In some ways much has happened since we wrote in June, in other ways much has stayed the same. 

We have remained in wet season, it rains most days to a greater or lesser extent and our cold cement floors force Ali to wear fluffy socks and make regular use of blankets in the living room. We keep discussing having a fire in our fireplace in the evenings but when we get there it seems a step too far. 

The number of COVID-19 cases are continuing to rise in Plateau State where we live, but the lockdown has not been re-introduced so we are just trying to take sensible precautions and not take any unnecessary risks. Our office has cautiously been opening for staff who feel they are able, to return. We have implemented a high level of precautions include face masks, handwashing stations, temperature checks and limits on sharing offices and numbers of people in meeting rooms. 

My (Tim’s) state of not-so-well being has been a continuing journey. After conversations with my counsellor we concluded that all the extra effort needed by my Aspergers brain to deal with the constant stream of unknowns in every day life dealing with the Covid-19 realities has led to pre-depression (I also sometimes have struggles in that area) burn out. I’m glad to have the help to figure it out, and I’m glad we are able to spot things before it is too hard to come back from. We have implemented a bunch of changes to help avoid further burn out and hopefully reach some recovery. I am trying to only work half days with some people interactions in the office which has been good, but I do find I can get ‘done’ with people pretty quick. I’m glad for the down time in the afternoons. I have made it out on a few project visits ?(see pictures below) which has been very encouraging but also tiring, I am still trying to pinpoint the appropriate levels of energy and doing stuff. Ali stepped back from most of her SIL work for a while in order to better support me and keep the housework under control. 

We all got a year older in July, but we did safely reach the end of our birthday month. Dan is now sixteen and Tim has attained the grand old age of 40! I’ll leave you to figure out Ali’s age, if you are so interested! 

Dan started back to school near the start of August. It will be online at least for the first quarter as the government has not allowed schools to reopen yet. It has been mostly good, quite tiring and quite a challenge to get to grips with new classes and teachers in a purely online format. He is taking a couple Advanced Placement (AP – USA college level) courses ((Biology and Chemistry) that he really needs to do well in if he wants to have his pick of University places in the UK.

Many, many moons ago, we mentioned that our house in Chinnor was going on the market. Finally, 11 months (moons?) later, we  accepted an offer on it. The offer was for the full asking price and the couple who wanted to buy it are selling their flat to first time buyers. This makes it a really short chain as we are not looking to buy immediately. However, since Ali wrote the above, those buyers have pulled out and we are still awaiting another offer. In the meantime we served notice to out tenant who is moving out near the end of October. We will have some hard decisions to make if we don’t have another buyer very soon. The house was such a clear blessing from God when we bought it and we are trusting Him that He will continue to bless us through it, whatever that looks like.

My (Tim’s) Grandma peacefully graduated to heaven on Wednesday the 15th of July. We are so thankful that she was able to spend the last couple of weeks at home with Graham, her husband, and many of the family were able to visit her. Her funeral was held and while it was sad to not be able to be there to celebrate her face to face with the family, we really appreciated being able to watch it live online.

We still don’t know what a trip home might look like or when that might happen, but we have until mid-December to decide how to use the airline vouchers that we have  from the flights we had booked for this past summer. 

Thank you for your care and support over the last month, these are not easy times but our Father in heaven is faithful and loving.

Praise

Tim’s Grandma Ruth had a peaceful progression on to heaven.
God has watched over us and granted each of us another year of life.
We are still able to continue living and ministering here.

Prayer

Continued recovery for Tim and wisdom on how best to facilitate that.
That Dan will be able to stay on top of his work and have good communication with his teachers.
Continued wisdom on sensible COVID precautions to take

The post Robinson ministry Update - 14th Sept 2020 first appeared on Tim, Ali & Dan Robinson.

Well, the thermometer still says 22C but that feels chilly to me! The mangoes are falling off the trees faster than we can eat or process them, I have been enjoying guavas off the tree for breakfast and the passion fruit vines are blossoming and bulging with bounty! 

God has been blessing us in other ways too over the last couple of weeks. We took a week off from work and had a mini “staycation” last week. Our upstairs neighbours did the same and so we did some fun activities together with them and had some takeaway food (yes, there are places in Jos that offer takeaway!) and just generally took it easy! We also had our 17th wedding anniversary on Sunday, 17 years through which God has watched over us and been faithful to us.

