My Desk Blotter

During much of the 1980's we were employed full time in secular vocations. Anyone who thinks the ordinary working man or woman works "9 to 5" is not yet of age for a full time job. Everyone other adult knows that our "full time" jobs are very intense not only in terms of our time, but our emotions, and our the intellectual challenges we face in the workplace. Keeping our Christian witness on the job is one of the great priviledges and challenges anyone can face.

The last three years of my secular employment in the US, Neil and I were in the process of making the transition to missions. We were involved in ministry in the local church and been recognized as clergy by our governing body, but we continued in our regular jobs until the time was right to go overseas and serve. At times I felt a great tension inside between my need to give my all where I was living and my anticipation of the ministry that lay ahead. An accountant from Boston who loves theology, reading, teaching and fine dining, does not easily make the move to the rainforest of Papua New Guinea. The idea was daunting and in truth, "pushed the envelope" of my sense of what I could and could not do.

God did not, of course, call us to do what we can in our own strength accomplish. He called us to what we can in His strength accomplish. So, for the last three years I had a note jotted on every page of the blotter on my desk. It was the simple quote from Thessalonians, "Faithful is He who called you, who also will do it".

It has been one year and two weeks since we arrived in the US in the midst of many uncertainties. It has been 20 years, to the day, since we began our orientation in Madang, Papua New Guinea. If you had asked me 20 years ago if I thought I would be able to survive, much less thrive, in PNG for two decades, I would probably have said "No". If you had asked me a year ago today if I thought within 12 months I would be revising the Book of Jude so Neil can bring it to our coworkers in a few weeks time I would have said, "Maybe. If the Lord wills it so".

The path has not always been easy, smooth, nor clear but it has been His path. He knows where He is taking us and He knows the way to get there. I am confident He can take us all the way home.

Faithful is He who called us. He is doing it.