Journeying in Yellow, Red & Blue!

It is now three months since this white man took leave of his past vocation as a pastor in the Vietnamese Church. It would be misleading to suggest that I have left that part of my life completely behind for I am still dealing with the residues that place has left on me. Nevertheless I am proud of all my scars and I bear them gladly as a testimony to God's greatness and my smallness.

Since then I have been refreshed, revitalised and renewed by God through serving Him in my new vocation as Children & Family's pastor at The Salvation Army Camberwell. Back amongst my spiritual family in the church of my ancestors - a church, a movement that I am joyfully discovering has shaped and defined who I am in so many ways over my lifetime, even though I wasn't even conscious of it's far-reach into my inner-self. So not only have I been acquainting myself with my new position ministry-wise but I have also been journeying on a path of exploration into my Army roots.

Last Sunday I did my part in door-knocking for the Salvation Army Red Shield Appeal, the first time I have participated in this annual event for perhaps 15 years or so. As I said to the area leader who requested my services to assist him in his team, "it's pretty hard to say no to doing the door-knock when you've avoided it for over a decade!" So off I went with plastic bag in hand and my dad's Salvo jacket on to proudly proclaim the presence of the Red Shield and what that means in our community. I must admit that I did muse to myself along the way that there would be no way I could have collected the donations I did in that two hours of volunteering if I was representing my last place of employment! So again it struck me just how respected a movement the Salvation Army is...and here I am, so proudly and strongly affiliated to it. I'm not sure I ever felt that sense of pride in my home church as I grew up in it and I certainly don't ever remember actually taking a sense of pleasure in Red Shield door-knocking before! So being back in the Salvos must be doing me some good inside I think...I know...

The actual role that I am fulfilling at Camberwell is also progressing well. In some ways, as I have reflected with a few members of the senior leadership there, my role is a bit of a fusion of the two main ministry areas that has generally kept me busy over the past 18 years of my life work-wise. Because my role is a little bi-polar in nature; on one hand I am primarily responsible for the children's ministries which draws upon my church-based experience. On the other hand I am also serving to meet the needs of the community in Ashburton, particularly in the government-housing community demographic there. So this area draws on all my years of doing outreach to the disadvantaged in the welfare sector. What does all of that mean for me right now? I guess it tells me that at this point of time I'm positioned in the right place to be of best use to God. With all of the experience and skill-base I've accumulated in those areas of church and community outreach then I reckon that God has me right where He wants me doing what He wants me to be doing! So for today that's good enough for me...Where the journey goes tomorrow? Well wherever that leads I'll walk that path then...

But for now I just thank God for the provision and care that He graciously gives me and my family. It has been such a great blessing to literally return 'home' to the place I grew up in at Camberwell. My yellow, red and blue journey is my deep joy and I know the journey-Maker has only more good by-ways to discover!