More blessings! Some of you may have seen the UK Blessing video on You Tube. Well now there is a Nigerian one! https://youtu.be/lewZ8ZhZB3Q It features a few of the 500 odd languages spoken in Nigeria and has a lady speaking out the names of all the Nigerian states. I hope you enjoy it!

The state government has now entirely lifted the lockdown in our state, Plateau, so we are free to come and go as we please within the state (apart from a 10pm to 6am curfew). However, the number of cases is still rising so we are treating this with great caution. Our office building is not being reopened yet so we are all still doing our best to work from home.

My (Ali’s) headaches have also been lifting, thank you so much for praying. I am still getting them on and off but generally less severe and not for as long. 
We thank you all for the outpouring of responses to our last message, especially regarding Tim’s state of not-so-well being. He has had good conversations with a counsellor and he is moderately burnt out and only has mild depression. Burnout is often a precursor to depression and Tim is working with his supervisor to make some adjustments to work exceptions to allow Tim down time to recover. Here are some of the brilliant verses that folks shared with us.

He has written your names on the palm on His hand, and your walls are ever before him.

Isaiah 49

Let him who walks in the darkness, who has no light, trust in the Name of the Lord and rely on his God.

Isaiah 50:10

You’re blessed when you’re at the end of your rope. With less of you there is more of God and his rule.

Matt 5.3 NIV/MSG

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.

Romans 8: 28

Lord, even when your path takes me through the valley of deepest darkness, fear will never conquer me, for you already have! You remain close to me and lead me through it all the way.Your authority is my strength and my peace.The comfort of your love takes away my fear.I’ll never be lonely, for you are near.

Psalm 23:4

We also have some hard news to share. Tim’s Grandma Ruth (his Dad’s Mum) has been diagnosed with bladder cancer which has spread to her kidneys and the doctors say that she likely only has a few weeks left. We are praising God that her husband and both her sons have now been able to visit her in hospital (which was proving tricky at one point). Please pray for a peaceful, joyful last few weeks for her and for comfort for the whole family as they process. We are also so thankful that she is a Christian and so we know that this is not truly going to be an end for her but rather a beginning!

Praise
Better understanding of what Tim has been struggling with
Easing of Ali’s headaches
Many years of faithful blessings from our Father in heaven

Prayer
Tim’s Grandma Ruth and the rest of the family
Continued healing and refreshment for us
Wisdom on how to deal with the lifting of the lockdown

The post Robinson Ministry Update - 23rd June 2020 first appeared on Tim, Ali & Dan Robinson.

I (Ali) am so grateful that we have a beautiful compound to be locked down on. The flame tree and the frangipani are blooming and the mangos are ripening. In addition we are only locked down in the compound for 3 days a week now (Mon-Wed) and free to leave the compound for essentials the other four days. The number of confirmed cases in our state have increased a fair bit over the last couple of weeks and there have now been deaths, so we are still being cautious and careful when out and about.

Dan finished school a week ago and has been enjoying a more relaxed pace of life. He and the other kids on the compound have been working on fixing up the tree house and have grand plans for how it is going to develop (roofs, dining tables and cushions etc) .

As I (Ali) am sure many of you can relate to, we are facing significant changes to our plans for the summer. Our original plans had us arriving in the UK earlier this week for a two and a half month furlough. Instead we are settling in for the summer here in Nigeria and thinking about how we can use the time well.

The last couple of months have been hard for Tim. The uncertainty over what his role is going to be in the coming few years has been unsettling. He has also been finding working from home more of a challenge than he had expected, especially the energy required to deeply engage in so many audio-only conversations every day. As a result he feels like he is on the edge, or maybe dipping in and out of depression. We had a couple of national holiday days earlier this week and that provided him with an opportunity to rest and reset which has helped greatly but please pray for him and for the rest of us as we try to support him as best we can.

I (Ali) have been having a lot of headaches again over the last week and they are leaving me exhausted and unable to function properly some days. I would love to know what is causing them but in the meantime I am so thankful for our houseguest, Helen, who has been a great help with household jobs, enabling me to rest when I need to and for Tim and Dan who have done some extra cooking on the days when I have been totally wiped out.

