The Way of Life for the Truth

I received the following newsletter from a couple who for me epitomise the DNA of CMS. They have served as Mission Partners mainly in Iran and Pakistan and have kept on serving in their retirement -  they responded to the command to GO back in the 1960s and have kept on GOing.  I  quote chunks of their letter in full, but will keep it all anonymous to give a level of protection and anonymity.  But we give thanks for their nearly half century of mission service in West Asia......... Phil :-)

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I –

                            I took the less travelled one.           (Robert Frost. 1915)

Long before we first met in 1951 we had each decided to take the less travelled road. Studying in different universities and working in other hospitals, it was 12 years before we became engaged. Married in the Spring of 1963, we took our honeymoon driving overland to Isfahan, the beautiful Safavid city on the high desert plateau of central Iran. There in the old established mission hospital one soon discovered that mission work isn’t a job, but a 24/7 way of life; percolating every thought, persuading every decision, penetrating all performance. To us it was a Way of  Life for the Truth, and though we never lived up to the ideal, and though it was not just a job, we found untold job-satisfaction in it.

Being expelled by Islamic revolutionaries in 1979 was a shattering blow, yet God had already opened  less travelled roads in Pakistan, We served first on the plains of the Punjab in Lahore, then along the country’s troubled Afghan borderland in the North-West Frontier Province and Baluchistan; until, a couple of years back, we conceded we could no longer meet the demands of work in a mission hospital. So after a short trip out last year to help in a crisis in the Christian Hospital at remotest Tank, we returned  home in February this year.

Starting in the 1960’s with visions of reaping a harvest, we soon came down to earth realizing that we were still at  the stage of preparing the soil and occasionally sowing the seed. Yet in Iran now, as in China, a wonderful harvest is being reaped, though at great cost to the new believers,  and perhaps not much through our own spadework. In Pakistan our aim was different; buttressing  the beleaguered church in their Good Samaritan mission and concept of serving the majority community, who generally look down on them.  Such work must go on.

In prayer please constantly remember the need for dedicated Pakistani Christian doctors, nurses, and admin staff for the hospitals in Quetta and Tank. At a Christian medical conference we attended in Lahore last February a Pakistani doctor said about Tank ‘Oh that’s too difficult for us, only missionaries can work there’.   And so it is.   Maybe a career dead-end. Tough on wives and children too.  Few have tried it. Fewer  survived. Only the God-called can.

The Samaritan was only one on the Jericho road that day. A hazardous road.

Having begun with some lines  from Robert Frost, we end with some from

J R Tolkien. Though in a different context, they epitomise The Way – our Way;

Roads go ever on and on 

Under cloud and under star,                           The Road goes ever on and on

Yet feet that wandering have gone                Out from the door where it began.

Turn at last to home afar;                             Now far ahead the Road has gone,

Look at last on meadows green                       Let  others follow it who can.

And trees and hills they long have known.       Let  them a journey new begin.

Freddie's World: 'filthy dirty'

Latest news from 'Freddie' doing community art in Pakistan

Well, tonight I am filthy dirty, my hands are those of an ancient navvy, my few good nails ripped to shreds, I am aching all over - and happy as a frisky young bunny! Life is sweet, and all is right in Freddie World!

Just completed 3 days of gruelling mosaic making with 60 or so older teenagers, Mixed sexes, and even though it took place in the Community centre of a Roman Catholic school, many were Muslim. several of the girls fully veiled - though I would like it known, so pass it on, please, to all the Islamicphobics, that it was the veiled ones who were the most enthusiastic and hunkered down and assisted me and the boys whom I was instructing in cement mixing for the grout. Though all joined in with the actual mosaic making. A really good sharing experience, and they appreciated my given philosophical and spiritual message, and speech, of the joy of bringing damaged and broken and discarded pieces together to create a new thing of beauty and inspiration, which I applied to the mosaic making. And Salma, the Director, gave them a speech later which seemed inspiring, (and glowing about me and my Mission work) though not in english. Luckily the kids spoke English more or less. I have had 100 cement round bases made, so have lots left over to do many more projects.
 

It was quite hard to find coloured thin 'normal' tiles, Pakistan's 6th biggest industry is marble, (my researching is lavish and I am becoming a mine of info on mining marble) so everyone uses fantastic heavy marble in their kitchens and bathrooms, far too thick and heavy for my work, but had to compremise the first 2 sessions by laying mosaics on huge slabs of marble, that we in the UK would die for! As my order for bases was late.

Also last week went with Salma and her Father deep into the Punjab, about four hours driving there, and four back, to a village called Gillwallah, where I did my painted Jigsaw Cross Project with some charming but dirt poor kids in a primary school, surrounded by fields and fields or orange trees, sugar cane and sweetcorn. Next thursday, I think, we are off to Lahore for 6 days, lots more projects to do and a days Seminar teaching School Teachers, on Community Art. So more news doubtless to come.

Time to dive under my mosquito net - but will these hands ever be clean! the cement is rock hard under my nails!

love all around

freddie

Nick Vujicic - "Something More" Music Video

This video is Nick Vujicic's cover of Tyrone Wells' song "Something More".

....If you don't get a miracle, become one....

