Work in progress: Go Magazine TWO 2019

TWO 2019

Interserve Australia

Work in progress

A different way of doing medicine Print Post Approved 100000107

A barista walked into a cafĂŠ A ministry of encouragement: Training church leaders Social work and software

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Contents 04 Watching God’s grace work 06 From the village to the city 08 A different way of doing medicine 10 Serving God without leaving home?

12 A barista walked into a cafe 14 Social work and software 16 Q&A with a doctor 17 Disability in mission: book review 18 Listening with respect 20 God went ahead of us 22 Learning from women 24 The work of walking humbly 26 A ministry of encouragement 28 The gift of a voice 30 Inside Interserve 31 Interserve Development Thanks to all who contributed to the making of this magazine.

Primary sources of news and information: Our own correspondents.

Editors: Kaitlyn Gaudion Get in touch at go@interserve.org.au Design: Les Colston, Urban Zeal Photos: Stock images or by Interserve personnel, except where indicated – thanks to all. Photos do not necessarily relate to articles for sensitivity reasons. Cover image courtesy IMB (imb.org). Thanks to Chris Ellinger for image on p14.

Go is the magazine published twice a year by Interserve.

Interserve material may be freely reproduced with permission from Interserve; permission for use of non-Interserve text and images should be obtained from the original source.

Unless otherwise indicated, all Bible quotes in this magazine are taken from the HOLY BIBLE: NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION Copyright 2011 by the New York International Bible Society, used by permission of Zondervan Bible Publishers.

Interserve is not responsible for the content of external websites.

Interserve is an ACNC Registered Charity and a member of Australia’s Missions Interlink and the international Micah Network.

Interserve is a Child Safe organisation. www.interserve.org.au ISSN 0256-4726.

This publication was printed on Grange Offset paper which is a PEFC Certified supplied paper (Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification).

Offset Grange paper is Australian made and manufactured in facilities with ISO14001 EMS certification and made elemental chlorine free.

As a 20-year-old, my vision for serving in God’s mission was as a veterinarian in rural communities, where human wellbeing depended on the health of livestock. I wanted to demonstrate God’s care for both. God in his sovereignty led me on a different path, working as a clinician, researcher, consultant and project manager, in the private, government and university sectors. In each place I made contributions in ways I hadn’t imagined.

In Genesis, God gives humans the mandate to work in and for His good creation. This edition of Go explores how Interserve Partners, as ordinary Christians, take up this mandate. Truth-telling through education; healing through medicine, counselling and social work; making discoveries in research and writing; and creating everything from software to coffee. Each Partner lives an ordinary life, investing in relationships where misconceptions about Christianity can be dispelled and curiosity grows to find out more.

As Lyn sums up in her article (p8), “We did this work not as a means to evangelise or plant churches, but because it is good in itself and demonstrates the love of Jesus. In many places… the natural consequence of such wholistic community development is that, over time, new communities of faith begin.”

Discipleship happens in many different ways.

Integrating our vocational skills into the call to make Jesus known is important to Interserve.

I trust that this edition of Go will challenge us all to work as unto the Lord fulfilling His creation mandate.

Christine Gobius National Director

Watching God’s grace work

Her name was Kiruba, which means ‘grace of God’.

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She turned up in my small group on the first day of my first year. A young woman, slender and frail, skin as dark as the night, dressed in faded clothes, barely speaking English. A few of us wondered how she possibly passed the entrance exam. But her name was Kiruba, which means ‘grace of God’. Maybe it was by God’s grace that she had been accepted into one of the most prestigious Bible colleges in the country. But how was she ever going to get through four years of rigorous tertiary studies in English? Maybe I could help somehow. Would it be worth it? Maybe the college should just send her home now.

In second year, every student has to read the Bible aloud in the chapel. How was Kiruba going to manage it? Her first year had passed in a blur. She barely understood instructions, often managing to show up in the right place at the right time by literally following the other women. Others from her ethnic group must have been helping her get through the classes by translating for her, both ways. She asked me for help and came to my apartment every day to practise reading her Bible passage. This wasn’t a sermon, mind you, just simply reading the passage out in front of the whole community.

As she stood behind the lectern, quaking with fear, every student and every faculty member was holding their breath.

It was word perfect. And with a boldness that must have come from the Holy Spirit.

One Christmas while our residential Bible college was on its holiday break, I went to visit Kiruba and a few other students in their homes.

After about twenty hours on the rickety train, she met me at the tiny station and we rode in the open, ‘naturally air-conditioned’ bus another four hours to her home.

the fields and chased the chickens and chatted about this and that. I wondered how this farm girl ended up at a prestigious Bible college in the big city 2000 kilometres away, and what would happen after she finished.

In final year, all of the students have to preach in the chapel. By then we were no longer anxious about what would happen when Kiruba took the pulpit. We all knew that this was a woman anointed by God with the power of His Spirit. She had an incomparable boldness, a fearlessness that made others stop still and listen. Where had it come from? I believe it was there all the time. I always felt that my time in the classroom wasn’t as significant in the lives of our students as the time I spent with them in the college dining room, by the playing field, in my lounge room. My colleagues and I had just allowed Kiruba the space to blossom and flourish under the care of her Master. She trusted in Him fully, and gave herself fully in his service.

Now Kiruba pastors a church in the south of the country, together with her husband.

Jessica has taught at Bible colleges in Asia and Australia. She currently provides leadership and pastoral care to Interserve workers in South East Asia.

She had an incomparable boldness, a fearlessness that made others stop still and listen.

It felt like we were in the middle of nowhere.

There was a lot of love here, but not a lot of money. It was a simple mud-brick house with a couple of bedrooms, a common area and a kitchen outside. The beds were made of jute rope tied over wooden frames. We walked in 5

One factor for why girls in villages do not go to school is because there aren’t any female teachers. We hoped to change this.

