3 Books

This summer was an active one, even for me: 5 weeks, 3 continents, 9 beds, 11 aeroplanes. I do a lot of reading when I’m flying, but its actually other people’s reading that has impacted me over the summer (admittedly, a while ago now!). I thought I'd tell you about 3 of the books being read by folk I met in planes.

The first book I came across was as I was loitering at the back of a Boeing 777, hoping to grab a coffee (nice, drinkable coffee was clearly beyond my expectations, but something warm and brown). The book was "The Purpose Driven Life" by Rick Warren and was being waved fairly animatedly by one cabin crewmember at another. Seeing as they were clearly not about to get up and get me a coffee, I thought I'd gatecrash the conversation. Crewmember A was telling crewmember B how the book had transformed her life, which is not the kind of superlatives you normally hear from a Brit when describing a book. I'd read the book a few years back and remembered a few chunks of it that I liked (a couple of which I even managed to find!). I never did get my coffee, but about 15 minutes later crewmember A had secured a promise from B to take the book and read it.


The second book to grab my attention was being read by a seat 7b occupant (see June 19th) and was titled “Buddhism: plain and simple”. I got chatting to the woman who turned out to live a few miles from me in Birmingham. We meandered our way onto talking about faith and she told me she was Catholic. I remarked that her book intrigued me and she started to explain how she was thinking that Buddhism might be a great way for her to find peace. I asked how that fitted with her Catholicism and whether Jesus, the prince of Peace, might be another route here. She was truly surprised, as she’d never considered her Christian faith to be capable of such things (or that their might be inconsistencies in bolting-on Buddhism to it). Although I’m no Buddhism expert, we had a great chat about the peace I have found.



My third book was being read by a 6ft 10 pro-basketball player en-route from Texas to Germany (do they play basketball in Germany??). It was “the Shack” (if you’ve not read it, you’re a rarity and a dying breed). I risked the question “who bought it for you?” (statistically 8 out of 10 copies of ‘the shack’ have been bought, often in bulk, to give to someone else or to strategically leave in coffee shops). His surprised look revealed I’d hit the mark. He’d been given it by a mentor who had been a friend of the family since childhood. This man had taken him to church when he was a child but he had since drifted away, never really having come to faith. Without spoiling the book, we talked about his perceptions of God and Jesus, his disappointments in life and how God meets us in these circumstances. Although he wasn’t ready to throw his all in with God there and then, he was on the journey. I prayed for him there and then and would love it if you joined in the fun, for all three of my new friends. Thanks.

The Big Five

It was certainly unexpected, but we ended up in Namibia and South Africa as a family this summer. In one of those bizarre Agape-lifestyle situations, we couldn’t afford a proper holiday, so we go to Africa instead! (the joy of collecting air-miles!)

Many folk go to South Africa and Namibia to see “the big 5” – a (seemingly variable) group of animals that used to be sought out for hunting, but now most of the shooting is done through long-lensed cameras. We, however, were there for a different “big 5” reasons.

1) Agape UK sent out some staff to live in Namibia last year, and Lesley had the privilege of paying them a visit 8 months in, to see how they were getting along. Geoff and Caroline are good friends of ours and although it was a ‘work’ visit it was such a joy to base ourselves from their home for the 3 weeks we were there, and share a bit of their lives. They’re having a great time and a great ministry and we loved being with them.

2) We timed the visit to coincide with a celebration of the 10th anniversary of the Namibian ministry. As Agape UK staff members (a couple now back on Lesley’s team) established the work in Namibia it was very special to be representing the UK at the celebration week.

3) Paul needed to visit the South African ministry (South Africa is next door to Namibia if you’re still trying to place it!) to help them evaluate and asses some of their work. The ministry have had a tough time over the past few years and as is often is the case, Paul’s role ended up being more of a listening ear than anything else. If you’re the praying type, do ask God to heal and restore and cause the ministry to thrive amidst a turbulent social and political situation.

4) Our regional office for Southern and Eastern Africa is also in Pretoria and as there is a transition of leadership in Human Resources, Paul wanted to meet up with the out-going leader to de-brief and plan some of the transition. Like many places in the world, leaders are hard to come by for this vital role and it will be a while before we find a permanent solution.

