. She was delighted to find out about Aimee’s connection with Cambodia and surprised to find that Anna and I speak Khmer – she phones us to speak in her mother tongue and calls us “Ming” and Pu” – younger auntie and younger uncle! Srey Leak came for a sleep-over a few weekends ago. We told her we were going to say thank you to Jesus for the food before we ate. She asked us, “Who is Jesus?” Explaining in both English and Khmer brought a look of blank incomprehension. She had not heard of him in either language! At bed-time we looked through a Khmer picture Bible – going through Jesus’ life-story together. She asked questions for 45 minutes, and then insisted on going to church with us the next day. We wouldn’t allow her until she had the permission of her adoptive parents – she called them four times! Pray that Srey Leak (pronounced “Lay-ack”) would be able to cope with the phenomenal adjustments she is facing now and find faith in Jesus.

The first Orientation Course of 2008 has come and gone. Philipp and Elisabeth Schmuki, the new OC Supervisors, did well although arrived at the end of the month exhausted! The deadline for registration for the next OC has just passed and a further 28 folk are on their way to join us in May! The building project team is coming together for the rebuild of our office space at 2 Cluny Road. We already have a deputy project manager and a potential project manager will be visiting in April – pray that the Lord will help and guide us in making good decisions.

Work on the International Personnel System has speeded up even further. We are now at the height of effort and struggling to cope – around twenty people are working at full stretch and the project area fairly hums with activity. At present we are putting together the organisational structure to upload into the system so the IPS “knows” where everyone is located – OMF is challengingly diverse in its structures and this has proved to be a major difficulty. Please pray that we get this right and quickly – so we don’t hold up the build! From 7-11th April there will be a blueprinting week held here at IHQ on a new way of handling and tracking applications to OMF on-line. Folk are flying in from around the Fellowship to take part – please pray for a profitable week together with the software team and for stamina for everyone taking part.

On April 13th the Griffiths family will be leading both Family Services at our church in Singapore, Adam Road Presbyterian Church, together with Sin Ee – an OMF worker just back from Taiwan. Pray for a joy in worship, good communication of the Word in this all-age service and that the church would understand a bit more about being a missionary sending church. On 18th April Steve leaves for Brazil, with another International Director, to look at building relationships with the strong evangelical movement there. Pray for safety in São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. Please pray also for time to prepare the materials for deputation/preaching on Home Assignment – which starts for Steve at the beginning of May. Pray for Anna (doing the May OC lectures alone!) and the children staying on in Singapore for 5 weeks after Steve has left.

Josh and Aimee go on separate school trips during April: Josh will be away on Pulau Ubin Island from 8th-11th and Aimee to Taman Negara in Malaysia from 20th-25th. Praise the Lord that ACS International (the school where Josh goes) has found funding to be able to offer Aimee a bursary to follow her brother to the school in January 2009! Thank you to everyone for praying! With our love,

Steve, Anna, Joshua & Aimée

Shining like stars

A few weeks ago a BBC reporter interviewed a Kikuyu refugee from the Eldoret area in Kenya. Anthony was out in the fields when he heard the roar. He rushed towards his village to see a 700 strong Kalenjin mob, many who were his own neighbours, surrounding the church and setting it on fire. In the church were his elderly father, his wife and baby son. As flames engulfed the building, his father died. His wife, seeing there was no way out for her, hurled her two-week old son through a window to save him. She suffered 75% burns but survived. Anthony found his son, buried his father hastily that night and took his wife and family and fled. The reporter asked him, "What will you do to your neighbours if you see them again?" Antony left the reporter lost for words by responding, "If I see them and they ask me to forgive them, I will forgive them because I am a Christian." His words were in stark contrast to the rest of the report, full of angry, hate filled voices calling for violent revenge. Anthony offered forgiveness to those who had so horribly wronged him. Paul writes, "that you may become children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe as you hold out the word of life." As a family, we have been powerfully challenged in the past few weeks by Anthony, a child of God, who has held out the word of life.*

The first orientation course of 2008 has started and we welcomed 23 new workers on 14th Feb. Some arrived apprehensive, weary and sad after many goodbyes but also looking forward to seeing what God will do as they to go on to "hold out the word of life" to peoples across Asia. We are glad to have them.

The design for expanded and upgraded facilities for our creaking and overburdened 2 Cluny Road site has been agreed! The architect, David Gould, has done a fine job in creating a cohesive, attractive design - light and airy spaces conducive to work, teaching and welcoming. Please pray as we put together a project team to actually carry out the renovations.