Village to the city, and back again “You can’t think of teaching as a job. You have to think of it as a vocation.” It was very sage advice that I received in my first year of teaching and it still guides me to this day.

In Australia, my favourite subject to teach was Year 11 Ethics. I loved challenging my students to think for themselves – to reflect on their values and the kinds of people they wanted to be. I loved tapping into their idealism and their belief that we can make a difference in the world.

Four years later, holding tight to the side of the Jeep as it jostled and swayed over the rugged hillsides of Central Asia, I couldn’t help thinking that I was literally half a world away 6

from my bright and cosy classroom. I looked out the window at sun-aged brown hills without another person in sight before we took a turn and suddenly came across shepherds guiding their flocks of black and white sheep and then, a small oasis of green that surrounded mud brick houses. My sense of awe at seeing this part of God’s creation gave way to nerves as we drew closer to the village. In spite of the 43C weather, I put on my socks so as to be culturally appropriate and readjusted my headscarf. My local colleagues and I were about to meet with the Ministry of Education and the Head of School in these parts. We hoped to convince them to allow the high school graduate

daughters of the village to join our teachertraining project in the city.

We knew we had our work cut out for us because what we were asking of them is so counter-cultural. For a young unmarried woman to not be under her father’s or brother’s roof overnight can bring a great deal of gossip, if not shame to the family. Yet work was urgently needed to help village girls to go to school and stay at school as long as possible, in order to curb one of the world’s lowest literacy rates for women. One factor for why girls in villages do not go to school is because there aren’t any female teachers. We hoped to change this.

Negotiations with the Ministry and Head of School ended, and we made our way to one of the girls’ mud brick home. Huddled in one of their two rooms and surrounded by family member of all ages, we sipped our tea and listened to the parents’ fears: of gossip; of damage to the family name; of family opposition; of letting their daughters study for a couple of years only to see people from the city with money and power get the jobs and then never turn up in the village to teach; of how the families will put food on the table because at least now their daughters can sell some craft pieces to make ends meet. A family allowing their daughter to move to the city is an act of tremendous courage. The back and forth conversation quietened as a meal was spread before us in the true spirit of hospitality in Central Asia. Overwhelmed by both their struggles and their generosity, I ate quietly, smiling at the girls, acknowledging the hope in their eyes.

Fast forward again, to the beginning of our teacher training program in the city. In my classroom and in their spare time, the young women from the village work so incredibly hard, determined to shape their own futures. We will learn about classroom management, and social and emotional intelligence, and critical thinking, and how to actively engage students in their own learning instead of using the

traditional method of rote and repetition. God willing, after two years I will visit them in their classrooms in their home villages and mentor them. But mostly, I pray in hope for these precious young women, that after everything they have overcome to be here, they will return to their villages with their heads held high, they will teach with love and integrity, and they will shine the torch on the capabilities and dignity of women and be a role model for the next generation of girls in their villages.

Jodi is a teacher-trainer, serving the girls and women of Central Asia.

Names have been changed.

I pray in hope for these precious young women, that they will shine the torch on the capabilities and dignity of women.

Gift of Independent thought Education to combat extremism In a place where poverty disempowers and extremism thrives, the ability to think and question changes everything. This gift helps provide training for teachers who are educating the youth of a troubled nation. It gives them resources and access to new methods and curriculum, so their students can grow into adults who change their world.

TangibleLove.org.au 7

A different way of doing medicine I was only fourteen when I decided I was going to become a medical missionary. I assumed I would be going to Africa – back then I thought all missionaries went to Africa.

But I was surprised to learn that female medical personnel were most needed in Muslim countries, where women must see a female professional and sometimes died when there were no women doctors to attend them.

So I ended up doing a medical student placement in South Asia. It was in a compound with high fences and armed guards. Women were not allowed outside the compound alone, and we had to cover every part of our body including our head. I remember old rusty beds, surgical gloves hanging out to dry after use, hot sweet tea and lots of kids with thin mums.

I started to think about wholistic health and doing medicine in a different way after I witnessed a nurse stomping a baby’s bottle under her foot. Her strange action made sense after I learned that bottle-feeding contributed to the illness of babies there. Big multinational 8

companies sold their milk formulas cheaply and promoted bottlefeeding as the way of the West. However, many poor village women watered down the formula to make it last longer, depriving their babies of the nutrition necessary for growth. The lack of clean water and difficulty to sterilise bottles frequently led to infection and diarrhoea, then dehydration and death.

My brief time there taught me so much. I learnt the importance of preventative and community medicine. I learnt that even though curative hospital care was exhilarating and necessary, for me prevention is better than cure. I began to understand that people’s health is more than physical, and that it is bound to their poverty, education level, status, economic means, gender and religious beliefs. In short, I had begun to understand about wholism.

Another turning point in my Christian journey came when I had the opportunity to go on an evangelistic ward round. The hospital evangelist shared the gospel with patients’ relatives, who stayed to care for the patient. I thought it was

great that the gospel was shared, but I was uncomfortable with the division for me: because of time constraints doctors mostly dealt with the physical and evangelists dealt with the spiritual.

I didn’t want to restrict myself to being a doctor; I wanted to be a doctor sharing Christ and to teach from the Word of God. This was a good fit for the way God made me.

So I began full-time theological study while working part-time as a GP and completing my training. I was able to reflect on the interaction of the physical, emotional and spiritual. We are complex beings and being healthy is a complicated business.

When I applied to join Interserve, I was willing to go where I was most needed. That turned out to be Central Asia, where the church had grown exponentially since the fall of the Soviet Union, but leaders were young in years and young in faith. I quickly caught the vision of impacting communities in a wholistic and grassroots way, where they could be empowered to recognise and solve their problems with local resources.