5) the last of our ‘big 5’ reasons was for Paul to meet with the HR leader in Namibia to give a bit of training. This didn’t happen. Niina and her husband had been considering adopting a child for a while, but hadn’t taken any decisive steps forward in it. However, the Friday before Paul and Niina were to meet up, she ‘bumped into’ someone she knew form the adoption agency who asked her to fill in the adoption papers and bring them into the office on Monday as they had a baby she just knew would be perfect for them. They took them in Monday morning and by midday, the baby was in their arms and on her way home with them, amidst the chaos of getting everything you need for a new baby. (I’d love to tell you the complete story when I see you next!). This has to rank as my favourite reason ever for cancelling a training day!

We did get to do the sights (and some of the other big 5) for a few days whilst we were there, which was so much fun (If you’re friends with Charis on Facebook, I’m sure you’ve seen the photos!) A few years ago, we never would have dreamed of some of the situations we would find ourselves in but are so grateful for these surprising things we find ourselves doing!

seat 7b

Paul: People often ask me how they can pray for me. I always need wisdom and feel like lack it most of the time, so that's always near the top of the list. Safety for the family as I travel also ranks pretty high, but when it comes to opportunities to bless other people, I always get folk to pray for whoever is sitting in seat 7b on flight CO26/27 to and from Birmingham when I'm making my usual trip to the US.

I always (to a point that borders on obsession) sit in seat 7a (good legroom, window, quick exit), so whoever is in 7b will be stuck with me for at least 7 hours, so i always pray I'll have an opportunity to bless them in some way as we travel together. I thought I'd tell you about the 7b-ers on my flights last week.

On my way out, I was sat next to Derek, who writes course materials for university distance learning. I really wish I'd listened more closely when he told me his subject as my lack of attention (and knowledge of high-tech / engineering type things) meant I was lost in the conversation for the next hour. I don't think Derek noticed. We moved from talking about his work to mine and (inevitably) onto faith. Derek was a very cynical atheist. I never cease to be surprised that conversations like this start off in the scientific realm, but often the cynicism and emotion come from the more relational issues about "christians" they have met. It was no Damascus road experience (blinding flashes are rarely welcomed at 37,000 feet, I suppose) but by the time we landed in Newark, Derek had changed just a little. Paul's words in 2 Corinthians 5 always ring loud in my head during conversations like this. If we are ambassadors in the "ministry of reconciliation" that we've been called to, then our words, actions and interactions have the power to either bring a person closer or further away to that reconciliation. Please pray for Derek, that he bumps into more people that will take him further on his journey of reconciliation.

On my way home, Maria was sitting in 7b. When I told her who I worked for, she said "oh, I've supported them before". That was a first. As we got talking I found out that she went to church but wasn't "one of those born again Christians". However, her nephew was and had been involved with our organisation at a US university and had gone on a project to Russia with us a couple of years ago and Marie had sponsored him. I asked her what the difference was between her and her nephew's faith. She explained it was all a matter of priority. I think she had it pretty spot-on. We chatted quite a bit about priorities and what was important in life: relationships rather than things, home rather than work and little of the eternal rather than the temporary. She concluded her nephews priorities might be worth another look at.

Quo Vadis?

Dear Friends

I have just returned from a great week in Rome where I was helping to lead the training & development of emerging European leaders.  (You may remember that last September I was with these people in Ethiopia.)  

I was struck afresh by the wonderful quality of people on this course not the least shown by the love they have for Jesus, one another and the people of Europe who don't yet know Jesus and their commitment to taking Jesus to these people whatever it takes. It was humbling to be in the city of Rome where countless Christians in history have devoted their lives, both in life & death, to making Jesus known.  

Our time together was finished in a very old little chapel just outside the city walls where allegedly St Peter, who was fleeing the city for his life, met Jesus going the other way.  Peter asked Jesus 'Domine, Quo Vadis?' - 'Lord, Where are you going?' and Jesus replied that he was going to Rome because Peter was leaving.  Peter responded by immediately returning to Rome where he was to eventually give his life as a martyr.  

