Thinking about coming home this summer fills me with lots of joy and excitement, yet home assignment can still be a daunting time. Home assignment is a wonderful privilege; It’s designed to be a time to recharge, reconnect, renew, refresh. Both the sending-Mission and the sending-Church have parts to play. However, home assignment is not a holiday and to be honest, every home assignment differs from the one before. Soon my happy thoughts dull, as fear of working out an itinerary of where we’ll speak and what we will share has taken over, and I’m a bundle of nerves.
At times like this, I open my Bible and read Psalm 57, a prayer from David when he was threatened by his enemies and his fears. In relation to home assignment I fear how I’ll fit in. After 14 years I’ve Nigerianised a little – I’ve had to learn how to say things differently, wear different clothes, adjust to a different life – but will the names still match the many faces I’ll meet and see at home? Will I be able to communicate the key issues of my life and work in Nigeria? Often I am fearful about my own heart; just how weak, cold and faithless it is at times. I’m sure you’ll agree though, that each one of us can be thankful that it’s God that keeps us; He prompts and leads and holds us fast. As the Ball Brothers sang, He keeps ‘my feet on the rock and my eyes on the truth’.
In Psalm 57 we have a prayer for God’s merciful help; the Psalmist goes on to express personal confidence in God – ‘God fulfils His purpose for me’. God sends his love and his faithfulness. I can rest in God’s sovereignty knowing it’s He who enables me to do what seems too much to me. Verse 6 offers praise, praise and more praise for God’s saving help – David had such confidence and total assurance in His Lord. Joyfulness is expressed in verse 8. In verses 9-10 we have the vow to praise:
“I will praise you, O Lord, among the nations; I will sing of you among the peoples. For great is your love, reaching to the heavens; your faithfulness reaches to the skies.”
In verses 5 and 11, we have a repeated refrain of such deep heart-felt praise, sung to the honour and glory of God.
We, as a family, return home in June with our confidence in God’s love and faithfulness. We are praying the Lord will give us opportunities to share in a balanced way about our work and witness in Nigeria; that we’ll know the Lord’s leading at each meeting as we share what He want us to share; that we’ll be an encouragement to our supporters and even be able to forge new links to help in building up the necessary prayer and practical support that is needed; that we’ll use our time wisely and still know the Lord’s refreshing touch in our lives, physically and spiritually; that we’ll be able to communicate clearly what are the current needs in mission (Oh, how we need more hands and helpers!)
As you pray for us on home assignment, we pray for you, the reader; that you’ll hear the Lord speak, challenge and call; that you’ll be prompted to get even more involved. So let’s pray together, that the Lord will give each of us that steadfastness of heart, grounded and rooted in Him. Let’s pray that by His Spirit more prayer is generated, more financial support is given, and that more labourers are raised to go and participate in the extension of His kingdom, for His glory and honour.