Our community development lessons covered many topics, such as physical health, income generation, agriculture, emotional issues and moral values like honesty and forgiveness.

Most of the communities we worked with knew we were followers of Jesus, and in time, through interaction, they developed a more positive understanding of Christianity. We did this work not as a means to evangelise or plant churches, but because it is good in itself and demonstrates the love of Jesus. In many places around the world, however, the natural consequence of such wholistic community development is that, over time, new communities of faith begin.

These early lessons have shaped my work as an Interserve Partner for the last 22 years.

When there is harmony between people and God (the spiritual dimension), among people (the social dimension), within the person (the emotional dimension) and between people and their environment (the physical dimension), we have wholistic health. As Christians we work to

show that Jesus is Lord of all and has reconciled all things in heaven and earth to Himself (Colossians 1:15-20). That’s wholism.

Lyn is Interserve’s Regional Director for East Asia and South Pacific. She lives in Australia with her family.

Image courtesy of IMB (imb.org).

I didn’t want to restrict myself to being a doctor; I wanted to be a doctor sharing Christ and to teach from the Word of God. This was a good fit for the way God made me.

“God really speaks through his Word — to me as well as to others,” says Gulya Gift of Discipleship Equipping Christians to learn and grow in their faith Jesus invites us not only to turn to him, but to follow him with all our lives. This gift provides grassroots discipleship for Christians in places where the freedom to choose Christ is a new thing. It funds relevant resources that people can use at home or in groups, and training courses so that leaders can be equipped to nurture their communities. In response to a growing vision from within these churches, it also equips and empowers home-grown workers to represent Christ in the local community, in neighbouring countries and beyond.

TangibleLove.org.au 9

Serving God without leaving home?

A few weeks before my family went to live overseas for the first time, I got a phone call. The caller was an older friend whom I respected.

“Ruth”, she said to me, “I know we talk a lot about Jim’s role. But I wanted to remind you that the reason your family can go overseas is because you are behind him. If he could not rely on you as his wife and mother of his kids, then there would not be the option to go.”

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It was the first time I recognised my unique position to be used as a stay-at-home mum overseas. We were heading there with a baby and toddler in tow. Usually the anticipation focussed on my husband’s role, whereas mine… not so much. Let’s face it, being a stay-at-home mum is not glamorous.

It didn’t get any more glamorous overseas.

There were still sleepless nights, tantrums and dirty nappies (to be clear: Jim also dealt with all

of these – I couldn’t have done it without him!).

Besides that, it is tough for kids in a new culture.

They needed me close by, especially at first when the street dogs were scary, their tummies were upset and they were still getting used to having their cheeks squeezed by strangers.

But in the Middle East, there is a lot more respect for mothers than I’d experienced in Australia. To locals, I was doing a legitimate role.

It was beyond their imagination that I put my children to bed before 11pm at night, or hadn’t toilet trained them by 12 months old. But walking the kids to school, shopping at the market and doing my own cooking did make sense to my local friends. And that helped as we built our relationships.

Being a stay-at-home mum also enabled me to use other gifts in flexible ways. Relationship building was part of our ministry within the Interserve team. We loved having visitors and we would often have people over to share meals together because I had the time for hospitality.

In the frequently stressful times of a foreign land, this mutual encouragement strengthened and refreshed us all for our ministries elsewhere.

Interserve’s vision is for transformed lives and communities. Did I transform anything through my school drop-offs and nappies and pots of spaghetti bolognaise?

Walking the kids to school and doing my own cooking made sense to my local friends. And that helped as we built our relationships.

Maybe the question is not what did I transform, but what was God doing though me? Like a tapestry that is not yet finished, I can only see scraps of the pattern God was creating.

I do know my role contributed to helping us thrive as a family in the country. I had a part in enabling my husband to do the role God had for him. It also allowed me to pour time into building relationships with other cross-cultural workers, to support them in fulfilling their own God-given purposes. It gave me time to see the opportunities, and as the kids got older, to find my niche outside the home too.

I am no hero of the faith, but I trust God used me as a stay-at-home mum. He placed me there, made me the person I am, and gave me my role for that time.

The rest is His story.

Ruth served with her family in the Middle East for six years.

Names have been changed.

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A barista walked into a cafe “If more people come to know Jesus through our deaths than though our lives, then we are prepared to die, Father.�

Just as God had begun watering the seed of love for Muslims, He also had planted a love of coffee!

I read this prayer in a biography when I was nine.

I was struck by how radical and countercultural life in Jesus is to the world around us. Our lives are gifts not to ourselves, but to be given sacrificially for His story and His glory.

God began to water the seed of overseas mission in my heart. Through reading missionary stories, I imagined being a teacher in the depths of the African savannah, choosing education as my university degree.

But throughout my teens, biographies, novels and world events like September 11 increased my curiosity about the Middle East and Islam.

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Growing up in rural WA, I don’t remember meeting any Muslims or even knowing anyone who had ever stepped foot in the Middle East.

Yet God began to grow this curiosity. While I was at university, I read about Brother Andrew’s ministry to Muslims and in that moment decided that I would start working towards going to the Middle East as a teacher.

But it didn’t take long into this journey to realise I did not enjoy teaching. This led to a lot of anxiety as I studied at Bible college. If I didn’t teach in the Middle East, what could I do?

But just as God had begun watering the seed of love for Muslims, He also had planted a love of coffee! I returned to my home city and started working in specialty cafes, learning the coffee business and mastering the barista’s art. I didn’t know how I could use this in the Middle East but I prayed that I would!

doesn’t just use the ‘traditional’ missionary careers like teaching and medicine. He can use any career or trade! He gives to each of us skills, talents and passions to be used for His glory and in His story.

Ella is preparing to return to the Middle East as a longterm Partner.

Names have been changed.

