Staff Missionary Reports
Reports and Experiences of the Godspeed
Staff
"Numbers"
Johannesburg, South Africa
Thursday, September 19, 2002
"My mouth shall show forth Your righteousness and Your
salvation all
the day, for I do not know how many they are." Psalm 71:15
NKJV
Dear friends,
I am only slightly less than 6'4" tall, somewhat greater
than half a century old, significantly more than 14 stone in weight,
having just completed one more 15 hour rear-of-the-plane transatlantic
crossing on a aircraft designed for younger, thinner, and shorter
folk. My statistics are dwarfed, though, by the sum of a not quite
5'5", less than half my age, featherweight missionary with
one one-way trip to Africa to her credit thus far in life. Only
six weeks away from returning home to the U.S. for the first time
in two years, she has during that time been significantly responsible
for the financial accounting of the lives and work of more than
fifty missionaries serving in five countries in southern Africa.
She drove us around the city today on the wrong side of the road
(or so it seemed to me) at speeds up to 110 (km/hr, I trust),
never missing a turn. She volunteered in her spare time to teach
English last year in one of the nearby townships ("underdeveloped
settlements" in the local lingo, "slums" by most
other definitions), and still drives alone (not recommended by
locals) into one such area on occasion to visit. She lives alone,
with her cat. Ginger the feline roommate will be missed greatly
when she must leave her here to go home to the parents she has
missed greatly for the past 23 months.
The number one reward of her tour as a missionary: relationships
she has made with innumerable nationals of all walks of life.
Number of days of the past 688 that she has felt that she wanted
to go home early: one. ("Just a bad day"; on closer
questioning, related to conflict with other missionaries, which
is the first ranked cause of stress among missionaries we have
met all around the world). Had she the choice, would she do it
all over again? "Oh, yes! I've experienced God in ways I
could never have before".
Her numbers give me pause to reflect. Of the sum of the days
of my own lengthy life, how many could I say that the primary
reward was the thrill of relationships with others, the good days
far outweighing the bad, that recognition of God's presence and
activity was the most important purpose for the time spent?
We have been blessed to spend these few days with this young
woman, who has offered us bed and board and time to recover from
the long inbound trip, as we prepare to meet with 54 missionaries
over the next four days at a conference further north in Witrivier.
We will give a short presentation on stress management, and be
available for counsel to the several groups of missionaries attending
from South Africa and Mozambique, then return to Mozambique to
visit with others there the
following week. I am not sure of my e-mail access for the next
few days, but would count it a multiplied joy if we could hear
from you, and of your numerous prayers for our time here.
Godspeed,
Barney, for Karen too
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