August 2018 will go down in Shannon Tucker history as the
most people filled, event filled and travel filled month of my life. For this
introvert it was overwhelming at times and yet quite enjoyable. So much
happened that I cannot share only a few stories or use just one blog to do
justice to all God has shown me, shared with me and taught me. So sit back and
enjoy Part 1 of Life is a Journey!
As we landed in London at 6 am I was happy to see the sun
shining. We had a great flight and would have landed about 30 minutes early, but
London has an ordinance that says planes cannot land before 6 am. I got a
little concerned for my stomach as we zigzagged and did some other route
changes, but it was not too bad and it was interesting seeing other planes in
the sky doing similar things while we all waited. After landing, we rolled up to
the gate and I noticed that I had an incredible view of planes landing in 2
lines, as one on the right got close to touching down, another would break
through the clouds and the same on the left, with those staggering the ones on
the right. I had the perfect window seat to view all this happening and it was
fascinating to see the precision of so many planes landing in such a short
time.
Upon exiting the airport, I was greeted with a beautiful day
full of warmth and sunshine. I was in England and the country side was green
with rolling hills that somehow reminded me of Southern Indiana. I knew it had
only been 4 months since I left America this time, but a change of scenery like
this was filling my soul in ways I definitely needed. At that point I did not
realize how much more my soul would be filled over the next 4 days of meetings.
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| Highleigh Conference Centre |
I was heading north of London to a conference center for our
CMF Forum 2018. Indy office staff and CMF missionaries from all over the world
would be there and many people had worked long and hard putting together this
conference for us. I had met many CMF missionaries for the first time, the
previous summer while I was home on furlough, when we gathered in Indianapolis
for Furlough Retreat. At that time, they all encouraged me to attend the Forum.
At first it was really hard to get excited about choosing to go to 4 more days
of meetings. However, after a week together with those missionaries at Furlough
Retreat (debriefing, sharing, learning, talking, worshipping, singing, praying,
playing and so much more), I could not imagine missing an opportunity to be
with them again and to meet so many
others.
CMF Forum 2018 did not disappoint, from the topics discussed
in main sessions, to the worship and devotions, to the fellowship and fun with
missionaries and office staff. I want to thank everyone involved in making it
happen. I learned so much and still have so much to process from our time
together, hence I have decided Part 1 of this blog will be dedicated to my time
at the Forum. At this point those of you not really interested are welcome to
stop reading (as our ministry team says this is the Melba version, feel free to
read no further). For those who continue , I hope you enjoy a snapshot of what
I learned and experienced. I am happy to answer any questions, or discuss a
topic in more depth than I will be able to do here. Also I apologize to our
leaders, if I misunderstood or misrepresent anything here, from what you
shared/taught us.
Worship Time
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| Playing croquet in England |
Our group consisted of over 120 adults and children who
gathered at the Highleigh Conference Centre, in Hoddesdon, England. There were
beautiful old buildings, mixed with the new and their grounds were gorgeous,
with plenty of room for everyone (we were not the only group there that week).
There was a park nearby, a field we could walk through with cows (I was hoping
for sheep, but cows still made me smile). I played croquet (check that off the
bucket list) with my teammate, walked to town and shopped, drank British tea (when
I went to buy some, the label said…made from the finest tea leaves in Kenya J).
We had morning liturgical prayer time together by the “big
log” (it really was a very large old log/fallen tree). Worship time was led by
very creative MK’s (missionary kids). The room where we met had great acoustics
and our voices mixed well with a ukulele and what I assumed was a new-fangled
beat box type of drum. It was not until the last day that it was mentioned he
was actually playing the rubbish bin and I looked and saw that he really had
been playing the rubbish bin (trash can). MK’s are the best!
In devotions we discussed where is home and how to find home
in our churches, scarcity and abundance and that where we start with our faith
foundation makes a difference. We had a corporate worship service one evening with
songs, scripture readings, liturgical readings and prayer.
Relationships
Our main sessions were focused on Relationships: with God,
self, team, and national partners.
