Sunday, July 25, 2010

Looking Ahead….

We have now completed five years in our role.  It has been exciting with the Call to Prayer for 900 New Workers to serve on neglected frontiers among East Asia’s peoples. Nearly 500 have joined us so far. We have sponsored the Phase Two building project as well as seeing the International Personnel System come into existence to help cope with the flow. On the other hand we have had many difficult & sometimes heart-breaking personnel issues to deal with which has drained us. We feel ready for our Home Assignment – now clearly visible on the horizon! We have had to be imaginative in the way we take a break from our role this time as the two months we took in 2008 were not sufficient. The challenge of taking a proper Home Assignment (HA) while having two children in secondary school is making sure we disengage fully from the job, still reconnect with friends & supporters in the UK while not disrupting the children’s schooling. Therefore we are taking a seven month HA (six weeks in the UK; 5½ months in Singapore) but not living & working at OMF IHQ. So we fly to the UK on 26th November 2010, return to Singapore on 12th January for the start of the 2011 school year & remain on HA here until 30th June.

“Guess what, Mum?” Joshua shouted excitedly down the phone, “I came top in the world!” It took a while to sort out the story. Cambridge Examining Board had just released news from the November 2009 exams. The Anglo-Chinese School had been informed that Joshua came Top in the World in Geography IGCSE! Joshua’s teacher was delighted & framed a photocopy of Joshua’s certificate which is hanging in his room. This came out of the blue but has been a huge encouragement to Josh!

With our love,

Steve Anna, Joshua and Aimee

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