The ups and downs of academic mission ...

So ... last year we reported in a post here that Cornerstone Institute in Salt River abandoned their (already much reduced) mission courses altogether.  Martin was grateful for the continued opportunity to teach (also much reduced) mission courses at Bible Institute in Kalk Bay.
At the end of November Martin got an email from Bible Institute saying that they no longer require his services.  They are "integrating mission into their other courses" ...
At the beginning of December Martin go an email from Cornerstone Institute asking if he would develop an online mission course for their new program.  WOW.  God's timing, right?
Well December and January have been flat-out busy for Martin as he has developed the course, learned the platform.  Many hours a day, every day.
(Except for a brief hiatus while he attended and presented at a Missiology conference - see a previous post.)
He has signed up for a course in online teaching.  His mother (what an amazing woman at 87) has been reading the course material with fascination, questions and corrections (she was an English teacher).

Martin and his mom on a break: going round the botanical garden on an electric cart tour.  (Tuesdays free for pensioners!)

Yesterday he popped in to see the program convenor just to check on some platform issues and protocol.
NOT ONE STUDENT has selected the mission course option.
Three days before it is ready to roll ... he has been told he will not be running it.
How does one let go of all that pent up energy?  What does one do with all that sense of having things to pass on?  Yesterday evening Martin is wrestling with the disappointment.  What about God's timing?

Today he has gone to the board meeting for the tiny entity "Discipling Nations".  They are planning for the year of grassroots mission teaching.  Does God have plans here?

being and insider is easier

It is so hard to do something so simple.
As we become tired or stressed or busy, the thing that gets neglected first is serving the outsider!

Nobody has noticed that I haven't written an outsiders blog for six months.  Nobody has complained that I haven't been systematically walking prayer into the Claremont Urban Hub.  The businesses around this centre don't rely on my prayers.  The workers don't know whether I pray for just behaviour on the part of their employers.  Lonely people don't care whether I am there to notice them or not.  Nobody wants to know whether I have had the peaceful energy to write a poem about the city.  None of the people who can't do church even know that I care about them and wish I could find a way to touch their spirits.

So, it's hard to re-energise.  It's hard to let the call of God take my life by storm when there is nothing else.

Today I have sat in the urban space again.  Sit with me by praying for God to bring about his work in me. Please.

new moonlighting

Okay ... so where does an ad-film agency find an older, bearded puppeteer in Cape Town?  From Artee Partees (Kirsty Paxton) of course, who just happen to "have" (sort of) Martin!

So Martin goes along with a suitcase full of puppets, including Captain Seaweed and Able (Lesley's coke-can puppet).  The film-dudes are from Belgium and are selling suitcases.  They like Martin (because he is funny and looks Belgian and has a huge beard at the moment); they like Able too, but htey can't have another product in their ad ... so 

Martin spends they first few days of a one week holiday having enormous fun making a puppet and being filmed.  Also not really getting rest, but ...  

getting there

slowly ... very slowly.

But we feel cautiously encouraged that the annual renovation of space will be effective. We have worked out what we can aim to complete before Friday, and we hope to contain the remaining mess in two areas (a small office-room and a piece of work-space outside).  We have even managed to completely tick some items off the list - those who know us well will be aware that actual completion often eludes us.

 

 Lots of sorting of stray stuff has happened, a small amount must still be done this week, but several cubic metres will remain to be dealt with post holiday.  Two huge boxes of stuff went off to the charity shop, and several black bags full departed this life.  Some painting has begun, the water features are being cleaned, and a piece of our back garden is starting to realise more of its potential as a place for work and nurture.


The trouble is, there is a tension between this work and the work of being out in the urban hub.  Tension can be creative, but this just feels tiring!  Still, we trust God to use what we can manage "out there" and what we can achieve "in here". 


We also incidentally have a whole bunch of admin which MUST get done ...
for example, we have sorted out our internet connection (thanks Rory) and written a nasty letter to someone but we still need to sort out our cell phone contracts and Martin's dad's medical accounts, among others!   Of course, we are trying to be good children to Martin's parents next door: his dad came home a week ago tomorrow after his sixth stay in hospital and fourth operation in 2011.

What is it?

When the Israelites saw the food God had sent in the desert they said "What is it?" and that become its name "manna"; we even use the word in English!

A lot of the things we do are like that.  Difficult to describe, impossible to name!  I want to tell you about one of these today; it happened to me twice in the last few days.  But I can't think what to call it. 

I will give some images from what many of my friends irritatingly call "real jobs" - I don't think you guys mean to be cruel, and I know my 'job' is really a vocation, I know I don't get a salary for it, I know no one really wants what I do, I know there is no title for it, I know there is no measurable product ... but

Perhaps I should try the answer "Who wants a real job when you have an authentic, genuine and true whole-life calling to an all-encompassing task of eternal multi-dimensional significance."  Maybe not, it doesn't fit the bill for a catchy reposte to "real job".  Never mind.  I know you are actually (really!) on my side.

Life Coach.  Pastoral Counsellor.  Personal Trainer.  Spiritual Director, Mentor or Companion.  Journey Guide.  Career Guidence.  Alas, what I do is none of these, and all of them.

Martin does a lot of this too; I used to think that this was his gift only, but God seems to think otherwise.  I am never quite sure why it happens, but somehow people come into our lives needing loving listening.  Sometimes they specifically seek me out and I still find this a bit surprising, but it is one of the things that God just does.  Martin spends a lot of time with random strangers talking to him, I'm more often with strangers-who've-become-friends.


