not a well boy

Paul: For the praying-types amongst you, we just wanted to let you know what's been going on for the last few weeks. We'd love to use it as an excuse for not blogging much, but you already know we've been hopeless at that recently!

Anyway. I've been acting a little strange. I keep on coming over dizzy and then falling over (most embarrassing scenario so far: falling over in 'Boots the Chemist' and knocking over a whole stand of disposable cameras. I fear some of them may now be a little more disposable than planned). I went to the Doc who told me I probably had something loose in my head (many have mentioned there was no need for qualified medical opinion for that diagnosis) but specifically in my inner ear. The Doc also said it would probably be fine to fly. Big mistake - throwing up on an aeroplane was a new experience for me, though!

After quite an exhausting trip to the US (I'm well aware of the queue of good friends who told me not to go, now lining up to say "I told you so") I had an appointment with the ENT doc today, who didn't really come up with much, but put me on an MRI scan waiting list (to eliminate anything nastier than the "loose debris in the ear" scenario). Traveling around to some unique and wonderful countries and their intriguing medical facilities makes me exceeding grateful for the NHS, but I'm finding it tricky to keep that grateful-heart attitude today.

So if you're up for it, as you think of us, do have a word with the Great Healer for us. I'm about a zillion emails behind, and have a quite a bit of prep to do before a full and exciting term and its proving tricky looking at a screen for too long before it starts going fuzzy! We'll update you soon. Thanks for being part of this.

A Day in the House of.....

We have a big old house and I love it. It’s the place Lesley and I always talked about having as a hub for integrating family life and the other folk that God has seen fit to put in our life right now. Some times it’s a haven for the four of us to re-group, particularly after we’ve had time apart, but then every so often we have a day like this:

The day before some friends called and said they were in Birmingham and could they (and their 2 kids) come and stay for a day or 2 which was going to add to the fun! I was on kids-to-school duty as Lesley had to be down in London for the day. Ironically, all our London team leaders were spending the day in our front lounge. I was leading a training session with the 4 of them (I think it went rather well). One of Lesley’s team was leading the afternoon session as I had an “all day meeting” with my team, via videophone (“all day” doesn’t start until 2pm when everyone else is in Orlando). I left them all downstairs while I retired to the study for the meeting.

It all got rather busy downstairs mid-afternoon as the family staying with us had kindly offered to pick up our kids, so our friends and the 4 assorted children had the run of the back of the house with the training session still running in the lounge!

As the trainees departed, our friends (who used to live in Brum) had invited a couple of their friends round for the evening. It’s quite bizarre (but wasn’t the first time) to come downstairs from a meeting and have to say “Hi; I’m Paul. I live here. Who are you?”

Lesley came home just in time to also introduce herself and say goodbye to our dinner guests. The 4 of us sat down with a cup of tea. One of about 40 cups that had been made that day. Just another day in the house of the Cheeses………

In the Steps of Heroes

Paul: I grew up in a church that has always had an unusually high commitment to mission. Some of my earliest memories are of praying for “our missionaries” whether they were workers on the base in Papua New Guinea, (Brian and Rachel) medical mission (at times on hovercraft- how cool!) on lake Chad (David & Ros) or the truly cross-cultural work that took place in Wythenshawe, Manchester – the largest Council Housing estate in Europe (Ken & Cynthia).

They all captivated me in different ways and although I would never have admitted it at the time, theses were my heroes as I grew up. In particular, I was fascinated by Kitty and Leslie who have committed most of their lives to the Chatino translation of the Bible in Mexico. What a legacy!

These were the things and people that were going through my head as I sat on a plane heading for Mexico last week. To go to a country that has been so formative in my thoughts and prayers concerning mission over the years – and go there as a ‘missionary’ – had a profound impact on me (I’d emailed Kitty and Leslie the day before just to say “guess where I’m going!”).

