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Discovering Central Asia

Education, On Track, Professional Life

“By the way, could you please run our staff Professional Development Day?” This request concluded an email from an international school we were soon to visit. That email reinforced my thinking: the need to be VERY flexible during our On Track Discover trips, and the great need in overseas schools for help in all aspects of professional development, curriculum, teaching and staff support.

In Sept – Oct last year, our On Track Discover team visited a beautiful, mountainous country now emerging from its time under Soviet rule. Much has changed since then, yet much remains the same. We were able to observe both scenarios. We offered professional development at an international school and visited NGOs served by mission families at the school. It was truly a privilege to spend time with Interserve Partners, local NGOs and the school staff.

One particular NGO for children with Downs Syndrome had a major impact on all of us. The couple who founded this organisation have a daughter with Downs Syndrome who, they were told, would never speak, walk or interact. They were told to ‘put her away’. This was just eight years ago. In response, they embarked on a program to stimulate and encourage their daughter. They have now started a school and host support groups for parents. Currently, this NGO supports over 200 families. They are living proof that their faith and methods work because their daughter, now nine years old, is a student at an international school and can speak three languages – Russian, English, and the local language. How many can you speak?

Richard has led On Track Discover trips to Central Asia and the Middle East. He has years, and has a keen interest in supporting schools overseas. [Document | On Track Introduction]

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Learning from women

Education, Partner, Relationships, 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. 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 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…

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Village to the city and back again

Education, Partner, Professional Life, Women

“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 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 teacher-training 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.

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Excerpts of a journey

Education

WELL-MEANING FAMILY FRIEND
“Your parents have sacrificed everything to bring you to Australia and given you every opportunity for peace, freedom and success. Why are you throwing that all away? Don’t you care about what they have done for you? There are people in this country who need help too, including your parents. They’re not getting any younger! God can use your gifts in this country too.”

A COUNTRY IN CENTRAL ASIA
UNICEF data: Only one-third of the population is literate. Fewer than half of the men can read. Fewer than one in five women can read.

EXCERPT FROM MY LETTER OF RESIGNATION
Firstly, I’d like to thank you for the many opportunities you have afforded me over the past 7 ½ years that I have worked here. I have loved being a Secondary School Teacher and later a Head of Faculty. There is a sense of camaraderie and community at this school that I will both treasure and miss. My passion for education, however, and a recognition of the desperate need in other parts of the world for change through education compels me to tender my resignation.

SECURITY TRAINING
For the second year in a row, this country in Central Asia was in the top five countries for the highest number of attacks on aid workers …

INTERNATIONAL NEWS
Armed terrorists broke into an NGO office which also served as the home of an expatriate family. Everyone inside was killed before the building was burnt to the ground.

PRAYER THAT NIGHT
“Dear God, is that really the place you are calling me to?”

MORNING SCRIPTURE READING THE NEXT DAY
“For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands, for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control. Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord, nor of me his prisoner, but share in suffering for the gospel by the power of God, who saved us and called us to a holy calling, not because of our works but because of his own purpose and grace, which he gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began, and which now has been manifested through the appearing of our Saviour Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel. 2 Timothy 1:6–10

DIARY ENTRY
After two years of working and sharing and preparation and raising support, I’m finally on the plane heading to my destination. I’ve said my goodbyes.

The plane is quiet. Most people are sleeping. All I can see out of the plane window is darkness.

FIRST DAY OF SIX-WEEK TEACHER TRAINING COURSE
Teacher: I have to admit that I did not want to come on this training during our school holidays. None of the teachers did. But now, we are so excited to come back.

CLASS DISCUSSION ON TEACHING EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE
Teacher 1: But this is not our culture – to talk about emotions. It is our custom to keep these things inside. Why should we teach our children something that is against our custom?

Teacher 2: But isn’t that the problem with our society? How many women do you know who have kept all their pain inside and never shared it with anyone or had a chance to relieve themselves of the pain? They are wasting away. This way, we can help them to find some comfort.

Teacher 3: Yes, and if we can teach the children how to do this from when they are young, imagine how much better our society will become – if people can express their emotions and themselves in a healthy way rather than resorting to violence.

Teacher 4: Yes, there is so much trauma in our country. We need to be able to teach our children and ourselves how to better cope with it.

EXCERPT FROM CLASSROOM OBSERVATION REPORT
During the six-week teacher training program, the teachers were notably stunned at the prospect that mathematics could be taught in such a way that students understand mathematical concepts and reasoning rather than just learning by rote and repetition. It was encouraging today to see the teachers using coloured sticks, blocks and even kidney beans in their classrooms to help students understand more deeply and to think for themselves. It was encouraging, too, to see the children engaged in the classroom and working co-operatively – another practice that is new in a system that promotes competition above all else.