I saw Him refining and using local Christians as they showed their Muslim colleagues what it means to be a Middle Eastern Christian.

God heard these prayers. I found myself boarding a plane as an On Tracker to the Middle East to work for a coffee business for two years!

In His strength and grace, the project aims to accomplish many things alongside providing delicious cups of coffee.

As I helped develop the barista program and its curriculum, train staff and build the team I was amazed at how God used simple things like coffee and baristas to bring people together: rich and poor, educated and uneducated, Muslim and Christian to create networks and communities that provided endless opportunities for people to see His power, glory and reconciling love. I saw Him refining and using local Christians as they showed their Muslim colleagues what it means to be a Middle Eastern Christian. I saw Muslims taking note of God working in the lives of His children. I saw them begin to have their misconceptions about Christianity dispelled and be curious about what it truly is all about. All in the everyday workings of a small business!

God has used my education and my coffee experience. If I were to go back in time to decide on a future career, I would tell myself that God

Interfaith understanding Overcoming fear and intolerance by working together What better way to understand someone than to work alongside them? This gift helps run a business that intentionally employs people from two very different faith groups, who typically avoid any meaningful interaction. This business is creating a work environment and culture to address hostility and foster respect and understanding. And it all provides training and generates livelihoods for those from poor and marginalised backgrounds to support their families. By simultaneously combatting poverty and intolerance, this gift is sowing the seeds of lasting peace.

TangibleLove.org.au 13

Social work and software Administrative things don’t sound particularly exciting, but they have knock-on effects for the quality of social work generally.

OSCaR is one of those things that’s hard to write about. It’s a social work case management and database software package. It doesn’t tug at your heartstrings like rehabilitating drug users, or rescuing people from trafficking, or reuniting children with their families. It’s certainly not what I had in mind when our family left Australia for Cambodia in 2014.

In my life before Cambodia, I was a case management social worker in a high school, working directly with disengaged young people. I also had some experience supervising social work students through their university placements. Coming here, I knew that I probably 14

wouldn’t be doing the same thing – social work in a second language is really tough – and I assumed I would fit into a support role at an NGO. Social work is a fledgling discipline in Cambodia.The Royal University of Phnom Penh started offering the Bachelor of Social Work in 2008, and the number of qualified social workers in the country is low. While there are many Cambodians at NGOs with a lot of life experience, the lack of formal education often results in people making things up as they go.

It goes without saying that social work like that often doesn’t lead to the best outcomes for vulnerable people. Unfortunately, there is also a history of some missionaries obtaining visas as social workers despite being unqualified, contributing to the perception that social work is not a real discipline. But now work is in progress to address these issues.

I now work at Children in Families (CIF), a local NGO dedicated to providing family-based care for vulnerable children. When I started here in

2015, I was asked to conduct a social work audit. We had some good practice strengths, but weaknesses in client assessment and record-keeping. Those administrative things don’t sound particularly exciting, but they have knock-on effects for the quality of social work generally. How can you make a good plan for someone if you haven’t assessed and understood their situation? How can you keep the details of 20 people fresh in your mind and provide high quality follow-up every single day, if you never adequately write down the things you’re doing with them? And how can you ever hope to report on your work to your donors (and so keep on doing that work in the future!) if you haven’t got records of what you’ve done?

I’m not a computer programmer, but I grew up comfortable with computers. And our office already did most of its work digitally, so it felt natural to look at supporting our work with better software. We applied for (and won!) a grant to develop a case management system in late 2015. The system has continued to be more and more widely adopted, but it’s tempting to ask, so what?

I’ve been really excited to see how OSCaR has contributed to the development of social work practice at CIF. Our assessment structure is now more relevant and lets us track longterm whether the work we do is improving the lives of the kids we support. We keep records in Khmer, with processes in place to let managers supervise their staff. We track all the things we need to in order to report on our work to our donors, and our managers are beginning to understand how they can be involved in monitoring and evaluation processes themselves. As I’ve helped other organisations integrate OSCaR into their practice, I’ve seen how they also wrestle more with their own work and consider how best to serve their beneficiaries.

I believe that God wants to see Christians not only reach out to the vulnerable, but reach out in ways that are helpful, relevant and competent.

And while OSCaR by itself does not work with vulnerable people, it is supporting hundreds of social workers, in Cambodia and in other countries, to do so more effectively. This isn’t the work I expected to do, when I left Australia five years ago. But I’ve seen God bring things in line, and I’m grateful to have been put where I am.

Chris and his wife Stacie advocate for family-based care for children. Their family lives in Cambodia.

Our assessment structure now lets us track long-term whether the work we do is improving the lives of the kids we support.

“God really speaks through his Word — to me as well as to others,” says Gulya Gift of a family Kinship and foster care for orphans and vulnerable children Thousands of children live in South East Asia’s orphanages, but evidence shows this puts them at greater risk of developmental delay, mental health problems and abuse.

This gift supports family-based care for vulnerable children. It helps train and resource social workers to support families; and raises awareness in the local and global community through advocacy and study tours. This work means that more children can be raised where they belong: in loving families who are equipped to care for them.

TangibleLove.org.au 15

Q&A with a doctor Celeste is a doctor living and working in Asia.

What led you to pursue a profession in medicine?

I never had a ‘noble’ intention to do medicine.

I did well at school, and it was a practical profession. I always wanted to serve people and medicine provides that. A lot of people might have thought about saving the world, but for me, it was just a good profession and I had the ability to get there.

How did you sense God calling you into cross-cultural mission?

I struggled with this. Did I really hear God asking me to mission? Some people have dreams. But I think God also works through how your brain works. So for me it was open opportunities. Having everything line up: time, ability to go, the desire to go. I find that if I respond to one thing, God will lead me to the

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next thing. You don’t suddenly arrive there. You just need to have the willingness first to see mission as a possibility.

