A question for you

The exams have been taken, the mad rush by the teachers to mark about 600 papers (6 subjects, 100 students) and then rank them and fill out their school reports has been completed just about successfully, and Term 2 is over. We’re officially half way through our teaching here. Which feels quite strange to say.

And now we are on our way to Lilongwe, and from Lilongwe, Zambia, and from Zambia, the world! Or possibly Tanzania. I did think about writing a profound post about how going travelling with no set plan or certain destination is like training for following Jesus, not knowing where he’ll lead you, but knowing it will be awesome in some way you didn’t really ask for, but I can’t be bothered. So I’ll just quickly share with you my current dilemma instead and ask for your prayers or possibly even your advice.

So the dates for the school holidays were always going to be from the 22^nd of March to the 22^nd of April, a nice round month, plenty of time to see Victoria Falls and then continue on into Tanzania or Botswana – whichever takes your fancy – and visit a game reserve or something like that. However, yesterday, just before we left our school we were informed that the government has changed the dates – nationally – and Term 3 will start on April the 8^th. That’s a two week holiday instead of four.

So my partner Michael is part of a group of volunteers who have rented a car for the month, and he’s talked to his fellow teachers and they are happy for him to stay away for the whole month of the original holiday, which he’s keen to do so as not to waste his money and to enjoy the opportunity to travel as much as he can, which is fair enough. However, for me things are not so simple. My fellow Standard 6 teacher, Miss Chakola, has been granted her request to transfer to another school, so is leaving and is supposed to be replaced by a new teacher for next term. So I’m not sure how acceptable it would be to ask this new person to teach my subjects for two weeks and then take them off him/her again. Perhaps more importantly, I also teach about 4 hours a week of English to the Standard 8s, who are taking their primary school leaving exams in mid-May. They are massively important for their future, and 40% of the English exam is writing compositions and making sentences, which they struggle with massively, and I have been helping with. (Or, to be more precise, trying to help with.) So two weeks of lessons for them is quite a big deal.

So now the question is – where does God want me? I was introduced to an awesome bit of the bible the other day, from 1 Corinthians 15:

“Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labour in the Lord is not in vain.”

So I’m determined to stand firm and let nothing move me – but the problem is, which ‘work of the Lord’ should I give myself to fully for those two weeks?

God has been so good so far in giving me awesome conversations and relationships with the other volunteers – I’ve made some great friends and even had the chance to help one guy really rediscover a faith that he had started to lose, which is definitely in my mind one of the most worthwhile things I have been able to do in Malawi. I love chatting to people about Jesus, and everything that following him has done to change my life, and how much awesome stuff he’s done for me, and in the people that I know. I genuinely love it – and I sometimes God uses my life as a way to tap someone on the shoulder and let him know that he’s there. And that’s pretty much the greatest privilege I could ever have! So I have no doubt that travelling with my mates is the work of the Lord, God loves them and he loves it when me and the other Christians care for each other and encourage each other to love him more, and he loves it when we introduce other people to him.

But…

Obviously teaching kids to speak English better and hopefully get into secondary school, then get a job and help their families and countries to develop – that’s God’s work too. He loves that. And he loves me spending time with the other teachers, and receiving so much awesomeness and generosity from him through them.

So what should I do? I’ve got a week or so to pray and think and work it out. So if you could ask God to give me wisdom, and then courage to stand firm, that’d be awesome. And if you have any advice that’d be great too!