If you can take the time to pray for us we would really appreciate it!
Praise
Dan has finished school for the year.
A chance to rest and reset during the national holidays
Prayer
That Tim (and the rest of us!) will know God’s peace and joy as he walks through this hard time
That I (Ali) will trust God through my headaches and that he might take them away.

The post Robinson Ministry Update - 31st May 2020 first appeared on Tim, Ali & Dan Robinson.

Plateau State has settled into a lockdown routine of no movement from Monday to Thursday and some movement around town for shopping etc allowed from Friday to Sunday. Knowing that this is the expected pattern is helping us to plan better and gives a more predictable shape to the week. Relieves a bit of stress!

Our case numbers are still really low in Plateau State (a total of only 4 confirmed cases so far as of Thursday). But other states around us have much higher numbers of cases confirmed so it sort of feels like only a matter of time before it explodes here. At the moment the bigger concern is the hardship caused for those who normally earn a daily wage who are unable to do so.

Dan has less than two weeks left of school so we are encouraging him to push hard in order to finish well. His Computer Science Principles coding project is nearly done although it still has a few stubborn glitches! He has coded a game of noughts and crosses that you can play against another person or against the computer with an easy and a hard level. Lots of things to think through! He is planning to add an option to play Ultimate noughts and crosses as a fun summer project. If you don’t know what that is, do ask him!
We have finally had news from the airline that our flights to the UK for the end of May have been cancelled but they have let us keep our options open and we have until mid-December to decide when we want to move them to. So coming to the UK this summer is now definitely not happening and we will spend the summer here instead. Sorry not to see many of you that we had hoped to see but, given the circumstances, not surprising news!

You may remember that quite some time ago we told you that Tim was being interviewed for the position of SIL Nigeria Director. We have no heard that he has not been offered the position. He is now working through what the implications of that are. Tim is not disappointed as it was always clear that there were other options for him and through the process he was also affirmed as highly essential in his current role. 

Praise:
Clarity in several areas that had been uncertain

Prayer:
For Dan to finish this school year well and perform to his best ability
For those who are struggling due to a lack of opportunity to earn money during lockdown.
As always – ongoing grace and patience towards one another!

The post Robinson Ministry Update - 8th May 2020 first appeared on Tim, Ali & Dan Robinson.

Greetings from lockdown to lockdown! I am so grateful that although so much of the world is in varying degrees of lockdown we can still be in touch with each other.

We are at the start of our third stint of lockdown, we don’t get to go out the compound at all during these times, but so far the pattern has been a couple days each week to go shopping and sort stuff out. There has now been one confirmed case of COVID-19 in Plateau State and other areas of Nigeria have had significant growth in numbers of cases. 

I (Ali) feel like this week I found my feet at last and started to feel like most of our household jobs are under control and that I have a bit more time to devote to my “normal” office work! Most of my work is internet or e-mail based so not too hard to continue with the vast majority of it. In fact, the slowing down of new requests for information etc is giving me a great chance to catch up on some long overdue archiving tasks!

Tim managed to facilitate some online meetings to achieve the key elements of the planned meetings that were kicking off our project planning for Fiscal Year 2021 that had to be cancelled with the office closure. They seemed to go well with most of the key participants managing to connect in even from various village locations. This means that the planning for next year is going ahead with input from at least some of the right people. He has also been coordinating a daily online devotional for our staff which has been really encouraging and appreciated.

Tim has also been trying to stay musically creative, it has been hard with a house full and with him feeling pretty tired and having to do everything via the phone, but his mum helped with a project that you can view on Youtube.

Dan has settled well into his school routine and seems to be doing a good job of keeping on top of his assignments now. He is taking one Advanced Placement class this year (which is roughly equivalent to an A-level) that would normally have an externally set exam. We were wondering how they were going to manage that but we just found out that the exam board have decided to just mark the students on their coursework element of the course and not hold an exam. Generally Dan does better on exams than coursework so please pray that he can show his full abilities in the coursework.

Helen, one of the staff here, has been staying with us for the time being. She is a Wycliffe UK member and good friend of ours. We have been really blessed to have her staying with us, not least because she is always willing to muck in and help out with whatever needs doing! She and Dan have become the washing-up King and Queen!

