Saturday Post -- 16/01/16

Before I (Craig) say my piece, Amanda will do what, in my humble opinion, she does best: be appealing.

We would like to make you all aware of a need that has arisen at the Foundation. The Bolivian government has decided to change/update the way they organise and receive purchase receipts and, therefore, the way goods and services taxes are calculated. The Foundation depends very heavily on its accounting software to organise all things financial, but unfortunately our accounting software is not compatible with the new system. Ideally, then, we would like to update our accounting software to meet these new requirements. We have priced this and it will cost us a minimum of $1500 (USD). This is an unforeseen expenditure, one that has not been provided for in our annual budget. It is a genuine need of the Foundation’s to be able to run all of its other programs and ministries. If anyone feels lead to inquire more about this need and help in any way, please feel free to contact us in a private message. We would appreciate prayers from everyone for the provision of these funds.

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One prayer meeting too many.

This morning, I have dragged myself out of bed against my better judgement on a Saturday at 6am to talk about, er, rest.

Rest is one of the core aspects of my faith. Upon the completion of the creation, God rested, and the Sabbath principle is an unmissable thread running throughout the remainder of Scripture; it later becomes the sign of the covenant between God and his people at Sinai, and Judah’s failure to observe it is cited as the clincher in its exile to Babylon (2 Chronicles 36:20-21), as promised by God at Sinai some 800 years earlier (Leviticus 26:34). In the New Testament, the writer to the Hebrews declares that ‘there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God’ in the laying aside of a works-based doctrine of salvation. Jesus tells his disciples to go and put their feet up at the conclusion of a gruelling evangelistic campaign (Mark 6:30-32), while promising to give rest to all who labour and who are heavy laden (Matthew 11:28). So we have been blessed with no lack of instruction on this great subject.

But, my goodness, as evangelical Christians, in this area we are among the worst offenders. ‘Busyness’ has become a synonym for ‘holiness’ as we drive ourselves and our people to greater heights of activity. A particular issue for people with families is that evenings are often the only time most people can spare; in the average week here, for example, if I so choose, I can be ‘in the Lord’s service’ on no fewer than four evenings, oftentimes rising to five.

The issue is not busyness per se, as we serve no worthier cause, and the old adage about the devil making work for idle hands is well supported by Scripture. The problem is that many of our people are continuously running on empty. And if that is the case, then no matter how many events we put on, they will be all sound and fury, signifying precisely nothing.

Much of this I realised while growing up in such circles, but it would be a mistake to think that we are free from these shackles here in the supposedly more chilled-out developing world. Indeed, if anything, it’s worse.

Because in Trinidad, Bolivia, whether driven by education or by societal norms, people say “yes” to things all the time. Without even thinking. You get it from the plumber who tells you he’s free this afternoon to fix your leak, knowing he is not, but assuming you will be more gratified to believe he’s coming than to actually have him turn up. You get it from friends who, trying to be nice, repeatedly tell you, “I’ll be there on Sunday morning to hear you preach!,” only to never show. And worst of all, you most definitely get it from Christians who commit themselves to important kingdom work for which they themselves know they have no time – or, admittedly, drive!

And this only serves to leave a small number of their brothers and sisters continually picking up the tab. For they, too, say “yes” to everything, but with an important, and at times soul-destroying, caveat: they mean it.

I’d been given pause to consider all these matters this past week. The school holidays will soon be over and the new session of our children and youth programmes is looming ever larger. In recent weeks, as elders, our permission has been sought with regard to something of a re-configuring of the youth ministry. Over the past couple of years, our biggest ‘success story’ as a church (though I use such phrases carefully) has been our AWANA children’s programme which, for the benefit of the uninitiated, is a ministry with a big emphasis on Scripture memorisation. The church has been packed out every Saturday afternoon and the word of God has come alive to this little army. Well, AWANA has a follow-on youth ministry, and given the pleasingly high numbers of 11-to-13-year-olds who attend the programme, its implementation has been seen as a logical step forward.

And, in theory, I couldn’t have been more in agreement. But a couple of factors concerned me. Firstly, we had already given permission for AWANA to expand to two separate sessions: the usual one at our own church on Saturday afternoons, and a new venture on Tuesday evenings in a village called Maná (I’ve mentioned it here before; many of our children and young people come from the village). This in itself will prove a big challenge, as the single Saturday programme last year saw the inevitable disappearance of the empty-yes crowd on leadership as the year progressed. The youth ministry up until now has been well-run, but does not really depend on too many leaders being present; the new programme depends on a low ratio of teenagers-to-leaders. Essentially then, in one fell swoop, we’re going from one programme with a high dependence on human resources, to three.

My second concern was related to rest, and our biblical duty as a church to be upholding this principle. The same small core of dependable people was looking to be involved in all three of these ministries: when would they get the opportunity to recover their energies? And as for the others, assuming they would fulfil their commitment to a year’s labour (a big ‘if’!), how could we ensure they were getting fed? Amanda disciples a young woman who is very active in teaching ministries around children and young people, yet recently confessed she didn’t know how many tribes there were in Israel.

Those were the considerations I brought to the table at our meeting earlier this week with the proponents of the new youth programme, though I was wary about being seen as the overly-pernickety white missionary (my fellow elders don’t say “no” to much themselves).

And so, bearing all of that in mind, it was particularly pleasing to me to discover that the main proponents had considered these issues themselves (perhaps this grumpy foreigner’s on to a good thing after all!). Firstly, they had already asked around to see who could commit to each of these programmes. Encouragingly, numbers were sufficient that relatively few people would have to be involved in more than one per week. Secondly, these numbers were boosted by getting more of the responsible older teenagers involved in supporting the children’s ministry; no harm in getting them started young. Thirdly, and most encouragingly for me, an earlier proposal to switch AWANA to Sunday afternoons had been shelved, with the proponents having considered the men’s and women’s discipleship groups on alternate Sunday afternoons too important to miss.

Amanda and I had prayed about it the night before and had a sense that the meeting was probably not going to be as big a clash of methodologies as we had feared, and that turned out to be the case. It’s good to see the church membership coming to the realisation that we are nothing if we are not fed.

But, thankful though I am, I won’t be resting on my laurels; I’ve been part of churches for too long! Slowly but surely, as our church comes to fuller maturity (and as our own domestic priorities shift), Amanda and I are withdrawing from the front line. But, beyond a doubt, God certainly still has important work to do through us as members of the backbench awkward squad. We pray that he will give us the grace to be able to do so in love.

Prayer

• Pray for provision with regard to the above-mentioned accounting software.
• Pray for Amanda over the next couple of weeks, as she effectively runs the Foundation in the absence of our main administrative worker.
• Pray for Craig as he preaches on 1 Kings 17 tomorrow.
• And, of course, pray for Sam’s adoption, and that there would be no hurdles on the termination of parental rights.

Praise

• For an encouraging meeting with the youth coordinators during the week.
• For a pretty smooth adjustment (so far!) to our new work/childcare arrangements.

¡Que Dios les bendiga!

Craig & Amanda