Rob and Heather Blanks MOZAMBIQUE

Elsewhere is exactly where we’ve been as of late. Where is elsewhere, you may ask? The dictionary simply says it is some other place. Our other places seem to be getting more complicated these days. We have spent this past year as missionary appointees. A fellow appointee calls us the “wannabees.” We want to be missionaries, but we aren’t yet. We have been making steps toward the dream God has given us to serve the people of Mozambique, Africa. For us it has been a trying year of moving, traveling, parenting, sharing, working, waiting, hurrying, teaching, learning, questioning, doubting, praying and fundraising! For one week we left all this behind to join with other appointees, invited guests, staff, missionaries and alumni-each from their own places all over the world-at WorldVenture’s annual Renewal Conference.

Our first two days at the conference were spent in a prayer summit. We sat in a circle with no agenda except to be with God. God’s presence through prayer was just the place we needed to be. As we prayed, confessed to the Lord and to each other, we found ourselves shedding off our other places. We felt our hearts being realigned from the doing for, to the being with God. It was precious to pray with missionaries who have served and lived through excruciating circumstances and are still praising God, still loving God, and still turning to God. It built our faith to see their trust in God.

After the prayer summit, we experienced God’s presence through the teaching of His word. Pastor Mark Hanke’s messages from the life of Jeremiah were poignant. He challenged us to be sustained through God’s calling, through processing our life (fear, loneliness, anger, and hurt) in prayer, and ultimately through His sovereign grace. God, from start to finish, from calling to completion, will finish the work that He starts. It was good exercise for us whose thinking is “prone to wander.”

At times during the past year, we have found ourselves wandering to the less than noble place of wishing we were, well, elsewhere. Elsewhere like, already in Mozambique or back in a normal life. But elsewhere is not where God wants us. “For a day in your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere,” Psalm 84:10a. God brought this verse to mind driving home from Renewal Conference. Psalm 84 describes worshipers anxious to be in the presence of God. His presence is described as a place of strength and protection. This was true for us as we were refreshed in His presence through prayer and through His word at Renewal Conference this year. Our places have changed and will continue to change as missionaries. We are grateful for the reminder that God’s presence in our lives is better than anything else. And that is news good enough to take all the way to Mozambique!

I wrote this recently for WorldVenture Connection, WorldVenture’s quarterly news publication for the home office, missionaries, and allumni.  

God has blessed me with a great part time job working for John Carvey with Integrity Painting.  John Carvey is a gracious Christian man.  He grew up on the mission field himself (his parents were WorldVenture missionaries in the Philippines) and is excited about what God is doing in Mozambique.  This job will allow me to earn income for living expenses while also providing the needed flexibility for my other tasks of ministry, support raising, training, meetings, etc.  Praise God!  

Recently Heather and I completed Advanced Camp training at the WorldVenture headquarters in Littleton, CO.  This was the final stage of our training at the home office.  We still need language and cultural acquisition training for five weeks later this year.  

It was a great time to reconnect with other missionary appointees from around the country.  The fellowship we enjoyed was a tremendous blessing!

As many of you know, I have had the opportunity to do an internship under Hans Finzel, President of WorldVenture.  I cannot thank Hans enough for this opportunity.  

This experience impressed upon me the vital and difficult role of leadership and administration.  He showed me the value of vision and long-term planning in leadership.  I was particularly struck by Hans’ transparency and genuineness in life, ministry, and leadership.  

Thank you, Hans, for this internship.  

Thank you, Hans, for your leadership at WorldVenture.

The WorldVenture family is so blessed to have you.  May God’s favor and blessing be upon you.

Earlier this year Heather and I were interviewed on “Missions on the Frontline” Radio Program.  Hans Finzel was so gracious to host us.  Thank you Hans!

It was definitely a new experience.  We had to speak through a pop filter, which is a little  wire screen between your mouth and the microphone.  This screen is placed a couple of  inches from your mouth.  Using a pop filter was a trip.  I kept thinking I was going to bite it.  Adding to the awkwardness for me was that it is impossible on the radio, obviously, to make eye contact with your audience.  I did not know where to look.  I kept looking at the pop filter and the microphone, but that made my eyes cross.  It was nerve wracking in a new fun sort of way!  

If you venture, you can listen to the programs: Rob and Rob and Heather.  As you listen, try not to think of me with my eyes crossed trying to eat the mic…

Third Culture Kid —

An individual who, having spent a significant part of the developmental years in a culture other than the parents’ culture, develops a sense of relationship to  all of the cultures, while not having full ownership in any.  Elements from each culture are incorporated into the life experience, but the sense of belonging is in relationship to others of similar experience.