You have a heart for your patients, but also for your professional colleagues.

We can serve our patients well if our hearts and our brains and our values are all connected.

There is only so much that we can do for one patient, but if we can have an influence on the healthcare provider, how much more we can serve the patients over and above what we can do by ourselves.

If we hold the value of being God’s created ones, then it is reflected in how we treat patients. To be able to look after your colleagues – it changes how they see themselves and the value a patient has in their eyes.

Disability in Mission: The Church’s Hidden Treasure David C Deuel and Nathan G John, Editors

Image courtesy of IMB (imb.org).

“We can never be too weak for God, but we can be too strong for him. We can never be too simple, but we can be too clever; never too poor, but we can be too rich. This book boldly and biblically takes us to the great virtues of weakness and brokenness, which in our folly we would cover and hide. It takes a long time for many of us to discover our weakness is our strength. That, after all, is where God is most at home!”

Charles Price

How can you share Jesus’ love when there are professional boundaries to what you can say?

I don’t think that is any different whether you are in my country or in Australia. It is more a change in your thinking – to be Christ-like in the workplace. People read you and watch you. The dignity and kindness that you give to a person speaks volumes. As much as we have to open our mouths, the Holy Spirit is working in their hearts. I am seeing that more and more.

People will ask “Why are you so different to the other doctors?” As we grow in faith, something has to change about us. There is a time and place for you to speak and a time and place when you show Christ through what you do. He will be the one who provides an opportunity to talk about it.

Senior Pastor, The Peoples Church, Toronto, Canada

“Herein lies the problem with the mission movement. We are inclined to assess our performance according to the standards of the secular world. This success-oriented approach can cause us to squeeze our potential missionaries into rigid molds in which they have to be intelligent, strong, agile, and have high energy: the Type A personality. … When applying the world’s standards of success we therefore discount people who are different, who can’t be squashed into an ableist mold. Almost by definition, people with disability will not fit into an ableist mold, and nor should they. The stories you will read in the following pages are of missionaries who do not fit that mold.” – Editors Published by Hendrickson Publishers (2019).

Available at all good bookstores.

Read an extended review at interserve.org.au/blog/disability-in-mission

Name has been changed.

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Listening with respect Nothing happens by chance.

God uses all our experiences.

I see myself more as a Jack-of-all-trades than a specialist. I spent more of my working life raising children than in my profession of medicine, returning to family practice and then counselling as they grew up.

In my new country, I work in ‘support’. I do not run any projects myself. ‘Support’ for me may mean collating clinical data, making cushions, dolls and straps for disability work, applying for grant funding, updating health training materials, training locals in counselling and offering child development and parenting support. There is no ‘ordinary week’ for me. Some work is fun, some engaging and exciting, some frankly boring but necessary.

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There are highs and lows. Here is one low from the start of my work: I was finally going to do something useful and I was excited! After a year of cultural and language learning, I was going to assist a local NGO with health promotion and a women’s shelter. I had carefully prepared my first training presentation and I arrived twenty minutes early, ready to set up and start on time.

The room was in use, so I waited. With five minutes to go, I showed my face at the window.

When it was time to start, I knocked on the door.

A colleague came out. She said that the person before me was still talking. I waited for forty-five minutes. The team then came out and asked me to give my presentation another day, as now they did not have time for my training!

We now live in a relationship-based culture, not a time and task-based culture. I knew ‘flexibility’ was important for living and working here. I just didn’t know how flexible. Your duty is to the person in front of you and other

commitments go on hold until they leave. I have learned to call the day before I run training, and to schedule sessions at the start of the day so it starts approximately on time. That is, after the mandatory relationship-building cup of tea and chat.

I have continued to work with the same wonderful ladies for the last five years. They sat patiently while I attempted to teach in a new language. It was a relief to all of us when they offered to allow me to train in English, with one of them translating. They always encourage me and tell me how much they value me, which makes it hard to get good feedback for improvement! I think it took three years before my health training took root. I think it also took about that amount of time before they really trusted me.

this training helpful even in their own families.

They also realised that their work was just as important as what professionals did.

Nothing happens by chance. God uses all our experiences, and I am grateful for everything he is doing through my retirement!

Marian and her husband are doctors, serving long-term in a remote part of Central Asia.

Names have been changed

There is no ‘ordinary week’ for me. Some work is fun, some engaging and exciting, some frankly boring but necessary.

Here are some of the highlights: I was asked to work as a counsellor in a medical clinic. It is always challenging seeing people in very difficult circumstances when you are unlikely to see them again. What could I really do? I was very humbled when lady after lady shared their experiences of difficulties with husband or children. They entered sad and left smiling. What had I done? There was really no advice I could give them, no change in their circumstances. It was simply important to them that both I and my Christian translator listened and valued them. I encouraged them. So many of these ladies only get abuse and blame. To be listened to with respect and cared for was a new experience for them.

The ladies running the women’s shelter asked for training to help the children who had escaped abusive situations with their mothers.

I explained that although the children will probably later need counselling, the first and most important thing is to provide them with a safe and nurturing environment, provide good food and clothing and to cater for their educational needs. I also gave them training on basic child development and parenting skills.

They were very grateful and said they found

“God really speaks through his Word — to me as well as to others,” says Gulya Gift of Resilience Mental health support through trauma In a region rocked by ongoing war and compounding poverty, hopelessness leads to despair. Violence and family breakdown cause ripple effects. In other places, systemic injustices such as trafficking or forced displacement lead to psychological trauma. This gift supports counsellors and social workers running projects that care for the whole person in contexts where mental health is severely threatened. When a person’s emotional and psychological needs can be appropriately cared for, they can become healed and healing members of their community.

TangibleLove.org.au 19

God went ahead of us There was overwhelming interest from asylum seekers and the number of students quickly surged to well over a hundred.

