Last Monday we made our last trip to the Crosslinks office, in Lewisham in East London.
I joined Crosslinks (an Anglican evangelical mission agency) in 1996. Since then there have been many changes, including almost all new personnel and new leadership, new ethos and new fundraising methods... but the office is still in a rambling old grey stone Victorian house in a somewhat grotty, but developing part of London. For the past fifteen years, whenever I have been in England, I have had to make the trek at least once to "251" as it is affectionately known (or was at least by my first Regional Co-ordinator, Moira who first interviewed me). "251" always made me think of it as a spy centre...
Lewisham is not the easiest place to get to, involving a couple of train rides and then a hike along about a mile of pavement, past an Aladdin's Den junk shop/antique market, several "greasy spoon" cafes, and the Lewisham College. As we made this kind of pilgrimage last Monday morning, something inside me was mourning loudly the fact that this was the last time we would be doing this.
We were going there for our day of debrief, mainly with Jo Sayer, the HR person, who is also an old friend of ours. Dan and I got to know Jo as a fellow student at All Nations Christian College, the other main mission training college in England ("other" because our allegiance now is with the "first" missions training college, Redcliffe College in Gloucester, where Dan will be working...) Jo went out as a Crosslinks mission partner to Tanzania at the same time as we went to Zimbabwe. For the last four or five years she has been working in the Crosslinks office which has been lovely for us as she is our main contact person in the mission.
We were asked to show our powerpoint during the staff morning prayers, and then we spent some hours talking to Jo about leaving the mission field, followed by lunch in the next door Turkish restaurant, followed by meetings with the finance person to tie up loose ends, and with the Church Mission Team about our church visits and links.
Meanwhile Abby and Alex got to spend the day with a wonderful lady called Janet who specializes in Third Culture Kids (TCKs, Missionary Kids), who spent the day making timelines with them and talking through the whole moving to another culture issue with them. I believe the day was beneficial to them, and Alex especially really enjoyed the activities and conversation. But when I asked Abby afterwards how she had enjoyed it, her answer was, "Mum, I've told you before, Alex and me are not having any problems. It was just something for us to do while you were in your meetings." !
Leaving Crosslinks at the end of the day, saying goodbye to Jo, Chris, Giles, Alan, and others, felt a bit like walking off the end of a plank, or like being cut loose and sent off, to fend for myself. I felt as though it should have been heralded with a party and a cake, and speeches, Uganda style. But in fact it was all slightly anticlimactic. This was the end of an era for me (although we are still on Crosslinks support until the end of December and will be speaking at an orientation for them on Uganda customs and culture in December). Crosslinks has been a Mother Ship, my employer and my safety net during my years working in Zimbabwe and Uganda.
Honestly, there are some ways in which I am relieved to be finishing "the missionary life," and in particular living on missionary support, feeling so accountable to the churches and old ladies who give so kindly from their little, to enable us to live our amazing life serving God in Africa. But I am also realising how important the prayer support which accompanied that was, how privileged we were to have it. And how Crosslinks was there for us, if we needed them.
Dan and I appreciated how Crosslinks allowed us to function at UCU under the guidance of the university leadership and under the local church, as is their policy. We appreciated their hands-off-ness. It suited us to be able to find our niche, to say yes or no to all the various roles and work that we were asked to do by UCU as we felt was right, without having to pass everything through them. But we knew they were praying for us and would back us up at any time. We are also grateful for all their work on our behalf, finding us new churches and helping us raise our support levels when needed, sending out our prayer letters, handling our finances, and praying for us.
We would like to say a huge Thank You to Crosslinks. And maybe we will come back for the party and the cake another time!
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