Winter 2006 - The Penultimate Orientation

ChinaJim

Having met all of our OMF clearances, we headed out to the IHQ in Singapore for an orientation course (OC). We gathered with forty other adults and their children for a three and a half week course. Singapore is a really easy place for us Brits to get used to. They drive on the left, speak English and shop in Marks & Spencers. IHQ is pretty plush too, opposite the Singapore Botanical Gardens.

Part of the joy of OC is getting to know so many other people from all over the world whom God has been calling to service in East Asia. We had a lot of fun playing volleyball and board games, as well as exploring Singapore attractions like the beaches at Sentosa. I enjoyed telling the Australians and Americans that OMF Scotland had advised us to take handguns to our field country. They all swallowed this unquestioningly! It’s not true, in case you’re wondering – we go armed only with the gospel.

The OC classes covered a wide range of topics. Many topics were OMF specific, such as security issues. We are going to a Creative Access Nation (CAN) where traditional missionaries are not allowed, so we must be careful what we say. Other topics were more general, about adjusting to life overseas. We all gave our testimonies and shared about our home cultures. We taught some Scottish ceilidh dancing. Another aspect of OC was meeting the International Directors and sharing fellowship in their homes.

Most folks on our OC were going straight on to their field country but we returned to the UK as we have another field-specific orientation to undergo in six weeks time. Until then we’ll be busy packing up our home, saying goodbye to our friends and families, and having our commissioning services. Will we ever get to our destination…?

ChinaJane

Singapore was a very special place to be. All 42 of us (plus children, childcare helpers and regular OMF residents) were staying on-site at OMF International Headquarters. Surprisingly, it wasn’t a tight squeeze or a test of graciousness to be living so closely together. It was a joy and a great encouragement. We could see first-hand the great love that spouses of many different cultures had for each other, and the amount of time people set aside to just be alone with God. It was a great relief to talk to others about the strains of deputation and discover that we weren’t the only ones who’d struggled spiritually. So we all resolved to dig deep into God’s word and God’s work in prayer. And by God’s grace, we did. It’s much easier to go and spend an hour in prayer when you’ve just seen your new friends do the same. It’s also easier when you’re away from home and have less little things to distract you.

I was really impressed by the graciousness and friendliness of the OMF directors. I had thought that they would be too busy and too important to spend much time with ordinary little workers like us, especially when we’re only in Singapore for a month. But they see things entirely differently. They see us as their colleagues, their partners ‘on the ground’ in our countries of service. They want to get to know us well so that it’s easy to communicate with us in the years to come. They also recognise that some of us may end up as their colleagues at IHQ. It’s worth their while being nice to us! What they maybe didn’t realise, though, was that as they shared their testimonies, played volleyball with us and invited us to their homes, we learned to have confidence in them as men and women of God, who we can trust to lead OMF according to God’s plans and direction.