We would love to hear about how you are adapting to your new situations and anything you would like us to pray for. If you have a chance to pray for us, we would really appreciate it.

Praise
Finding new rhythms of life
Good progress made on planning for next year despite lockdown

Prayer
Wisdom for officials making decisions on the next steps for Plateau State
Dan to be able to show his skills fully in his AP coursework
Continued patience and grace towards one another

The post Robinson Ministry update 28th April 2020 first appeared on Tim, Ali & Dan Robinson.

https://journal.praxislabs.org/leading-beyond-the-blizzard-why-every-organization-is-now-a-startup-b7f32fb278ff

“Winter is coming” was going to be my catchy pop culture title for the thoughts below, but actually as leaders, we need to recognise that it has already came, is here and we are still trying to learn what this winter even is.

Harmattan is the seasonal dust that gets blown off the dessert and makes its way down Africa.  It makes where we live surprisingly cold (because the sun can’t get through the dust) and all our surfaces very dusty, more than normal, like you can’t leave anything out, you have to clean the kitchen BEFORE you make anything.  It is inconvenient, we have to adjust some things that we do, but it does pass. Harmattan seems a more appropriate metaphor for our location, however, the article is all about winter and ice – BRRRRR!

Life here is already radically different than is was a few weeks ago. There is no escape from it.  One example for us is how having no house help has dramatically reduced our expected work productivity.  It is a lot of effort to keep a household functioning here with all the idiosyncrasies of how things do or don’t function.  I reckoned I am operating at about 60% of normal office productivity.  I find the calls and zoom meetings exhausting. It is great to connect with people, but video doesn’t often hold up here and hearing is really not the same as seeing!   I’m really missing being able to wander down the corridor and greet people.  In 5 minutes you can help a team with an issue, but now it can take 30 – 45 minutes on a call without a whiteboard to help! Thank GOD for the technology to be able to connect, but it is exhausting.

From today onward, most leaders must recognize that the business they were in no longer exists. This applies not just to for-profit businesses, but to nonprofits, and even in certain important respects to churches.

It is an interesting statement from the article.  What if this does all just blow ever in a few weeks?  Well, given that the article is over 4 weeks old, I guess it isn’t ‘just going to blow over’. IT is still going on.   If we are wrong, then the worst case is that we have renegotiate a few goals and maybe we have learnt, hopefully, how to use some different tools to aid our ministry.   If it doesn’t blow over, we simply can’t ignore the need to change. Now.

What does that mean for us in Nigeria, in our Bible Translation ministry?  I think it means we really need to remember we are dealing with whole people in whole communities and right now, maybe our focus should be on covid-19 related materials rather than trying to meet our translation goals.  We would need to renegotiate with funders and get agreements, and find the materials to translate and new ways of distributing them because printing isn’t going to be possible.   We already have a huge arsenal of technological possibilities that we haven’t been pushing, but mostly because the communities we serve don’t have the means to access them.  (Side note – check out the project we HAVE been involved in, if YOUR language is missing – let me know!)

What does it mean in terms of working with our partners here?  Do we even know what our partners are wanting to do or how we can help them?

Winter is coming and we aren’t ever going back to the way things were. We aren’t.   We really need to stop saying “when things get back to normal” or we are NEVER going to stop believing it!   We HAVE to stop believing it if we are ever going think about our response to the covid-19 mess and change how we do things.  We have GOT (see what I did there) to adapt, we can’t simply sit and wait it out.  The sit and wait pattern of working is unsustainable and will burn people out and develop hugely un-productive habits and even more problems.

Those language communities are not going to disappear, the need for scripture isn’t going to disappear, I doubt we will pivot our business model coming out of this at this time in our existence, but could we tweak it given the current situation?   Probably.

The post Leading Beyond the (Blizzard) Harmattan. first appeared on Tim, Ali & Dan Robinson.

I had to do some preparation but it was in fact a neat reminder of what it took for Jesus to die.

