A letter from Doug Baker in Northern Ireland
May 2013
Dear Friends,
Do you ever wonder where your day—or your week—has gone and how what you actually ended up doing fits with what you thought you were going to be doing or meant to be doing? I do almost constantly!
Last week I had scheduled appointments with two of the local ministers who are supervisors for PC(USA) Young Adult Volunteers. The agenda was to look at the needs and opportunities in their congregations and which of the volunteers coming in September to match with them. We did spend time on that. However, on each occasion the conversation then shifted to situations those ministers are facing themselves. The first is looking at a significant change in vocation and wanted to use me as a sounding board. We ended up spending quite a bit longer on that than on the YAV discussion. When I met with the other, once we had finished the YAV discussion the conversation shifted to a conflict situation being experienced with one of the lay leaders in that congregation. What a privilege to be trusted enough to discuss such matters.
Doug with 2012-2013 Young Adult Volunteers
Later on, while in the midst of working at the computer on YAV accounts, the phone rang. It was a colleague in the U.S. looking for a frank reference on one of the past volunteers who served in Belfast. The colleague had a number of questions for me. Fortunately I was able to recommend that YAV alum highly. It was a delight to have that conversation and in itself it didn’t actually take that long, but finishing the monthly account would now need to wait for another day because Elaine and I had a special event to attend.
Years ago, when our three grown children were still adolescents, I convened a search group for a youth worker in the congregation we attended here. The young man we hired became like an extra member our family, sharing lots of meals and other activities with us. As one of his mentors I was also privileged to share significant discussions as he explored his longer-term vocation. Ten years on, now married and with three young children of his own, he was being ordained and installed as pastor of a church 50 miles north of Belfast. We wouldn’t have missed it for the world, but ordinations and installations are long drawn out affairs in this part of the world even without the travel time added.
Four evenings later we found ourselves at the installation of a woman in her second full-time congregation. Way back in 1996 she was referred to me by someone who thought I might be able to suggest something for her to do for six months while she was between academic courses. We clicked right off the bat and she ended up agreeing to be my administrative assistant for the planning of a huge all-age conference later that year. I now stand in awe of her preaching and pastoral gifts. Sadly, female ministers still are a tiny minority in the Presbyterian Church in Ireland and some of their male counterparts avoid their ordinations or installations because they disapprove. Attending and affirming her calling became an absolute priority in our schedule.
A few days later I met with a teaching colleague to agree on grades on four pieces of coursework produced by theological students for a module we co-lead. Each of us finds ourselves working with institutional structures here that can be extremely frustrating. Agreeing on the marking took half an hour. The spontaneous mutual support session and sharing of how our faith sustains us in the middle of such hassles took a good bit longer!
Last night the phone rang and it was an older woman up the road who was widowed several years ago and has no children. She wanted to find a date for us to come for lunch. It will be enjoyable to chat with her, and she makes great soup. However, it is clearly as much a need for her to have company as it is a desire to offer hospitability to us. That is perfectly ok. Don’t we all quite naturally need to do the same at times? We found a date that will work.
Yes, there are major projects that are keeping us both busy. But I am so grateful for the friend who years ago gave me a poster that reads, “The interruptions are our work.”
May God also fill your days and weeks with interruptions that provide moments to share and receive his grace and love.
While this letter is intentionally about some of the more casual needs and opportunities that are part and parcel of our ministry, there are some big things going on as well. Please check a recent update (April 2013) posted only on our webpage that describes in detail both recent political challenges here and one of the main projects that is demanding a lot of attention from me at present: http://gamc.pcusa.org/ministries/missionconnections/baker-doug-and-elaine/. Please also remember how important your prayers and your financial support are as we continue to serve in this setting and how grateful we are for both. Mission funding patterns have changed dramatically in the PC(USA) over the decades we have been employed as mission co-workers, now almost entirely funded through directed giving by individuals and congregations. For more details about funding click the “Give” button on our webpage or the link below.
Faithfully yours,
Doug
The 2013 Presbyterian Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 278
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