Work on the International Personnel System to help us effectively handle our people continues at breakneck pace. Permits for a New Zealand IT expert and 2 Cambodian programmers have been granted and all three have arrived! Two more workers will be joining us in early March. The IT project team hope to have completed the first draft of the blue-print for the system by 22nd February. Jon Watts, the project manager, is doing a fine job but is under a huge amount of pressure. He and Steve spend hours on the phone each week talking to personnel in several different OMF centres across the world.

In OMF we have more than 700 third culture kids (TCKs). There are issues unique to spending your formative years in a different culture. There are also challenges in schooling children – either in down-town Tokyo or the Mongolian steppes! Our International Co-ordinator for TCK Care and Education, Barry McKessar, is stepping down after more than 14 years in the role. Please pray for the search for his replacement who we hope will be based here in Singapore.

Joshua is working hard and playing hard - three days a week he puts in a 12 hour day - partly due to long rugby practices! He just played his second full match and was delighted to score a try! Aimee is hoping to follow her brother to ASC International next January - last week she enjoyed participating in the school play "The Phantom Tollbooth" which the kids put on at a community centre theatre here. She and her friends did a great job!

With our love,
Steve, Anna, Joshua & Aimée

* When we expressed our concern for Anthony in an email to the BBC, to our surprise, we were put in touch with Anthony via the reporter. Pray especially for his wife who will undergo skin grafting on her burns from 18th February.

Cut-price Christianity?

“Sending our own people as missionaries is a waste of money, resources and time,” said the Asian church leader to Steve as the visiting speaker. “Mission is so expensive and demands so much from a church. Our people are well-trained with a high living standard. They expect too much. Our policy is not to send any Singaporean in mission. But we will send money to help pay national pastors working in other countries.” But can we really outsource mission services, just like call centres and IT services? Find cheap workers that can take the Good News (and take the hardships too) while we keep our hands clean, our budget full and our life easy?

Of course there was an element of truth in what the leader said. We need to look critically at how much mission costs – although I suspect it’s far short of what many churches spend on buildings, sound equipment, choir robes and the like. We also need to be committed to working with national churches where they already exists. But “outsourcing” mission goes against the very heart of what mission is all about – God in the shape of Jesus Christ laying aside riches, privilege and power to come into a dark and broken world to seek and to save those who are lost. Mission costs a great deal. It cost Jesus his reputation, his security, his home, his servants, his friends and ultimately his life. It cost God his son. Churches that send people in mission often lose skilled, passionate, committed people. But in God’s economy the churches that send their people gain far more than they lose. As a church sends someone in mission, the very act poses a powerful challenge to those that stay behind. We have seen sending churches become:

• more engaged (it’s not just faceless anonymous people we support but it is our very own Jonny and Jane that have gone!)

• more prayerful (people I already know and love I really want to talk to God about!)

• more mission-minded at home (well if these ordinary people can go to Hanoi to tell people about Jesus, maybe I can tell people at the office)

• more generous (we’ve sent one person, why don’t we send more….)

• more aware of the needs, the riches, the history and the challenges of other cultures and peoples (hey, we’re becoming world Christians!)

Christmas is coming – and it is hugely hyped here in Singapore, despite the fact that the majority of Singaporeans are not Christian. But all join in a festival marked mainly by shopping and eating – two very popular Singaporean pastimes! One of the shopping malls near our house has a monster “Christmas” display – and twice a night blow a mass of “snow” (foam) over the whole thing, including shoppers. Aimee and Josh have been down a few times to join in the fun. ZY and YY our mainland Chinese friends are interested to find out more about what underlies all the hype. They will come round to watch “The Nativity Story” with us next week and talk it over. We long for YY to come to faith in the “God with fingerprints”.

The next ten days look challenging. Software developers will be presenting “mock-ups” of the way they will modify their software for us in response to the detailed outline that we have presented to them for the International Personnel System 9see last blog). A local Financial Director of a giant international software company who is a believer has arranged a massive 93% discount on purchase of software, potentially saving us a great deal of money. We need employment passes for the technical team leader (a former OMF TCK from New Zealand) and Cambodian programmers to be able to work here in Singapore for the first six months of 2008. In all this highly technical work, we long to glorify God and see our labour contribute to the growth of His Kingdom among East Asians.

Finally, we’re looking forward to a week’s holiday in the Malaysian Cameron Highlands straight after Christmas – time to climb mountains, enjoy log fires, sleep, eat and have fun together as a family!