It all started when a friend told me that she had an idea. It was late 2012 in a Melbourne suburb where a church hosted a free food distribution point for those in desperate financial situations.

Most of the people coming were asylum seekers from countries such as Sri Lanka, Iran and Afghanistan who had no work rights here.

Maybe we could meet more of their needs if we got to know them better? Together we came up with the idea of inviting them inside the doors of the church where we would offer cups of tea, nuts and dried fruit and help them practice their conversational English.

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The church was happy to support the idea and good connections with the local ministers’ fellowship led to offers of prayer and practical support from other pastors and members of their congregations. We were absolutely delighted with the amazing, warm hearted and friendly responses from asylum seekers. We sensed that God had gone before us and had something special in mind.

As the program grew we decided to extend the informal English classes and launch more formal, regular classes. At that stage, the asylum seekers were not supported by the government in any way to learn English. Many were bored and really wanted to learn. The response to our proposal by the community was very enthusiastic!

We formed a partnership with the local ministers’ fellowship and cross-cultural workers from a range of organisations including Interserve’s CultureConnect. It was fantastic to see the unity.

A missiologist was invited to devise and launch the new program. Volunteer teachers were recruited to teach at four different levels. There was overwhelming interest from asylum seekers and the number of students quickly surged to well over a hundred. The church felt they had reached their capacity but still the students kept coming! A few other churches from the ministers’ fellowship also started English classes from the overflow.

At the same time there were many asylum seekers asking questions about the Christian faith. At a time of personal upheaval and trauma they were open to God in new and exciting ways. By the grace of God, I was able to start Bible studies with several students. One particular Bible study grew to 20 participants, all from Central Asia. After several years, members of this Bible study formed their own church and one of them became their full-time pastor. This church still operates today.

The English classes in the main church continued for over four years. The numbers eventually declined as asylum seekers in the area obtained visas with earning rights, became more settled

and the local library and other organisations began to provide services for them. One church still retains the program we began.

What a privilege it was to reach out in practical love to generous, warm-hearted asylum seekers.

Lifetime friendships were formed. Most of all we praise God who had gone ahead and led us to take hold of the wonderful opportunity we had to reach out to these people. Each asylum seeker is cherished by God, whose Son Jesus offers eternal life through the cross He bore for them as He did for us.

Robert is a CultureConnect Partner helping churches in Melbourne to reach out cross-culturally.

Names have been changed.

“God really speaks through his Word — to me as well as to others,” says Gulya Gift of Connection Equipping followers of Jesus to connect with ethnic minorities People from the Arab world, Africa and Asia are on the move, and many have become part of Australia’s cities, towns and neighbourhoods. ‘They’ are now ‘us’. Drawing on more than 165 years of cross-cultural experience, Interserve’s CultureConnect team equips followers of Jesus to be a community that walks alongside new neighbours. This gift helps equip Christian leaders to make churches more inclusive; and ordinary Christians to connect across cultures in their own neighbourhoods. Through CultureConnect God’s love is made tangible, barriers are broken down, and strangers become family.

TangibleLove.org.au 21

Learning from women We sat around her table, overlooking the valley down to the city. The table was covered in papers and we frequently reached for our phones to record things that struck us as together we wrestled with the issues.

My friend is a follower of Jesus from another religious background, and she continues to identify both as a member of that community and as a follower of Jesus. I had given a paper at a conference on the role of patronage in discipling women followers of Jesus from Muslim backgrounds. I had learned a lot from her when she explained how her community operates and women’s roles within it. I was aware that my paper had some under-developed areas. Now we were talking through what it would look like to have a book that pulled apart the topic and added to it, and how we could do this together.

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I am both a learner and a facilitator in this ongoing process.

Research and writing had not really been on my agenda as a young cross-cultural worker. I was by nature an activist but when I did my PhD I found new doors opened for conversations that brought together my activism and my love of research.

I was researching the role of women in social change, and was invited to attend a women’s rally. As we gathered at the start of the rally, I found myself standing by Mukhtar Mai, who had been the subject of international media attention after the local village council ordered her rape as punishment for an alleged crime by her brother.

How would I, as a follower of Jesus, have a meaningful conversation with this woman? I knew she would wonder if I were just another

foreigner looking for a way to use her for my story. As we talked, I wanted to know about her, not just the story that was already in the media.

We stepped back from the noise and in a quiet voice she talked about her family and the girls in her village, whom she passionately wanted to protect.

I walked through the march, talking to women and asking them about their hopes and dreams in participating in such a rally, seeking to understand what change would mean for them.

I thought of the stories of Jesus’ interactions with women that could be shared. This has helped me think through the work of the When Women Speak … network in training and equipping women to reach Muslim women.

Research and writing has now become a core part of my cross-cultural work: facilitating and publishing collaborative research and writing by women, including those who follow Jesus from Islam, to help the church understand how women experience faith; training the church in other places with higher education qualifications so it can be an articulate participant in transformation in its community; encouraging

I am both a learner and a facilitator in this ongoing process. reflective practice among women mission practitioners through online courses; and forming a platform for women’s cross-cultural mission research at the Australian College of Theology.

Research and writing enables me to participate in new ways in God’s great work of reaching the nations.

Cathy has served with Interserve for over 30 years, working with women in the Muslim world. She now leads When Women Speak…

When Women Speak…

A network giving attention to the place of women’s voices where Christianity, Islam and missiology meet.

whenwomenspeak.net

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The work of walking humbly A friend recently commented that living cross-culturally strips back your identity to its most basic shell. My experience took me on a journey from being a competent, confident adult who was contributing to his community to a place where every aspect of my identity was challenged.

I know how far I have to go before I can think and speak Thai effortlessly.

