Bits & Pieces

My apologies to those who may have been checking this page looking for an update. Last week we weren’t able to do email and this week we’ve been enjoying the West Africa Missionary Retreat too much to write.

We are doing well and enjoying our time here in Ghana. Our plan is to return to Togo at the end of this week. The security situation seems to be much improved, though there is still a lot of tension in the country. At last count, over 22,000 Togolese have fled the country out of fear, mostly because of voicing their desire for democracy. There are still reports of nighttime abductions of local people by men in green uniforms. Please pray for the people of Togo and for those who are living as refugees.

Here at WAMR, we’ve enjoyed hearing our visiting speaker, Shawn Tyler, a missionary in East Africa. Shawn and his wife Linda served in Kenya for thirteen years and have been at their current ministry in Mbale, Uganda for ten years. In today’s session on missionary burnout, Shawn noted that, “Most of our spiritual mountains turn out to be cliffs, very easy to fall off of.” How true!

In their pitch for long term missions, the Tylers noted that our “work yourself out of a job” mentality may be based on a faulty model – a business model in which our primary objective is accomplishment, getting bang for our buck, etc. Perhaps a more appropriate model would be a family model, where commitments are lifelong though roles may change. (I hate it when people step on my toes like that; we plan to return to the States next year.) We are birthing spiritual children. As they grow, their needs and our responsibilities change, but they will always need us to be available. How true that is! I turned 44 years old last week, but I still draw great security from being able to talk to my folks on the phone. Somehow just having that connectivity gives me a sense of stability.

A funny thing happened on Mother’s Day. As I was expressing appreciation to my wife, I asked our son, who just turned seven, “Isn’t she just the best mother in the world?” He remarked, “Maybe not the best, but I love her.” That total honesty reminded me that this is what family is all about. We acknowledge that we are not perfect, that we all have faults, and sometimes we’re not “the best,” but we are committed to each other and love each other despite our faults.