Teaching and learning

I’m back at the head quarters of Wycliffe Bible Translators UK. Last time I was here for any length of time I was a student, learning all about ‘Scripture Use’ to prepare me to go and serve in Tanzania. Now, four years later, I am here as the teacher! I didn’t feel that just two and a half years of working in Mbeya qualified me for this role, but I was assured that my recent experiences were valuable and so I agreed to teach as an assistant to a more experienced lady.
So, here I am, and I feel that I am learning as much as I am teaching! As I plan and prepare lessons, I remember the things I once learned and find myself trying to apply them to my situation in Tanzania and wondering how they should look in practice. That’s not to say that when I went to Tanzania I completely disregarded all I had learnt! However, when I did my training I didn’t have concrete situations in my mind to apply my learning to and once I was in Tanzania it was hard to think of how all those things I’d learn in the abstract now applied in reality. Now, revisiting those studies, with Mbeya in mind and with some distance between myself and the work (which allows for a little more objectivity!) I am wondering where I need to relearn and be re-envisioned for the work of Scripture Use in Mbeya. I still have so much to learn and am more and more aware of how all our endeavours will come to nothing unless God is at work.
We are teaching a really interesting mix of students (two Finns, one Russian and one Hungarian) who will all be going to very different places, so it’s a challenge to make the teaching relevant to them all. I love to teach and I’m enjoying being able to do that in my mother tongue rather than Swahili, but as none of the students speak English as their first language, I still have to be careful that what I say is understandable!
Between teaching and pondering on what I am learning, I seem to be constantly on the move. I have been here for four weeks and every weekend has seen me attending a different church and often being in a different place. I’ve been back to All Nations (where I was at Bible College) and Oxford (where I was at university) and have had the privilege of exploring a new part of the country by taking a weekend trip to Sheffield with friends. It’s a fun, busy and tiring schedule to keep up, so please pray that I can sleep properly at nights in order to make the most of what each day has to bring.

Chatsworth House, nr Sheffield & loving an English autumn!

Choose life

I’ve been reflecting a lot recently on how we choose our attitudes – as I read in a novel recently: “…the thought struck him that what a man allowed into his heart was a matter of choice” (The Smoke Jumper, by Nicholas Evans). For example, instead of bitterness and unforgiveness, will we choose to forgive and choose ‘non-remembrance’ of how we’ve been wronged? Instead of becoming self-centred and depressed when life seems hard, will we choose life? For the Christian, this isn’t just a matter of positive thinking. It’s a conscious decision to trust in God’s love and grace rather than listening to the devil’s accusations and lies. It’s hard. It would be so much easier to just wallow in self-pity, something I do all too easily, even though I know my suffering is nothing compared to others’ and even though I know that these troubles are ‘light and momentary’ compared to the wonders awaiting us in heaven.
The thing is, to choose life we have to know why life is worth choosing! And that’s where I get a bit stuck. I know heaven is ahead and it’s going to be wonderful. So why do we have to suffer this life first? I’m lucky – there’s lots of things in my life to enjoy, but why carry on with the partial enjoyments of this life when heaven is going to be so much better? What is our purpose in living? If it’s to glorify God, won’t we do that so much better in heaven? I just don’t quite get it. I can carry on with this life, enjoy it, learn from it, change and grow…but then when I get to heaven I’ll be made perfect anyhow, so what was the point? I know we are called to be witnesses, which I can see would give purpose to life, but then how about those of us in jobs working mostly with Christians that involve hardly any opportunity for sharing one’s faith? What’s the point in enjoying a good book or even enjoying a walk in God’s amazing creation, if our only purpose in life is to bring others to faith?
So why choose life? God didn’t make the world to be a place of suffering, He grieves over it. I know that He is waiting that more might be saved before bringing an end to this world – but the longer he waits, the more babies will be born and so the list of those who won’t be saved grows ever bigger, alongside of those who will. So, why? Why do we have to live this life of suffering first, before going to heaven? It hurts here on earth.
I’m not sure I have an answer to this, but I am starting to think that I have got the question wrong. The point is, we have been put in this world and we have no choice but to be here. Suicide isn’t an option. Instead of asking why should I live this life, I should be asking how will I live this life?
I challenge us all to choose life (Deut. 30:19-20). Even though it’s hard, let’s be intentional in our thinking and actions and make continual conscious decisions to live life to the full in Christ, trusting God to help us, knowing that He will be enough for us each day.

Culture shock in a coffee shop

Culture shock sometimes hits you in the most unexpected places. On the way to the Lake District to meet up with family friends, we stopped off at a coffee shop, and…boom! There it was…I wanted to run outside and take some deep breaths. What was it? It’s not easy to put into words, but here’s a few thoughts from that journey…
…as we drove along smooth, wide A-roads, I noticed just how clean and pristine everything looked, even the weeds seemed to know their place! Rain obviously comes regularly and gently enough to wash everything clean and green, no tropical storms to flatten delicate grass and flowers down. The houses all looked perfectly proportioned, they looked like they’d stood for years and will stand for many more yet. No crumbling mud walls, rusty tin roofs or dusty yards, just neatly laid Cumbrian slate, tiled roofs and tidy green lawns.
And then there was the tea shop! It was just too perfect – where was the flaking paint on the walls or the occasional errant cockroach? Instead, its perfect pictures were perfectly straight, there were perfect smiles on polite waitresses’ faces, perfect cakes and chip-less crockery and equipment that would turn the chef of even the best restaurant in Mbeya green with envy. Three drinks and two cakes cost the same as three full meals at my favourite eating places in Mbeya.
And finally we arrived by the lakes themselves… crowds of people just out for pleasure, despite the rain. The geese and swans obviously weren’t quite so concerned about keeping England clean and pristine, as they soiled the pathways and grassland everywhere. But despite the rain and the crowds (and the culture shock), as my dad said, “There’s something magical about the Lakes.” (And I had a delicious strawberry, banana and peach smoothie at the teashop!!)