This was partly by my own choosing. Several years ago Marie Clare and I, along with our two children, departed Melbourne (one of the world’s most livable cities) for Bangkok, 24

Thailand. We spent our first year studying Thai. We easily could have moved to Thailand to teach in English or to work in a large international church or school. However, we felt a strong desire to partner with the local church, to be involved in community and to learn to speak Thai.

We have now been in Thailand for three years.

A large portion of our time has been dedicated to learning Thai, watching the people and environment around us and attempting to understand a culture that often intrigues us.

We are often exhausted, frustrated and at times desire to return to a place where we are understood and are able to clearly articulate our thoughts and feelings.

Thai is a tonal language with 5 distinct tones.

The meaning of a word changes based on its tone. Thus far I have yet to master these tones.

I have discovered I enjoy getting out and about and speaking to people. In English I love to talk to people about politics and debate the current hot topic. However, in Thai my conversations last 5–10 minutes before I run out of things to say. In meetings I am 5–10 seconds behind the conversation. By the time I have decoded the conversation and translated my thought into Thai, the conversation has well and truly moved on. Thai people are kind and they are always amazed by how much Thai I can speak. But I know how far I have to go before I can think and speak Thai effortlessly. The more I learn, the more I know how much I don’t know.

Not being able to speak has provided me with an opportunity to observe, to slow down, to listen and to pray.

So is learning Thai worth it? Why can’t I, like many mission workers here in Thailand, just speak English and get someone to translate for me? Then I could get down to doing what I really love: teaching and discipleship.

The answer is yes, it’s worth it! I don’t always feel this way. It is hard living in a place where you can’t express your thoughts clearly and have deep conversations. However, this journey is not about me. I have come to understand that without walking humbly with God, one cannot understand or practice justice, mercy or humility (Micah 6:8). Not being able to speak has provided me with an opportunity to observe, to slow down, to listen and to pray. Language learning has taught me to rely on others and on God. God often reminds me that I am not walking on this journey alone, nor am I leading the way. I am walking humbly with Him. My identity is not found in my Australian passport, my Persian heritage, my science and teaching degrees. My identity is found in God my father.

Emmanuel is a qualified chemistry and biology teacher.

He and his family are in Thailand long-term, partnering with the local church in outreach and discipleship.

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A ministry of encouragement

When I first arrived in Central Asia 15 years ago, I vividly remember the Principal of the Theological College telling me, “You’ll be a great encouragement to the women pastors!”

people; both women and men. The theological college is now locally run and though no expats officially work there, I’m still involved in various ways.

“Most unlikely!” I thought to myself.

I’ve worked with local teachers with varying success and am always delighted when I hear from students how much they enjoyed and learned from the teaching of friends like Venera, Kostya and Gulya.

I knew no one. I couldn’t speak a word of the language and had very little understanding of the culture. I had years of experience of teaching and pastoral ministry, but in a very different context. In this culture, I was a complete novice.

Now that I have learned the language and gained a greater understanding of the culture, I’ve been privileged to work with and encourage many

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A very able young woman, Venera worked with me teaching some Old Testament books. At first, she taught only sections of each lecture and developed into teaching the subjects on her own. She married a young man from a

neighbouring country and now only comes back once a year to see her parents and to teach.

However, God continues to use her knowledge and skills in preaching and teaching as she serves in a large church in her new home city.

Kostya is a fine young man, who came to know Jesus through a student movement here and worked with this group for ten years. When he had leave to pursue theological studies, I was able to advise him about places to study online and guide him to books and links along the way.

He is now engaged in work towards a PhD and I’m happy to be a discussion partner and resource.

Gulya, a pastor in a village nearby, is a friend and colleague with whom I’ve taught. For the past ten years she has been leading the only church in her village. It is known and respected by all. Gulya has been involved with me and others in the Langham Preaching Movement.

Her continued involvement in a preaching club is helping her and the church to grow in depth of understanding and love. She says, “I used to pray and pray for inspiration about what to preach. But now I find it so much easier. We go through a book of the Bible and work carefully on the text ... and find inspiration. God really speaks through his Word — to me as well as to others.”

Ordering books to expand our library has been just as important. Can you imagine trying to do theological study without books? “How do you know which books to order?” someone asked me recently. Experience over many years has taught me which of the books that have been translated would be useful for students and teachers here. Translating suitable books into the local language – or rather, working with translators to check the translations – has become part of my work, as has seeing them through to publication. Suggesting books to be translated by a publisher in other parts of the former Soviet Union has also borne fruit.

So, fifteen years on, I’m pleased to see how God has used the skills and experience He has given me to be an encouragement to people in a very different culture. God has also provided local friends and colleagues to love, teach and encourage me as I serve with them here. I’m very grateful for the privilege.

Gwen is a long-term Interserve Partner who has been working alongside the church in Central Asia for 15 years.

All names have been changed.

Gulya’s continued involvement in a preaching club is helping her and the church to grow.

“God really speaks through his Word — to me as well as to others,” says Gulya Good teaching Supporting the pastors of young and persecuted churches Imagine a very young local church in an unsympathetic context, where many have chosen to follow Jesus but are at very early stages of understanding the faith.

In this context, equipping young pastors to preach a helpful sermon can make all the difference. This gift helps equip local pastors through bible studies, preaching training, and higher theological education.

It also helps translate and publish resources for them in the local language. Despite being in the minority and often vulnerable to persecution, these local Christians are full of passion to grow in their faith.

TangibleLove.org.au 27

The gift of a voice We partnered with others to establish the Cambodian Speech Therapy Network, with an aim to share resources and learning.

Speech therapy is largely unheard of in Cambodia. Currently there are no speech therapists in the country who were trained at a Cambodian university. For the last 18 months, I have worked as Program Manager in a locallyrun organisation working to grow speech therapy in Cambodia. We have a vision for a Cambodian university-qualified speech therapy profession that is able to provide high quality, culturally-relevant services to the estimated 600,000 Cambodians with communication or swallowing difficulties.