I was heading to a city called Puebla, where our national office is. It did cause the adrenalin to pump just a little, being in a city overlooked by an active and smoking volcano, but no-one else seemed to mind much. (It was a great flight in, weaving between mountains!) I was there, along with Karen (on my team) to help the national leadership team think through and develop their HR functions. It was an excellent time. There’s always the tricky stuff to work through when you are looking to move a ministry forward, but it was so exciting to see the plan for developing Human Resources and moving the ministry forward, that we came up with by the end of our time there.

If you’d like to join my spiritual heritage in interceding for Mexico, then please do remember Kim and the rest of the team there as they seek to grow and have a wider impact on the spiritual climate in this nation. Thanks.

the journey back home

Paul:
It's becoming a bit of an ongoing joke amongst our youth group that recently all my stories of talking to people about my faith start with "well; I was on an aeroplane.....". Occupational hazard I suppose. To celebrate the end of our mad-season as a family, I traded-in some air-miles and we all went to Orlando over Easter. Our journey back home from Orlando added another story to the list.

Joel and I were in the middle and window seat. I'd tried to co-ordinate our "getting up" to minimise disturbance to the poor guy in the aisle seat. After checking twice with Joel (and despite the vast amount of Orange juice he had consumed) he decided he didn't need to 'pay a little visit' until just after I had sat back down, when he loudly announced "right; I think I need the loo now". I was just deciding whether to throw Joel out the window, when the guy next to me said "it's OK, I've got a boy of my own" and promptly got up for us.

I got chatting to Kevin about kids and life. He was from Ireland but had married a New Yorker and was now living in Florida. We got to talking about what we did - he is in Pharmaceutical testing - and he was quite intrigued when I told him I was a missionary. He'd had a classic Irish Catholic upbringing and although he'd left most things of faith behind him years ago, he and his wife had recently started to become more spiritually interested. "Coincidentally", they'd had a neighbour round a few days earlier, inviting them along to church over Easter. We talked for the rest of the flight about the Bible and church and Catholicism and Jesus and Easter and eternity. I'd love to tell you he made that step of faith into the kingdom as we were about to land in New York, but he didn't. He's still got a way to go on that journey, but I felt privileged to have walked part of it with him. Do pray for Kevin and the Spiritual journey he's on.

We had a grand old time as a family in Orlando. I was working for the first few days and we did some 'connecting' with my team out there, but the 4 days over Easter was just pure fun.

When Dreams are Realised

From Lesley:

I recently returned from a trip to France to be part of a Member Care Consultation. ‘What is member care?’ you may ask. Good question! The consultation was a group gathered from around Europe and beyond of missionary sending organisations and health care professionals to consult on the best way to care for our many missionaries. Too many missionaries leave the mission field prematurely for reasons that are to a large part preventable if they were better equipped and cared for during their time.

One of the leading voices, indeed probably the original voice, leading the way on this is a woman called Marjory Foyle. She is well known for her book ‘Honourably Wounded’ and has led the way over the years in ensuring missionaries are cared for and invested in to a level that provides an environment for them to thrive. Too many missionaries just about survive and it is crucial that those who are responsible for overseeing them continue to work on doing a better job at ‘member care’.

It has to be said that Marjory is a hero of ours and so it felt an unbelievable privilege to be present on the last evening in France when we had a special evening of recognition for her, indeed to honour her. The room was filled with people who she has impacted and influenced over her 86 years. I felt a bit like I was eavesdropping on an intimate event of very special people who in turn look up to this very special woman. She looked around the room after her standing ovation, quite overwhelmed by the surprise, and announced how naughty everyone was to do such a thing but also declared that her dream, that started over 20 years ago, was this night realised. Wow.

God caused me to remember afresh why I do my work and for whom. I do it because I am passionate about people and I love it when people thrive and grow on the mission field. I do it for God’s glory and for His kingdom.

Sunday School Questions

Joel came home from "Sunday Club" with the usual bundle of badly folded paper and 3 post-it notes. It was quickly observed that the notes were answers to questions he had been asked that morning in his group.