 We didn’t have a good Friday service – so I thought I’d combine the focus of multiple services down to 1.   There are many versions of the stages of the cross, and so I picked 5 highlights to take us on our journey.   I am a firm believer that doing something helps us to remember, so I designed our time to have  a scripture reading, an activity and a prayer that we read together.  The prayers were inspired by the Franciscan Friars who use a very short version of the prayers for the stages of the cross while on their missions.  I adapted for less stations and modernised the language to make it more appropriate for us. 

 I carried my iPad so we could do the readings and zoomed the text bigger so we could do the prayers and reading together.   Jono, my neighbour opened our time in prayer.

First Station – Jesus Condemned to Death

Matthew 27 :20 – 24
But the chief priests and the elders persuaded the crowd to ask for Barabbas and to have Jesus executed.   “Which of the two do you want me to release to you?” asked the governor.  “Barabbas,” they answered.   “What shall I do, then, with Jesus who is called the Messiah?” Pilate asked. They all answered, “Crucify him!”
 “Why? What crime has he committed?” asked Pilate. But they shouted all the louder, “Crucify him!” When Pilate saw that he was getting nowhere, but that instead an uproar was starting, he took water and washed his hands in front of the crowd. “I am innocent of this man’s blood,” he said. “It is your responsibility!”
 

Activity:  Washing Hands

PRAYER: O Jesus! So meek and uncomplaining, teach me how to remain strong in times of trial.

Second Station – Jesus Carries His Cross

John 19: 16-17 

Finally Pilate handed him over to them to be crucified. So the soldiers took charge of Jesus. Carrying his own cross, he went out to the place of the Skull (which in Aramaic is called Golgotha). 

Luke 23: 26 

As they led Jesus away, a man named Simon, who was from Cyrene, happened to be coming in from the countryside. The soldiers seized him and put the cross on him and made him carry it behind Jesus. 

Activity:  Picking up a cross.  The cross were not clean and well finished for crucifixions.   Be careful of our crosses, they are rough, have nails sticking out and possible splinters.  

PRAYER: O Jesus! This Cross should be mine, but you bore it for me; help me know how to serve you as Simon did.

Third Station – Jesus Stripped of His Garments

Luke 23: 32-34

Two others, both criminals, were led out to be executed with him. When they came to a place called The Skull, they nailed him to the cross. And the criminals were also crucified—one on his right and one on his left.

Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they don’t know what they are doing.” And the soldiers gambled for his clothes by throwing dice.

Activity:  Tie a strip of cloth to your cross. 

PRAYER: O Jesus! As you were stripped of your clothes, strip away our selfishness and clothe us with your righteousness.

Fourth Station – Jesus Dies on the CrossLuke 23: 44 – 49

By this time it was about noon, and darkness fell across the whole land until three o’clock. The light from the sun was gone. And suddenly, the curtain in the sanctuary of the Temple was torn down the middle. Then Jesus shouted, “Father, I entrust my spirit into your hands!” And with those words he breathed his last.

When the Roman officer overseeing the execution saw what had happened, he worshiped God and said, “Surely this man was innocent.” And when all the crowd that came to see the crucifixion saw what had happened, they went home in deep sorrow. But Jesus’ friends, including the women who had followed him from Galilee, stood at a distance watching.

Activity:  Smear some ketchup on the edge of your cross. 

PRAYER: O Jesus! You died for my sins so I could be forgiven. Help me remember and not take it for granted.  

Fifth Station – Empty Tomb

Luke 24: 1-7

But very early on Sunday morning the women went to the tomb, taking the spices they had prepared. They found that the stone had been rolled away from the entrance. So they went in, but they didn’t find the body of the Lord Jesus. As they stood there puzzled, two men suddenly appeared to them, clothed in dazzling robes.

The women were terrified and bowed with their faces to the ground. Then the men asked, “Why are you looking among the dead for someone who is alive? He isn’t here! He is risen from the dead! Remember what he told you back in Galilee, that the Son of Man must be betrayed into the hands of sinful men and be crucified, and that he would rise again on the third day.”

Activity:  Grab a stone from the driveway to symbolised the stone that was rolled away from the tomb. 

PRAYER: O Jesus!  You rose again defeating sin and death.  Thank you that we are redeemed and reconciled.   

Head upstairs and we’ll read this scripture together before we sing.