As we sat in the chapel and considered Peter's alleged encounter with Jesus we were profoundly struck by this question for ourselves.  Quo Vadis?  Where are we going?  Will we go back to the cities of Europe we have come from with the commitment to making Jesus known even though it is hard and fruit is often scarce? We each responded, many through tears.  

So, now I find myself back in Birmingham & I ask myself 'How will I make Jesus known today?'

With love & appreciation for you all

Lesley

P.S. Forgive my Latin grammar if it's not accurate!

The Old Man of Youth Work

25 Years. I just worked it out, so I thought I'd tell you. I sort of started youth work when I was 16 running a Friday night "coffee bar" (with no coffee, but netting on the ceiling, scary coloured lighting and music that was "too loud" apparently) so that makes it 25 years I've been involved in youth work. It seems weird now that I was only a full-time youth worker for 6 or 7 of those years, as it still feels so much who I am.

The thing is, I still love it. I keep wondering if I'm just too old for this now. Shouldn't I be kicking around with grown-ups a bit more? The truth is (and my apologies to anyone reading who considers them self a grown up) most grown ups are just too........ 'grown up', I suppose. I like most of them in moderation, but teenagers are just fun. They're rude about my lack of hair, they eat all my biscuits, they won't go home when I tell them, they ask difficult or just plain inappropriate questions (and all those things just this past week) but I love it.

I've never really been one for the wacky games and stuff (The youth team at Olton know I hate organising the games nights!) but the chance to sit and chat and work through issues and see folk grow in their spiritual understanding and walk with God is just the best fun I have.

Last week i was sorting through some pre-historic paperwork in our study and, in the process, spent far too long looking at old newsletters we'd written. It was so good to look back, remember names and faces of teenagers from the past; folk who'd wandered into our lives for a little while then wandered onto adulthood. It's such a joy and privilege to have been involved in so many lives in this way. A number of them are kind enough to get in touch along the way and reflect back fondly on "those days". Some even articulate the ways that we helped in walking that part of the journey with them (often quite unbeknown to us). A couple of weeks back I had a stack of folk that we worked with when we were in schools work track us down on Facebook. It was so good to hear what they've been up to, what and who they've become and in a few cases where they are at on the spiritual journey we spent hours talking about all those years ago. Youthwork is often a thankless and bitter-sweet experience, but it gets addictive!

For those of you that pray, please do pray for the current batch we are involved with. "Youth @ Olton Baptist" (YOBs) meet on a Sunday eve and "xlr8" is a smaller group of them that meet at ours on a Thursday eve to get into the nitty gritty of their faith. Thanks folks.

Obituary

Paul: One of the teams we have in the UK works alongside members of the business community in Birmingham to help them develop personally and grow in their understanding of their spiritual journey. I've been involved (when I'm in the country) for a few years now and am currently involved in a course called "Habits of the Heart". It is designed for those of faith or not "to help you rediscover a sense of balance, purpose, integrity and spiritual energy in the midst of a busy working life" and it's great fun!. I'm coaching a guy named Alex who owns and runs a Chinese restaurant. Alex isn't a Christian, but is very open to talking about issues of faith and the things that draw him towards God and those that push him away.

One of the exercises we both undertook last week was to write our obituaries. It's a really helpful exercise in getting you to reflect on how you want your life to be remembered and therefore how this should be reflected in your priorities right now. Having rather unwisely put my 'Facebook' status as "Paul is finalising his obituary" last week, (and got appropriate "what??!!!!" responses back) I agreed to post my obituary here for you to read. It still feels a little unfinished, but I'm not planning on using it for a while! All comments or thoughts gratefully received! You may want to have a go yourself......

Here goes:

"Although as a boy he never showed much aspiration, through his late teenage years, Paul had a growing passion and desire to make an impact on the world he lived in. Birthed in the frustrations of his time in the insurance world and growing during his years as a youth worker, this passion found an unexpected home for a while in the world of Human Resources.

Paul’s impact was multifaceted. It was professional, striving towards excellence in all that was done particularly in staff care and development in the charity sector. It was personal, being convinced that care and development happens one life at a time, person to person; and it was spiritual, knowing that true and full transformation can only happen with God’s power.

