Long Time NZCMS Board Member Resigned

By Ian Dally, Former NZCMS Board Member

Making the decision to step down from the Board last month has promp­ted some moments of reflec­tion on what my asso­ci­ation with NZCMS and the South Amer­ican Mis­sion­ary Society has meant to me over the years. Back in 1975, while still a newly-minted teacher, I was chal­lenged by Annette McCaw to con­sider becom­ing a Mission Partner in South America. It was an idea that wouldn’t shift so the only thing to do was to apply and get turned down! Long story short, that didn’t happen, and I spent 1977 at St Andrew’s Hall in Mel­bourne, before heading to Chile where the Anglican Church wanted to estab­lish a Chris­tian Book­shop in the city of Viña del Mar. We managed to get the capital from the UK and within a year the stored opened. From then until 1985 I was involved in project funding and devel­op­ment in health and edu­ca­tion, includ­ing the opening of a school for deaf chil­dren in the city of Temuco. A German-based mission for people with dis­ab­il­it­ies (Chris­tof­fel-Blinden­mis­sion CBM) provided a lot of support and in 1985 asked me to join their team in Paraguay, as a field officer. This job took me all over South America and the Carib­bean until 1998 when I became the National Dir­ector for CBM in New Zealand. After seven years I joined the staff at Laidlaw College – admin and some teach­ing — until retir­ing in 2015. In 2000, SAMS was sub­sumed into NZCMS and at that time I joined the Board.

Looking back, I have real­ised how pivotal the account of Jeremiah’s Call has been in my life: “I knew you before I formed you in your mother’s womb. Before you were born, I set you apart and appoin­ted you as my prophet to the nations.” This was no doubt a daunt­ing pro­spect for the young Jeremiah but God made two other sig­ni­fic­ant prom­ises: “I will be with you and protect you,” and He equipped Jeremiah for the task (Jer. 1:9). South America was not the safest and most secure place and these prom­ises were treas­ures to be held onto every day! Espe­cially when I ended up in an Argen­tine jail for 28 hours as a sus­pec­ted enemy agent, after a spy novel was found in my luggage at a Police check-point! And it was often useful to be mis­takenly taken for a Cath­olic priest as I trav­elled on buses and trains! This passage of Scrip­ture has been a corner­stone in my life as cir­cum­stances have changed, with moves to dif­fer­ent coun­tries occurred and new work assign­ments. Allied to Jeremiah’s Call are those verses from Pro­verbs 3:5–6: “Trust in the Lord with all your heart. Never rely on what you think you know. Remem­ber the Lord in everything you do and He will show you the right way.” On many occa­sions I faced dif­fi­cult decisions and with the trusted advice of Chris­tian friends and col­leagues and the inspir­a­tion of the Holy Spirit, I have felt truly guided through the chal­lenges and changes that life has brought.

Some years ago, our parish ran a retire­ment seminar and the chap­lain chal­lenged the audi­ence with these ques­tions: How do you want people to remem­ber you? What legacy or example will you leave for your family and the wider com­munity? Will you be remembered as a kind and gen­er­ous person whom every­one loved? Or a mean-spir­ited cur­mudgeon? Someone who relied on their own ‘smarts’ or someone who depended on God’s good­ness and guid­ance? Someone who looked after the interests and needs of others? Someone who radi­ated and com­mu­nic­ated God’s love, or someone who is self-absorbed and wrapped up in their own con­cerns? Those present looked uncom­fort­able – this is not some­thing most self-effa­cing Kiwis like to think about. The speaker then urged every­one to con­sider their rela­tion­ships with family and other people and to work towards peace and recon­cili­ation where rela­tion­ships were damaged or distant and to make that part of their earthly legacy. A real chal­lenge for us all!

The issue of legacy goes beyond per­sonal rela­tion­ships and one of the priv­ileges of my life has been my 46 years of con­nec­tion with NZCMS. Ever since its incep­tion in 1892 it has held fast to its com­mit­ment to send dis­ciples into mission. I have no idea how many Mission Part­ners it has sent over­seas (and now into Aotearoa New Zealand) but it must be well over a thou­sand. We don’t know how many churches have been planted, how many medical, edu­ca­tional, rural devel­op­ment or other pro­jects have been estab­lished, or how many thou­sands of people have been blessed and have come to a living faith in Christ. This legacy is worth pro­tect­ing – indeed, must be pro­tec­ted – in the decades to come, through the prayers and prac­tical support of the CMS Family to which we belong.

One of the greatest sat­is­fac­tions has been my involve­ment in the selec­tion of Mission Part­ners – getting the right people to the right places in God’s vine­yard and at the right time, and with the best pos­sible ori­ent­a­tion and train­ing. Despite the after-effects of the pan­demic and more coun­tries shut­ting their borders, God is still calling and still sending. At whatever stage and age of life, we must con­tinue to be ready to hear God’s calling and, over time, He may call us to varied and dif­fer­ent tasks and roles, as has been my exper­i­ence. I have led a truly excit­ing and fas­cin­at­ing life! And it’s been a real priv­ilege to have played a very small part in build­ing NZCMS’s legacy that will con­tinue far beyond our life­time. Each and every one of us needs to be attent­ive to God’s voice, guid­ance and calling, whatever our cir­cum­stances, and to respond. He has a part for us to play in the build­ing of His kingdom and this is part of our legacy to the nations.

Jesus says “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I am sending you.”