The first one said "to save us". I had a pretty good guess as to what the question might have been, but I checked with Joel and sure enough it was a "Jesus" question.

The second post-it had "James Pritchet" written on it (his best mate at school). I was a little more intrigued by this one, and Joel explained it was to do with someone they wanted to come to know Jesus. Excellent stuff.

The third post-it had "hit people" written on it. However hard I tried to pursue the matter, Joel could not quite recall what the prompting question was about. I wonder what it could have been..........

I think nine is going to be an interesting age for our boy.

A Slice of Turkey

Paul:

I toyed with the "Turkish Delight" theme for ages, when coming up with a blog title, but as well as being just a touch predictable (not that "a slice of" is much better) I realised 'delight' just didn't quite get there in describing my time. Exciting, challenging, rewarding: yep, yep, yep, but not really what you'd describe as 'delightful'.

I was at a conference for all our leaders working in countries in the Middle East and North Africa. Most of the tricky ones, basically. The ones that keep an HR guy awake at night. I knew in theory the kind of situations my friends faced in those countries, but there is something about being in the midst of all these leaders that has a fresh impact. I'm humbled by the difference between the worlds we both live in.

Two things brought it home to me. On the first morning I was there, someone was speaking on the value of teams and asked the question "What makes you feel safe in a team?" I have asked this kind of question to groups before and the answers normally revolve around strength of relationships, openness and vulnerability. In the feedback, one answer cut through like a knife: "I feel safe on a team when I know my brother will give his life for me". This was not a metaphor or over-dramatisation. This is the reality of life and the risks taken in embracing others when in ministry and living as a believer.

The other was while singing worship songs. I've always liked the song "Blessed be your name". It's a cheery, worshipful little number. All was going well until the refrain "you give and take away, you give and take away; my heart will choose to say: Lord blessed be your name." Many of these leaders have lost friends and comrades this year through war and persecution and know first hand the impact of singing these words and embracing their meaning. I cried.

The Nightmare Begins

Paul:

February hasn't really worked out like we thought. I'm normally gallivanting off somewhere for a few days, and maybe Lesley has to pop off somewhere as well at some point, but somehow we've ended up with only 3 full days when we are both at home. Not a good plan.

This is my actual calender pictured. you can't read the detail, but the coloured blocks are when one of us is away. See the problem?

There's nought to be done about our daft scheduling at this point, but I wanted to give you a run down, so you can offer up a few when you think of us. Here's the deal:

Feb 3 - 9: Paul has dragged the Global HR team from around the planet, to little-old-England (We were going to be in Orlando, but Charis is appearing in "High School Musical" that week, so Paul wanted to be in commuting distance). We're meeting in Derbyshire.
Feb 10 - 15: Paul pops off back to the US for his usual round of meetings and eating too much food
Feb 15 - 19: Having missed Valentines day (boy; I'm in trouble) Paul has a romantic drive with Lesley, as she takes him straight from Birmingham airport to Heathrow, to catch a plane or 2 to Turkey for a few days.
Feb 20 - 21: Lesley's turn. She's away with the UK Leadership Team for a couple of days.
Feb 22 - 24: We have a weekend all together. Yeah!
Feb 25 - March 1: Lesley's attending a European Member Care Forum in Lille, France

...and then we get our lives back...maybe...a bit... At least for a week or so. All intercession gratefully received. Thanks people.

Three Days in Singapore

Paul:

At about the same time as a Boeing 777 was crashing at Heathrow, I was landing rather uneventfully at Birmingham International. I had just arrived home from 3 days in Singapore. 3 days in Singapore??!! Am I mad? what has my life become, that I can say that so casually?

Actually, I found there is an up-side to such a stupidly long trip, for such a stupidly short amount of time: Your body clock stands no chance of adjusting to the local time, so you are a zombie when you return, but you have virtually no out-of-sync experience.

As I mentioned a couple of posts ago, the main reason for the trip was to meet with some other Agapé / Campus Crusade folk who are developing new technology for tracking our staff and their development more comprehensively. I know very little about tech and still don't have much experience of the international issues involved, so obviously I ended up with the project leader role! I feel like I am soooo in over my head on this. All prayers gratefully received.