INTERNATIONAL NEWS
A peaceful demonstration was attacked today. The high number of injuries and deaths overwhelmed the emergency system.

DIARY ENTRY
It was International Teachers’ Day last week. You’d think that that would have been a clue but I remained oblivious until I walked into the room. The teachers were all sitting around the table which was laden with all kinds of delightful food. They started to clap. I was still a little oblivious … “Teacher this is for you. We have all cooked this morning before work and have prepared a lunch for you to thank you for being our teacher”.

TEXT FROM SECURITY ADVISOR
We have received credible intelligence that a criminal network is operating in the area. They are seeking to kidnap foreign workers. Foreign nationals are urged to practise extreme caution.

EXCERPT FROM TRANSCRIPT OF TEACHER MENTORING SESSION
Me: It has been so wonderful to see your progress over these past months. At the beginning you didn’t seem so interested in bringing about change, but now you are such an inspirational practitioner of active-participatory teaching. What brought about the change?

Teacher: You encouraged me. No-one has ever encouraged me before.

INTERVIEW WITH SCHOOL PRINCIPAL
I didn’t really believe in this program before but now I see children actually reading. I hadn’t even realised that before they were just repeating what they had learnt by rote but now they are actually learning to read and even the parents have commented to us that they are really happy.

COMMENT FROM STUDENT FEEDBACK FORM
We have noticed that the teachers are much more kind to us and that we do lots of different activities, including group work.

TEXT FROM ONLINE PARENT FORUM
Dear teachers, I wanted to thank you for all your hard work. We can all see how hard you work and how much you care for our children. We have never seen any other school like this. Our children are happy and are learning. We thought we had to leave the country so that we could provide good education for our children. We are so happy that this is in our country.

MATTHEW 28:20
And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.

Jodi is a teacher-trainer. She is serving long-term in Central Asia.

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A lifetimes service

Education

It was 1940, wartime, and no one in their right mind was looking to take a ship across the Indian Ocean, but a young dressmaker was walking the streets of Melbourne looking for a merchant ship to take her to India.

Dora Barkla had been praying regularly for Sholapur, a girls’ home in Maharashtra. One night while praying and reading the passage “Take up your cross and follow me”, she heard a voice which clearly said, “India”. Timid, and with a low view of her own capacities, Dora wrestled with the implications. Her family was against the idea, but one by one her misgivings were overcome by the words of scripture and in January 1940 she was on her way.

Forty-two years later I met Dora capably managing a guesthouse in Mussoorie, North India. I should not have been surprised. This quiet, even genteel, woman had been running a girls’ home for decades. When we left India in 1995, I started to visit Dora in her retirement and gradually pieced together her remarkable story.

When Dora joined the Zenana Mission (now Interserve) in 1939, it had a long history of work in India with women in the separated sections (zenanas) of Hindu and Muslim households. It was an all-women mission, responding to the medical and educational needs of these women. Mission centred on “compounds”. After a famine in the early 1900s, female babies had been left outside the mission compound at Sholapur and the mission started to care for them.

Dora believed that she would be in India all of her life, so her first task was to learn Urdu, the local language, well enough to speak to the hearts of people. Her call was to evangelise local women. After a year of study and with the first of her three spoken Indian languages under her belt, she began her ministry of visiting local Muslim women. Some time later, she began work in the girls’ home. At a time in Australia when women rarely worked outside the home, Dora and her colleagues fixed roofs, removed snakes, kept accounts and liaised with local officials. The homesickness was ferocious in the early days and it was five years before she saw Australia again.

How do we measure the work of decades of care of girls in a home like Sholapur, with the yearly round of care and education; periodic epidemics of whooping cough, typhoid, mumps and measles; months of torrid heat and torrential monsoons; picnics, Christmas pageants and the weddings of the girls who were walked down the aisle by mission staff? Literally hundreds of babies grew into womanhood watched over proudly by a woman who would never be a mother herself but who gave her working life so that others may reach adulthood safely with a living faith to sustain them through life.

Dora’s time in India saw many changes. India became independent of Britain in 1947 and with independence came greater Indian control over mission activities. Gradually, foreign control gave way to Indian leadership, and in 1979 Dora handed over the home to her friend and colleague, Nancy Basaviah.

During her career Dora saw many other necessary changes in mission: children’s homes and zenana work were a response to a particular time and place and not a model that would be replicated today.

