If you have gotten our email updates, or snail mail prayer letters over the last year, you should have noticed the hints we have been dropping about something big in our future. For the last 6 years, my work at the AEP has been a form of what is now known as "Member Care" - caring for the emotional, spiritual, and sometimes physical needs of Christian workers serving overseas. In our particular context, that means folks working here in Albania or in the countries nearby. As we have done this, we have noticed just how many workers are burning out or are already burnt out. Smarter people than me have done lots of research into the causes of missionary attrition, and they are many, but the biggies seem to be conflict with teammates, financial pressures, cultural shock/burn out, and family issues.
Pretty much all of these things can be dealt with. What we have seen first-hand is that most of the folks going through these things KNOW what the answers are, but sometimes they just need someone to listen to them vent, or they need to hear the answers in someone else's voice. In some situations there is a need for real counseling from real counselors, but more often than not a pair of sympathetic listening ears and a shoulder to cry on are the main things that are needed. We have felt that this is the direction God has been leading us for some time, but our physical context has not been as conducive to this as we would like. We have felt the need to physically get people out of their surroundings so they can get some perspective. Haven't we all experienced that at one time or another when we have gone to a camp or conference or retreat? I mean, seriously - why is it that our pastors can give us great teaching week after week, but when we go to a conference and hear the same things in a different voice, all of the sudden we have an "AHA!" moment and it clicks?
Cindy and I have been talking about this for a long time now and last spring we kind of decided that "the place" should be Corfu. Corfu is an island that belongs to Greece and is situated just off the southern coast of Albania. We have gone there a couple of times for family vacations and found it to be very relaxing. It has a McDonald's and a Pizza Hut where we can get our comfort food fixes. It is an island, so that means a beach is never more than a couple of miles away. Just sitting and watching the water has done us a world of good, so we thought, "It should do the same for other folks too!" The problem is that Corfu can be very expensive - especially for a family, so we started thinking about how we could do something about that.
A vision began to take shape in both our hearts. What if we had a place where we could use Cindy's gift of hospitality and both of our desires to encourage folks going through hard times? What if that place was big enough for us to live and also to host a couple of families or singles or couples at the same time? What if it was a quiet place, but had a view of the water, and was private enough that if serious counseling was necessary it could be done out of the public view? What if we could provide such a place at little or no cost to the missionary? What if...? What if...? What if...? Could this possibly be something that God would allow us to do? Really?
We figured this would be a hard sell to our supporters. I mean, seriously - we are looking at relocating to a GREEK ISLAND! Hello!! Can you say, "Suffering for Jesus!"? I think you can. Who would not want to do that, right? So last summer as we were back in the US, we began to share this vision with a few folks and ask them to pray with us about it. And you know what? We were pleasantly surprised by the reactions.
What is your reaction?
1 comment:
Just now reading this for the first time. Sounds like a really cool idea. Looking forward to reading more. Time to head out the door for the bus right now.
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