His recurring prayer ‘to be a blessing to those he came into contact with’ expressed itself in his smile, his (often inappropriately timed) laugh, his inquisitiveness about the lives of friends and strangers and his desire to see all of them continue on their spiritual journey and come to know God in ever-deeper ways.

After God, Paul’s delight and priority were Lesley, Charis and Joel whom he loved more than life. He was their coach, their advocate and friend and his greatest pleasure was seeing them grow into the people God called them to be. The ‘bride of his youth delighted him all his days’ as increasingly day by day he realised exactly the amazing woman she was and the blessing she was to him.

The pains and struggles that are common to man may have knocked him along the way, but never knocked him from the arms of his Saviour and Friend."

Thanks for reading!

Agapé School of Movement Building

Paul: you may have picked up along the way that Lesley has been working towards the launch of the Agapé School of Movement Building for quite a while now. Well, the launch was a couple of weeks back and the write-up just appeared in "Agapé News" so I thought I'd steal it and copy it into here. Here's what it said:


In January a handful of staff got together for the launch of the all new Agapé School of Movement Building. This is a training program which lasts two and a half years. It aims to develop a generation of Agapé staff who are fully equipped to build spiritual movements at the University.

"The question we asked ourselves was; how do we make sure we have effective movement building teams?" says Lesley, who has helped to develop the school. The answer has been to build up strong leaders. "I looked around the room and thought 'these are such quality guys!' And they're stepping up to the task of leadership, which is such a huge need."

The course is taught through a combination of personal coaching, assignments and field experience. New leaders will learn how to pioneer movements in new places, how to raise up leaders among students, how to think creatively about sharing the gospel in relevant ways, how to build strong spiritual communities, and finally, how to enthuse their movements with God's heart for global mission.

The two day launch has been a great success with inspiring teaching and a strong sense of community spirit. The sessions focussed on the heart of leadership: the servant, the shepherd and the steward. There were also guests - staff from New Zealand who had come to share how God is working with students there. And the whole thing ended up with good discussion in a local pub! One of the staff said: "It's so exciting to be part of a people who are all on the same journey of becoming leaders. The teaching was all good, and I've already changed the way I do things as a result."

This class will be graduating in 2011 but from the start, expectation of what God is doing has been high. Lesley added, "there's a sober realisation of the responsibility that's being entrusted, and each person wanted to honour God in the way the lead."


So; there you have it. If you want to catch more of the same, do see the news pages of the Agapé website: www.agape.org.uk/news.html

On a more general note, we're having an interesting life. In consecutive weeks since Christmas Lesley has:

• Had her laptop stolen (but we did get the stolen car back, if you hadn't heard!)
  
• Had someone drive into the side of her car (not a good year for cars)
  
• Spent a morning in A&E after nearly removing 2 fingers putting up a trampoline (they're on the mend now)
  

All good fun, but it's getting a bit silly now. Lesley put her facebook status as "Life is officially ridiculous" after the finger-incident. Kinda sums it up really.

Fireseeds

Paul: Did you have a good New Year? Ours seemed rather brief as we were getting ready to head out to a long weekend with Agape staff and others involved in our movement from around Europe. We didn't make it to the end of the time. I'd planned to come back on Sunday with the kids - trying to explain to them that going to school is a legal requirement was a tricky thing - and Lesley ended up coming back too, having spent the previous day and a half in bed with the flu (that everyone seems to have had). Not fun at the best of times but really rough while at a conference! But even from my brief time, I wanted to let you in on a couple of my experiences.

We had some great people come and join us to give input. Probably my fave was Krish Kandiah (Exec. Dir. "Churches in Mission" for the EA) who was speaking about dominoes. He was talking about the TV show "Record Breakers" and in particular the domino challenges where some poor soul spent weeks lining up 30 zillion dominoes top see if he could beat the record for the most dominoes to topple in succession. The thing that always happened was somewhere along the line, one domino wouldn't fall and as a result, thousands of others didn't topple over. I was really challenged by the perspective that I came to faith as a result of this unbroken chain of people through the generations who have passed on their faith to others and to successive generations. The challenge of this comes down to me: Am I going to be that domino that doesn't topple over - that doesn't share what I know and believe with others? Getting a generational perspective on this has unsettled me. It's a good thing.