Dora’s was a life of great nobility, showing what the Lord can do through women with faith to follow Jesus into forgotten places. Till her last days, Dora prayed daily for the girls who passed through the home. There are to this day many women who owe their lives and their faith to Dora Barkla.

Dora’s story is shared by Barbara Deutschmann, a returned Interserve Partner who also served in India.

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Serving as a single

Education

I have been blessed with fruitful and rewarding work in theological education, which is very much needed in a church only founded after the fall of the Soviet Union. I often thank God for sending me to Central Asia. I came here as a single woman. It is quite a different challenge to move continents and serve across cultures as a single than as a family, but it also presents different opportunities. I’d like to share some of these.

The opportunities

Being single allows me to fit in easily in relationships with local families. It is often easier to host and relate to one person than a whole family.

A single woman can be a great encouragement to local believers. When I first arrived someone said, “You will be a great encouragement to the women pastors”. I had my doubts as I could not even speak the language. But now, praise God, it seems to be true, and local friends and colleagues, male and female, single and married, younger and older, are an encouragement to me as well.

A single woman can provide an example of a contented and worthwhile life in a culture where single women are often denigrated. They face pressure to be married, yet have difficulty finding a suitable Christian husband. Many women are divorced after unsuitable marriages (sometimes being “bride kidnapped”)¹. People think it is better to have been married and to have a child than to be single. Many young women have found a man to give them a child with no thought of marriage. Christian women have had to learn that this practice is not for them.

I have been blessed here with rich relationships with friends, younger and older, from many nationalities in our international fellowship. Children here, away from close family members, also benefit from a surrogate aunt or grandmother.

When you are single you have opportunity to rely on the Lord, perhaps in a different way to those who have the support of a spouse. Finding space for time with the Lord each morning is not always easy for women with children.

The challenges

You are not superwoman! Sometimes it is assumed that a single person has more time for ministry than married partners. So, we need to set boundaries. There is only one person (not two) to do what needs to be done, and many things take longer and are more complicated here. The danger that work can become all-consuming is not confined to single people. Rest and relaxation are important.

Living arrangements can be a problem. Many single people share happily together. I’m busy during the week and, being an introvert, I need time to recharge so I prefer to live alone. But I have a spare room for guests and I have a study where I often work with local colleagues. It was once suggested that single people only needed a one-bedroom apartment. Thankfully Interserve Australia supported me in my living arrangements, which are important for what I am doing here.

Loneliness can be more acute on arrival and Interserve has a great “buddy” system. I am glad to offer hospitality to new arrivals as I know how much help I needed. Although it takes time and energy, it can be mutually enriching.

Close friends leaving is always a loss and nourishing new friendships need to be developed. Sometimes people are tempted not to become involved with newcomers because you put time and energy into friendships and then people leave. Friendships are important to all of us, whether we are single or married.

Serving as a single woman presents many challenges and opportunities and I thank God for the privilege He has given me here.

Gwen has been working alongside the church in Central Asia for the past 13 years.

Names have been changed.

¹“Bride kidnapping” refers to a practice in which a man abducts the woman he wishes to marry. Though it is illegal, law enforcement remains lax in parts of Central Asia.

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Home at last

Education

Twelve-year-old Nisha* didn’t have a family … she had been abandoned, abused, moved from one shelter to another. Because of her mild intellectual disability, hearing loss and speech impediment, other homes were unwilling to take her in. And that is when she came to Mukti.

Three years on, Nisha has learned to trust her house mother and special needs teacher and make this her home. She is keen to learn and in this last school year has progressed through three whole academic years.

Nisha has made many friends and enthusiastically participates in home prayer times and as many activities as she can. At children’s activities on Sundays she learns more about her best friend. She even volunteered to do the reading at our whole school community’s morning devotions one day. You see, Nisha loves her Lord and can read the Word for herself. She has a song of praise and gratitude on her lips to her Lord that she was rescued that day three years ago from roaming aimlessly by a temple in the market place and brought to a home where people love her and show her His love. And she is not letting her mild disability stop her from reaching her God-given potential.

The homes at which I have been serving these two and a half years currently house 600 displaced women and children, most of whom have been abandoned, left destitute or disowned by their families. Sadly, there is a social and religious stigma attached to having a family member with a disability or physical deformity, generally caused by fear of curses and the unknown.

One of my team members has been caring for her special needs family of 24 children for 14 years. Mary’s* love for God shines through her loving, gentle and caring manner. She has most of the girls helping each other, with older and more able ones looking out for the younger and less able. Before dinner, as in all of our homes each evening, the family meets together to sing, read and pray – it is beautiful to hear them sing and worship Him from the heart. Their disabilities aren’t going to stop them from singing a joyful song. When people ask me how these children know Him, I say that God speaks to the heart. These children love so much from the heart.

