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Staff Reports
Reports of recent Trips and Work by Godspeed Missionary Care
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Staff Missionary Reports
Reports and Experiences of the Godspeed Staff
Questions...some directed to us, some from us, some that
just arose from the circumstances...Karen and I have spent the
past eight days visiting missionaries in South Africa and
Mozambique.
A sampling:
Why would an otherwise reasonably capable psychiatrist leave
his glasses in the back of the seat pocket on an airplane?
What are the odds on meeting a missionary friend, last seen
four years ago, in the middle of the Frankfurt airport, he
on the way to India, we to South Africa?
How should mission agencies best plan to deal with the
generational differences that are more and more common on the
field, where the majority of a team may be composed of
younger, less experienced and often more energetic members,
being led by a smaller cadre of significantly older,
tradition-tempered missionaries?
What is the likelihood of finding an optometrist on the
outskirts of Johannesburg who is able to refract and provide
replacement eyeglasses in 24 hours, which we are told by
locals is about six days sooner than they have ever been
able to get theirs done?
What can I say to a missionary couple gradually recovering
from the loss of their granddaughter sixteen months ago?
How do I reconcile the image of a woman in tattered rags
rummaging through a dumpster full of reeking garbage on the
streets of Maputo as we drive by on the way to a clean and
pleasant restaurant to dine with a missionary couple?
What was God thinking when He made the warthog?
How do I encourage a young missionary whose most difficult
memory of his recent months in a primitive country is the
phone call he got from his mother saying that his sister
was seriously ill ten thousand miles away?
Just what are the differences between a "short term" missionary
and a "career" missionary once they are all on the same field
at the same time?
How much credence do I place on the saying that a rhinoceros
has poor eyesight, particularly when he is less than thirty
feet away and looking right at me?
If I am a missionary whose father-in-law is seriously ill
back in the US, do I proceed with a long-planned two week
trip up country into remote areas, out of cell phone range,
to work with local pastors and fledgling village churches, or
do I stay home to be available in case my wife needs to leave
to be with her father so I could accompany her and our kids?
How does one develop and deepen a romantic relationship with
someone thousands of miles away?
What does a missionary do when they find they have been
betrayed by some of the very people they have come to serve?
When is it o.k. to go home, i.e. how often should one return
to one's passport country?
How does one know when the last elephant in the group has
crossed the road and it's o.k. to proceed? Why does the
elephant cross the road, anyway?
How long will it take for a young woman who was involved in
an accident where an eight year old national girl was killed,
before the image of the child's limp body will cease to
intrude into her thoughts?
How do a concrete floor, thatched walls, corrugated tin roof,
worn wooden benches, no electricity, one drum, and fifty
people create an atmosphere of worship and joy that rivals or
exceeds what I am accustomed to in my home country?
What have I ever done to deserve such an opportunity to see
God at work, to get a glimpse of the scope of His created
world, to be witness to and humbled by the dedication of His
servants in South Africa and Mozambique? This one, I
definitely know the answer to...
These questions and many others have come before us this
trip; I am writing as we prepare to return to our home, with
hopes this will be sent out when I am back into e-mail
connectivity at an airport somewhere. We are so very grateful
to you for your prayers and messages, and look forward to
hearing from you.
Godspeed,
Barney, for Karen and the Godspeed team
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