He's going once, & going twice.
He's going ~ & almost gone!
But the Master comes, & the foolish crowd
Never can understand
The worth of a soul & the change that's wrought
By the touch of the Master's hand. Myra Brooks Welch.

So what is an aspiring young missionary given to read? This is a sample of what OM sent out for Liddy. As I will seriously read package labels if there is nothing else round I took a bit of a squizz. I will probably get round to reading most of these ~ or at least speed reading them as I'm not the one going on the mission field.


The first foray into this unfamiliar territory revealed the story of a family who answered a call to the Middle East. They were psyche~tested [Liddy found hers a hoot], trained, financially supported~ in short from beginning to end they only got yeses until the very moment they set foot on foreign soil. They never left the airport. They returned home on the next plane. I read gob~smacked. How do you get so far & not realise this is not for you? How to you get so far, spend all that money, sell all your possessions then never even leave the airport? Whoa, Nellie! Reality check time.


Now having traveled in foreign lands I know culture shock is very real, even when the culture is very similar, even when the new country speaks your language, even when you have chosen to go & spend time there. It can be a serious slam dunk but only a raving lunatic expects a foreign country to be just like home. Just how different it will be depends on which country & which culture. What's more, Liddy is a person of very decided ideas; a person not easily dissuaded once her mind is made up.


Thank you Lord for all those soccer meets ~ you know, the ones where she had to stay with strangers overnight in unfamiliar surroundings where they did things differently & ate strange food. There were so many of them, year after year. She adjusted after the first one when she lost a spot on the State team because they didn't think she'd manage away from home. And the year when she did so well she was changing schools every other month so she could attend training sessions. Her first plane trip on her own up to Cairns for state trials. All the team mates who weren't white, Anglo~Saxon, protestants. Little things. Small helps. Preparation for something none of us foresaw all those years ago.


Several of the books are about living the reality of Christ. One tells personal testimonies of Christ's intervention in the lives of His people. None of them are about evangelizing per se. I know Lid believes in the testimony of friendship. She lives it. It's one reason why she wanted long term mission as opposed to a short mission. She has the single eye of so living for Christ she draws others to Him. And she can play soccer. I should really like to be a fly on the wall the first time those Chilean kids see Lid go into action on the soccer pitch! She loves her soccer. She & God have battled that one out between them ~ much to my amusement.

"Fight with Him if you like, " I remember telling Liddy, " but you won't win." She chose to fight anyway. She didn't win ~ but she's ok with that. It is better like this.