Praisey* came here in need of a home when she was only 11 years old. She has cerebral palsy and had never been to school before. However, her slurred speech and restricted movement did not deter her from completing secondary school, so that now, at 24 years of age, she is in the second year of college. She aims to eventually teach in our new special school and so use her gifts for God’s glory.

While helping the girls in their family by scribing and translating their sponsorship letters, Praisey helped me with the letter for a little blind and autistic girl who always has a song of praise to sing. She said to me, “You should write to her sponsor that Swati* always sings songs for her God only”. That is Praisey’s heart cry – it is for her Lord. She is an encourager, always looking for the good in others.

There are many beautiful stories of change in this place, where lives are being impacted and empowered to be a blessing to others. Those who have had so little physically have hearts overflowing with gratitude and giving. I get to the end of each day so blessed and grateful. There are challenges aplenty but His mercies are new every morning, great is His faithfulness.

Ingrid serves with Mukti Mission in India. She previously worked in the Philippines for five years, helping to establish schools on the rubbish dumps and slums. Ingrid is qualified and experienced in teaching children with learning difficulties and developing vocational skills programs and will lead the development of the Special Needs School.

*Names have been changed.

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A bus ride to a world away

Education

A short ride in a local bus from the capital city brings you to a small town where you alight. It is not particularly cold (-10ºC) but you carefully
traverse the icy footpath and the frozen rutted road. Your first time here was a bit scary because the streets are not always labelled and the houses look similar but the instructions were helpful at the time. Now that you are familiar with the zigzag route through the maze of streets, you can enjoy the shards of ice in the puddles and the sunshine glinting in the icicles suspended from the roof edges and gutters.

You enter the house yard, pass through the outer door and kick off your shoes – fortunately there are no big guard dogs to worry about! You are a little early and the children are having their after-lunch sleep so you make yourself comfortable in the bare lounge room-cumclassroom.
Soon Alica* and Gulzat* join you and the tea and biscuits appear on the table. After the chit-chat, you open up your laptop, pass over the handouts and resources and the tutorial commences. An hour later the first of the children shyly pokes their head around the door and the training time is finished. You confirm times and dates, greet the children, farewell the ladies as they return to their charges and commence your journey home.

Alica and Gulzat are Christians who have set up a small kindergarten in their home. It is not glamorous work but it allows them to earn some money; it is also a ministry of the small church of which they are members. Because the government has been unable to provide kindergarten places, Christians are in a unique position to offer this ministry to their neighbours. Your role has been to provide theoretical and practical knowledge about young children’s development and academic learning to equip people like Alica and Gulzat to provide a quality service and develop a good reputation in the neighbourhood.

Not all the neighbours are in favour. Early on, an old lady up the street had been warning everyone “Watch out! Don’t send your kids there! They are Baptists!” (an old soviet term for nonconformists). Now she recommends the kindergarten to others! The faithful witness of Alica and Gulzat’s caring manner for the children in their little kindergarten has apparently impressed the parents and neighbours and the word is spreading.

The tutorial is for just an hour a week but, in a land where knowledge and experience is a valuable commodity, local people are keen to learn, especially when they have been inspired to become involved in an area that is new to them. In a culture where doing things out of the ordinary is unusual and where there is not much money to invest in new ventures, this can be a brave course of action.

As an Interserve Partner or On Tracker, your contribution may be small but it can provide much encouragement to local Christians as they endeavour to live out their calling in their world.

The authors served as Partners in Central Asia.

*Names have been changed.

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The gentle healer

Education

We met Joshua* 10 years ago when we first came to East Asia as Interserve Partners. He was a humble, gentle medical doctor and qualified counselor, who worked in our counselling company where we initially gave training and supervision. Joshua had always been highly
motivated to support people in dire need; his previous work was with AIDS victims. When we shared with him the wholistic Bible-based
counseling program that we use, he was very receptive to this approach to understanding and working with people.

Joshua has identified issues that are critical for promoting healthy individuals and communities in his country: issues such as grief, anxiety,
keys to healthy marriage, raising children, and domestic violence. His burden for the brokenness of so many local people, together with his robust faith and God’s love, led him to open his own counseling initiative and to plant a church. Edward continued for some years to supervise him. Joshua’s vision is to enable individuals, within community, to find healing and wholeness in Christ, and train those who desire to assist people on this journey. His humility, servant heart, deep faith, resourcefulness, teachability and his capacity to help others grow
leave a deep impression.

