Page 6 - News Spring-Summer 2025

As the date of departure got nearer how were you
feeling?
I grew increasingly nervous, especially when my
travel plans hadn’t been cancelled as per my previous
attempts to leave the country! However, it was very
much a nervousness mixed with excitement and looking
forward to seeing a part of the world I’d never previously
visited. During our Zoom meetings, and in the SWG
booklet, it became clear (though it may sound obvious)
that reliance on God and His Word is a big part of the
preparation. As the departure date grew closer, I wanted
to make sure that I was intentional about spending time
in prayer and spending time reading through the Bible.
As I hadn’t really practised evangelism I wanted to read
a few evangelism books to get an idea of what people
have done. To that end I found ‘How to Talk About Jesus
up to the trip was important. This way, explaining the Without Looking like an Idiot’ by Andy Bannister and
Gospel to others flows more naturally from the heart ‘Intentional’ by Paul Williams to be very useful reads.
instead of being methodical or rehearsed, which I must
confess was more on the rehearsed side as speaking
off-the-cuff doesn’t always work well for me. We
considered other things too like taking time for self- THERE WERE TIMES WHERE
reflection, considering our strengths and weakness and PEOPLE WERE NOT RECEPTIVE
what it means to be servant-hearted – making sure we
could work together as a team for Christ even when
participants’ personalities may differ considerably. How were your family feeling about you going away to
We also had the opportunity to meet on Zoom three the other side of the world?
times prior to departure, which was a helpful way to get My wife and my son were very excited for me to go,
to know each other before we physically met together especially as it had fallen through previously. Our son
in Chile. We shared some of our family photos and is only 4 years old, and we made him a calendar so he
experiences and asked practical questions. could mark off the days until I came home, and we kept

What training was provided on the actual trip itself? showing him where Chile was on a map of the world.
On our first evening in Santiago, when all the team from He had great fun telling his friends, teachers (and indeed
anyone he came across) that ‘my daddy’s in Chile!’ At that
the UK and Canada were assembled, we travelled by time, he slept with a ton of soft toys in his bed and so I
coach for around 30 minutes to one of the local churches offered to bring him back another all the way from Chile,
where we met our interpreters for the first time. The and he was very clear to me “No, Daddy. I don’t want a
church was in what appeared to be an office block and soft toy… I want a hard toy!”
was run out of just one office unit. We had about a minute
each to stand up and introduce ourselves and explain How were you feeling when you took your seat on the
what life was like back home. We then ran through some flight from London to Santiago?
more of the SWG material and Saji Jacob (one of SWG’s I felt utterly sick as the taxi pulled up in front of the house
directors) ran through ‘Grid Evangelism’ in more detail. to take me to the airport but that soon faded as I had a
This was basically a way of initiating a conversation with chatty driver. I was conscious of not hitting the M25 at
evangelism in mind, starting with small talk, moving to rush hour and so I arrived at Heathrow around 2:30pm and
personal talk, then spiritual talk and finally evangelism/ had a lot of time to kill before a 10:15pm flight! Amazingly
Gospel message. it didn’t feel like the day dragged on, plus Graham and
Lindsey Beckett arrived later in the afternoon and we
spent some time together. Graham had been to Chile
RELIANCE ON GOD AND before; however, it was Lindsey’s first time and so we were
HIS WORD IS A BIG PART able to talk about how we both felt and wondering if we
OF THE PREPARATION were going to be useful or not out there. I think there were
degrees as to how real it felt as the day went on, each step
felt more unnerving than the last; getting in the taxi, going
through airport security, travelling to the departure gate
We then had a brief run through the proposed itinerary for when it opened. The final real moment was hearing the
the week ahead and Juan Carlos (the SWG representative engines go to full pelt down the runway and watching the
from Chile) gave us some practical advice for when we streets of London grow smaller and smaller. There was a
were out and about. Helpful tips about keeping our big part of me that felt I didn’t deserve to be doing it, that
valuables secure and making sure we were always with someone better should be sat in my seat, and I felt guilty
someone. We then got together in threes (two trip for leaving my family behind.
members and one interpreter) and took it in turns
to practise having a Gospel conversation through an What were your first impressions of Chile?
interpreter. I should have gone into it prepared to My first impressions of Chile were good; in a lot of
share a message, but instead I fell back on telling my ways, I thought it was like any other city, from the
testimony which sufficed. airport to the hotel we travelled on the motorway and

6

18/03/2025 16:34
News Spring_Summer 2025.indd 6 18/03/2025 16:34
News Spring_Summer 2025.indd 6