In which I try, once again, to justify my existence to myself

We’ve been back in the UK for nearly two years now - two years away from the mission field, two years not doing what everyone thinks a missionary should be doing. Now nobody knows what we’re doing. My father-in-law asked me the other day what we were actually doing here. It’s hard to be a missionary to Japan when you’re not actually in Japan.

So far it’s been pretty easy to justify - we’ve been getting married, we’ve been doing a Bible college course - but now that’s all finished. We’re “preparing to go back to Japan”. Well, we are, although it will be at least six months before we go back. That’s a long time to be preparing.

Well, I’m teaching at Redcliffe. Does that make me a Bible college lecturer? Not exactly. We’re volunteering, and we teach about a lecture a week. (Plus preparation time, naturally.) But that’s a thing we’re doing.

What about the publishing company? My involvement with that right now consists in idly checking Amazon ranks to see if anyone has bought any copies, and waiting for reviewers to review. And no, it doesn’t make me any money either, and certainly not while all you buggers aren’t buying. But that’s a thing we’re doing.

We’re just about to leave today for a week’s tour of prayer groups in the South West, and we’ve got a couple of talks in churches planned. That’s only a few days a month. But that’s a thing we’re doing.

Lecturing, publishing, speaking. Does that make me a missionary? I don’t know. I certainly don’t feel like it does. But what else does it make me?