FISHING BOATS AND SAMPANS

FRIDAY 10 SEPTEMBER
What would you rather have?
• A room you share with 15 other men or a room alone? (Be careful how you answer that!)
• A room with noisy ceiling fans or air-conditioning?
• A room with a communal bathroom and cold water or a personal en-suite and hot water?
• A breakfast of noodles and water or fruit-juice, toast and coffee?
• A house without internet access or one with?
• A room with a great view across the sea or a room without a view?
• A day’s schedule written on a board by someone else or a day for you to decide what to do?
• A period of worship and prayer with 30 recovering drug addicts desperate to be healed or......?

It is a hard choice for me as I wake up on Cheung Chau Island this morning and my waking thought is for the Brothers I have lived with for 16 days. They are waking up in the same place ready to fight the next 24 hour battle determined to have victory in Jesus Christ. As I wake up here, I realise that I am in as much need of victory in Jesus Christ as the Brothers’ are today. No matter where I am, I still need to overcome, to keep my mind fixed on the ‘things above’, to put off my old self and choose to put on the new self, ‘which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator.’ (Colossians 3:10) That has got to be the challenge for all of us no matter which room we choose.

Today I feel in need of the community I have experienced but I am alone and will need to learn how to manage the transition back to ‘reality.’ Having missed many things in the early days of my stay at St. Stephen’s I was quickly able to stop worrying about them. What was happening in the world, the football scores, political debate and just absorbing information just for the sake of it, because I can access the world through my computer, it all rather faded away for me. What seemed important and urgent was replaced by what seemed really important and urgent. A life being rescued and healed, restored and forgiven.

But it is too easy to just get judgemental right now and to swap one ‘normal’ for another. When I got to Bethany, the place I am staying on this beautiful island for two nights, and my host told me there was Wi-Fi available, as soon as I could I got onto the internet and read the news, found out that England had won two football matches, the cricket team was doing well, Bournemouth had had a great start to the season, Portsmouth had not and Andy Murray failed again! So what have I really learnt?

I then enjoyed a meal without rice (although my stomach didn’t! You probably didn’t want to know that!) and chatted to the other guests here. All are missionaries (I felt a bit of a fraud talking about my 2 weeks of ‘hardship’ when these guys have been serving God for years!) and work in China and Hong Kong. They come here for a much needed retreat. The guests included a very unassuming US couple who worked with Jackie Pullinger many years ago and are now living in Tai Po, Hong Kong, serving God among the people there. Amazingly, Tai Po is the town where I went on Monday with J to have the meal with his family! Maybe they could link up with J’s family? J gave me his address before I left St. Stephen’s. That would be a quick answer to prayer!

I don’t think missionaries have a ‘normal’. I remember Erwin McManus talking about how a Missionary Society were planning to send out Counsellors to their missionaries and how he urged them not to try and ‘normalise’ them, ‘civilise’ them. He went on to say that Missionaries need to be barbarians. After two weeks I am not a barbarian and I know I will have to get back to normal, routine, the balance of my life where I am, but I am praying that I can sense God’s priorities each day and that the most important and urgent things, the things on His schedule, will become mine. Perhaps I could learn to be a barbarian where I am?

I felt exhausted as I travelled on the ferry to Cheung Chau. House 4 wasn’t physically draining, apart from the heat and cleaning windows, but I now realise it was emotionally and spiritually demanding and I know that every day I will have to choose to renew and refresh myself for the challenges ahead. I want to be a barbarian, but it may take some time!

Today I am going to explore this beautiful island. Beaches, markets, views and a great harbour where the modern commercial fishing boats sit side by side with the traditional sampans. The clash of cultures float together quite happily each riding the waves and doing what they do best.

What would I choose today? I’m going to choose to let the past and the present float quite happily together and ride the waves that will be the future God is bringing me, without conflict, concern or confusion. A barbarian? Maybe one day.

I think I’m going for the safe option today. I’m going to choose orange juice, toast and a coffee for breakfast.