With Christmas greetings and our love,

Steve, Anna, Joshua & Aimée

“Broken…broken….”

We heard today of a Christian family who have a daughter who is now in her twenties. Outwardly completely normal, she has a mental age far below her physical age, including difficulties with speech. She is very affectionate and loves to welcome people. In fact when the doorbell rings she rushes to the door. But once it is open and she is face to face with the visitor, she doesn’t have the capacity to deal with them especially those who are strangers. But she realises that because she looks normal, many people may not make allowances for her. So she will look at the person and, while pointing to herself, she carefully says, “broken….broken”. We found this very moving. A longing to meet, a desire to relate and yet brokenness getting in the way. But she has a great advantage – she knows she is “broken”, lives within limits and is able to admit to it. She anticipates the day when that brokenness will be gone.

There are many different kinds of brokenness – we are all broken to a greater or lesser extent and in different ways. But what about those that are outwardly normal while inwardly broken and yet don’t know it or refuse to admit it? We often manage personnel situations on behalf of teams where there is brokenness but without self-awareness. Huge disruption, pain and misunderstandings can take place. Please pray for us working to limit damage and bring closure to situations. Humanly speaking, it often seems impossible.

Many of our personnel across the Fellowship are struggling with administrative work-loads as they bring candidates into the Fellowship, or handle OMFers moving from country to country, or care for TCKs. We run an extremely “mean and lean” administration with relatively few folk handling large teams. Due to a lack of understanding among many churches, OMFers involved in this key line of work often struggle with low support levels. It can also feel very demoralizing to not be considered a “real” missionary even though through your work you enable dozens of others to thrive on the field. In addition, we have realized that we don’t have a single “joined up” process for handling people. There is no single version of our data – with dozens of small databases being used in various offices. Important information on people is slow to gather and inaccurate which means that decisions are sometimes made with little information.

So we have stepped out in faith to work on a single Information Technology software program that will act as a tool and a prompt to make life easier for our Personnel people. This is a colossal project which will involve every home and field, affect every member and take two years to complete. Jon Watts, an energetic, visionary IT specialist (who previously built Asia-wide IT systems for a major investment bank) has joined us as Project Manager to build what we are calling “Connecting People” – the International Personnel System. The scope of the project is exciting but daunting. Please pray for people with the right expertise to join the team, for the necessary funds for the project to come in and for the Steering Group set up for the project. This is the 2nd major project Steve is currently overseeing. The Group will have its first teleconference on 8th November – even this is a challenge as we are spread across three continents and 15 time-zones!

We're sorry for the long delay since we last blogged. Life has been far too busy just recently and we realise that we need to be careful to trust in God more and rely on our human strength less.

Joshua has worked hard in prep for his exams, knowing that his results would determine which IGCSE subjects he could take. He also faced the additional challenge of joining the class halfway through the year. He did extra work every morning before school for months to cover the gaps. The results are out and Josh has done well – coming top in geography, qualifying to take triple science next year (one of only four in his class to do so) and flying through maths. His most astounding paper was in Religious Studies where he completed the paper in less than twenty minutes much to the alarm of his parents! His mark was 96.5%! Last night he took the part of Hamlet in a Speech Night presentation of “Doggs Hamlet" which he loved. He woke this morning to the end of the school year, the start of the Christmas holidays, exams all over, subjects chosen for GCSEs and a successful play - life is good for Josh! Thank you for praying for him through this period.

Aimee has been happier at school these last few weeks. She gleefully anticipates her last few weeks of school where there will be a number of fun activities - she and Josh have different school years. We have had to restrain her from getting out the Christmas decorations – like her father, she enjoys the Yule-tide customs! After a hectic and hardworking year we are all looking forward to a week’s holiday in the Cameron Highlands after Christmas. Right now we are in the thick of the November Orientation Course. Aimee and Josh have gone off with some of the young people to explore one of the small islands off the Singaporean coast. This course will take us to over 120 new people that have joined OMF this year. Praise God!

With love
Steve, Anna, Joshua & Aimée

Euphoria!

