It is a long time since I posted anything here on my blog ... It is not that my life was on hold - in fact just the opposite! Anyway, I was recently asked to write an article for a mobilizing/recruitment magazine on the aforementioned theme. Which gives me the opportunity to 'seize the day', break the article down into four sections and post it on my blog ... So there will be a little more activity over the next few days.
Of course if, reading this, you want to step out and engage with what WEC is seeking to do in the world today then either check out the website (www.wec-int.org.uk) or post a comment and I'll get back to you!
Our first steps into overseas Christian work started with a short-term posting for two years in Senegal, West Africa. I was recently married, no kids, just graduated and looking for adventure ... Now, 20 years later, I'm still very happily married, with four kids/young adults, still learning and still looking for adventure!
Part 1 - Arriving!
Carpe diem: seize the day
‘Now would be a good time to pray that we arrive safely!’ were our pilot’s words as the tropical storm blew our six-seat Cessna out across the Atlantic Ocean.
That wasn’t all we were praying as my wife and I attempted to live long enough to start a two-year stint of missionary service. We also tried, ‘O God, why did you bring us out here to die?’
We didn’t get a clear answer to this second prayer but thankfully we received a call from the air traffic control who had 'found a hole' through the storm and the pilot was able to land safely.
Having arrived at our new homes wet, hot and frantically processing the new sights and sounds and smells – no orientation can prepare you – we gratefully went to bed. We tucked in mosquito nets and settled our heads on pillows that smelt damp in a way that only pillows that have done time in sub-Saharan Africa can smell. Exhausted and relieved to be alive, we drifted to sleep.
Until we heard the shooting. Raised in rural Somerset, I had not been regularly exposed to a great deal of small-arms fire, so I’m not sure how I came to that conclusion, but then I heard it again: ka-ka-ka-ka. Still barely awake, I tried to leap out of bed, only to rediscover the mosquito net. My wife and I groggily struggled together for a while, and gave up. If this was our time to go, why fight?
Then we heard the words of the Imam calling local people to the five-o’clock prayers, using an old PA system that suffered from crackly, gunfire-like static. So this was our introduction to short-term mission.
- Press on!
Follow me on twitter @johnbagg
Of course if, reading this, you want to step out and engage with what WEC is seeking to do in the world today then either check out the website (www.wec-int.org.uk) or post a comment and I'll get back to you!
Our first steps into overseas Christian work started with a short-term posting for two years in Senegal, West Africa. I was recently married, no kids, just graduated and looking for adventure ... Now, 20 years later, I'm still very happily married, with four kids/young adults, still learning and still looking for adventure!
Part 1 - Arriving!
Carpe diem: seize the day
‘Now would be a good time to pray that we arrive safely!’ were our pilot’s words as the tropical storm blew our six-seat Cessna out across the Atlantic Ocean.
That wasn’t all we were praying as my wife and I attempted to live long enough to start a two-year stint of missionary service. We also tried, ‘O God, why did you bring us out here to die?’
We didn’t get a clear answer to this second prayer but thankfully we received a call from the air traffic control who had 'found a hole' through the storm and the pilot was able to land safely.
Having arrived at our new homes wet, hot and frantically processing the new sights and sounds and smells – no orientation can prepare you – we gratefully went to bed. We tucked in mosquito nets and settled our heads on pillows that smelt damp in a way that only pillows that have done time in sub-Saharan Africa can smell. Exhausted and relieved to be alive, we drifted to sleep.
Until we heard the shooting. Raised in rural Somerset, I had not been regularly exposed to a great deal of small-arms fire, so I’m not sure how I came to that conclusion, but then I heard it again: ka-ka-ka-ka. Still barely awake, I tried to leap out of bed, only to rediscover the mosquito net. My wife and I groggily struggled together for a while, and gave up. If this was our time to go, why fight?
Then we heard the words of the Imam calling local people to the five-o’clock prayers, using an old PA system that suffered from crackly, gunfire-like static. So this was our introduction to short-term mission.
- Press on!
Follow me on twitter @johnbagg
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