Leadership throws up plenty of decisions we have to make between keeping it simple and playing it safe, or taking calculated risks.  For some reason I am wired against the safe option, although at times I would prefer for life to be alot more simple than it is.  Playing it safe would grant me that kind of life.

For the past 2 months I have been agonising over whether to go ahead with a short term missions trip to Zimbabwe, or play it safe and pull the whole thing.  I am taking 8 other people over with me, and we are due to arrive 6 days before the next run off election.  I could potentially be taking 8 of my congregants into danger, or I could be taking them on a venture that bring much needed encouragement to the body of Christ in Zimbabwe and a host of other blessings.

The people we will be assisting report that things are fine, and that life [abnormal as it is] continues as per normal where they live and pretty much elsewhere.  The people who have need to be worried are those who are participating in the political scene, and also rural villages who are known to have voted against the incumbent government.

We have spent much time and effort raising funds to purchase building materials, we have a potent team with 5 tradesmen, and we have been preparing for this holy adventure for some time.  I would not hesitate to pull the pin if I was advised from within Zimbabwe to do so, but the advice is currently to proceed.  The complexity of this condundrum could be easily solved by an e-mail I could type right now.  “It’s off!”.

To help me with my deliberations I have involved the whole leadership group, and we have conference call to Zimbabwe so that they could interrogate our hosts.  The greatest help has come from a little old lady in our congregation who hardly anyone knew until this last Sunday.  Norma is a widow, she is bent over and walks with the aid of a carved stick.  She is also very short.  To the world around us she is hardly noticed, just another old lady.

Norma and her husband both felt a call to go to Papua New Guinea and ended up marrying each other and setting off without very much support at all.  They eventually set up their own mission and settled amongst cannibalistic tribes deep in the forest, far away from medical help and the normal comforts of life and the shelter we need to have from dangerous people and things.  If a risk analysis was done using contemporary standards on her living conditions, her 20 years in PNG would never have happened.  It was far too dangerous, far too little support and far too uncertain.

I’m sure she listens to my angst about Zimbabwe and smiles on the inside.  To her, the call of God was not subject to any risk analysis or occupational health and safety review.  Her and her husband simply went, and dealt with each situation as it arose.  She is writing a book about her experiences and we got to hear only a few of the stories of how God  worked through them and helped them work through the most unusual and dangerous of circumstances.  She understands providence.  We nowdays require a written guarantee of it before we decide to obey God’s call.

I feel that for myself and my team members, we will learn more about faith, trust and providence in these two weeks than any preacher could teach us [apologies to any outstanding preachers reading this].

Ultimately, I feel that taking the safe option is a domino effect principle that will render me impotent.  Of course I do not believe in taking stupid risks.  So as of today, we are still heading off to Zimbabwe.  To a degree, we head of into the unknown, and for that we will need to trust God.  There is a degree to which this whole project cannot be sewn up beforehand, with the itinerary all worked out to the last hour.  This is Africa.

Getting back to western suburbia, the same principle I think should apply.  We can play it safe, but that means deleting the need for trusting God and relying on Him.