“I don’t believe in God”, said YY, “that’s how I was taught in China. Science has all the answers. But I’ve begun to think again because of the change in my wife ZY.” ZY, a post-grad research scientist, came to Singapore a year ahead of neurologist husband YY. Through the outreach of a church here ZY came to faith. When asked what difference becoming a Christian had made to his wife, YY said, “She was always an anxious person, negative about the future. But since she became a Christian, she is filled with hope. In fact she’s often….” (scratching his head and reaching for a good word in English) “…euphoric!” Curious to see what changed his wife, YY is now studying the Bible (Genesis, at his request) every week with us and ZY, around a table at the foot of a tower block, in the warm evenings. “What do Christians think about the origins of the universe? How old is it? If creation is good why are there so many natural disasters?” Please pray for him to come to faith.

Steve beat a path to Dr Chan’s door once again for his first major heart review since April 2006. An ECG was done and a detailed scan. Dr Chan eventually said, “Steve, I’m glad to tell you your heart is back to normal.” No more leaky valves. No more poorly moving walls. No more enlarged bits. What an electric shock of delight it was! Another less serious exam result was also forthcoming recently as Steve and Josh’s clarinet grade results arrived. Both the boys passed well (although Dad did a little better than Josh to his secret relief!) We need to take a decision with Josh about what International GCSE subjects he will start in January – where did our little boy go?! Josh wants to take on double maths and triple science but the school have to agree that he is capable of handling it. Please pray that the right subjects are chosen.
Love from us all

Steve Anna Josh and Aimee

Number 917

A busy morning, phones ringing, impromptu meetings, a personnel crisis unfolding – then we were asked somewhat apologetically, if we had time for an elderly couple who had just walked in off the street, asking to “see someone in OMF”. Jim & Kaye had recently discovered that Jim’s great-aunt had served with the CIM. We heaved the old CIM registers out of a drawer, searching until we came to her name, number 917 to be entered. Against her name was the laconic entry, “Died, Sept. 1900”.

Jim told us more of her story. Emma Georgiana was 32 when assassins came looking for foreigners & Christians. She escaped the initial assault together with three colleagues & two children. They were hidden by local Christians in various mountain caves, trying to keep a step ahead of the soldiers. Emma wrote & hid letters in the caves, hoping they would be found & sent back to London (which they were). Her last letter reads in part “ ..we can only say God rules over all & must have some wise purpose in allowing all this to come to pass .…. it would be nicer to be taken & be with so many who have laid down their lives; but for the sake of the dear ones who may read this , & for the sake of the many who are still without Christ, one would like to stay for further service. The Lord is keeping one’s heart in perfect peace during this time of trial. We have heard that the people are coming, so we are going home to our Heavenly home. There I shall see you. Do all repent & meet me there. I have no time for more. The will of the Lord be done. Your loving sister, Georgie.” Emma was found by the armed men, dragged from the cave & killed by the road somewhere near the Ai-k’eo mountain ranges, not far from what was then Peking. A waste of a life? From the lives & witness of such people came the Chinese church. With China today becoming a global superpower, the presence of tens of millions of Christians to be “salt & light” in that society is a stark reminder of the wisdom & timing of God. Reminded of Acts 13:36 “for when David had served God's purpose in his own generation, he fell asleep”, together with Jim & Kaye, we thanked God for Emma’s life, asking to serve God’s purpose in our own generation.

Steve’s Mum recently joined us for a two week visit in Singapore. It was a whirlwind time but she womanfully pressed on through the full days! She enjoyed the IHQ team morning prayers, hearing the testimonies of the new OMFers as well as joining in the mid-year Day of Prayer. She mingled & helped out with the often noisy home visits with OCers in our flat. She went to Sentosa beach, joined the OC barbecue, was taken out for lunch to Little India, enjoyed evening walks with us in the Botanic Gardens & was also treated to a sumptuous Shanghai-ese meal with the Fung family.

We have a lot of speaking engagements coming up in August & need your prayers. Anna will be leading a day retreat for the ladies of Prinsep Street Presbyterian on the 4^th entitled “A Woman after God’s own Heart”. Steve will be speaking at Bethesda Katong on Acts 13/14 (!) on the 12^th & leading a workshop at the combined English Presbyterian Mission Conference on the 18^th, tackling the challenging issue of “Integrated Mission”. Then we’re enlisting Josh & Aimee’s help to lead the family service at our church, Adam Road Presbyterian on the 26^th. Anna will be speaking again on 28^th to the ladies of Bethesda Frankel Estate Church. We will study the Bible with 2 doctors from a large country near us starting on 8^th August. The wife believes but not her husband. Please pray he comes to faith.