The other thing that impacted me was some of the folk who showed up. I was praying with this guy on Saturday eve, who was just desperate to re-ignite the passion he used to have for both God and the stuff God wanted him to be doing, but somewhere in the midst of university life, it has gently dissipated. Straight after that I was walking back to our halls with another couple of students, both about to finish their courses in a few months time. It was so refreshing to chat to these two. It wasn't the normal "dunno what I wanna do" type chat: They were highly focused in their decision making: "How can I make my life count most significantly for God's purposes?" It was a real privilege to have this passing contact with all three of their lives.

It's funny going to these kind of conferences as "staff". I was expecting God's role to be to speak to delegates.

Christmas Thank-Yous

It's Christmas and I'm feeling unusually reflective. We sent an email round a couple of weeks ago telling folk our car had been stolen, but one of the things we'd been thinking about is all the stuff we were thankful for in the midst of it all. Well, we continue to choose thankfulness in the middle of the "down" moments in life, but actually, as we approach Christmas there's so much to be thankful for IN the circumstances (and not just in spite of them)!

Our car showed up a few days ago. It wasn't burned out, crashed in a ditch or had "i love my mum" spray-painted down the side. It looked pretty good actually. From what we can tell, he must have even parked it nicely as it took our fine constabulary a couple of weeks to realise it was a stolen vehicle. Even more amazingly, apart from a few empty CD cases (our thief seemed to be a bit "intelligence challenged", if you know what I mean) there wasn't really a lot taken from inside either. It looks like he just fancied saving the bus-fare home. Our keys have a "reward tag" on them, provided by our insurance company, promising a £10 reward for anyone handing them it at the Halifax. Our entrepreneurial car thief decided to maximise on the opportunity and try to claim his £10 reward for 'finding' our keys. he wasn't too happy when he found out you had to leave your name and address and asked for the keys back. The woman at the Halifax pointed out that they'd already established they weren't actually his keys and he decided it was time for a hasty exit.

So; we have our car, we have most of our stuff and we even have the key back (which saved us quite a fsmall ortune!). As a family, we've spent a good chunk of time over the past few days being thankful to God for all the ways he provides for us, but on this Christmas eve, we are drawn further into thankfulness as we consider a creator God who chose to leave the splendours of eternity and arrive into this world via a stable.

East Meets West

Paul: I've been traveling again. This time to Northampton. Nice not to have to get on a plane to go somewhere! It was a gathering of all our HR leaders from around Europe. Normally, organisationally, we split Western and Eastern Europe up, but for the first time (to my knowledge) we had 3 HR leaders from Eastern Europe come and join us. Yuri from Moldova and Sasha from the Ukraine joined John, based in Hungary. It was a fantastic time: sharing stories of the stuff that's worked and the times we've crashed and burned, getting emotionally involved in case studies and examining resources that will hopefully move us forward.

It dawned on me (as it has a habit of doing during times like this) that the role of caring for and developing missionaries is quite an isolated, misunderstood, under-equipped and under-resourced role in many of our countries around the world, and actually, Western Europe is doing pretty well when compared with so many other places around the world.

A few people have quizzed me & Lesley recently about whether there is really all this need for galavanting about so much. It's a good question and one that we wrestle with regularly, but this conference (and a number of emails I got while I was there) reinforced again the need to equip people to serve the servants of God. I do hope and pray that one day we'll have built up the competency and confidence within our ministry around the globe that my hands-on resourcing won't be needed as much (we're certainly working on some models that I hope will get us there). Until then, we'll carry on wrestling with stewarding God's resources in the best way we can, in order to see His plans accomplished.

Thanks for being part of this too.

"So, what is it you actually do?"

Paul: I find a lot of folk have difficulty understanding what it is I do exactly. In order to help this, I thought I’d post a letter I received after the last Global HR gathering we organised. It should hopefully give a bit of insight into what I am trying to achieve in building up competent and confident HR leaders who are capable of developing and caring for their staff so they can more effectively get to their mission. Here’s what Moses wrote (it’s not his real name; it’s his chosen “English” name)

To: Paul Cheesman, Global HR Director
From: Moses (Singapore)

The global HR directors’ conference has blessed me in at least three aspects.