Unfailing Love pt 1

Lord, your love is an unfailing love.
Light bulbs fail, but your love never fails, never dims.
Fuses fail, but your love never fails, never cuts out.
Seals fail, but your love never fails, never leaks away.
Brakes fail, but your love never fails, never wears away
Your love is an unfailing love.
Students fail, but your love never fails, it ever hits the mark.



This was posted by Tim Ross on Facebook I have no idea who wrote it.

love stronger than hate

Goodness is stronger than evil,
Love is stronger than hate,
Light is stronger than darkness
Life is stronger than death
Victory is ours through Him who loved us.

Desmond Tutu: South Africa.

John 1:5

posted by Chuli

Christ has no body... but yours

Christ has no body now on earth but yours,

no hands but yours,

no feet but yours,

yours are the eyes through which Christ's compassion

is to look out to the earth,

yours are the feet by which He is to go about doing good

and yours are the hands by which He is to bless us now.

St Teresa of Avila

Christmas begins

When the song of the angels is stilled
When the star in the sky is gone
When the kings and princes are home
When the shepherds are back with their flock
the work of Christmas begins:
to find the lost
to heal the broken
to feed the hungry
to release the prisoner
to rebuild the nations
to bring peace among the people
to make music in he heart

Howard Thurman's Christmas Begins
Taken from Janet Morley's Bread of Tomorrow

sent in by chuli

"KEEPING CHRISTMAS"

sent by Vinod

There is a better thing than the observance of Christmas day and that is

keeping Christmas.

Are you willing

to forget what you have done for other people, and to remember what other

people have done for you;

to ignore what the world owes you, and to think what you owe the world;

to put your rights in the background, and your duties in the middle

distance, and you chances to do a little more than your duty in the

foreground;

to see that your fellow men are just as real as you are, and try to look

behind their faces to their hearts, hungry for joy;

to own that probably the only good reason for your existence is not what you

are going to get out of life, but what you are going to give;

to close your book of complaints against the management of the universe, and

look around you for a place where you can sow a few seeds of happiness-

are you willing to do these things even for a day?

Then you can keep Christmas.

Are you willing

to stoop down and consider the needs and the desires of little children;

to remember the weakness and loneliness of people who are growing old;

to stop asking how much your friends love you and ask yourself whether you

love them enough;

to bear in mind the things that other people have to bear in their hearts;

to try to understand what those who live in the same home with you really

want, without waiting for them to tell you;

to trim your lamp so that it will give more light and less smoke, and to

carry it in front so that your shadow will fall behind you;

to make a grave for your ugly thoughts, and a garden for your good thoughts,

with the gate open-

are you willing to do these things even for a day?

Then you can keep Christmas.

Are you willing

to believe that love is the strongest thing in the world-

stronger than hate, stronger than evil, stronger than death-

and that the blessed life which began in Bethlehem nineteen hundred years ago is the

image and brightness of the Eternal Love?

Then you can keep Christmas.

And if you keep it for a day, why not always?

But you can never keep it alone.

Henry Van Dyke

it is Christmas

popular Arabic carol

When we offer a glass of water to a thirsty person,

It is Christmas

When we clothe a naked person with a gown of love,

It is Christmas

When we wipe the tears from weeping eyes,

It is Christmas

When the spirit of revenge dies in me,

It is Christmas

When in my heart,

I no longer want to stay apart,

It is Christmas

When I am buried in the being of God,

It is Christmas.

sent by Chuli

a useable instrument

Chuli writes

Here is a prayer from South Africa that God is using to challenge me at present. It is taken from John Carden's book Procession of Prayers:

You asked for my hands, that you might use them for your purpose.
I gave them for a moment, then withdrew them for the work was hard.
You asked for my mouth to speak out against injustice. I gave you a whisper that I might not be accused.
You asked for my eyes to see the pain of poverty, I closed them for I did not want to see.
You asked for my life that you might work through me. I gave a small part that I might not get 'too involved'.
Lord, forgive me for my calculated efforts to serve you
only when it is convenient for me to do so,
only in those places where it is safe to do so, and
only with those who make it easy to do so.
Father, forgive me
Renew me
Send me out as a useable instrument that I might take seriously the meaning of your cross. Amen.

The Will of God

This was sent in by Vinod from S India

THE WILL OF GOD……

The will of God will never take you,
Where the grace of God cannot keep you,
Where the arms of God cannot support you,
Where the riches of God cannot supply your needs,
Where the power of God cannot endow you.

The will of God will never take you,
Where the Spirit of God cannot work through you,
Where the wisdom of God cannot teach you,
Where the army of God cannot protect you,
Where the hands of God cannot mold you.

The will of God will never take you,
Where the love of God cannot enfold you,
Where the mercies of God cannot sustain you,
Where the peace of God cannot calm your fears,
Where the authority of God cannot overrule for you.

The will of God will never take you,
Where the comfort of God cannot dry your tears,
Where the Word of God cannot feed you,
Where the miracles of God cannot be done for you,
Where the omnipresence of God cannot find you.

Everything happens for a purpose.

We may not see the wisdom of it all now,

but trust and believe in the Lord

that everything is for the best.

~Author unknown~