READ TOGETHER: Romans 6:10+11

The death he died, he died to sin once for all;  but the life he lives,  he lives to God. In the same way,  count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus

The post Easter Sunday in Lockdown in Nigeria first appeared on Tim, Ali & Dan Robinson.

It feels like everything is changing and the world will never quite be the same again. However, the seasons are not affected and our rains have just gotten started in earnest. I think this is a good reminder to me that the seasons are not the only thing that is not changing. Our God remains the same. He is still our Rock of Salvation!

Things have changed a bit in Nigeria since our last update, there have now been 276 cases of COVID-19 confirmed in Nigeria with 6 deaths. There are still no cases reported from our state, Plateau, which we are thankful for. The governor of the state has however announced a total lockdown from midnight last night (Thurs 9th) until 11pm Wednesday 15th.  During this time we will not leave our compound. Our office closed almost 2 weeks ago so we have already been working from home since then.  We are well stocked up with food and other supplies so not anticipating any major issues with this lockdown for us. Please do pray for those who do not have the resources to stock up or who rely on daily work to earn money, they will be hit hardest by this measure. 

Dan is generally doing well with virtual schooling. Thankfully he is old enough to be able to work independently and not require (too much!) chasing. He has had a large project that has taken a lot of work so it will be quite a relief when that is handed in!  (Should have been by the time you read this!)

Tim has been busy with virtual meetings. He is having to work out how to compensate for the fact that when the office was closed we had to cancel some key meetings for all staff that were a vital part of the planning and budgeting process for next year. Tim has also had an informal interview with the Area leadership as the next stage in the selection process for SIL Nigeria Director. We are still not sure when the decision will be made as there are many other things demanding the Area leadership’s attention at the moment!

In the mean time, work continues in many of the language communities we work with.   The Duya New Testament is almost done. As part of the finishing stages, it is required to be reviewed by the Duya community. The review committee are meeting every week not just is one location, but moving  from village to village to enable wider participation. Every village they go there is great joy as people hear God’s word being read in Duya.

‘“The message in Duya is clearer than in Hausa” is what we hear in almost every village every week as we meet for review.’).

Christopher, Duya Literacy Coordinator and one of the reviewers

Pretty amazing that folks engaging in the process are being impacted even before the work is done.  

At home, we are also having to balance increased housework as we asked our house-help to stay home in order to reduce both our and her exposure to others. We have always appreciated all her hard work and the fact that it enables us to focus fully on our work. This time without her is really reinforcing that appreciation!
If you can, please take the time to pray for us. If you have any specific prayer requests for us to pray for you, please do let us know!

Praise
Starting to get into a workable routine of working from home.
Tim had a good interview with Area leadership

Prayer
Provision for those who will be badly affected by the lockdown
Peace in Plateau State and the rest of Nigeria as the situation develops
A good work-life balance in our new “normal”

The post Robinson Ministry Update - 10th April 2020 first appeared on Tim, Ali & Dan Robinson.

Here we are, Day 4 of working from home – how did you all get on?  It is getting really hot in our house.   Ali managed to arrange for some meat to be delivered.  Nice to know that will work!  Our internet is only just holding up with all the people, we had to hold an internet planning meeting so that not everyone is trying to do a video call at the same time!  We are having a compound coffee break each morning to sit outside in the shade and reflect together.  It is nice.   AND Nepa finally got restored to our place, which is super cool!!   

The past couple days we’ve talked about faith & fear & lies & Resources & Robes & Rings and renewing our mind.  

On Monday I talked about the relationship between faith and fear, On Tuesday I talked about the process of renewing our minds and believing truth instead of lies, yesterday we talked about fear in relation to resources.    

If faith is the birthing point of hope and hope is the opposite of fear, the greater our understanding of who God is, the greater our faith.  The greater our faith, the greater our hope.  The greater our hope, the less our fear.  

Faith can be built in many different ways, and today I want to dig into the idea of Trust.   The idea that trust is also part of our faith journey, a part that helps us to counter fear. 