Josh is hard at work at the Anglo Chinese School – even starting the day with a ½ hour of extra science to make sure that there are no gaps with the others in his new class. After a month he has settled well – we’ll hear more about it at a meeting with his teachers next week. Meanwhile Aimee enjoys her holiday, helping out at Kidzone at the July OC, looking after younger children. Steve & Josh received their clarinet exam results. They both passed comfortably, although the teacher told us the external examiner marking was tough this year. Phew! Onwards to the next level. With our love & thanks for your prayers,

Steve Anna, Josh and Aimée

The Pines & Ko Jaan

The sun is searingly hot at three in the afternoon. We have left the stifling 36 degree heat in our room – despite two fans, no clothes and lying perfectly still we pour sweat at any point that touches the mattress! We find out way down onto the beach, a good sixty feet away. Looking far out east from a white-sanded beach into the Gulf of Siam, we watch the rain drift down in huge gray-white, shifting curtains from huge cumulo-nimbus clouds onto the turquoise sea. Forked lightning dances within the dark, brooding masses. Minutes later the sound waves racing across the sea make land-fall and we hear the crack and rumble of thunder. Two rocky, jagged islands a few kilometers off the coast are picked out by rays of sun and enclosed in an iridescent arc of rainbow, touching the sea, arching up high over their irregular, saw-bladed ridges to touch down on the sea on the other side.

Unconcerned, a local fisherman and her young son patiently work in the sea, waist deep in the waves and covered from head to foot against the fierce sun. Coke and Pepsi, the “Pines” dogs saunter past us down to the waters edge and casually walk into the surf to cool off. We’re here at Prajuab in southern Thailand for a snatched week of family holiday at the OMF holiday home, “The Pines”. This is the narrowest part of Thailand, only 16 kilometres across from the sea to the Burmese border marked by tall, majestic peaks marching off into the blue horizon. Travelling here involved a 4:00 am start, a ride on the budget airline Tiger Airways, another taxi ride across the murderous, fume-laden, choking, heaving Bangkok traffic to the Southern Bus Station, a five hour bus ride south depositing us unceremoniously on the street in a small, sleepy Thai town. A short search turned up two motorcycle/side cars which chugged noisily along for twenty minutes to the gate of “The Pines”. We drop our cases and rush onto the beach – what relief!

“The Pines” has around 12 simple rooms, right on the beach. It is pretty full right now with a wide range of OMFers from Germany, Switzerland, Texas, Taiwan, Australia working across South East Asia, but presently all on holiday. We try and slow Aimee and Joshua down by offering them 2 baht holiday money for each length of the pool they do. They promptly rattle off 100 lengths each – more than a kilometer and earn themselves 2.50! We gulp, pay up and the next day offer only 1 baht per length. They respond by swimming 200 lengths!

We hire a boat locally and ask to be taken early the next morning to Ko Jaan, an island on the distant horizon. Our friends, Jannie and Marna who hail from Cape Town and have lived in Thailand for many years come along with Nerina and Kobus their children. Ko Jaan is a bird sanctuary – although birds nests are harvested there by small teams of men who live on the island for months at a time. Everything is brought out to them by small boat – even their drinking water. Birds nest is a Chinese delicacy used in making soup with supposed health benefits – certain swifts construct their nests, cementing them with saliva. These shallow cups are found high up on the walls of caves. One kilo of white swifts nest costs USD2, 000.00 and the red swifts nest can go up to USD10, 000.00! A lucrative business indeed. We arrive at the low point of a spring tide and our boatman initially can’t find a way through the ring of coral reef around the island. Cutting the engine and raising the motor, we manoeuver slowly with oars until it is shallow enough for us to leap off the boat and wade ashore, our gear held high. The boatman anchors offshore while we pick our way delicately through the clear water, exclaiming at the glories of exotic fish and corals we can see through the clear water while strenuously avoiding the wickedly spike-laden sea urchins. There is a small, brilliant, white-sanded beach surrounded by black and grey volcanic rock. The huts of the nesters cling precariously to the rock. Two pass us, with a heavy basket of freshly caught fish slung between them on a bamboo pole. Nerina skips over with Aimee to see what they have and chats away in Thai. The fishermen tolerantly laugh and chat back. As they prepare to go on, one generously hands over a gift of two fish half the size of Nerina! As we swim about with masks clamped to our faces, what we see is incredible – angel fish, brain coral, giant clams, clown fish, sea slugs, cowries bigger than my fist – the glory and massive diversity of creation is staggering. God is good!

With our love

Steve, Anna, Josh and Aimee