Mission in Action: dispatches from the front line

Throughout my travels in Christian mission, I took notes to remember things that were unusual; this book is a compilation of many of those events. They represent things that happened to me or others I worked with; things that happened around me, and things I became aware of as I worked in serving people with disabilities. For privacy of friends and colleagues, many names and places have been changed. I also have many tales to tell of my involvement in eye care, prevention of blindness programmes, eye surgery and education or rehabilitation of blind people. These stories are of similar ilk to this book, but all appear in another volume, "Sight for Sore Eyes-vision and blindness in perspective". Mission in Action is a raw, sometimes-uncomfortable, look at working in Christian mission. Many people have an idealistic or rosy view of what it is, what it should be and what is achieved. A life of perfection maybe; robust faith and great events; and in particular, a life where everyone the mission worker meets, wishes to get to know God; the Jesus of the Christian faith. It may be like that in some places, but the calling I answered was not quite like that. Life was different every day, life was potentially dangerous on very many days. It was, on many occasions, the type of service St Paul referred to in 2 Corinthians 6: 3-7. The events are all here in black and white. Well, mostly anyway. There are a number of situations and feelings that remain unpublished. You had to be there to understand.