As Christians we claim to trust God.  Have you met a Christian that didn’t claim to trust God? But do we REALLY trust God?  Trust and Faith go hand in hand. It is a symbiotic relationship, one can’t exist without the other, what happens to one has an impact on the other (for better or worse).  As our faith grows, our ability to trust God also grows, and as we make choices to trust God, so our faith grows. Trust is a choice we make.  We make that choice based on loads of different factors, what we know, information, previous experiences, what other people have told us, what we read.  It all impacts our decision to trust or not. If we think back to our psychology lesson from this week, (Believe, Think, Behave, Feel) where does ‘trust’ live?  Is it a feeling?  Is it a behaviour or a thinking or a believing? I think that it belongs in the ‘Believe’ category.   

Here is why. 

On the -ve side of things, if you do not trust someone you believe that they don’t have the best intentions.   It shapes how you think about them and changes you behaviour around them, and can made you feel somehow, maybe uncomfortable or cautious. 

On the +ve side of things, if you trust someone, you believe they have good intentions and it also shapes how you think about them, and changes how you behave around them and how you feel, happy and safe.  

If we believe God is trust worthy, if we make the choice to trust him, it will reduce our fear.  BUT, we need to have faith in order to trust God.  Faith is evidence of things unseen, you can’t see the wind.   You CAN see the effects of the wind but you cannot see the wind, there is a mystery to it.  Faith’s evidence is our stepping out into the unknown, to trust God that it will be okay.  If faith develops trust and trust reduces fear, what does the Bible say about developing our faith?  

Romans 10:17 says that faith comes by hearing the word of God.   It is because hearing words does something different in our brain than simply seeing the words and reading them in our own heads. It is important for us to be hearing scripture. I would go one step further than that and say it is even MORE effective if we ourselves read it out loud because we are utilising multiple functions and senses in our body.  

Everyone is unique and how we do things and what works for us is unique but if I am trying go memorise something I have to repeat it out loud over and over again.  If I am trying to learn lyrics to a song, I HAVE to find the correct lyrics, and sing them out in order to remember them.   It takes repetition and practice to get them into my brain.  I easily forget the lyrics to songs I haven’t sung in a while, even ones that I have written!   It isn’t even enough for me to simply hear the song, I have to try and sing it myself.  For others they can repeat back having just heard it – bless them, I’m not like that!   For me, and maybe for you, I think the same is true of scripture.   To get it into our systems, into ourselves, in order to grow our faith and our ability to trust God, we need to read it out loud and repeat it and, oh by the way, that is part of renewing our minds.      

We say we trust God, but I think sometimes our behaviour betrays us.  What would it look like if we really trusted God? How would we think differently? How would we behave differently? How would we feel differently?   We have to take that step of faith and choose to trust him to discover that he is trustworthy. 

This may or may not surprise you, but the Bible has a lot to say about trust!  Some verses are encouraging us to trust God.  Some help us understand the consequences of trusting God.    https://dailyverses.net/trust

So today’s exercise – grab your paper and pen, is to ask God to reveal to you by His Spirit, one way that you have not been trusting him.  Then, do some research and ask a friend for help if you want and find some scriptures that remind you that he is trust worthy.  

Lets pray.

The post Devotions for the office "Fear" 4/4 first appeared on Tim, Ali & Dan Robinson.

Here we are, Day 3 of working from home – how did you all get on?  It got really hot in our house yesterday, especially in the afternoon, it was hard to keep working!  The Director’s team had a pretty successful 1st meeting via Zoom.  

The past couple days we’ve talked about faith, fear, lies and renewing our mind.   Today I want to look at our fear as it relates to funding and resourcing.  Today was supposed to be a discussion on internal allocations and service fees.   We will still want to have that discussion at some point – but it is not happening today!   Many of us have thoughts about funding and resourcing.  Some have expressed fears about the direction the organisation is going in order to secure resources.   Some have expressed fear about us not having enough resources. 

A couple of weeks ago I had this revelation about the story of the prodigal son.   I was reading a book that I was given at the meetings I recently attended in Malaysia.   And the author pointed out something that I hadn’t really understood before. 

Lets read the passage together first in Luke 15:11-24

Luke 15:11-32 New Living Translation (NLT)

Parable of the Lost Son

11 To illustrate the point further, Jesus told them this story: “A man had two sons. 12 The younger son told his father, ‘I want my share of your estate now before you die.’ So his father agreed to divide his wealth between his sons.

