Inspire me

Rowena Russell is a wife and mum who attends North Rocks Anglican Church. She writes about her way of caring for CMS missionary Sally Swan who ministers with husband Tim in Santiago, Chile.

Sally and I both have Skype on our computers, so we can make free calls to each other whenever we like. When I have Skype open and I see Sally online, and if all the kids are in bed, I send Sally a message saying, “Let’s have coffee! Let’s have coffee!” Often she will reply, “Are you crazy? I have school drop off in 15 minutes!” “School drop off? But it’s 10pm at night here – now’s a great time to talk!” “Okay,” she says, “Call me in an hour.”

So I put my kettle on, she puts her kettle on, and then we come back and call each other. If we get a good internet connection we can see each other while we talk. Other times, when the connection is bad on her side, we just talk to each other. If we have something really important to say, we say, “OK wait, wait, wait! Turn the camera on now”, so we can actually see each other’s faces when we have a really scary-bad or amazing story to tell.

So we have coffee over our computers. It’s lovely to speak to Sally personally and to hear what’s going on. There is a different level of intimacy in a private conversation – there are things Sally wants to tell me personally rather than through a prayer letter she sends out. Skype chats help me to feel close to Sally. Even though she is a million miles away in Chile, I still know where she is at and I can still pray for her. She is the one I have coffee with the most even over all my friends who are here in Australia.

Skype is an online application that allows you to make free calls over the internet to people all over the world. Why not email your link missionary to see if they use Skype, and start catching up with them over long-distance coffees?

Michael Santos is a CMS member from St Alban’s Anglican MBM in Rooty Hill, and his last birthday party had a great twist: it doubled as a support-raising event for his link missionary.

Michael set up an event on Facebook and invited people to come along to celebrate his birthday – on the condition that they didn’t give him any presents. “No presents are allowed!” read the invitation. “Instead, donations can be made to a missionary friend of mine who is living overseas with his family, preaching and teaching the gospel (churchy stuff).”

Michael’s birthday party didn’t just feature dancing, mingling, and lots of good food. It was also an opportunity for Michael’s friends to get to know his link missionary, who was ‘invited’ to the party via video link-up. And Michael didn’t stop at donating the money that would have been spent on his birthday presents to CMS. He also asked his friends to bring along items to auction off at the party, with all the proceeds going straight to supporting global mission.

So next time you celebrate your birthday or host a BBQ or dinner party, take a leaf out of Michael’s book and make it a really special event!