18th May, 2006

DEB MACKIE

At the beginning of this year, my family returned from a short-term mission trip to Singaraja, northern Bali. Our role for six months was mainly centred around tutoring English and computers to 36 children at the Lion King Orphanage, Singaraja. With two primary school children of our own, my husband and I for once really “stepped out of the boat” , set up home in a district of northern Bali quite alien to our comfortable, loveable Australia and took on the home-schooling of our children. Our job involved setting up a classroom at the orphanage with computers and a library, and basically putting together learning programs appropriate for tutoring children from primary school age through to university students.

So why am I writing this, some may already be asking? It’s not the first time and it’s not the last time that a family should do this, after all. Our hope is that others will be inspired to ‘step out of the boat’ also when prompted. I’m the first to admit it was a bit scary initially but then so was the Big Dipper at Luna Park when I was five years old and I wouldn’t have missed it for the world - I loved it especially because my father was proudly sitting beside me with his arm around me for the ride. Boy, we had a buzz! I remember it so well. I can look at it now and see that our Bali experience was like that of the Big Dipper and, even though my Dad wasn’t sitting beside me this time, we knew that our Father in Heaven was surely sitting next to us on the ride with His arm tightly around us.

Neither myself nor my husband are qualified teachers. God just plucked us out as a family package, each one of us having unique gifts, strengths and weaknesses in which He could use us in that place at that time. If He’d wanted teachers He would have found them, but obviously it wasn’t just an education program for the kids He had in mind. It was God’s plan and not man’s.

Maybe we’ll never really know what His real motives were for sending us, but one thing I know is that He taught us a new level of trust, faith, servanthood, perseverance and, above all, love. We had the privilege of already knowing the children at the orphanage from previous visiting the previous year and we had fallen in love with them very easily. But spending each day for six months with them brought the orphans and our family to a totally new level of love. They weren’t just cute anymore. As time went by, we went through the full gamut of parental emotions for these children. Things like still loving and encouraging when you know a child is not motivated to study and reach the potentials that you can see God has for them; crying and laughing with them; understanding our cultural differences and understanding that some days it’s better to go for a walk with one or two children rather than putting big ‘task-orientated’ expectations on them. I could go on, but I look back and see God just as much or sometimes more in the things that weren’t task-orientated than the seemingly structured times. It became very clear to us that it was important that the orphans knew without a doubt that they were loved no matter what (which actually was very easy anyway!).

Likewise, I can personally look back on my life and see that I too was more inspired by people who accepted me for who I am and encouraged me even in my weaknesses. I thrived on the encouragements and drew much strength and love from knowing I was unconditionally loved. Don’t let “I can’t” or “I’m not qualified to do something” be your stumbling block through life. We serve a big God who can and will do anything through anyone - or any donkey. In faith, let Him use you and mould you to be the person He created you to be, not who we think we should be. Allow yourself to be used by Him to fulfil His plan and purpose on earth as it is in heaven. (Phillipians 4:13 - I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.)

This is just a tiny snippet of the many reflections I’ve personally had and the thoughts I’ve shared with my husband and my children since returning home. We’ll never forget the blessing and privilege it was to serve God in such a unique way and the love and support from our own family, church family, friends and of course Lion King Orphanage family. But boy, it’s hard saying goodbye to 36 orphans! We tried to just say instead “Sampai nanti” which translates as “See you later”. From a mother’s heart, the first day my children went back to school was very tearful. I felt like the sheepdog in the movie Babe who had all her puppies taken away from her! Progressively down from 36 children to 2 and then nothing was a just tad bit emotional! It’s hard for mums not to mother. But even though the ‘afterwards’ can be a bit tough and teary, it’s still worth the Big Dipper ride. I wouldn’t miss it for anything, especially with our Dad sitting beside me!

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