13 “A few days later this younger son packed all his belongings and moved to a distant land, and there he wasted all his money in wild living. 14 About the time his money ran out, a great famine swept over the land, and he began to starve. 15 He persuaded a local farmer to hire him, and the man sent him into his fields to feed the pigs. 16 The young man became so hungry that even the pods he was feeding the pigs looked good to him. But no one gave him anything.

17 “When he finally came to his senses, he said to himself, ‘At home even the hired servants have food enough to spare, and here I am dying of hunger! 18 I will go home to my father and say, “Father, I have sinned against both heaven and you, 19 and I am no longer worthy of being called your son. Please take me on as a hired servant.”’

20 “So he returned home to his father. And while he was still a long way off, his father saw him coming. Filled with love and compassion, he ran to his son, embraced him, and kissed him. 21 His son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against both heaven and you, and I am no longer worthy of being called your son.[a]’

22 “But his father said to the servants, ‘Quick! Bring the finest robe in the house and put it on him. Get a ring for his finger and sandals for his feet. 23 And kill the calf we have been fattening. We must celebrate with a feast, 24 for this son of mine was dead and has now returned to life. He was lost, but now he is found.’ So the party began.

A familiar passage with a whole TON of things we can learn and different applications. I’ve always had LOADS of questions when I read this passage. Why did the son want to leave in the first place? Why did the father agree?  How long did it take to spend the money? How long did it take to come to his senses? Did he have a wash before he got home?

As I have read up a bit more about this story, it seems my own cultural context means I miss some significant things.  Maybe your own too – maybe not – but here is what I found out and it intrigued me.

It was SUPER offensive for the son to approach his father and ask what he did.   He was wishing his father dead.  PIGS are super offensive, and so working on the pig farm was the lowest of all the low jobs, it was no surprise folks ignored him.  A man in the middle east would NEVER have run.  Never.  It was undignified for a big man (and he was a big man, he had a farm and servants and staff and workers).  The clothes alone would have made that hard.   He would have been a laughing stock to anyone who saw him.   The kid would have been filthy and to embrace a dirty person, both physically and spiritually because of them pigs would have been a huge problem, he did it anyway. 

He bought out a robe and a ring and sandals. Things of no significance to me. 

The Robe was about restoration, but more than that, the cultural significance of the best robe being placed on the younger son, was that the father was actually transferring the primary inheritance from the elder son to the younger son.  The younger son was restored to a higher place than when he left.

The Sandals were one of the differentiating factors between sons and servants.   Sons had sandals, servants did not.  It was symbolic of all the son was once again entitled to. 

The Ring was a symbol of an office of authority.  The father, despite witnessing his son’s mis-use of his inheritance, is now declaring that the younger son is in full control of all the family’s financial affairs.  It was this ring that caught my attention in regards to funding and resourcing.  It seems completely crazy to me that the father would do this.   No time of rebuilding relationship, no time of rebuilding trust, straight in there and off you go.  

We were once separated from God.  Upon our reconciliation with Him, we were fully restored and we became Children of God and with it we have received the FULL inheritance as God’s children.  Not only the primary inheritance, a simple double portion, but He has given us everything.   He even puts us in charge of his resources on earth and wants us to use them to fulfil his plans for the earth.   

The cool bit about that, is that God has enough resources to fulfil his plans.  We don’t need to beg him.  We are not servants looking for a favour or a hand out, but according to Romans 8:17 we are sons and daughters, co-heirs in Christ! 

What do you believe?  What we believe affects our thinking, affects our behaviour and affects our feelings. 

Do you believe that we have got a full inheritance from a Father that has all the resources?  Is the Ring of authority on your finger, and the Robe on your back and the Sandals on your feet? 

Today’s exercise – not a simple as yesterday’s sorry!   I want as many of you as are able to go to the google drive and engage in the missiological reflection on resourcing.   I emailed out a couple weeks ago about it  (ONLY AVAILABLE FOR OUR STAFF)

Please read the Read Me file with the instructions and it is SUPER important to engage in the discussion document, Missiological reflection is not an exercise to do in isolation, but together with others — so use the google doc (please use it AS a google doc to avoid complications not via file stream).

Any access issues – let me know! 

Lets Pray.

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