God:
In this session we learned about different types of
spirituality and different ways that we worship. There were six main categories
we discussed and most people are a mixture, with a somewhat predominate type. I
am an “Affective” type of worshiper. A few of the characteristics of that type
are that feelings, emotions, and values bring connection for me. I need to feel
I am cared for and experience God’s love and be able to share it. As I write
this I am realizing it more and more. When I just reread the above section
about worship, I got all the feels again. I remembered the child climbing on
the big log as we spoke scripture and prayed together, the trash can (appropriate
technology) used as a drum, the voices all mixing so beautifully in the building
where we had our meetings, being in meetings, yet having so much time to be
outdoors and interacting with God’s people and His Creation (more on that a bit
later).
As we learned about all the categories and thought about our dominant types, we probably all realized that there are bits of the other types that help us worship and a few that are
definitely not what fill us up in worship. At this point, we were cautioned to
learn about our type, but to be open to other types of spirituality and to
realize every person is different and certain parts of corporate worship will
appeal to each person differently. We need to be flexible for the other styles
and the fact that we have (and now know) our dominant style does not give us a
“pass” from worshipping corporately within the other styles. Be careful to not
be “so delicately balanced” that you cannot enjoy worshipping God in new and
different ways. However, if you need filled up, think about your style and do
something to help fill that area.
Self:
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| A field of English cows |
The relationship to self, started with a bit of an
introduction about how CMF has changed to a more holistic view of missionary
care. Now everyone in the office is considered to be involved in our care. This
makes sense as even our financial health with CMF and relationship with donors
is very important to our personal health and health of our ministries. I have
been impressed with the changes taking place in CMF and was happy to meet the
new coordinator for our Care Team and to hear about these changes.
A few key statements from this section:
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Self-care is not self-centeredness, it’s not “me
first”, it’s “me too”
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How you treat the “body” (individual), affects
the “body” (family, team, community)
-
Some questions to use for regular self-check
in’s:
o
What joys have I not celebrated?
o
What losses have I not grieved?
o
What fears am I afraid to explore?
o
What anger am I holding on to?
o
What are my values and how have I lived them
out?
o
What is my motivation? How is it serving me?
Others?
-
Think about the 4 areas (mind, body, soul,
relational): How full is each area? Which are most satisfying? Why? Which are
empty? Why?
-
We were also introduced to enneagrams and
encouraged to take the test and learn more about our number classification. It
is more than just another personality test and will help with self-discovery
and identifying motivations. I did a small test and plan to read more about
these classifications, especially the areas that are weaknesses for me.
-
! Kings 19:4-8 the angel telling Elijah “Get up
and eat, for the journey is too much for you.” After eating and drinking he was
strengthened and traveled 40 days and 40 nights.
This was a really good session and another key point is that
we often cannot separate team time and me time without the team speaking into
it. Things we do in our personal lives often affect the team and the ministry. Food
for thought, that can be a bit tough to swallow.
Team:
We discussed how to be an ideal team player. An ideal team
player should be a mixture of 1) Humble, 2) Hungry, and 3) Smart. I would guess
that few of us are ideal. By identifying our strong areas and weak
areas we can grow into an area so we are a better mix of those 3 attributes and
become better team players. We all took the simple test to check where we are
now and discussed our strengths and weaknesses (more information can be found
at
www.tablegroup.com).
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| My teammates at Forum |
Statements to ponder “What we really do as we do it is more
important than what we do.”
Or “How we go about
doing the things we do, is more important than the task itself.”
And “Life is a
journey to be experienced, not a problem to be solved.” Winnie the Pooh
So, that last one was not shared at the meeting, but it
speaks to me.
National Partners:
Our relationships with nationals/partners was discussed with
reference to 2 books “Building Strategic Relationships: a Practical Guide to
Partnering with Non-Western Missions” by Daniel Rickett and “Western Christians
in Global Mission: What’s the Role of the North American Church?” by Paul
Borthwick.
Partnerships have 3 main areas 1) Results, 2) Relationships
(moving from transactional to kinship) and 3) a shared Vision. There is a
healthy dependency that involves reciprocity where both partners respect each
other and work together, yet maintain independence. Both partners can correct
and instruct and refuse those things from each other. Both partners bring
something to the partnership. Lastly both work to safeguard the integrity and
honor of Christ.
On paper that all seems straight forward and manageable.
However, I can tell you in real life it is not easy. Please pray for my team,
and our national partners, as we continue to work through the tough parts of
our partnership relationship.
Workshops
Creation Care:
In 2012 the Lausanne Global Consultation on Creation Care
and the Gospel was published.