David C. Pollock

Rob and I are in Orlando, FL for a conference about educational planning for our children on the mission field.  We left a few days early to have to some time together before the conference and we have been gone from our little people for almost a week with 2.5 days left to go!  We have already learned so much and the conference has been so beneficial.  We’re down here in tropical Florida thinking through complex issues of the kids’ personalities and learning styles, their stages of childhood development, available educational options, etc.   It includes discussing how one ‘abstract random’ parent and one ‘abstract sequential’ parent teach a ‘concrete random’ child who is kinesthetic learner but the parents are visual and auditory. If it sounds confusing and complicated, well, that’s because it is…and isn’t!  The learning theory and child development  information sounds messy but it is insightful and helpful.  The mix of four different children and two parents ( who are nearly opposite) make it a bit sticky.   That is to say nothing of the different schooling options in several upcoming locations.  Basically, by the end of our conference week we will have built a plan for the rest of our kids’ lives under our care (gasp). That sounds somewhere between unrealistic and devious!  No, seriously, we are feeling the weight of being good caretakers with the four precious little lives that God has entrusted to us.  At the same time, we are aware of our desperate need for His wisdom and guidance in the planning process and the days of education to come.  We need His grace to cover their lives through so much transition.  We ask for your prayers for the kids–for good schooling experiences and faith to trust in God during difficult seasons which we know will come.

Honestly, it has been painful at times for us to sit through a conference and listen to lectures about and plan for things that you KNOW will be hard for your kids.  The first session, our speaker talked about the difficulties and effects of growing up as a TCK. At one point, I (Heather) was asking myself , “why would you do this to your children…on purpose?”.  She went on to explain that sometimes they turn out really well.  For instance, the next president of the United States will be a TCK.  Before you get nervous…both parties nominees are TCK’s!  So, as unnatural as it feels to expose our kids to hardship we are working out our faith (with fear and trembling) to trust that God will use it for the kids’ good and for His glory!

In the meantime, we are so anxious to leave all the       abstract and sequential theories behind and go back to our concrete and random little people– where our real world is with its chalk, and Fox and Socks, and Slush, and blankie Cars, and a billion pieces of Lego,and reading The Little Engine That Could by memory, and drinking Chai with too much sugar, and breaking up fights, and holding hands to pray, …back to that wonderfully real world!

On a road trip recently, Heather and I listened to A Long Way Gone, Memoirs of a Boy Soldier by Ishmael Beahon, on CD–minus the first CD which was missing when we got it from the library.  I recommend this book for a glimpse into the horrors and depravity of the world of boy soldiers in Africa.  It will open your eyes, and may cause you to feel physically sick.  Warning, some of its graphic material would cause many R-rated action movies to reel.  

It offers a window into the world of syncretism–the mixing and matching of different parts of multiple religions.  In this case it is the mixing of Islam with Anamism.

Here is an example Ishmael gives us:  Ishmael has a very good memory, even photographic.  His good memory is no accident.  It comes from his grandfather who had a special Arabic prayer for good memory.  This prayer was written out with chalk in Arabic on a slate.  The chalk was then rinsed off the slate and the water collected in a glass.  Ishmael then drank the solution giving him great memory, which consequently helped him in school.

It is this type of syncretism that we will be facing in Mozambique.

How can we help the lost and destitute of Africa in a way that produces sustainable and reproducing life transformation through Jesus Christ?  

Many good hearted attempts are made to help Africans by giving financial aid handouts.  While this is a good stop gap measure, it is not a viable long term solution.  One study we recently read indicated that the countries in Africa that have received the most foreign aid are doing the worst.  We know that Christ has commanded us to care for the “least of these my brothers and sisters,” but how do we most strategically accomplish this with our limited resources?

We think part of this answer involves presenting not only the Gospel and Bible teaching to the least of these, but also physical help through the planting of a sustainable small business governed by Biblical ethics.  Helping Africans establish a profitable small business brings many potential benefits.  First of all, it provides a job to a family when good jobs are scarce.  This income then allows for housing, food, and medical care. Employment renders accountability by weeding out those who would rather have a handout than work.  It creates relationships, credibility, and trust with the community.  It provides a great opportunity for evangelism and discipleship (especially in areas closed to the Gospel).  It builds psychological health.  It gives hope and promise to the future when life in Africa is fleeting.  Why plan for the future, they reason, if you are not even sure if you are going to have food to eat today?

Our colleagues Rodger and Lynne Schmidt have been in Mozambique five years.  They have developed an internship program with eight Mozambican young men.  They are discipling these men and training them for future church leadership and ministry in Mozambique.  As part of this discipleship program they are launching a chicken egg business, MozOvos.  This discipleship model is designed to equip these Mozambicans for life, ministry, and employment simultaneously.  We are excited about this ministry and can’t wait to join them, and give them the help they need!