We are moving to Romania from April 2015 - Jan 2016...
(If this is brand new information to you, you can catch up by reading a few of the blog posts below)
We have prayed about this a lot, and I mean a lot, nearly as much as we prayed about getting married! And you know what? We got the same response from God; "you can choose to do this and I will be with you. You can choose not to do this and I will be with you"
There has been an uncanny sense of peace around this whole situation, a peace that neither of us really expected to feel. I mean, we are leaving our jobs, packing up our home (probably putting most of it into storage) and moving to a third-world country for 9 months - logically it sounds crazy!! What I think really helped us with this decision though was when our motives were re-aligned. In the end it is not about Shell getting experience working with victims of human trafficking, it is not about her helping to establish a shelter so that she can bring home knowledge and skills relating to that either.
It is just about serving God.
Yes we have hopes, we have dreams, we have things that we would love to come back home to Melbourne and say that we have learned. None of that is why we are going though, the only reason we are going is because we want to give of ourselves to help further God's Kingdom and our passion is for this specific issue of injustice, sex slavery and exploitation. It makes sense that we will be volunteering in fields we are both passionate in; Shell with anti-human trafficking, myself with education and it will be exciting to combine those two to hopefully develop some preventative human trafficking programs that could be used in schools.
We are slowly seeing more of the big picture as we are discussing the practicalities with Leanne. We will fly out in mid-April 2015 so that we can attend a conference in Bucharest that the European Freedom Network are running. Shell will be working with Leanne as Abolishion establishes a shelter for trafficking women. Tim will be helping the Caleb Foundation establish a school in a Roma village, developing curriculum and learning aims for the Roma children so that they will be able to integrate better into the Romania government school education system.
As part of our own personal journey of faith/life over the past few years we have felt a bit out of place in what seems to be a materialistic/self-centered nature of our western culture, even within 'christian western culture'. We want to be deliberately and consciously following Jesus and the way he showed us how to live. The more and more we explore different options of church, faith and living, the more and more we find ourselves focusing on communal alternatives that embody a Kingdom perspective. Shell had a feeling whilst in Romania last year that this was somewhere that could teach us a lot about living in community (perhaps it was the communist sentiments still lingering). And whilst this is definitely not why we are choosing to move, there is some small hope that we will see a different side of life, a different way of living simpler and together that we can maybe transfer to life in Melbourne when we return. I suppose that may be a reasonable by-product of any new experience; we learn from it and if it is good and beneficial we try to adapt it into our per-existing situation.
So here starts the countdown...so much to do, so much to plan, so many Romanian language lessons to be had, so many conversations with God to be continually held. Our families have told us that we need to ask for donations and fund raise which is probably true - though its probably the aspect of this we will hate the most. We have had a couple more Skype conversations with Leanne and I'm sure there will be many more as she helps us in all our preparations. Anthony and Cherith Wilson, who Shell went to Europe with last year for Abolishion, are also going to stay with Leanne for 3 months this year and they will help us with some weekly budgeting items.
Feel free to let us know your thoughts, keep us in your prayers or even just start a conversation
Tim :)
(If this is brand new information to you, you can catch up by reading a few of the blog posts below)
We have prayed about this a lot, and I mean a lot, nearly as much as we prayed about getting married! And you know what? We got the same response from God; "you can choose to do this and I will be with you. You can choose not to do this and I will be with you"
There has been an uncanny sense of peace around this whole situation, a peace that neither of us really expected to feel. I mean, we are leaving our jobs, packing up our home (probably putting most of it into storage) and moving to a third-world country for 9 months - logically it sounds crazy!! What I think really helped us with this decision though was when our motives were re-aligned. In the end it is not about Shell getting experience working with victims of human trafficking, it is not about her helping to establish a shelter so that she can bring home knowledge and skills relating to that either.
It is just about serving God.
Yes we have hopes, we have dreams, we have things that we would love to come back home to Melbourne and say that we have learned. None of that is why we are going though, the only reason we are going is because we want to give of ourselves to help further God's Kingdom and our passion is for this specific issue of injustice, sex slavery and exploitation. It makes sense that we will be volunteering in fields we are both passionate in; Shell with anti-human trafficking, myself with education and it will be exciting to combine those two to hopefully develop some preventative human trafficking programs that could be used in schools.
We are slowly seeing more of the big picture as we are discussing the practicalities with Leanne. We will fly out in mid-April 2015 so that we can attend a conference in Bucharest that the European Freedom Network are running. Shell will be working with Leanne as Abolishion establishes a shelter for trafficking women. Tim will be helping the Caleb Foundation establish a school in a Roma village, developing curriculum and learning aims for the Roma children so that they will be able to integrate better into the Romania government school education system.
As part of our own personal journey of faith/life over the past few years we have felt a bit out of place in what seems to be a materialistic/self-centered nature of our western culture, even within 'christian western culture'. We want to be deliberately and consciously following Jesus and the way he showed us how to live. The more and more we explore different options of church, faith and living, the more and more we find ourselves focusing on communal alternatives that embody a Kingdom perspective. Shell had a feeling whilst in Romania last year that this was somewhere that could teach us a lot about living in community (perhaps it was the communist sentiments still lingering). And whilst this is definitely not why we are choosing to move, there is some small hope that we will see a different side of life, a different way of living simpler and together that we can maybe transfer to life in Melbourne when we return. I suppose that may be a reasonable by-product of any new experience; we learn from it and if it is good and beneficial we try to adapt it into our per-existing situation.
So here starts the countdown...so much to do, so much to plan, so many Romanian language lessons to be had, so many conversations with God to be continually held. Our families have told us that we need to ask for donations and fund raise which is probably true - though its probably the aspect of this we will hate the most. We have had a couple more Skype conversations with Leanne and I'm sure there will be many more as she helps us in all our preparations. Anthony and Cherith Wilson, who Shell went to Europe with last year for Abolishion, are also going to stay with Leanne for 3 months this year and they will help us with some weekly budgeting items.
Feel free to let us know your thoughts, keep us in your prayers or even just start a conversation
Tim :)