Establishing a new profession is a pretty daunting task! Curriculum writing, development strategy, clinical research and advocacy work 28

all require connections and expertise beyond our little team of seven Cambodian staff and three foreign therapists. For a university course to be relevant to this context we need to document research and experience of using speech therapy strategies here. The purpose of this is to evaluate what approaches to speech therapy work in Cambodian culture and in the Khmer language, rather than simply transplanting models of practice from Western countries.

Cambodia has a long history of foreign therapists working in isolation for a few months or years, each investing in their small area but with little connection to government systems and no overall coordination. One of the first tasks for our organisation was to partner with others to establish the Cambodian Speech Therapy Network, with an aim to share resources and learning, and to be an orientation point for future speech therapists coming into the country.

Another early task was to establish a speech therapy clinic as a social enterprise. Two years in, our private clinic is booked out and needs more staff than we can find. This clinic brings

opportunities to document therapy in Cambodia.

Furthermore, also critical to ongoing success, the clinic helps to raise awareness and builds advocacy platforms with influential Cambodians whose families have benefited from therapy.

Currently, many children with disabilities are not in school even though by law and by government policy children with special needs are allowed to attend. Last year we designed and implemented a pilot project to coach rural primary and preschool teachers in their inclusion of children with communication difficulties within government schools. Beginning with disabilityaccessible schools from the government’s special education department, our staff worked to train the teachers in skills and knowledge that assists them in using teaching methods that helps all children learn. Presenting our results to the government was a tangible example of how speech therapy could help Cambodians.

We ended the year with a formal partnership agreement with the Ministry of Education and had some very pleasing discussions with the University of Health Sciences as they plan a bachelor course in speech therapy to start in 2020.

Building on our national staff’s connections in the national disability and health sector, I’ve been able to bring my experience from 12 years of living and working in Cambodian poor communities along with my grassroots involvement in community-based disability rehabilitation work and establishment of community preschools and homework clubs.

As a cross-cultural worker with longer-term experience, I’ve helped our local and foreign team members to understand each other better.

In addition to my professional expertise in speech therapy, I’ve also drawn on Interserve’s values of partnership, servant leadership and valuing local expertise as together we grow our organisational culture and strategy.

While it’s not part of the employment criteria, it has been a surprise and encouragement to see how many staff members in the speech

therapy project share the Christian faith. For the Christians within our staff it’s been easy to see God’s hand guiding our planning and his provision of resources and partnerships. It is such a joy to together celebrate God’s blessing, lament the injustice we encounter and advocate for systems that allow access to services for the poorest and most marginalised.

Ruth lives with her family in Cambodia. She works with a local NGO working to grow a Cambodian speech therapy profession.

We designed and implemented a pilot project to coach rural primary and preschool teachers in their inclusion of children with communication difficulties.

“God really speaks through his Word — to me as well as to others,” says Gulya

Gift of a voice Speech therapy Communicating with others is at the heart of being human. In Cambodia, more than 600,000 people have a communication or swallowing disorder, yet speech therapy and rehabilitation services for them are nearly nonexistent. This gift helps fund a speech therapy and cultural advisor as part of a team who are working to train 100 local speech therapists by 2030. The vision is for a Cambodia where everyone can receive the help they need to communicate with those around them, and lead full and happy lives.

TangibleLove.org.au 29

Introducing…

Interserve Development!

We have a new company within Interserve Australia, dedicated to aid and development. It is called ‘Interserve Development Limited’.

Since Interserve started, benevolent work (helping people in need) has been an important part of our ministry. It is a part of our vision and purpose statements:

Lives and communities transformed through encounter with Jesus Christ.

Making Jesus known through wholistic ministry, in partnership with the global church, among the most marginalised people of Asia and the Arab world.

We are currently transitioning to a new legal structure that will allow us to continue the work we’re doing and to administer it more effectively.

Up until now we have been an incorporated association registered in Victoria and our legal name was Interserve Australia Inc. We administered our overseas aid and development work through our Overseas Aid Fund (donations to this fund are tax deductible).

We are now in the process of creating a new structure with two nationally registered companies.

The parent company will be known as Interserve Australia Limited, and will oversee all of our work.

The subsidiary company Interserve Development Limited will administer the benevolent part of our work such as overseas development and the benevolent work CultureConnect does in Australia. Interserve Development will have PBI status (Public Benevolent Institution) and will retain the Overseas Aid Fund. All donations to Interserve Development will be tax deductible. Our non-tax-deductible work will operate through Interserve Australia Limited.

These background administrative changes will help Interserve better recruit, prepare, place and support people to serve the peoples of Asia and the Arab world. There are other benefits too. It will allow us to keep some tax concessions that lower our costs and make donations stretch further.

It will also make it simpler for us to comply with new regulatory requirements and better manage tax-deductible giving.

From now on you may notice some small changes in our material and in our correspondence to you.

We’ll keep you informed of any changes that affect you.

If you have any questions, please contact Ian McLaughlan (Operations Coordinator) at operations@interserve.org.au.

Image courtesy of IMB (imb.org).

Faith and action in Asia and the Arab world Wholistic



Bearing witness to the Gospel in all aspects of life



Alongside the church

Equipping the body of Christ to reach out and make disciples

People on the margins

Bringing physical and spiritual hope

 

Practical

Using your skills to meet needs and build local capacity

Sustainable

Supported by robust financial and pastoral care structures

We are looking for ordinary Christians who are willing to put their faith into action.

Will you join us?

Interserve Australia Freecall 1800 067 100 info@interserve.org.au PO Box 231 Bayswater VIC 3153

interserve.org.au