Opportunities for Joshua to train and influence others are expanding. Recently Joshua was asked to teach 480 school principals and deputies how to care for their students (just be kind!) rather than using fear as motivation for learning. He also teaches key government and women’s agency leaders in a prominent Muslim town. In an exciting development this year, the local radio station invited him to share on whatever topic he wished in prime time. Joshua now reaches more than 80,000 listeners. And while he shares on air, his church prays!

In the midst of all this, Joshua maintains a specific focus on training his own group of 12 counselors each year and has used our Bible-based
counseling program for 10 years now to care for people wholistically. His counselling trainees teach regular spots at a significant seminary that trains minority people, 700 km away. He is raising up others to lead home groups in his church by mentoring leaders and preachers. That initial church plant now has two daughter churches!

Joshua is truly a humble man of God with wisdom beyond his years, yet with humility and clarity of thought. His unusual passion for the rural poor and for training minority people, whom the nation’s church often overlooks, is outstanding. Joshua was delighted to share his story with you and asks for your prayers.

We are grateful for God’s goodness and how He meets us as we take small obedient steps into the unknown. We are especially thankful
for Joshua: his life, faith and passion for leading others into healing and wholeness. And we are thankful for how God has woven our lives
together in such a beautiful way over the past 10 years.

Edward and Inga* are counseling trainers in East Asia.
*Names have been changed.

—

Edward* is a GP and Inga* is a professional counselor. They seek to empower local believers to bring healing to broken hearts.

As a result of rapid social change, the heart needs in their country are massive. The national church is growing fast, but many believers carry deep inner wounds and the divorce rate is high. Wise pastors increasingly equest counseling training, wanting future church leaders to be more effectively equipped.

Having lived and worked in Asia for more than 10 years, Edward and Inga train local Christian counselors and church leaders. They use a certified framework that Asian Christians have found to be biblically robust, theologically and psychologically integrative, culturally sensitive, systematic and teachable. Students personally receive emotional and
psychological healing and they are equipped and empowered to bring healing to others.

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Go with God

Education, Arab World

My initial “call” came in response to human need. I had been a follower of Christ for about four years, with a commitment to sharing the good news, when I attended a missions conference. The speaker told of the desperate need for the gospel among Muslim nations. I felt convicted in my heart that I could and should be part of God’s wider purposes in this matter. I did some short-term trips to check out possibilities overseas (none of which ultimately eventuated!), and then signed up for Bible college. From then a combination of nudges from the Holy Spirit, doors opening providentially, perceiving an alignment of my spiritual gifts and personality with potential roles, and a deep desire to serve God and to invest my life in significant ways led me to cross-cultural service. The advice and encouragement of others was a key part in my journey. It was a very fluid and yet intentional process.

We served overseas with Interserve for more than 21 years in four countries. In a couple of them, we were forced to leave by government order, a rather strange form of divine guidance! Looking back, we can see the Lord’s hand in those events, although it was hard to discern at the time. Our ministries were and are based on our professions – teaching for me and medicine for my wife. We are now living in Australia, having returned to help our sons settle into what was for them a foreign land. I teach Islamic studies at the Melbourne School of Theology and am involved in outreach and training with CultureConnect.

It has been exciting to see God actively working in the things He has called us to. We have, by His grace, been able to establish a clear gospel witness to our Muslim neighbours and friends in the different places we have lived. There have been many opportunities to influence individuals, families and communities for His sake. Some people have come to faith, grown in their discipleship and are reaching out to others. It was encouraging to see our Interserve teams grow, with more people being mobilised for mission and more ways of mission being developed. Having returned to Australia, it is heartening that God has opened up unforeseen paths of ministry through teaching, writing and evangelism to local and international Muslims. God never gives up on people if they desire to be used for His kingdom.

As I considered what advice I would give my younger self starting out on this journey, my initial thought was, “Relax and go with the flow”. However, on reflection, if I had done too much of that, I would probably not have been asked to write this article! So my more considered thoughts would be, “Trust God, step out in faith, be courageous, take the opportunities, don’t die wondering”. Other advice might be: “It doesn’t all depend on you. Jesus said, ‘I will build my church’. Let God be God.” This might seem contradictory, but I have discovered that there is a dynamic relationship between God and us which is described as “co-workers”. He takes our contribution seriously without needing to depend on it. Staying connected with God is the best way for that to happen, so that the glory goes to Him.

Dr Bernie Power lectures in Islamic Studies at Melbourne School of Theology and serves with CultureConnect. His first book, Understanding Jesus and Muhammad, was just published.

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