While I was there, I got to meet with the HR guys who lead our Singapore ministry as well as a number of other East Asia HR leaders. These folk have such a difficult role, in often really difficult circumstances. Please pray for Chee Yee and Moses (it's his "English" name) on the Singapore national team as they put together their national plan, and particularly for Chee Meng who is HR director for another national ministry in East Asia, as he leads through some difficult transition issues.

We both have a couple of weeks in the UK now, before the madness of February begins. More about that later.

West Wing Addiction

Hello; my name's Paul and I'm a West Wing addict. It all started innocently. A friend just slipped Lesley a legit copy of series 1 at a party. I thought: "What's the harm? it's only a TV series; I'm really just a social TV watcher. I can handle it." Oh, the slippery slope!

We tried just watching the odd episode, but quickly found ourselves saying "Oh go on - it's the holidays and its only midnight; lets watch just one more......". and now we find ourselves in this sorry state of breaking out into a sweat at the thought of going a day without watching just a little more of the President's antics. (apologies for those of you that have yet to succumb and haven't a clue what I'm wittering about)

All this to say I needed to let you know I'm going "Cold Turkey" (no Christmas pun intended). Lesley is away with all the Agapé UK team leaders, doing some training for the rest of the week and I have promised NOT to watch another episode whilst she is away. The temptation is almost unbearable. Please do pray for Lesley, the team leaders, my kids as they suffer my cooking (and take-aways) and me as I sit and look at the West Wing DVD box.

Lesley gets back just in time for us to watch one episode on Friday and then I fly to Singapore on Saturday. I'll try and blog you from there. Thanks people.

Training Video?

Paul:

Famous last words on the "I'll be back for Charis' presentation". I got stuck in Raleigh (nope, I don't know where it is either) as snow in New York had grounded everything. I eventually got home (30 mins too late) and tried to make up for it a little by having a family afternoon watching a classic Christmas video. It was only when we were about half an hour into "Home Alone" that we spotted Joel's face. He was transfixed, and we suddenly realised, to our dismay, that this wasn't simply entertainment. Joel was viewing this as a training video. He was all but taking notes........ Young Macaulay's face summed up our sentiments.

The trip to the US was a lot of fun, as ever (Americans do that "festive spirit" thing well) and (you'll be pleased to know) also rather useful. We've got plans in place to more effectively track who and where our staff are around the world (which is rather helpful if you're trying to look after them properly). The first gathering of the posse involved in the project will be in Singapore in January. You'll be the first to find out when I get a few more details.

"I'm leaving on a jet plane"

Paul:

Those of you that have known me for more than a few years, will know that I was the guy who thought the Isle of Wight was a bit too far to go on holiday. It feels just a tad weird that the John Denver song seems to have become my theme-tune. Ho hum.

Anyway, I'm back "catching the bus to the office" again in the morning. Flight CO27 (and another one that I don't know the number of) will get me to Orlando tomorrow eve at some point. All good fun! For the pray-ers amongst you, please join me in praying that I'll have an opportunity to bless those sitting next to me as I fly.

I'm there nearly a week and get back just in time for a BIG presentation that Charis is doing at school (must....stay....awake...........) on Friday morn. Thanks guys.

Welcome to
"The People Tree"
Helping God's People Grow

For a number of years now, Paul and Lesley's ministry focus has been on helping the staff and those within Agapé grow and be better equipped to fulfill the Great Commission. It's a bit like tending a people tree. There are times of tremendous growth, when all you do is add a little water , stand back and watch. There are other "out of season" times when a lot more tender caring and nurturing are needed, and although nothing is visible on the outside, it is a vital time that will produce fruit in season, and see God's kingdom grow as a result.


We've set up this blog so you can walk with us through our tending of this people tree in Agapé / Campus Crusade and pray for us as we walk together. Thanks. We really appreciate your involvement.