Firstly, it changes my perspective as a HR staff. Before I went for this conference, I did not understand why I was in HR, and why I was doing what I was doing. In most cases, my attitude was: “I do it because someone has to do the job.” HR’s job seemed like an “unwanted” job to me. However, when I found out from Acts 6 that seven Spirit-filled deacons were chosen to serve the needs of the widows, I was encouraged to see that HR can be an important, biblical and essential role. Just like how the apostles could focus on spreading God’s word because of the seven deacons who took care of the widows’ needs, it caused me to see that how CCCI (Agapé) could focus on her calling to create spiritual movements everywhere because of HR who cares enough to look after the staff’s needs. I am now able to perform my HR roles and functions with a big picture in mind. Praise the Lord!

Secondly, it stirs up my passion in HR. The change of perspective results in increased passion for my HR roles and functions which results in me taking more initiative to lead. For example, I take initiative to facilitate discussion on Strategic Planning Process for my HR department, and get Dennis Metcalf (area HR director) to coach me in EQ-I (Emotional Intelligence) to help kick start the whole coaching process etc. In fact I have done so well that two months after the conference, my HR manager decides to promote me to be assistant HR manager to take care of the staff development.

Last but not the least, it creates partnership internationally. I enjoyed my fellowship with many national HR directors though I was the only non-director there. I should have realized that it was a global HR DIRECTORS’ conference as its name suggested. At the hindsight, it is really a blessing in “ignorance”. I appreciate The GCX (Global HR website) connection that provides an excellent platform for HR directors to interact with one another over difficult issues. I am especially grateful for resources that global HR team has compiled for us. Materials like “Your First 100 days in HR”, “Coaching”, “Doing Strategic Planning” are really helpful for me to do my job more effectively. Such partnership and sharing of resources and information have definitely empowered me in my HR roles and function. It’s so good to know that I am not alone in this tough, yet rewarding HR journey because I am in the global HR community.

My many thanks to Paul and his team for making this possible for us. I am just so blessed by your hearts to serve us.

not so much a land of drought

Paul: When I think of Ethiopia, I still have a Bob Geldof-style image of poverty , famine and drought. Well, it sounds like the poverty still has a firm foothold, but not so much of the drought.

Lesley left for Ethiopia on Friday, and got a phone call from one of the team out there the night before to say "Bring Wellies". The area just outside Addis Ababa where she and the team were to be based had just been stricken with flash flooding, and all the joys that entails for areas without good sanitation at the best of times.

Lesley (who has promised to fill in more of the details when she returns!) is part of the design team for a Europe-wide leadership development project. This is their first "experience" designed to throw them in at the deep end (in a number of ways). I've now just about exhausted my knowledge of the purposes of her trip, so will give up before I show the full extent of my ignorance. The details of all she's been involved in will be a better tale from her anyway!

On a separate note, I had the MRI scan as planned and a friend managed to sneak me the results (He's a proper doctor, honest!). As hoped; it revealed nothing sinister (i'm not convinced they found anything inside my head at all). It was quite an experience being conveyor-belted into a giant waffle-iron that makes horrendous noises at you for half an hour, while locked alone in a room that has thicker walls than most nuclear blast shelters. I highly recommend it!

I think I'm starting to feel better anyway, and with that spirit of optimism upon me, I'm off to Egypt on Thursday with some of my HR folk from around the planet (Lesley comes back on Saturday, but has promised to wave as she flys over Cairo). I'll tell you more about that one when I'm back as well!

Thanks for reading!

Quote:

Anyone who has hung around with missionaries know they breed rather unique kids, who always have an unusual perspective on the world. Kai (who is 4) was talking to his mother the other day after pondering on global diversity and asked: "Mummy; with all the languages that are in the world, why is it we only speak 3 of them?" Being the typical British mono-linguist that I am, he's had me smiling about this since I heard.

Thanks for your prayers. I've had a remarkably quick scheduling of an MRI scan for next Saturday (6th), so we'll see if they find anything in (or between) my ears then.

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.