Amanda’s Musings

I hold the view that all Christians are missionaries but I’ve come across people who strongly oppose this idea. I suppose for me it comes down to what your definition of a missionary is and what their job description is. I believe that the task of spreading the good news of Salvation belongs to anyone who has believed in what Christ did for them on the cross and that the job description of a missionary is to spread this news. This is why I hold this view. Others have told me that a missionary is someone who works cross-culturally or in an overseas context. Personally I see ‘location’ as the least important part of the equasion. What do you think?
(this is a fav pic of my Dad, he and Mum are missionaries in PNG)

So it seems that our little bub is being rebellious from the start! He/she is sitting breech still and I’m in wk 36 now. Not sure if he/she will turn or not or if I’ll have a C sect but we’re seeing the specialist next week. Oh well, if it’s a C sect then we could have the baby in three weeks time. If not, it’s anywhere from 3 to 7 weeks time! (due in 5 wks). Interesting times ahead, I’d better get on and get all my cards painted up ready for sale!!! (I’m just over a third of the way through).

There are two camps that I am currently involved in. The first is called Go! Reachout and is being run by Missions Interlink WA. It’s what I call a ‘Challenge you to missions’ type of camp and its from September 16 - 18. Info on that can be found here.
The second camp is one that I have been soley responsible to organise. The timing is interesting as it’s from October 21-23 and our bubs is due on Oct 1st! It’s been in the pipelines for over a year and a half now. This camp is more of a ’step two’ missions camp. The title of it is the SIM ‘Seize The Day’ missions info camp and is for those who have a lot of questions regarding what’s involved in being a missionary overseas. If any Perthite’s who read this are interested in my SIM camp, please contact me and I’m happy to answer any questions.

The situation in Niger has not improved although it does seem to have disapeared from the media. UN Secretary Kofi Annan has just visited the country to see the situation for himself and the report on this visit can be found here.

This morning Rodney Olsen from 98.5 Sonshine fm interviewed me on air about the situation in Niger. Thank you Rodney for that and for highlighting the cards I have for sale as well as what SIM does there. If anyone would like to order any cards to help the people of Niger, please contact me. You can email me on simyouthwa@oddsocks.net or use my comments link. Thankyou for your interest.

We had a baby shower over the weekend. It was so good thanks to my Mum who organised the whole thing and Michael’s Mum who organised all the food. I have been overwhelmed lately with how generous people are when giving gifts for the baby. The Lord is providing in amazing ways and our baby room is all set up and ready to go. Actually the toiletries shelf looks like an ad for Johnsons. I’m just really grateful to people for caring so much and being so generous to us.

I’m the kind of person who finds it hard to do anything without a purpose. What I mean is, I can’t just go and enjoy a day of painting (canvases!) unless I know what I’m going to do with them afterwards. This principle seems to apply to most things including shopping, cooking and reading. I’m strange I know! Anyway, it’s been really nice to have these cards to paint and have a real purpose in the exercise. It’s nice to be creative again with what I spent three years gaining a degree in!! It’s also nice to know that I can put the pencil or brush down for 6 months and still pick it up again when I need to.

Here’s a sample of the finished cards. They come in a variety of colours (the images, not the paper).

This post by Steve Montgomery (former SIM missionary) is excellent in giving a clear perspective on the Niger crisis from a missionary who is on the ground. He has pasted an article by the current SIM Niger Director, Gordon Evans in which Gordon explains the practical ways in which SIM is assisting and always assists in these situations. It’s worth a look if you want an ‘on the ground’ explaination.

I’ve just heard from the printer this morning that my cards are ready to be picked up, so we’ll get them tomorrow! I can’t wait to see what they look like. I’ll keep you posted.

So, my cards have gone to the printer now! I can’t wait to get them back. There will be 4 images to choose from so a set of four cards will be $AU9.50 (including postage and more if you ordered more than four cards)and so on. I’ll be painting into each card a little with watercolour.
I have a paypal account so I can take orders from anywhere:
That would equal around $US10.50 per set of four cards (including postage and more if you ordered more than four cards) and 6.00 UK Pounds per set of 4 cards (including postage and more if you ordered more than four cards).
I was wondering if anyone out there who reads this would be likely to order cards (I will provide proper images on here when I get them back from the printer)? All money raised from these cards will go to the SIM Niger Food Relief Project.

Maradi is a place that we visited when we were in Niger. It’s a very dry, hot place most of the year round. We have friends within SIM who are involved in an ongoing project there called the Maradi Integrated Development Project. This project aims to teach practical farming skills to local people and at one point they even flew some Australian Aboriginal people into Niger to show them how to make use of the Acacia tree.
So, what will happen when the aid agencies leave? (the question asked in this article). Well, the Nigerien government will still struggle and the people will still live in a a semi-arid, drought stricken country BUT projects like the MIDP will go on and work for a long term solution. If you would like to support the MIDP you can learn more here.
SIM Missionaries in Maradi involved in the MIDP.