So what happens then? 
I listen:  not just to sounds, but to something deeper; not just to the person who I am with, but to Jesus who is with us too.
I ask:  sometimes questions to help me understand better, sometimes questions to help the person who is with me explore more deeply or widely, sometimes it turns out to be a God-question.  Notice how often Jesus asks questions!  He was frustratingly uninclinded to give answers.
I think:  one of my weak-strong-nesses is continuous involuntary fast analysis and synthesis, so I find myself seeing things, unravelling and weaving; sometimes what I see turns out to be God showing something.
I speak:  not advice, I try never to tell people what to do or think; but sometimes I end up picking out good things to show them, or reminding them of past conversations; sometimes what I say turns out to be words or wisdom from God.
I pray:  during the conversation as part of the conversation-with-Jesus that is going on simultaneously, usually with the person before we part or join others; and over the days and weeks following or between conversations.
It is really about loving the people in my life.  I see all of them/you as part of his grace to me.  When he/they/you let me into your space that is grace too.  I have had to learn to hold precious people and moments lightly - some stay in our lives for a long time, some move on when a particular time of need has passed, some are with me for a single conversation.  But God is the one who is actually their life companion, just letting me share his joy.

I don't know what to call it. 

In lots of ways it is nothing that everyone else isn't doing all the time.  I know I am not naturally gifted for it.  I'm not formally qualified for it, though I have had lots of training, done lots of reading and read lots of books.
But God is doing it in me (with me, for me) and I am grateful for this grace.

before the 'day' starts

I was here very early this morning.  I saw 'my' coffee shop still curled up asleep.  I watched it stretch and yawn, wash and dress, and start the day.

I saw the supermarket trolleys emerge from the storeroom in a long mobile train ... amazing how they can take a corner, and astonishing how much noise a hundred trolleys makes on a tiled floor! 

I was here to pray.  

Meanwhile my sister wake up 1000km away to this.  God's peace made visible. 

But his peace is everywhere - even behind the counter where the guys are frantically washing mugs, wiping surfaces, steaming milk, "esspressing" coffee, warming muffins, taking orders and generally working like crazy!!

How amazing.

Serve Invisibly

Jesus talks a lot about hiddenness. 

There is the seed that is planted, and grows invisibly. 

There are the servants who serve well even when the boss is away.

Treasure, yeast, shepherds, giving, prayer, fasting ...

and of course sparrows, seen by the Father, unseen by people.

 

Okay ... I KNOW it's a Cape Robin, not a sparrow! 

We have grown into a strong sense of the high value of invisible service, hidden ministry.  Something about the way God has chosen to use us demands the willingness to do things that look as if they don't count, that seem to have no result.  This can be tough going!  It means getting our sense of worth from seeking God, not from doing great deeds for him. (As if he needs me to do anything for him anyway!)  It means finding people to support us who can see the invisible.  It means learning to value things that we have been taught are of no value. 

We know that this doesn't apply to everything, nor to every ministry, but we know just as truly that this is how we must live and work. 

blog experiment

With the kind of work we do, there are no definitive pathways and no trails blazed.  In a way that is the point ... we are trying to serve those who are strangers to the gospel, or strangers to the church.  That means we need to

• have millions of ideas (no problem there)
• work out what God wants us to try (listening to God is tricky and we need other people)
• be willing to keep going without measurable results
• be willing to fail
• work out when to stop trying something

One of the trials this year is blogs ... not, I hasten to add, trial as in burden but as in exploring or assessing. Now. That means that I am trying to construct each blog well, professionally.  I am trying to write about appropriate things, in an accessible style, with interesting bits and bobs and good pictures.  Oh well ... we have to rely on God for everything anyway, so why not attempt the impossible occasionally, or frequently for that matter!

BUT more challenging still, we have to get LOTS of people to click on the blog - because if people don't see it at least once, they won't even know whether it is interesting to them or not. 

• The aim of this blog is that people who are interested in what we are up to (either because they like us, or because they like what we do, or even both) will become followers and visit often.  We hope that this will help you guys to be more part of our life and service.
• The outsiders-urbanspirituallife blog, has been created for people we don't even know. or at least only know a little, or don't know yet.  We hope that it will enable them to pursue the quest at the heart of being human, that it will help some people to discover Jesus.

So here I am tracking how many people have visited a blog.  (Don't worry about my list of other things I plan to do on the whiteboard under my notebook!)  Of course, I can't tell whether people found the blog interesting or helpful ... so I shall have to keep doing this for a long time before I can decide whether I am supposed to keep going, or whether it is another failure in the matrix of brilliant ideas!

SO ... Outsiders has a facebook persona which people can join to see whernever there is a new post.  I put the outsiders blog on my facebook wall too, and I keep hoping that other people might pass it on.  (BTW the day I had the most 'hits' was when I put up a picture of a mime with a 'prostitute' in it!!)

AND if you know anyone who knows us and doesn't know about this blog, please pass on the link!

Parents are Important

We are so fortunate to have Martin's parents, Cynthia and Philip Mostert, living next door and part of our lives at the ages of 82 and 88 respectively.  They are an example, an inspiration and a support to us.  Obviously at times they are also a worry!

 

Philip Mostert          and       Cynthia Mostert

Martin's dad was in hospital for three weeks in February for an operation and its aftermath, now he has been in hospital again for several days.  It reminds us of the frailty of our parents, and of how precious they are to us.