They put forth 2 major convictions:
1)
Creation Care is indeed a “gospel issue within
the lordship of Christ.”….. Therefore, our ministry of reconciliation is a
matter of great joy and hope and we
would care for creation, even if it were not in crisis.
2)
We are faced with a crisis that is pressing,
urgent, and that must be resolved in our generation…….Love for God, our
neighbors and the wider creation, as well as our passion for justice, compel us
to “urgent and prophetic ecological responsibility."
I have only included a small part of those convictions above
to give you an idea of what Creation care is about. This is something I have
been involved with through CHE and using veterinary medicine and public health in
missions, although, I have never called it Creation Care. For my thinking it
again goes back to a holistic way to teach and live, that includes respect for
God’s creation and living in Harmony with God, self, others, and nature.
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| Sunny view from my window |
We were presented with a lot of information and Biblical
truths about our responsibility to God’s creation. Then we looked at the 10
points under the call to action. We were challenged to think about how our
teams were already doing some of these steps well, the areas we wanted to do, some
that seemed impossible that we would pray about, and lastly the areas that the
church should be doing. It was really interesting to discuss this as a group
and to hear the reports from other teams about things they were already doing
in their ministry areas.
Disciple Making Movements:
DMM is already being used by some of my teammates working
across Kenya and they are seeing many come to Christ through this type of
teaching. It uses Discovery Bible Studies to let people who may or may not know
anything about Christianity read the Bible and asks questions that help them
discover what the scriptures are saying. That is a very watered down version,
but much of it is like CHE, the hardest part is asking questions that may or
may not get answered the way we would like or would hope they would be answered
and then often keeping our mouths shut to let the person learning find the
truth in what is being taught. It can be tough, but it was great to hear the
reports from my teammate and others in different fields about how they are
using these methods to reach many with the Gospel good news.
During the workshop times, there were concurrent sessions,
and the two that I did not attend were on homeschooling and business as
missions.
Networking,
Fellowship, Meals, Conversations, and Games
These times together with individuals and groups were some
of my favorite. I got to reconnect with so many that I met last year in the US
and meet so many new people. Sometimes it was a conversation over a meal, a quiet
moment at a break, a walk through the field with the cows, walks to town, tea
breaks, coffee breaks, learning new things about each other as we played games together
(shout out to those Mossome sisters!!)
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| On a walk to town for some talking and shopping |
It was a lot of people time and as an introvert I did take
time alone each day to recharge, but I also embraced the peopleness of this
Forum, knowing there would come a point where I was craving people again, the
white skinned variety, that I could talk with in fast, southern Indiana English.
It was a time of being with people who could “get me” and “get the things” with
which I struggle. We can somewhat relate to each other, even if the specific situations
are different. I still laugh when I think of the missionary who looked at me
like I had 2 heads when I was reasoning out loud that I could safely sleep with
my windows open since there were no mosquitoes
(hence no worries about malaria) and no monkeys (they come into houses
in Kenya and steal food, and I had just done some important chocolate and
Dorito shopping).
Security
What can I say, other than it is good to be aware, be
informed and it is fun to say OODA LOOP! I am thankful that CMF staff have done
trainings and shared what they learned with us at this meeting. Some people
live where things are not always secure and war is very close. I am thankful
that I serve where it is generally peaceful, but that does not mean I should
not be aware and think through these things.
Key points were to pay attention, don’t ignore your
intuition and be situationally aware, along with some other more specific
things to help make you less of a target. To help mitigate a potential attack
use the OODA LOOP. O- observe O- orient D-decide A- act.
Sharing What We
Learned
In the last session we all had a chance to share what we learned.
While CMF also sent out an email survey after the Forum, it was really nice to have
this session and to hear the varied answers from so many participants. The
thing I took away from this is how different we all were. How certain things
resonated with others that seemed to not even stay in my brain very long and
what was important to me, maybe was not as important to others.
If we all knew, liked, excelled at the same thing, we would have a rather lopsided group. The body of Christ takes all of us with our different strengths and weaknesses, different personalities (Myers Briggs and enneagrams), and so much more to make it all work. It is a good an glorious thing that we are not all alike,
even though it is often our differences that drive us crazy when working
together on teams. God loves us all and he loves the unique people he made us
to be. Yes he made us all in His image, yet we are unique. What a great,
wonderful God we serve and I am so thankful that I am serving Him with other
missionaries through CMF.
